Alexander, I 2018, 'The Copyright/Design Interface in Australia' in Derclaye, E (ed), The Copyright/Design Interface, Cambridge University Press, UK, pp. 226-268.
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The law relating to designs in Australia has long been the subject of dissatisfaction. As long ago as 1936, Sir Owen Dixon referred to the Designs Act 1906 as ‘rather peculiar’1, while the interface between copyright and designs has garnered even more pointed criticism, being called ‘troubled’2, ‘vexed’3 and an area of ‘(perennial) confusion’.4 At different times Australia has adopted different approaches to the overlap, moving from potential cumulation (or dual protection as it is more commonly known in Australia) to demarcation and then to partial cumulation (for two-dimensional works) combined with demarcation (for three-dimensional works). Legislative implementation of these policies, however, has been far from straightforward. At each stage, Australia looked to the United Kingdom to inform its legislative approach. While never simply slavishly copying the UK’s legislative language, the tendency was at first to follow generally where the UK led. From 1968, however, the position of the two countries diverged, with Australia pursuing a stricter approach of demarcation until it adopted partial cumulation in 1989. Moreover, while the UK simplified its legislative provisions, Australia’s approach was to add further detail – an approach that has not necessarily resulted in greater clarity.
The first section of this chapter examines the history of designs and the copyright/design interface in Australia from 1852 to the present, while the second section briefly looks at some of the ongoing problems in this area. Although issues also arise as to the interrelationship between patents and designs, and to a lesser extent between trade marks and designs, this chapter does not address these in any detail.
Anthony, T 2018, 'Car Crimes and the Cultural Imagination' in Rafter, N & Brown, M (eds), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Crime, Media, and Popular Culture, Oxford University Press, UK, pp. 99-113.
Barker, D 2018, 'The Bowen Report: The Overlooked Influence on Australian Legal Education' in The Future of Australian Legal Education, Thomson-Reuters, Australia, pp. 57-68.
Biber, K 2018, 'The art of bureaucracy: Redacted ready-mades' in Manderson, D (ed), Law and the Visual: Representations, Technologies, Critique, University of Toronto Press, Toronto, Buffalo, London, pp. 286-309.
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In the final days of its regime, agents of the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit, or Stasi, destroyed documents on a mass scale. Most were pulverised using a feuchtschredder, or wet shredder. Agricultural composters were retooled to destroy papers, microfilm and audio tapes, producing enormous lumps. Some of these were buried, some were discharged into the Leipzig municipal sewer system, which several days later became clogged before spewing watery pulp into the streets. Today these grey rocks, dimensions variable, are exhibited by the artist Daniel Knorr in his series The State of Mind (2007). The original documents within these ‘file-stones’ can be vaguely perceived but cannot be read. They testify not only to the secrecy of the regime from which they originated, but also to the malign artistry of its officials.
This chapter investigates official secrecy as bureaucratic creativity. Visual techniques of official secret-keeping display the art of administration, driven by the need to create new methods of destruction, obfuscation and concealment. That these techniques might be imagined as art becomes possible through the intervention of contemporary artists whose work is made from the tangible remainders of official secrets. This chapter examines several art projects which draw on redacted or otherwise wilfully damaged official records. Whilst most critics and commentators in this area are interested in exploring what these records might reveal about the secrets that have been removed from them, artworks made from redacted records can also teach us about the creativity and artistry involved in bureaucracy itself. These artworks, whilst attributed to a named artist, are in fact originally made by officials of the state. Usually these officials are unknown, sometimes they work in collaboration with others, mostly we have no idea of how they operate. All we can see is physical evidence of their endeavours, made manifest because they have visibly, tangibly,
creativ...
Biber, K 2018, 'The Cultural Afterlife of Criminal Evidence' in Rafter, N & Brown, M (eds), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Crime, Media, and Popular Culture, Oxford University Press, UK, pp. 427-439.
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This article explores what happens to criminal evidence after the conclusion of legal proceedings, described here as the afterlife of evidence. The text investigates the ways that this material proliferates in the shadow of the law, in both cultural and commercial contexts. During the criminal trial, the rules of evidence and criminal procedure operate to tightly regulate the collection, admissibility, and interpretation of evidence. After the criminal trial, these rules no longer control evidence, and this material is sometimes subject to the substantial cultural curiosity associated with true crime and its artifacts. This article sets out some of the new questions that are posed by this material when it is transferred beyond the law’s control.
Crofts, P 2018, 'Envisioning Legality' in Peters, TD & Crawley, K (eds), Envisioning Legality: Law, Culture and Representation, Routledge, New York, pp. 46-67.
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The Doctor Who episode “Blink” introduced the Weeping Angels,1 aliens that when perceived look like statues of angels covering their eyes in sadness, but in the blink of an eye can touch their victims and send them to another time. The plot centres on Sally Sparrow (played by Carey Mulligan), a young woman who has never met the Doctor and only interacts with him for a few moments. She is a photographer, and when we first see her, she is breaking into an old, abandoned house. In the background is a beautiful statue of a crying angel. Sally’s attention is drawn to a wall with words that are barely visible behind peeling wallpaper. She peels back the wallpaper in time to see that the words are a message addressed to her, telling her to duck. She does so, just in time to avoid being hit by a rock flying through the window – and just in time for us to notice that the beautiful statue has moved toward her.
A Weeping Angel – when seen – appears as a statue, carved into the shape of an angel, usually with its hands daintily covering its eyes as though it were weeping. When observed, it is serene and lovely. However, though still as stone when observed, a Weeping Angel is capable of extremely quick movements when not observed. If you blink, a Weeping Angel will have silently come up beside you. If the Weeping Angel touches you, then you are gone. Weeping Angels thrive by consuming all of the energy from the future lives of their victims. They deposit their victims in a past time, though not a time through which they have already lived. Their victims feel no pain and the rest of their lives are theirs to live as they are able in their new temporal and spatial locations. The Doctor states that they are ‘the only psychopaths in the universe to kill you nicely.’
The Weeping Angels render strange and threatening the familiar sight of statues of females in classic poses. Weeping Angels are portrayed not just as stone ornaments, but as mobile monsters that can take us away from ...
Crofts, P 2018, 'Teaching Skills for Future Legal Professionals' in The Future of Australian Legal Education: A Collection, Thomson Reuters, Australia.
Crofts, P & van Rijswijk, HM 2018, 'Law and Justice in Japanese Popular Culture' in Pearson, A, Giddens, T & Tranter, K (eds), Law and Justice in Japanese Popular Culture: from crime fighting robots to duelling pocket monsters, Routledge, UK.
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Dehm, S 2018, 'Accusing ‘Europe’' in Brynes, A & Simm, G (eds), Peoples' Tribunals and International Law, Cambridge University Press, UK, pp. 157-181.
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This chapter examines a recent civil society initiative, Tribunal 12, as an internationalised articulation of migrant justice.1 Tribunal 12 was held in Stockholm in May 2012, and sought to put ‘Europe’ on trial for the systematic violations of the rights and dignity of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants. By adopting a legal and aesthetical framework, the initiative aimed to draw attention to the increased global securitisation of borders, criminalisation of unauthorised migrants and systemic exploitation of undocumented people in Europe. It also intended to generate support for migrant struggles within Europe by highlighting the morally unjust and harmful effects of European border practices. Although the Tribunal differed significantly from earlier international peoples’ tribunals in that it did not hear any witness testimonies from migrants themselves, I nonetheless locate Tribunal 12 within a legacy of peoples’ tribunals and their entanglement with international law and institutions.
Dehm, S 2018, 'Passport' in International Law's Objects, Oxford University Press, UK, pp. 342-356.
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This chapter explores the passport both as an object of concern for international law and as an object that has been shaped through international action and institutions. It unpacks this dynamic relationship along four registers: first, as a historical object that functions as a technology of statecraft and emerged with the consolidation of the modern territorial nation-state; second, as an object of government that works towards the control of individuals, the construction of border regimes, and the global segregation of populations; third, as a jurisprudential object that crafts a particular juridical human; and finally, as an object of resistance taken up in political struggles to challenge the nation-state’s asserted monopoly on territorial authority. Along each of these registers, the passport reveals how the deeply state-centric order produced through international law shapes and regulates human mobility and identity.
Dehm, S & Walden, M 2018, 'Refugee Policy: A Cruel Bipartisanship' in Gauja, A, Chen, P, Curtin, J & Pietsch, J (eds), Double Dissolution The 2016 Australian Election, ANU Press, Australia, pp. 593-617.
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Facing the media after a reported 5.6 per cent swing against him in the Brisbane seat of Dickson, Australian Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Peter Dutton defiantly declared that the Coalition was ‘a victim of our own success’.1 ‘The fact that we stopped boats and got children out of detention’, Dutton asserted, meant the ‘issue’ of ‘border protection’ and people arriving in Australia unauthorised by boat to seek asylum ‘had gone off the radar’ (quoted in Hutchens 2016). The minister’s assertion was certainly provocative, if a little misleading. While Australia’s policies towards refugees and asylum seekers did not appear to feature prominently in the 2016 election campaign, this was largely due to a confluence of circumstances, not all of which were of the Coalition’s making. These circumstances primarily included the bipartisan support for the three key pillars of Australia’s increasingly draconian deterrence model (namely, boat turn backs, regional processing and the mandatory detention of certain asylum seekers) and the exceptional government censorship of information from inside immigration detention centres and the official secrecy surrounding the implementation of Australia’s military-led Operation Sovereign Borders (OSB). This meant that the Coalition and Labor had both orchestrated a situation where there seemed to be little political mileage to be gained from foregrounding the issue of Australia’s refugee laws and policies during the campaign. Instead, the election contest predominantly played out across more traditional issues of economic and social policy, such as job creation and the funding of healthcare. Despite being a highly volatile political issue, refugee policy could rarely be seen to determine the outcome of elections—perhaps with the exception of the Coalition’s major 2001 electoral victory in the wake of the Tampa affair. Since 2004, fewer than 10 per cent of surveyed voters have ranked the issue of ‘refugees and ...
