NT may seize convict's assets: High Court

The Northern Territory has won a High Court appeal allowing it to seize assets, including those not linked to crime, from a resident declared as a drug trafficker.

Reginald William Emmerson was convicted of a series of drug-related offences between 2007 and 2011, including the supply of more than 18kg of cannabis and possessing $70,000 cash suspected of being the proceeds of crime.

Emmerson's history of offences saw him declared a drug trafficker under Northern Territory law in 2012, and it was proposed his assets - including a property worth more than $850,000 - would be taken by the government under the Forfeiture Act.

But lawyers for Emmerson successfully argued in the NT Court of Appeal that it was a breach of the constitution to seize assets that had been "acquired through legitimate means".

The Territory took its case to the High Court and in a ruling handed down on Thursday, the bench found the NT's application of the act does not deny "independence and impartiality as is compatible with its constitutional role as a repository of federal jurisdiction".