A Japanese whaling company has refused to accept delivery of an Australian Federal Court injunction ordering them to stop killing whales in Australian waters.
Officials at the Tokyo headquarters of Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha, told an interpreter the court documents would be "thrown away immediately" into a rubbish bin.
The Federal Court order, obtained last week by the Australian office of the Humane Society International, found the company had breached nine sections of Australia's environmental laws by killing whales in the Australian Whale Sanctuary in Antarctic waters.
The injunction was delivered yesterday to the company's Tokyo office by Humane Society director Nicola Beynon and a Japanese interpreter.
Ms Beynon said officials refused to accept the documents which were then "placed at their feet" in accordance with the court's rules of service.
"The staff we spoke to showed complete disrespect for Australian law and the wishes of the Australian people, telling us the documents were rubbish and would be thrown away immediately," she said.
Legal experts say Japan could now face a joint legal challenge by Australia and New Zealand before the International Court of Justice or the International Tribunal for Law of the Sea to end its so-called scientific whaling program.
"There are a number of legal avenues Australia and other nations could take to challenge the validity of the program, and to shut it down" University of Sydney international law expert Tim Stephens said.
Australia could join with New Zealand and Pacific Island nations to challenge Japan before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, or take action under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
Dr Stephens said Australia also had "strong grounds" to launch action against Japan in the International Court of Justice.
Australia and New Zealand took legal action against Japan under the Law of the Sea in 1999, over an "experimental fishing program" that sought to avoid fishing quotas for southern bluefin tuna. Japan was forced to abandon the program.
The Tokyo-based whaling company could face contempt of court action under Australian law if it continues to hunt whales in Australia's Antarctic waters.
Ms Beynon said, "Whether this court order is symbolic or not depends on the action taken by the Australian Government ... we expect the Australian Government to use every means possible to ensure the orders are enforced."
Delivering the ruling last week, Justice James Allsop found the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act applied to "all persons and all vessels" within Australian waters, and ordered the hunt be stopped. Australia's sovereignty in Antarctica is the legal basis for declaring a whale sanctuary within its exclusive economic zone of 200 nautical miles under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.