Goggin, G, Steele, L & Cadwallader, JR 2018, 'Introduction' in Normality and Disability, Routledge, pp. 1-4.
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Goldblatt, B 2018, 'Constitutional Social and Economic Rights to Address Poverty and Inequality - Thoughts from the South African Experience' in The Fiftieth Anniversary of the Bermuda Constitution: Reflections on its Past and Future, Centre for Justice, Hamilton, Bermuda.
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This paper will discuss some of the significant features of the South African Bill of Rights that may be relevant to informing any reforms to the Constitution of Bermuda and inparticular, the sections dealing with fundamental rights. First, it will discuss what is meant by social and economic rights and their status internationally before looking at the inclusion of these rights in the South African Constitution. It will then consider the strong equality right and the relationship between this right and the social and economic rights. It will also note some of the other valuable features of the South African equality right.
Goldblatt, B 2018, 'Violence against Women in South Africa: Constitutional Responses and Opportunities' in Dixon, R & Roux, T (eds), Constitutional Triumphs, Constitutional Disappointments, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, pp. 141-173.
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Violence against women, present in every society in the world, is deeply embedded in South Africa’s past and is a central feature of the post-democratic society. The South African Constitution is path-breaking in acknowledging this reality by providing a right to be free from violence in public and private realms. Over the past two decades since democracy, advocacy groups have been successful in lobbying and working with government to secure new legislation in the areas of domestic violence and rape. Implementation of these laws has, however, been mixed or poor and recourse to the law is limited for many, if not most, victims of this violence. A number of significant decisions have emerged from the Constitutional Court in relation to these laws and regarding aspects of the common law relevant to violence against women. This chapter surveys the jurisprudence on violence against women in assessing the Court’s record in this area. While finding these decisions valuable in advancing the constitutional framework, the chapter suggests that fuller interpretation of the Constitution and more creative litigation and jurisprudence is necessary in contributing to the removal of the scourge of violence against South Africa’s women.
Grossi, R 2018, 'Feminism and the Power of Love' in García-Andrade, A, Gunnarsson, L & Jónasdóttir, AG (eds), Feminism and the Power of Love: Interdisciplinary Interventions, Routledge, London and New York, pp. 55-72.
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Hoping to escape suffering it is to suffering that they run. In the desire for happiness, out of delusion, they destroy their own happiness, like an enemy.
Hohmann, J 2018, 'International Law's Objects' in Hohmann, J & Joyce, D (eds), International Law's Objects, Oxford University Press, UK.
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International law’s rich existence in the world can be illuminated by its objects. International law is often developed, conveyed, and authorized through its objects and/or their representation. From the symbolic (the regalia of the head of state and the symbols of sovereignty), to the mundane (a can of dolphin-safe tuna certified as complying with international trade standards), international legal authority can be found in the objects around us. Similarly, the practice of international law often relies on material objects or their image, both as evidence (satellite images, bones of the victims of mass atrocities) and to found authority (for instance, maps and charts).This volume considers these questions: firstly what might the study of international law through objects reveal? What might objects, rather than texts, tell us about sources, recognition of states, construction of territory, law of the sea, or international human rights law? Secondly, what might this scholarly undertaking reveal about the objects - as aims or projects - of international law? How do objects reveal, or perhaps mask, these aims, and what does this tell us about the reasons some (physical or material) objects are foregrounded, and others hidden or ignored. Thirdly what objects, icons, and symbols preoccupy the profession and academy? The personal selection of these objects by leading and emerging scholars worldwide will illuminate the contemporary and historical fascinations of international lawyers.By considering international law in the context of its material culture the authors offer a new and exciting theoretical perspective on the subject.
Hohmann, J 2018, 'The UNDRIP and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to Existence, Cultural Integrity and Identity, and Non-Assimilation: Articles 7(2), 8, and 43' in Hohmann, J & Weller, M (eds), The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: A Commentary, Oxford University Press, UK, pp. 1-31.
Hohmann, J & Joyce, D 2018, 'Introduction' in International Law's Objects, Oxford University Press, pp. 1-12.
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This volume asks what we might learn about international law if we began with objects, things, and material culture? What might we see, if we took seriously international law’s role in constructing the world, claiming and disclaiming parts of it, vesting things with authority or stripping them of legitimacy? And what might we learn about objects themselves, if we allowed them to speak more clearly to us, if we let them take centre stage, rather than treating them as peripheral to or as passive props for human action? This volume opens up these questions. It aims to extend both the theoretical and critical scope of the discipline beyond its preoccupations with text and with the intentions of states, and with normative and regulatory frameworks, by considering international law through a new lens— that of its materiality, its objects, and their associated imagery. The collection plays with style, method, and form, and is explicitly interdisciplinary. It brings out the personal, and disciplinary, preoccupations of international lawyers at the contemporary moment. It showcases the selected objects themselves, and results in an artefact that is also an archive. The volume offers a new way of thinking about the purpose and the limits—both conceptual and physical—of international law, and connecting it with the material turn in the humanities and social sciences. We seek to begin a conversation that will enable new ways of thinking about, but also opportunities for contesting, resisting, and re-forming international law.
Hohmann, J & Perez-Bustillo, C 2018, 'Indigenous Rights to Development, Socio-Economic Rights, and Rights for Groups with Vulnerabilities: Articles 20–22, 24, and 44' in Hohmann, J & Weller, M (eds), The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: A Commentary, Oxford University Press, UK.
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This chapter is focused on the challenges and implications of Articles 20(1), 21, 22, 24, and 44 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP; the Declaration). These provisions are centered on: the economic, social, and cultural (ESC) rights of indigenous peoples, (with a particular focus on the right to health); their right to development; the rights of those indigenous individuals and groups who are particularly vulnerable, including women and children, and again with a particular focus on women’s rights to be free from violence. The provisions highlight the evolving place of indigenous rights within the overall framework of international law and international human rights
Kirkby, D 2018, 'When ‘Magna Carta Was Suspended’' in Challenges to Authority and the Recognition of Rights, Cambridge University Press, pp. 321-343.
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Leary, DK 2018, 'International Environmental Law, Sustainable Generation of Energy from the Ocean and Small Island Developing States in the PacificPacific' in Kotzur, M, Matz-Lück, N, Proells, A, Verheyen, R & Sanden, J (eds), Sustainable Ocean Resource Governance, Brill | Nijhoff, Leiden, pp. 84-100.
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Pacific Island countries and territories (PICTs) are heavily dependent upon
imported fossil fuel to meet their energy needs.1 The combined effect of low
GDP, high energy prices, small population density and remoteness means that
PICTs are extremely vulnerable to external energy crises.2 The importance of
energy security for PICTs and the role renewable energy can play in providing
such security in a sustainable manner has been recognized in a range of soft
law instruments and other international initiatives over the past few decades.
While there has been developed a range of different technologies that harness
energy from the oceans, most research has focused on three key areas:
(1) hydrokinetic energy, where the energy of ocean currents and tides are captured
by devices which are installed under the surface of the water; (2) wave
energy, where the energy of the surface wind waves is used to produce electricity
by a variety of devices installed on the surface of the Sea; and (3) Ocean
thermal Energy conversion or OTEC, which utilizes the temperature differential
between cold water from the deep ocean and warm surface water.3 This
paper considers the potential role that these technologies could play in sustainably
meeting the energy needs of PICTs
Lee, K & Prime, J 2018, 'Us Telecommunications Law' in Walden, I (ed), Telecommunications Law and Regulation, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 195-282.
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This chapter focuses on the regulation of the provision of telecommunication services and the operation of telecommunication networks in the US. It begins by giving a brief history of the American approach to the regulation of switched, cable, wireless, satellite, broadband, and IP networks and services. It then provides an overview of the numerous governmental bodies involved in the regulation of the US telecommunications market. It summarizes the licensing requirements under the Communications Act of 1934, and briefly explains the US approach to certain key regulatory issues: access, interconnection and related measures, including network neutrality, spectrum management, universal service, the application of competition law to the sector, and consumer privacy.
Libesman, T 2018, 'Human Rights and Neoliberal Wrongs in the Indigenous Child Welfare Space' in Hendry, J, Tatum, M, Jorgensen, M & Howard-Wagner, D (eds), Indigenous Justice, Palgrave Macmillan UK, London, pp. 69-85.
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May 2017 marked the 20th anniversary of Bringing Them Home, the Australian Human Rights Commission report into the forced and unjustified removals of Indigenous children from their families (NISATSIC 1997). The report concluded that these actions were part of a sustained campaign by the Australian government to eradicate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families, communities, and culture. Nearly a third of the report examined and made recommendations with respect to contemporary removals under child welfare, juvenile justice, and family law. These recommendations were part of the reparations and were aimed at creating laws and policies designed to ensure the discriminatory practices would cease and would not be repeated. Twenty years post-Bringing Them Home, however, Indigenous children are being removed from their families in unprecedented numbers (Libesman 2016, pp. 46–7).
Libesman, T & Briskman, L 2018, 'Indigenous Australians: Continuity of colonisation in law and social work' in Rice, S, Day, A & Briskman, L (eds), Social Work - in the shadow of the law, Federation Press, Sydney, pp. 256-277.
Murphy, JR, Grant, E & Anthony, T 2018, 'Indigenous Courthouse and Courtroom Design in Australia: Case Studies, Design Paradigms and the Issue of Cultural Agency' in The Handbook of Contemporary Indigenous Architecture, Springer Singapore, Germany, pp. 495-525.
