A court ruling preventing witnesses from being forced to front almost all New South Wales parliamentary inquiries will not be challenged.

Legislative Council president Benjamin Franklin said on Monday he would not try to overturn the NSW Court of Appeal's decision to strike down laws that purportedly allowed witnesses to be arrested for failing to appear.

Mr Franklin said he met with his legal team, headed by Bret Walker SC, on Christmas Eve, after losing the case brought by the premier's chief of staff, James Cullen.

"Based on Mr Walker's advice, I will not be seeking special leave to challenge the decision in the High Court," Mr Franklin said.

The case stemmed from Mr Cullen's failure in June to appear at an upper house inquiry into the link between the Dural caravan plot and new laws to combat antisemitism.

Case spurred by no-show political staffer

The staffer was initially a no-show but ended up fronting the probe after being threatened with arrest based on certain sections of the Parliamentary Evidence Act.

The 144-year-old laws provided that the president of the upper house could certify a witness's failure to attend in a letter to a judge, who would then be obliged to issue an arrest warrant.

Mr Cullen challenged the validity of the legislation, arguing it infringed the "Kable doctrine", a legal principle that makes a state law void if it impairs the independence and impartiality of courts.

In a joint judgment, Chief Justice Andrew Bell and Justices Mark Leeming and Stephen Free agreed the provisions were void as they diminished the court's institutional integrity.

"The main vice to which Mr Cullen pointed was that the function […] involved, in substance, a "rubber stamp" upon the president's decision to detain the person," the judges wrote.

The judges found the lack of independent decision-making by the judge who receives the certification from the president was "antithetical" to the court's constitutionally mandated role as an independent and impartial body.

"The judge would be a mere functionary and have no choice but to sign and seal the warrant," the judges wrote.

'Win for democracy'

In a statement last week, Mr Cullen praised the decision as a victory for the integrity of the courts.

"This is a comprehensive win for democracy," Mr Cullen said.

The judges acknowledged the decision would have implications for parliament's ability to investigate matters and hold the executive government to account.

"The result is that there is, at present, no valid coercive power to compel attendance before a chamber or committee of the New South Wales Parliament, save for that conferred on the chairman or vice-chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works," the judges wrote.