High Court to hear pedophiles' appeal

A bid by two serial Queensland pedophiles to overturn their indefinite detention has been referred to the full bench of the High Court in Canberra.

Edward Pollentine and Errol Radan were jailed indefinitely in 1984 under the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1945.

That state law allowed judges to keep serial offenders behind bars indefinitely or until two psychiatrists agreed they could be released without posing a threat to the community.

At a hearing in Brisbane on Friday, High Court justice Susan Kiefel asked the prisoners' legal counsel Daniel O'Gorman, SC, if there was a need for another directions hearing.

"I would say, `No, your honour'," Mr O'Gorman replied.

Justice Kiefel adjourned the matter and referred it to the full bench of the High Court without setting a date.

Pollentine and Radan are challenging Queensland's Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie.

In December last year, the Court of Appeal declared invalid the state government's amendment to those 1945 laws, which would have given the attorney-general the power to bypass the courts and have certain offenders jailed indefinitely.