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If it is true that public buildings “…reflect the beliefs, priorities and aspirations of a people” (Powell 1995: ix), what do Australia’s public buildings say about Australians? More specifically, what does the design of Australia’s courthouses say about the beliefs, priorities, aspirations and agency of Australian people and in particular, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples?
Rijswijk, HV 2018, 'Cultural Representations of Torture' in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Crime, Media, and Popular Culture, Oxford University Press, UK, pp. 468-489.
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Scenes of torture are central to the Western imaginary of law, animating questions of power, authority and legitimacy. This examination of key cultural representations of torture provides some historical background on torture in the Western imaginary and focuses on its contemporary significance. A flexible set of analytical and aesthetic approaches to practices of representation are used to assess the changing significance of torture. In particular, three figures are central to the representation of torture—the torturer, the tortured, and the torture chamber. The significance of these elements differs depending on the form and perspective of representation. These elements of representations of torture changed following the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and have complicated the social and legal work done by previous cultural texts and government policies around the effectiveness of torture and the risks of states of exception. Not only do popular films and television series support and justify the use of torture as a legitimate information-gathering tool, but representations of torture have become sites of pleasure and enjoyment. The emergence of new figures and genres in representations of torture suggests that the use of torture in violent or conflict scenes has been of increasing interest to the public and possibly have become increasingly accepted since the rhetoric of the Global War on Terror (GWOT).
Riley, J 2018, 'General Protections: Industrial Activities and Collective Bargaining' in McCrystal, S, Creighton, B & Forsyth, A (eds), Collective Bargaining Under the Fair Work Act, the Federation Press, Sydney, pp. 162-181.
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Is the system of collective bargaining under the Fair Work Act broken? Both employers and unions think that it is, and that the legislation requires significant amendment.
Riley, J 2018, 'The Federal Court's Contribution to Australian Workplace Law' in Ridge, P & Stellios, J (eds), The Federal Court's Contribution to Australian Law: Past, Present and Future, pp. 289-307.
Rock, E 2018, 'Fault and Accountability in Public Law' in Elliot, M, Varuhas, J & Wilson Stark, S (eds), The Unity of Public Law? Doctrinal, Theoretical and Comparative Perspectives, Hart Publishing, pp. 171-192.
Simmonds, AP 2018, 'Domesticating Violence: Reading the politics of the Family Court into the Luke Batty Coronial Inquest' in Nelson, C & Robertson, R (eds), The Book of Dangerous Ideas About Mothers, University of Western Australia Press, Perth, Western Australia, pp. 35-48.
Somes, T & Webb, E 2018, 'Financial abuse' in Field, S, Williams, K & Sappideen, C (eds), Elder law, The Federation Press, pp. 225-246.
Stoianoff, NP 2018, 'Tax and the Environment – Australian Style' in Mann, R & Roberts, T (eds), Tax Law and the Environment A Multidisciplinary and Worldwide Perspective, Lexington Books, USA, pp. 105-124.
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Climate change and other environmental issues have been part of the political agenda in Australia for almost 30 years. The federal taxation system has played a role in that agenda since 1990. In particular, the extensive tax expenditures regime has been the main fiscal mechanism utilised by the government to effect changes in behaviour in order to address a multitude of environmental ills while focussing on the goal of achieving an environmentally sustainable nation. This paper explores Australia’s love affair with tax incentives, concessions or subsidies as a means of promoting biodiversity conservation, reforestation, abating pollution and land degradation and encouraging green technological innovations, consequently, mitigating greenhouse gas emissions in order to ultimately meet carbon reduction targets.
Stoianoff, NP & Wright, E 2018, 'Fair Use and Traditional Cultural Expressions' in Making Copyright Work for the Asian Pacific: Juxtaposing Harmonisation with Flexibility, ANU Press, pp. 75-94.
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Stoianoff, NP & Wright, E 2018, 'Fair Use and Traditional Cultural Expressions' in Corbett, S & Lai, J (eds), Making Copyright Work for the Asian Pacific: Juxtaposing Harmonisation with Flexibility, ANU Press, Australia, pp. 75-94.
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Indigenous knowledge may be broadly described as the system of knowledge developed and maintained by Indigenous and local communities and transmitted from generation to generation and includes:
[L]iterary, artistic or scientific works; performances; inventions; scientific discoveries; designs; marks; names and symbols; undisclosed information; and all other tradition-based innovations and creations resulting from intellectual activity in the industrial, scientific, literary or artistic fields.3
Stuhmcke, A 2018, 'Ombuds can, ombuds can't, ombuds should, ombuds shan't: A call to improve evaluation of the ombudsman institution' in Hertogh, M & Kirkham, R (eds), Research Handbook on the Ombudsman, Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 415-435.
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The public sector ombudsman has become one of the most important administrative justice institutions in many countries around the world. This international and interdisciplinary Research Handbook brings together leading scholars and practitioners to discuss the state-of-the-art of ombudsman research. It uses new empirical studies and competing theoretical explanations to critically examine important aspects of the ombudsman’s work. This comprehensive Handbook is of value to academics designing future ombudsman studies and practitioners and policymakers in understanding the future challenges of the ombudsman.
van Rijswijk, H 2018, 'Feminist genres of violence and law’s aggressive realism' in Routledge Handbook of Law and Theory, Routledge, pp. 329-346.
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Van Rijswijk, H 2018, 'From Sentimentality to Sadism: Visual genres of Asylum Seeking' in Manderson, D (ed), Law and the Visual: Representations, Technologies, Critique, University of Toronto Press, Toronto, pp. 189-209.
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Proceeding chronologically, the volume offers leading analyses of the juncture between legal and visual culture as witnessed from the fifteenth to the twenty-first centuries.
Alexander, IJ 2018, 'Cartography, Empire and Copyright Law in Colonial Australia', law&history, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 24-53.
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Recent scholarship has established the centrality of maps and mapmaking to the imperial project, both as expressions of surveillance, spatial construction and control, as well as in the role maps played in making and supporting claims of property and ownership. Much less attention has been paid to the question of ownership in the map itself. This is important because the person, or entity, who owned the map could determine how the land depicted in the map was portrayed, and how access to that information was disseminated. It also affected how the map was perceived in terms of the authority, or accuracy, of its claims. This article examines several disputes that arose in colonial Australia over the ownership of maps, exploring how different interests arose and came into conflict in relation to their control, dissemination and commercialisation. It suggests that a consideration of these cases reveals the role that copyright law played as a technology of empire.
Anthony, T 2018, '“They Were Treating Me Like a Dog”: The Colonial Continuum of State Harms Against Indigenous Children in Detention in the Northern Territory, Australia', State Crime Journal, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 251-277.
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The analytic lens of state crime can inform our understanding of the mistreatment of Indigenous children and young people in settler-colonial state institutions. Based on a critical analysis of the proceedings and findings of the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory (2016–2017), this article identifies state crimes of torture and abuse inflicted on Indigenous children in carceral and non-carceral institutions. These crimes breach international human rights laws but are more than a set of individual harms. They are also part of a pattern of ongoing structural violence that reasserts the settler-colonial state's sovereign position. This article identifies that the Royal Commission itself is complicit in reproducing state sovereignty. It argues that redressing state crimes against Indigenous children requires challenging the structural injustice of the settler-colonial state.
Anthony, T 2018, 'An Interview with Associate Professor Thalia Anthony', Pandora's Box, vol. 25, pp. 69-75.
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In 2016, the nation was horrified when footage showing youth in Don Dale Juvenile Detention Centre was released, and subsequently the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory was established to investigate failings in the child protection and youth detention systems of the Territory. This article discusses the implications and consequences of that Royal Commission for the incarceration of Indigenous youth.
Anthony, T 2018, 'Policing in Redfern: Histories and Continuities', Court of Conscience, vol. 12, pp. 46-55.
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Redfern is a microcosm of many colonial and postcolonial frontiers across Australia. Colonial violence in the early nineteenth century was met with resistance by the Gadigal people and other clans of the Eora nation. State violence and Aboriginal struggle cast long shadows over Aboriginal experiences in Redfern. The wounds of injustice that lie open, especially in recent decades from policing, continue to be a focal point for local Aboriginal people and organisations. A flashpoint for the injustice in Redfern is the death of Aboriginal teenager TJ Hickey in a police chase in 2004 and the lack of subsequent accountability. This article traces the fraught history of discriminatory policing in Redfern and the ongoing plight for justice.
Anthony, T & Sherwood, J 2018, 'Post-disciplinary Responses to Positivism’s Punitiveness', Journal of Global Indigeneity, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 1-33.
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This article posits a post-disciplinary framework to offer an alternative to the epistemological premise of positivist criminology. We seek to destabilise the punitive, deficit analysis of Indigenous people by Western, positivist Criminology. Instead, we look towards Indigenous strengths and resilience to counter deficit narratives about Indigenous people that have served to over-criminalise and over-incarcerate Indigenous peoples since colonisation. In doing so, we argue that positivist disciplinary knowledge is complicit in undermining Indigenous knowledges. We provide a case study that contrasts an institutional approach to researching ‘grog trials’ with the approach of the Tangentyere Research Hub, our ongoing research partner in Alice Springs (Central Australia). Our case study demonstrates the benefits of Tangentyere’s reliance on local Indigenous knowledges and perspectives, rather than disciplinary assumptions, for empowering, strengthening and supporting Indigenous communities and self-governance. In attempting to decolonise criminology, we advance a postdisciplinary approach that highlights questions of Indigenous wellbeing and its relationship with Indigenous self-determination over inquiries into Indigenous crime and the punitive role of the state.
Anthony, T & Tranter, K 2018, 'Travelling our way or no way!: the collision of automobilities in Australian Northern Territory judicial narratives', Griffith Law Review, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 281-306.
