Justice Brown exercised his discretion to hear the appeal because: (i) the parties argued with vigour (as if the matter was not moot); (ii) the issue might not otherwise arrive
at the Court
of Appeal due to the costly three -
stage appeal
process and there was a strong public
interest in resolving this
legal issue; and (iii) the court was not deciding an abstract question (thus intruding into the legislative sphere) but was resolving an issue based on a complete record.