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© 2019, © 2019 Griffith University. The regulation of driving and cars has taken on increasingly criminal guises. Apart from the role of insurance companies and motor vehicle registries, criminal law has stepped in to penalise drivers and car owners through more draconian measures. This article examines the problems that this presents for Indigenous drivers whose concepts of automobility are at odds with those of the nation state. It details the judicial narratives of this collision of automobilities in sentencing Indigenous drivers to argue that the Australian ‘settler state’ is continuing the practice of using mundane regulatory laws to dismantle and assimilate Indigenous communities.
Bello Villarino, J-M & Vijeyarasa, R 2018, 'The indicator fad: How quantifiable measurement can work hand-in-hand with human rights - A response to Sally Engle Merry's The Seductions of Quantification', New York University Journal of International Law and Politics, vol. 50, no. 3, pp. 985-1020.
Booth, T 2018, 'Victim impact statements and sentencing homicide offenders: A critical analysis of recent changes to the crimes (sentencing procedure) ACT 1999 (NSW)', University of New South Wales Law Journal, vol. 41, no. 1, pp. 130-156.
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The use of victim impact statements (‘VISs’) from family victims in homicide matters, particularly as evidence of aggravating factors, is contentious in NSW courts. Until July 2014, the law prevented VISs influencing penalties imposed on homicide offenders (Previtera). However, the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 was amended in 2014 in order to overrule Previtera and enable VISs to ‘count’ in sentencing homicide offenders. This article draws on a case study of 39 homicide sentencing judgments, July 2014–April 2017, to determine whether, and if so the extent to which, the new law has changed the role of VISs from family victims in sentencing. It also considers the practical implications of these findings for future family victims and argues that not only has the new law made little practical difference to the use of VISs in homicide matters, but there are also potential adverse consequences for family victims in the sentencing process.
Booth, T, Bosma, AK & Lens, KME 2018, 'Accommodating the Expressive Function of Victim Impact Statements: The Scope for Victims’ Voices in Dutch Courtrooms', The British Journal of Criminology, vol. 58, no. 6, pp. 1480-1498.
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The expressive function of victim impact statements (VISs) enables victims to have a voice in legal proceedings—to speak and be heard about the harm caused by the offence. VISs have been adopted in many jurisdictions. While research reveals legal and institutional constraints on the expressive function of VISs in many jurisdictions with adversarial proceedings, we know little about the implementation of VISs in inquisitorial systems. We address this gap by reporting findings of an observational study that examines the scope for victims’ voices in criminal legal proceedings in the Netherlands. We find that these proceedings are better adapted to accommodate the expressive function of VISs. There is greater scope for victims to speak and be heard through their VISs.
Bowley, R 2018, 'An Analysis of Challenges to ASIC's s 920A Banning Orders against Financial Services Providers in the AAT and the Courts', COMPANY AND SECURITIES LAW JOURNAL, vol. 36, no. 4, pp. 307-341.
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Section 920A of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) provides ASIC with a flexible power to ban individuals from the Australian financial services industry on a number of grounds. The objective of this power is to protect consumers through upholding compliance with the law and adherence to professional standards. Banned individuals may apply to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) to review the merits of such decisions, and on limited points of law such cases may be further appealed to the Federal Court of Australia (FCA). This article analyses the practice of the AAT and the FCA in determining challenges to s 920A banning orders. The 50 AAT cases examined in the article provide interesting examples of misconduct by financial advisers, stockbrokers and traders, insurance brokers and operators of investment schemes. The article shows that whilst the AAT has shown a flexible approach in considering the circumstances of each banning (setting aside four bans and varying the length of 15 bans), it has nevertheless exhibited a firm approach in the other 31 cases in affirming bans following serious misconduct. The article concludes by suggesting some minor reforms to further enhance the range of protective enforcement tools available to ASIC.
Brennan, D 2018, 'The Copyright Tribunal as Exception-maker: Are Both Flexibility and Certainty Achievable?', Australian Intellectual Property Journal, vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 83-96.
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This article proposes an approach to address the current fair use impasse in Australia. This is by the conferral of delegated legislative power upon the Copyright Tribunal of Australia for it to periodically determine new public interest exceptions. The reform would require, for separation of powers reasons, that the Tribunal be reconstituted to perform such a legislative function. The proposal is one that navigates a course between the current law and the open slather adoption of US-style fair use recommended by the Australian Law Reform Commission by creating a public interest rulemaking power within an existing Australian copyright institution. It is also proposed to use as the vehicle for the delegation of power an overhauled s 200AB, so that the three-step test no longer nakedly applies in domestic law, but instead operates as criteria to inform the legislative choices of the Tribunal.
Brophy, L, Edan, V, Gooding, P, McSherry, B, Burkett, T, Carey, S, Carroll, A, Callaghan, S, Finch, A, Hansford, M, Hanson, S, Kisely, S, Lawn, S, Light, E, Maher, S, Patel, G, Ryan, CJ, Saltmarsh, K, Stratford, A, Tellez, JJ, Toko, M & Weller, P 2018, 'Community treatment orders: towards a new research agenda', Australasian Psychiatry, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 299-302.
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Objectives:The aim of this study was to report on a half-day multi-stakeholder symposium on community treatment orders (CTOs) hosted by the Melbourne Social Equity Institute (MSEI), which identified research gaps and opportunities, and produced an agreed agenda for future CTO research.Methods:The MSEI convened a symposium for 22 experts in CTO research to discuss research priorities in this field in Australasia. An independent moderator elicited views and recommendations and produced a report detailing possible research projects.Results:Research on CTOs is contentious and there is a need to gather and examine information regarding both their use and utility. Due to the complexities involved, it was agreed that research should be undertaken in partnership with persons with had lived experience of mental health problems, clinicians, policymakers and other interdisciplinary stakeholders. Five key areas for future investigation were identified.Conclusions:The issues and recommendations arising from the symposium should shape the scope, nature and conduct of future research directions in the field.
Burns, M 2018, 'ARE WE THERE YET? INDIGENOUS CULTURAL COMPETENCY IN LEGAL EDUCATION', LEGAL EDUCATION REVIEW, vol. 28, no. 2.
Burns, M, Young, S & Nielsen, J 2018, ''THE DIFFICULTIES OF COMMUNICATION ENCOUNTERED BY INDIGENOUS PEOPLES': MOVING BEYOND INDIGENOUS DEFICIT IN THE MODEL ADMISSION RULES FOR LEGAL PRACTITIONERS', LEGAL EDUCATION REVIEW, vol. 28, no. 2.
Carney, T 2018, 'Vulnerability: False hope for vulnerable social security clients?', University of New South Wales Law Journal, vol. 41, no. 3, pp. 783-817.
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This article reviews the concept of vulnerability and examines its salience for selected aspects of Australian social security. It argues that vulnerability is a welcome shift from individual to relational thinking, of particular relevance to measurement of deprivation and richer transformations of delivery of welfare services (and access to social and informal support). Vulnerability is a productive analytical lens for better understanding aspects of law and policy, but remains too capacious and ill-defined to provide more than false hope in substantive reform of social security law.
Cheng, K, Wand, A, Ryan, C & Callaghan, S 2018, 'An algorithm for managing adults who refuse medical treatment in New South Wales', Australasian Psychiatry, vol. 26, no. 5, pp. 464-468.
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Objectives: The assessment and management of a patient who refuses medical treatment requires clinical skill, and consideration of the relevant law and the patient’s decision-making capacity. Psychiatrists are often asked to advise in these situations. We aimed to develop an algorithm describing the relevant legal pathways to assist clinicians, especially psychiatrists, working in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Methods: We reviewed the academic literature on treatment refusal, relevant legislation, judicial rulings and NSW Health policy directives and guidelines. We consulted with clinicians and representatives of relevant tribunals. Results: We developed an algorithm for managing patients who refuse medical treatment in NSW. The algorithm emphases the evaluation of decision-making capacity and tracks separate pathways depending upon a person’s status under the Mental Health Act 2007 (NSW). Conclusions: The algorithm provides a clear decision tree for clinicians responding to a patient refusing medical treatment in NSW.
Chiarella, M, Nagy, M, Satchell, CS, Walton, M, Carney, T, Bennett, B, Pierce, SM & Kelly, PJ 2018, 'National Registration of Health Practitioners: A Comparative Study of the Complaints and Notification System Under the National System and in New South Wales – Decision Makers who Handle Complaints/Notifications About Regulated Health Practitioners in Australia', Australian Journal of Public Administration, vol. 77, no. 4, pp. 624-643.
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AbstractWhen the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme (NRAS) for health practitioners commenced in Australia in 2010, all jurisdictions joined the scheme for the registration and accreditation of health practitioners, but NSW retained its existing co‐regulatory complaint‐handling system. We sought to compare the new National notifications and the NSW complaints handling processes, as NSW has an independent investigative and prosecutory body to manage serious complaints. Decision makers from both the National and NSW schemes, who handled notifications/complaints at assessment, were invited to participate in a survey consisting of case studies. A qualitative thematic approach was used to determine and compare contributing factors to decision makers’ priorities when assessing a notification/complaint for the National and NSW schemes. The 123 completed surveys comprised 50 NSW respondents and 73 National respondents from the other jurisdictions. No consistent differences in contributory factors when assessing a complaint/notification were observed between the two schemes. This evidence points towards national consistency in decisions about assessment of complaints and notifications in Australia.
Chiarella, M, Satchell, CS, Nagy, M, Carney, T, Walton, M, Bennett, B & Kelly, PJ 2018, 'Survey of Quasi-Judicial Decision-Makers in NSW and The National Registration Scheme for Health Practitioners.', J Law Med, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 357-379.
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This study is part of a larger, Australian Research Council-funded project studying comparative analyses of complaints and notification handling between the NSW system and National Registration and Accreditation Scheme (2010). This article explores the assessments and decisions made by Tribunal and other quasi-judicial decision-makers involved in the two schemes, including the key decision-management stages during a disciplinary process. Respondents recruited from both systems completed an online questionnaire comprising a series of closed and open-ended questions to case vignettes. While we found no significant difference between jurisdictions in relation to their decision-making processes in this case, the article provides insights into the rationales for their decisions and the outcomes or sanctions selected by decision-makers as being appropriate to the circumstances presented.
Crofts, P 2018, 'Monsters and Horror in the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse', Law & Literature, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 123-148.
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This article analyses how the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Reponses to Child Sexual Abuse negotiates the figure of the pedophile as monster through the horror genre. It analyses the resonance of the category of pedophiles as monsters or monstrous and the ways in which this impacted upon witnesses’ responses to sex offenders, based on assumptions that monsters are outsiders or strangers who are instantly recognizable. I go on to explore the claim that one of the main effects of regarding sex offenders as monsters is that these offenders are construed as having extraordinary powers so that ordinary measures to stop them would be ineffective – accordingly, this reading underplays the significance of institutional responsibility. I conclude that although the Royal Commission consistently undermines and rejects the idea of sex offenders as monsters, a horror reading is still appropriate and insightful. The true “horror” of the Royal Commission is aroused not by the figurative monsters but by the institutions themselves, and their failures.
Dehm, S & Millbank, J 2018, 'Witchcraft Accusations as Gendered Persecution in Refugee Law', Social & Legal Studies, vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 202-226.
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Witchcraft-related violence (WRV), in particular directed towards women and children, has become a source of increasing concern for human rights organizations in the current century. Yet for those fleeing WRV, this heightened attention has not translated across into refugee status. This research examines how claims of WRV were addressed in all available asylum decisions in English, drawn from five jurisdictions. We argue that WRV is a manifestation of gender-related harm; one which exposes major failings in the application of refugee jurisprudence. Inattention to the religious and organizational elements of witchcraft practices, combined with gender insensitivity in analysis, meant that claims were frequently reconfigured by decision makers as personal grudges, or family or community disputes, such that they were not cognizable harms within the terms of the Refugee Convention; or they were simply disbelieved as far-fetched. The success rate of claims was low, compared to available averages, and, when successful, claims were universally accepted on some basis other than the witchcraft element of the case. This article focuses in particular upon cases where the applicant feared harm as an accused witch, while a second related article addresses those fearing persecution from witches or through the medium of witchcraft.
Dehm, S & Vogl, A 2018, 'Migration Law and Women: Gendering Australia's Migration Program', Precedent, no. 144 (January/February 2018), pp. 22-27.
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In this article, we use two case studies – the admission ofskilled migrants under the Temporary Work (Skilled) visa(subclass 457) scheme and the admission of refugees underAustralia’s onshore humanitarian program – to understandthe gendered nature, operation and effects of Australianmigration law more generally. These two case studies revealthat the gendered nature of migration to Australia is evidentin even the most cursory examination of particular visacategories and forms of migration, even if the experiences ofand implications for women migrants differ across differentstreams of migration and specific visa categories. Forexample, female temporary skilled migrants are more likely tobe over-represented in low-paid or casualised care industries,as nurses or carers, and women asylum seekers face risksof gendered violence when crossing borders unlawfully.
Dietz, HP & Callaghan, S 2018, 'We need to treat pregnant women as adults', Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, vol. 58, no. 6, pp. 701-703.
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Since the mid‐90s, Australian law has required doctors to disclose material risks of proposed treatment. Medical practitioners have had two decades to adapt, and, by and large, patient autonomy is acknowledged and respected by obtaining ‘informed consent’. While problems with obtaining consent do surface in medico‐legal litigation, practitioners are generally aware of the need to do so and usually comply with requirements. However, not in obstetrics. Here, even if material risk of a serious adverse event in an attempt at vaginal birth in a given case is over 50% (as it would be in the case of a 35‐year‐old primigravida at 41 + 3) obtaining informed consent is the exception rather than the rule. This degree of paternalism is not just unethical and immoral. It is illegal – and it needs to change.
Ding, YC, Adamson, AW, Steele, L, Bailis, AM, John, EM, Tomlinson, G & Neuhausen, SL 2018, 'Discovery of mutations in homologous recombination genes in African-American women with breast cancer', Familial Cancer, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 187-195.
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Flanagan, F & Stilwell, F 2018, 'Causes and consequences of labour’s falling income share and growing inequality', Journal of Australian Political Economy, vol. 2018, no. 81, pp. 5-10.
Galster, G, MacDonald, H & Nelson, J 2018, 'What Explains the Differential Treatment of Renters Based on Ethnicity? New Evidence From Sydney', Urban Affairs Review, vol. 54, no. 1, pp. 107-136.
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This article conducts the first contextual analysis of ethnic-based discrimination in an Australian rental housing market: metropolitan Sydney. Logistic regression is employed to investigate how the likelihood of five behaviors by rental agents that may favor Anglo home seekers varies according to characteristics of the agent, home seeker, dwelling, and neighborhood. We find that several forms of discrimination favoring Anglos are consistently more likely in neighborhoods characterized by lower crime rates and shares of renter households, regardless of the ethnicity of the agent. Other patterns are consistent with the hypothesis that, in general in the Sydney rental market, agents regardless of ethnicity are motivated to discriminate by statistical discrimination. Our result that profit, not prejudice, drives discrimination implies that it will prove resilient to unfettered housing market forces and changes in societal ethnic tolerance, but instead, must be addressed through enhanced civil rights enforcement strategies.
Ghezelbash, D, Moreno-Lax, V, Klein, N & Opeskin, B 2018, 'SECURITIZATION OF SEARCH AND RESCUE AT SEA: THE RESPONSE TO BOAT MIGRATION IN THE MEDITERRANEAN AND OFFSHORE AUSTRALIA', International and Comparative Law Quarterly, vol. 67, no. 2, pp. 315-351.
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AbstractThis article compares the law and practice of the European Union and Australia in respect to the search and rescue (SAR) of boat migrants, concluding that the response to individuals in peril at sea in both jurisdictions is becoming increasingly securitized. This has led to the humanitarian purpose of SAR being compromised in the name of border security. Part I contrasts the unique challenge posed by SAR operations involving migrants and asylum seekers, as opposed to other people in distress at sea. Part II analyses the relevant international legal regime governing SAR activities and its operation among European States and in offshore Australia. Part III introduces the securitization framework as the explanatory paradigm for shifting State practice and its impact in Europe and Australia. It then examines the consequences of increasing securitization of SAR in both jurisdictions and identifies common trends, including an increase in militarization and criminalization, a lack of transparency and accountability, developments relating to disembarkation andnon-refoulement, and challenges relating to cooperation and commodification.
Goldblatt, B & Rai, SM 2018, 'Recognizing the Full Costs of Care? Compensation for Families in South Africa’s Silicosis Class Action', Social & Legal Studies, vol. 27, no. 6, pp. 671-694.
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This article concerns recognition and compensation of the intimate, gendered work of caring by family members for workers who became ill with lung diseases as a result of poor labour conditions in the mines in South Africa. It focuses on a recent decision by a court in South Africa ( Nkala and Others v. Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited and Others, 2016) that took the unusual step of acknowledging this care work and attempting to compensate it indirectly. The article combines insights from political economy and law within a feminist frame to develop an argument about compensation for social reproductive work to address the harm experienced by the carers of mineworkers. Using the theory of depletion through social reproduction, it suggests ways of understanding the costs of care in order to fully compensate the harms suffered by the carers. This is done with reference to a photographic essay by Thom Pierce called ‘The Price of Gold’ taken in the mineworkers’ homes after their discharge from work due to illness. The article argues that ideas of depletion should inform any consideration of compensation of people engaged in caring in a range of reparatory contexts.
Greenleaf, G, Mowbray, A & Chung, P 2018, 'Building sustainable free legal advisory systems: Experiences from the history of AI & law', Computer Law & Security Review, vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 314-326.
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© 2018 Graham Greenleaf, Andrew Mowbray & Philip Chung The enthusiasm for artificial intelligence (AI) as a source of solutions to problems is not new. In law, from the early 1980s until at least the early 2000s, considerable work was done on developing ‘legal expert systems.’ As the DataLex project, we participated in those developments, through research and publications, commercial and non-commercial systems, and teaching students application development. This paper commences with a brief account of that work to situate our perspective. The main aim of this paper is an assessment of what might be of value from the experience of the DataLex Project to contemporary use of ‘AI and law’ by free legal advice services, who must necessarily work within funding and other constraints in developing and sustaining such systems. We draw fifteen conclusions from this experience, which we consider are relevant to development of systems for free legal advice services. The desired result, we argue, is the development of integrated legal decision-support systems, not ‘expert systems’ or ‘robot lawyers’. We compare our insights with the approach of the leading recent text in the field, and with a critical review of the field over twenty-five years. We conclude that the approach taken by the DataLex Project, and now applied to free legal advice services, remains consistent with leading work in field of AI and law. The paper concludes with brief suggestions of what are the most desirable improvements to tools and platforms to enable development of free legal advice systems. The objectives of free access to legal information services have much in common with those of free legal advice services. The information resources that free access to law providers (including LIIs) can provide will often be those that free legal advice services will need to use to develop and sustain free legal advisory systems. There is therefore strong potential for valuable collaborations between ...
GREENMAN, K 2018, 'Aliens in Latin America: Intervention, Arbitration and State Responsibility for Rebels', Leiden Journal of International Law, vol. 31, no. 3, pp. 617-639.
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AbstractOver the course of the nineteenth century, the question of state responsibility for injuries done by rebels to foreign nationals, or ‘aliens’, in its territory became an important one for international law. Initially, it was common for disputes regarding such responsibility to be resolved through diplomacy, backed up, not infrequently, by the threat and even the use of force. Later it became a matter which also led increasingly to arbitration; beginning around the middle of the nineteenth century a growing number of arbitral tribunals dealt with claims against states for injuries done to aliens by rebels. From the first, established in 1839, there followed a series of 40 mixed claims commissions which touched on state responsibility for rebels. Nearly three-quarters of these arbitrations involved a Western state against one of the new Latin American republics. In this article, I explore how intervention in Latin America, and particularly its turn to arbitration, produced the highly-contested doctrine of state responsibility for rebels. Reading this history in the context of decolonization, capitalist expansion and economic imperialism in Latin America, I argue that the doctrine of state responsibility for rebels was produced out of and used to manage the transition from old colonialism to new imperialism in the region so as to guarantee foreign trade and investment. Understanding this history, I argue, helps us to put back together the pieces of alien protection which fragmented after 1945 and illuminates how international law continues to protect foreign investment against rebels in the decolonized world.
Grossi, R 2018, 'Love as a Disadvantage in Law', Journal of Law and Society, vol. 45, no. 2, pp. 205-225.
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Hawes, C 2018, 'How Chinese Judges Deal with Ambiguity in Corporate Law: Suggestions for Improving the Chinese Case Precedent System', Australian Journal of Asian Law First Look, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 1-22.
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This paper examines how Chinese judges struggle with ambiguity in legal statutes. I contrast the typical tools used by common law judges to resolve ambiguity with equivalent methods used by Chinese courts, noting that both interpretive systems have serious limitations, leading to unfairness in some cases. I then demonstrate the defects of the current Chinese approach by critically reviewing a series of Chinese court judgments on the shareholder’s right to seek information in the PRC Company Law.
Despite the recently implemented Guiding Cases system, Chinese courts still regularly produce inconsistent interpretations of the same legal provisions, leading to unpredictable and unsatisfactory outcomes for litigants. To solve this problem, in the third part, I propose delegating publication of persuasive Guiding Cases to the level of regional High Courts, with the Supreme People’s Court only stepping in to resolve intra-regional inconsistency. I also recommend clarifying the rules for using online judgments drawn from the China Judgments Network as a supplement to the Guiding Cases. This modification would make the Guiding Case system much more responsive to interpretive gaps in the law, and it would assist individual judges struggling to resolve difficult legal disputes.
Hawes, C 2018, 'How Chinese Judges Deal with Ambiguity in Corporate Law: Suggestions for Improving the Chinese Case Precedent System', Australian Journal of Asian Law, 2018, vol. 19, no. 1.
Hobbs, H 2018, 'Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and multinational federalism in Australia', Griffith Law Review, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 307-336.
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© 2018, © 2018 Griffith University. Democratic governance is premised on the belief that all citizens are empowered to shape the society in which they live. Over generations, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have maintained that Australian democratic practice does not live up to this ideal, contending that the state's legal and political framework does not empower them with the capacity to have their voices heard and their interests considered in the processes of government. However, non-Indigenous Australians remain suspicious of Indigenous-specific political and legal mechanisms designed to rectify this structural fault. In this paper, I argue that this suspicion–and Australia's governance framework more broadly–arises from a particular conception of democratic theory that marginalises Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoplehood. If, as the Uluru Statement from the Heart calls for, Australia's political institutions are to be rebuilt so as to empower Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples ‘to take a rightful place in [their] own country’, that conception of democratic theory must first be revealed and re-centred. Multinational federalism offers one path towards a more equitable future.
Hobbs, H 2018, 'Constitutional recognition and reform: developing an inclusive Australian citizenship through treaty', Australian Journal of Political Science, vol. 53, no. 2, pp. 176-194.
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© 2018 Australian Political Studies Association. Eight years after the Expert Panel on Recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in the Australian Constitution was established, institutional reform to empower Indigenous peoples in this country has not been realised. This article argues that the persistent failure to progress constitutional reform stems, in part, from dominant conceptions of Australian citizenship that deny Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoplehood. It follows that meaningful institutional reform is possible only if Australian citizenship is reconceptualised in a manner that makes room for the distinctive status of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Treaties offer a path forward to develop this new understanding of Australian identity and ground institutional reform.
Hobbs, H 2018, 'INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS, SOCIAL JUSTICE AND LEGAL REFORM: Honouring Elliott Johnston', ALTERNATIVE LAW JOURNAL, vol. 43, no. 2, pp. 148-149.
Hobbs, H 2018, 'RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS AND RECONCILIATION: Canada Confronts its History', ALTERNATIVE LAW JOURNAL, vol. 43, no. 1, pp. 62-63.
Hobbs, H & Trotter, A 2018, 'Lessons from history in dealing with our most dangerous', University of New South Wales Law Journal, vol. 41, no. 2, pp. 319-354.
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The conundrum of dealing with dangerous sexual offenders is one that has never been too far from the public and legislative consciousness. Striking an appropriate balance between community protection and the human rights of the offender is a difficult task and one weighed down by many competing considerations. In this article, we survey historical and contemporary punishment of dangerous sexual offenders in order to inform that debate. Measures adopted or employed by political communities to respond to such offenders should be chosen with an eye to history. This article argues that such measures are often adopted as a cure for public fear, and as such, they risk being overzealous, imprecise, disproportionate, and unjust. Reflecting on this history, we provide three points that should guide legislative and executive responses when dealing with our most dangerous.
Hobbs, H & Williams, G 2018, 'The Noongar Settlement: Australia's First Treaty', SYDNEY LAW REVIEW, vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 1-38.
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There has been a resurgence in debate over the desirability and feasibility of a treaty between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and the Australian State. The discussion has proceeded on the assumption that no such treaties exist. But is this correct? In this article, we examine the concepts and ideas underlying a treaty, with a view to determining a standard against which agreements and negotiated settlements can be assessed. The standard we apply is informed by the modern treaty-making process in Canada to locate it in contemporary practices and values. We then examine whether any agreement reached in Australia can be regarded as a treaty, including settlements reached under the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth) and more recent agreements made outside that regime. We conclude that the South West Native Title Settlement, a negotiated agreement between the Noongar people and the Western Australian Government, is Australia’s first treaty.
Hobbs, H, Pillai, S & Williams, G 2018, 'The disqualification of dual citizens from Parliament: Three problems and a solution', Alternative Law Journal, vol. 43, no. 2, pp. 73-80.
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Since August 2017, the rule in s 44(i) of the Australian Constitution that dual citizens are incapable of being chosen for or sitting in federal Parliament has led to the disqualification or resignation of 15 parliamentarians. This disruption may yet continue, with outstanding questions remaining about several sitting members. In this article, we outline three key problems with s 44(i), as well as a durable solution.
Hohmann, J 2018, '‘Resisting Dehumanising Housing Policy: The Case for a Right to Housing in England’', Queen Mary Human Rights Law Review, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 1-26.
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This article surveys the development and politics of English housing policy from the 1800s to the present, arguing that housing policy has never placed the needs and interests of the dweller – as a human rights holder – at its centre. Rather, the individual has been an instrument of broader goals or social visions, or envisaged not as a human being per se, but as a productive and pacified worker, a self-regulating and responsible asset holder, or a savvy financial actor whose quest to climb the housing ladder will generate asset wealth and security for herself, and for the state as a whole. The article argues that the right to housing as a human right can act as a touchstone and rallying cry for a more positive housing policy; one that places the equal dignity and moral worth of the person at the centre of all policy questions.
Howe, J, Berg, LA & Farbenblum, B 2018, 'Unfair Dismissal Law and Temporary Migrant Labour in Australia', Federal Law Review, vol. 46, no. 1, pp. 19-48.
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Increasing attention is being given to the exploitation of temporary migrant workers in Australia, in particular in relation to wage underpayments. But very little focus has been given to the ability of temporary migrant workers to access legal remedies under Australian employment law. This article examines whether temporary migrant workers are able to make and pursue a claim for unfair dismissal within the federal jurisdiction. As unfair dismissal law seeks to protect job security and provides an essential check on managerial prerogative, it is important that temporary migrant workers are able to access this legal avenue to protect them from arbitrary dismissal. We argue there are serious deficiencies in the application, coverage and content of federal unfair dismissal law in relation to temporary migrant workers in Australia.
Jordan, C & Kirkby, D 2018, 'Women Modernists Gendering Leadership in Australian Art in the 1930s and 1940s', Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 259-281.
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Kirkby, D 2018, 'EDITORIAL', Labour History, no. 115.
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Kirkby, D 2018, 'EDITORIAL', Labour History, no. 114, pp. V-VI.
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Leary, D 2018, 'Marine Genetic Resources in Areas beyond National Jurisdiction: Do We Need to Regulate Them in a New Agreement?', Maritime Safety and Security Law Journal, no. 5, pp. 22-47.
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This paper seeks to question the prevailing orthodoxy on the need for the ‘package deal’ on the proposed international legally-binding instrument under UNCLOS on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction to address marine genetic resources, including questions relating to access and benefit sharing. Through an examination of key documents and reports prepared over the past two decades, the first part of this paper will show that there has been little hard commercial evidence brought forward during debates at the United Nations to justify the inclusion of the marine genetic resources issue within the ‘package deal’. In light of that analysis, the second part of the paper will then go on to offer some initial thoughts on the various options for regulating access and benefit sharing in relation to marine genetic resources in areas beyond national jurisdiction that have been floated during the initial phase of negotiations. In particular, the second part of this paper examines the possible elements of a draft text of an international legally binding instrument set out in the chairs non-paper considered at the 3rd session of the Preparatory Committee established by General Assembly Resolution 69/292. The paper does not seek to trace the extent to which aspects of the chairs non-paper ultimately were contained in the Prep Comm’s final report to the United Nations General Assembly in late 2017. These negotiations are still ongoing and nothing definitive can be read into what was present or absent from that report. Instead, this analysis highlights which proposed elements of the international legally binding instrument would be the preferable outcome from these negotiations in light of the lack of evidence of commercial interest in marine genetic resources in areas beyond national jurisdiction.
Lee, E, Sheldon, S & Macvarish, J 2018, 'The 1967 Abortion Act fifty years on: Abortion, medical authority and the law revisited', Social Science & Medicine, vol. 212, pp. 26-32.
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Lenta, P 2018, 'The ‘reasonable corporal punishment’defence struck down: YG v S', South African Law Journal, vol. 135, pp. 205-219.
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INTRODUCTION In YG v S 2018 (1) SACR 64 (GJ) the Gauteng Local Division, Johannesburg, declared the common-law defence of ‘reasonable corporal punishment’ (‘the defence’), previously available to parents charged with assault of their children, unconstitutional. By doing so, South Africa becomes the fifty-fourth state legally to prohibit corporal punishment of children administered by parents in addition to that inflicted by teachers. In this note I draw attention to a justificatory shortfall in the judgment. I argue that while the court was right to declare the defence incompatible with the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (‘the Constitution’), and although it provides good reasons for doing so, it fails to furnish sufficiently compellingarguments to show that the reasons it supplies are good reasons.
McDonald-Norman, D 2018, 'Young’s “Fact finding made easy” in Refugee Law: A Former Practitioner’s Perspective', Australian Law Journal and Reports, vol. 92, no. 5, pp. 349-359.
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This article considers the application of PW Young, “Fact finding made easy” (2006) 80 ALJ 454 to the unique challenges faced by decision-makers and advocates in refugee status determination (RSD) in Australia, drawing upon the author’s experiences in refugee law and advocacy. Unlike most otherforms of proceedings, RSD offers little scope for corroboration of individual claims for asylum, requiring greater consideration of the inherent plausibility of claims and the manner in which such claims are presented than of whether external sources can verify particular claimed incidents. The utility of Young’s observations in this context is assessed and the need for caution in applying principles of fact-finding drawn from other jurisdictions to the particular context of RSD is emphasised.
McGee, A, Jansen, M & Sheldon, S 2018, 'Abortion law reform: Why ethical intractability and maternal morbidity are grounds for decriminalisation', Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, vol. 58, no. 5, pp. 594-597.
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In this paper, we present two grounds for arguing that abortion should be decriminalised. First, we consider the implications of the fact that the long‐standing ethical debate concerning the morality of abortion has to date proven intractable. We maintain that because the philosophical literature has failed to demonstrate conclusively that views either for or against abortion's moral acceptability are false, the matter remains at a stalemate in terms of rational debate, contributing to the ongoing absence of political and popular consensus about the issue in our society. In these circumstances, we argue, the law should adopt a minimalist position by not imposing criminal sanctions for abortion. Second, we present evidence, often neglected in the moral debates about abortion, that the risks of carrying a fetus to term and of delivery are substantial for a woman. Most laws recognise that, should her life be endangered by her pregnancy, a woman's right to life shall prevail. However, the impacts of carrying a fetus to term and delivery on a woman are not restricted to the risks to her life, but extend to significant permanent changes to her body, and include risks of injury that are not negligible. We argue that a woman should not be compelled to take these risks by laws prohibiting abortion, when no conclusive argument exists against the morality of abortion. We also address, albeit briefly, the issue of late‐term abortion.
Methven, E 2018, 'A Little Respect: Swearing, Police and Criminal Justice Discourse', International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 58-74.
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This article interrogates a commonly articulated idea in relation to the criminalisation of offensive language: namely, that swearing at police challenges their authority and thereby deserves criminal punishment. Drawing on critical discourse analysis, the article examines representations of swearing at police officers in offensive language cases and parliamentary debates, including constructions of power, authority and order. It contributes to—but also denaturalises—conceptions about police power and authority in the context of public order policing. The article argues that criminal justice discourse plays a significant and often under-acknowledged role in naturalising the punishment of swearing at, or in the presence of, police officers.
Methven, EP & Billington, L 2018, 'A Practitioner’s Guide to Criminal Code Infringement Notices', Brief, vol. 45, no. 8.
Millbank, J 2018, 'The Role of Professional Facilitators in Cross Border Assisted Reproduction', Reproductive Biomedicine & Society Online, vol. 6, pp. 60-71.
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© 2018 The Author The operations of those who facilitate travel across international borders for access to assisted reproduction are little understood. Within the broader field of research into medical travel facilitators, most empirical studies have addressed websites and promotional materials, with few qualitative investigations of individuals who are service providers. The research presented here centres on interviews with 23 professionals facilitating cross-border assisted reproduction. This study sought to understand how facilitators and service providers operate within a professional framework, examining their understanding of the ethical limits on their roles within a largely unregulated and rapidly evolving international ‘marketplace’. Broadly, participants trusted in the market to ‘find its own level’, such that unscrupulous players would not succeed because others would not refer to, or work with, them. In instances where a clear risk to the health of reproductive contributors or to the well-being of future children was perceived, participants understood their own ethical duty to be limited to service denial or withdrawal of participation. Among the eight facilitators who were not legal or medical professionals, there was a striking commonality, in that all had personal experience of assisted reproduction, both as patients and as reproductive contributors. Within this group, and particularly among the six women who directly ‘matchmade’ arrangements between intended parents, egg donors and surrogates, was a strong sense of ‘embodied’ expertise and claims to ethical practice based upon that expertise.
Millbank, J 2018, 'What is the Responsibility of Australian Medical Professionals Whose Patients Travel Abroad for Assisted Reproduction?', Medical Law Review, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 365-389.
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Abstract Australian medical professionals whose patients undertake assisted reproductive treatment abroad face a conflict: to try to provide optimal and on-going care for their patient at the same time as ensuring compliance with Australian legal, ethical, and professional rules which proscribe as unsafe or unethical key aspects of such treatment. A major suggestion from literature on medical travel is that risks to the patient can be mitigated through the involvement of the local professional. However, the force of legal regulation and ethical guidance in Australia strenuously directs clinicians away from involvement in overseas reproductive treatment. This article reports on 37 interviews with Australians travelling abroad for surrogacy, egg donation, and embryo donation, reflecting on patients’ experiences with Australian medical professionals both before and after they travelled. Patient reports demonstrate a fragmented and bewildering medical landscape in Australia, in which the ability to access domestic care and expertise varied markedly depending upon the kind of treatment patients were seeking abroad, and the mode of practice of the Australian doctor. Doctors practicing within licensed IVF clinics were notably more constrained than those outside such a setting. Patients seeking egg donation were offered information and received a wide range of diagnostic and preparatory treatments, while those seeking surrogacy were shunned, chided and offered limited (and sometimes covert) assistance. While recent changes to national ethical guidance improve clarity on information giving, the ethical and legal propriety of Australian medical professionals providing diagnostic or preparatory treatment for cross border reproduction remains uncertain.
Millbank, J & Vogl, A 2018, 'Adjudicating Fear of Witchcraft Claims in Refugee Law', Journal of Law and Society, vol. 45, no. 3, pp. 370-397.
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In refugee applications involving witchcraft‐related violence (WRV), those accused of witchcraft are largely women, and those fearing witchcraft are more often men. This is one of two interrelated articles reporting on cases where claimants feared harm from witchcraft or occult practices. It argues that WRV is a manifestation of gender‐related harm, one which exposes major failings in the application of refugee jurisprudence. Systemic inattention to the meaning and application of the Convention ground of religion, combined with gender insensitivity in analysis, meant that claims were frequently reconfigured by decision makers as personal grudges. The fear of witchcraft cases pose an acute ontological challenge to refugee status determination, as the claimed harm falls outside what is understood to be objective, verifiable, or Convention‐related. Male applicants struggled to make their claims comprehensible as a result of the feminized and ‘irrational’ characterization of witchcraft fears and beliefs.
Nagy, M, Chiarella, M, Bennett, B, Walton, M & Carney, T 2018, 'Health care complaint journeys for system comparison', International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, vol. 31, no. 8, pp. 878-887.
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PurposeThe “patient journey” technique is one that has been used by health care providers to investigate the strengths and weaknesses of their service delivery. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the experience of adapting this approach for use in an atypical context – the comparison of two systems for managing health care complaints and notifications. It highlights a number of relevant considerations and provides suggestions for similar studies.Design/methodology/approachThe design and methods of the study are described, with commentary on the success of key aspects and challenges encountered. To enable comparison between the two systems, this study had a “paired” design, in which examples were selected from each system so that they matched on basic, prescribed, criteria. Data about each matter’s journey were then collected from administrative records.FindingsWhile, overall, the technique provided rich data on the processes of the systems under investigation, the type of data collected (related to administrative/communicative events) and the study’s comparative purpose required consideration and management of a number of issues. These included the implications of using administrative records and the impact of differences between the systems on the paired design.Originality/valueThis paper describes an attempt to apply the “journey” approach in a context that is uncommon in two ways: first, in its focus on regulatory processes (complaint/notification handling), rather than care provision to an individual patient; and second, in its objective of comparing two different s...
Nelson, JK, Hynes, M, Sharpe, S, Paradies, Y & Dunn, K 2018, 'Witnessing Anti-White ‘Racism’: White Victimhood and ‘Reverse Racism’ in Australia', Journal of Intercultural Studies, vol. 39, no. 3, pp. 339-358.
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© 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. In a national survey of witnessing racism, ten per cent of respondents reported an event where they perceived a white Australian had been the target of racism. We discuss the social and political context in which claims of anti-white ‘racism’ have come to the fore. The paper introduces three analytical entry points from which to approach the problem of anti-white ‘racism’: an individual analysis, an analysis of power and its effects, and a historical and structural analysis. These entry points cascade into each other, revealing both divergence in how these reported experiences might be understood and the tensions between different ways of approaching the analytical problem of claims of anti-white ‘racism’. We explore the characteristics of those who report witnessing anti-white ‘racism’ and examine the contexts within which anti-white ‘racism’ is perceived to have occurred. The racialised incidents reported are analysed in their specificities; we attend to the individuals involved and their social positioning, the historical context and how the event relates to structures and histories of domination. The paper highlights the asymmetry of claims to race based victimhood, emphasising the differences between anti-white ‘racism’ and other experiences of racism.
Nicholls, R 2018, 'Book review', Telecommunications Policy, vol. 42, no. 2, pp. 184-185.
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Nicholls, R 2018, 'META-REGULATION IN PRACTICE: BEYOND NORMATIVE VIEWS OF MORALITY AND RATIONALITY', AUSTRALIAN BUSINESS LAW REVIEW, vol. 46, no. 3, pp. 213-214.
Rawling, M & Schofield-Georgeson, E 2018, 'Industrial legislation in Australia in 2017', Journal of Industrial Relations, vol. 60, no. 3, pp. 378-396.
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This article examines key industrial legislation passed by federal Parliament in 2017. The main development in federal industrial legislation for this year, which passed with bipartisan support, saw a weakened Coalition Government (forced from its traditional industrial relations (IR) stance) act to improve protections for vulnerable workers. This initiative introduced extended liability provisions regulating franchisors and holding companies. However, these provisions are a narrow response to an economy-wide problem because they do not establish measures to better regulate supply chains, labour hire and gig economy arrangements for the protection of vulnerable workers. Back in more familiar territory, the Coalition Government managed to implement part of its agenda to further regulate unions by establishing legislation that criminalises bargaining payments by employers to unions. A constitutional crisis over the citizenship status of federal Parliamentarians prevented the Coalition Government from passing legislation designed to curtail trade union activities. The article also considers significant State legislative developments including the introduction of mandatory labour hire licensing laws in South Australia and Queensland, industrial manslaughter laws in Queensland and regulation of ridesharing arrangements in Victoria. The article concludes by contrasting federal criminal penalties against union activity with civil penalties for businesses that exploit vulnerable workers, before suggesting future directions in industrial legislation.
Riley, J & Sarina, T 2018, 'Recrafting the enterprise for the Gig Economy', New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, vol. 43, no. 2, pp. 27-35.
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Much of the voluminous literature emerging on the gig economy and the impact of “platform”-based work on labour standards focusses on the vulnerability of workers to particular forms of exploitation: low rates of pay, precarious engagement, and unsafe working conditions. Proposed solutions often focus on classification problems: should these workers be classified as “employees” to become entitled to various labour rights? Classifying the worker as an “employee” necessarily assumes the existence of an “employer”. This paper explores the potential for a (possibly) more radical solution to worker exploitation, by investigating an alternative form of business organisation for these kinds of enterprises. The cooperative (well known in Europe, and in agriculture in Australasia) may provide an appropriate enterprise model in the so-called “sharing” economy.
Robinson, C 2018, 'A new era in insolvency practitioner discipline', Insolvency Law Bulletin, vol. 19, no. 6&7, pp. 123-125.
Rock, E & Weeks, G 2018, 'Monetary awards for public law wrongs: Australia’s resistant legal landscape', University of New South Wales Law Journal, vol. 41, no. 4, pp. 1159-1186.
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The idea of introducing a monetary remedy for harm arising out of the misdirected exercise of public power has waxed and waned in popularity in Australia over the years. Though few would dispute the intuitive appeal of the sentiment that wrongs should not go unremedied, the question of how harm arising from maladministration could, or should, be repaired remains unresolved. This article canvasses a number of the potential justifications for the creation of such a remedy, before noting the various avenues the Australian courts have considered, and closed down, which might otherwise have led in that direction. These rejected opportunities have included the expansion of existing tort actions, the creation of new causes of action in tort, and the interpretation of statutory remedial powers. Whatever the merit of a remedy on this front, it is clear that it will need to be a matter of legislative, rather than judicial, intervention.
Rogers, D, Nelson, J & Wong, A 2018, 'Geographies of hyper‐commodified housing: foreign capital, market activity, and housing stress', Geographical Research, vol. 56, no. 4, pp. 434-446.
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AbstractThe latest manifestation of Asian‐led foreign real estate investment in some global cities is contributing to housing becoming a liquid, global asset. Drawing on empirical data about Sydneysiders’ reported levels of real estate market activity, housing stress, and views about foreign real estate investment, we found that those who are financially invested in Sydney's local real estate market are generally more supportive of the presence of foreign investors and investment than are those not invested in that market. We also found that there were no significant comparative differences in beliefs about foreign investment between those who are in housing stress and those who are not. On the strength of those findings, we ask whether a degree of commonality is developing around a set of ideological reference points related to the commodification of housing. As housing in global cities is increasingly commodified and financialized, these ideological reference points could be boosting its commodification across boundaries of cultural difference and political jurisdiction. We conclude by suggesting the need for a new line of inquiry through which scholars could investigate the politics of globalised hyper‐commodified housing in order to expose the ideological reference points that serve to bolster the commodification of housing.
Schofield-Georgeson, E 2018, 'Regulating executive salaries and reducing pay disparities: Is pay disclosure the answer?', Journal of Australian Political Economy, vol. 2018, no. 81, pp. 95-120.
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In 2017 it was reported that Ahmed Fahour, CEO of Australia Post – a
publicly owned company – earned AUD$10.8 million in a single year. In
2015, he was paid 119 times the annual salary of the average Australia
Post employee ($47,000 per annum). Fahour presided over the
organisation's greatest decline in company turnover, accompanied by
large-scale retrenchments of low-paid workers (Evershed, 2017). Yet as
extravagant as Fahour’s pay appears, it is far from the largest executive
remuneration packages paid to CEOs in Australia. In recent years, some
have surpassed $30 million per annum. In the United States (US), CEO
pay can be 300 times that of the average wage within the company
(Mishel and Davis, 2015). Even after a slight ‘correction’ in CEO pay,
which dipped in Australia during the Global Financial Crisis from an
average of $5.5 million per annum to $4.7 million, David Richardson of
The Australia Institute has recently found that CEO pay is on the rise
again, averaging $5.2 million last financial year (Patty, 2018;
Richardson, 2018).
Schofield-Georgeson, E 2018, 'Undoing a model system: A new federal Custody Notification Service', Alternative Law Journal, vol. 43, no. 2, pp. 108-112.
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The Custody Notification Service is a legislative scheme to prevent Aboriginal deaths in custody. This article discusses proposed changes to the federal Custody Notification Service, that were before the federal Parliament in late 2017. It argues that the changes are inadequate, when compared with Custody Notification Service models in other Australian jurisdictions, primarily because the laws deprive Aboriginal people of important fair trial and custody rights. This article concludes by listing a range of legislative solutions proposed by Aboriginal organisations and legal representatives.
Sheldon, S 2018, 'Empowerment and Privacy? Home Use of Abortion Pills in the Republic of Ireland', Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, vol. 43, no. 4, pp. 823-849.
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Shepherd, SM & Anthony, T 2018, 'Popping the cultural bubble of violence risk assessment tools', The Journal of Forensic Psychiatry & Psychology, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 211-220.
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© 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Violence risk instruments are administered in medico-legal contexts to estimate an individual’s likelihood of future violence. However, their ostensible limitations; in particular their mono-cultural and risk-centric composition, has drawn academic attention. These concerns may facilitate erroneous risk evaluations for certain non-white populations. Yet it remains unaddressed how cultural differences will be appraised in a risk assessment framework and which specific cultural factors should be considered. Provisions under the Canadian Criminal Code allow for Gladue Reports, to be sought by judicial officers prior to sentencing Indigenous people. Gladue Reports provide insights into an Indigenous person’s unique circumstances that may have led to their offending as well as community-based options for rehabilitation. We proffer that there may be value in augmenting the risk evaluation with culturally relevant Gladue style considerations identified by relevant Indigenous people to provide a more holistic account of an Indigenous individual’s circumstances.
Sibbritt, D, Kaye, M, Millbank, J, Stuhmcke, A, Wardle, J & Karpin, I 2018, 'How are complementary health professions regulated in Australia? An examination of complementary health professions in the national registration and accreditation scheme', Complementary Therapies in Medicine, vol. 37, pp. 6-12.
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© 2018 Elsevier Ltd Objectives: This study aims to provide an empirical examination of how complementary medicine practice in Australia is actually regulated under the current national registration model. Methods: Data was obtained from Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) Annual Reports for the years 2011/12–2014/15 and supplemented by the Chinese Medical Registration Board of Victoria (CMRBV) Annual Reports in 2011/12 for Chinese Medicine complaints. The data analysed includes complaint statistics, stage of closure of complaints and the outcome of complaints concerning Chinese medicine, chiropractic and osteopathy under the National Law. Results: During 2014–2015 the number of complaints per 100 registrants for was highest for the medical board (4.4), while much lower for the chiropractic (1.5), osteopath (0.7) and Chinese medicine (0.5) boards. For conventional boards, 58% of complaints were closed at the assessment stage, while 57%, 29% and 16% of complaints to the osteopath, Chinese medicine and chiropractic boards respectively were closed at the assessment stage. The decision to suspend or cancel registration of health professionals was 17% from the Chinese medicine board, 14% from the Osteopathy Board, 1.5% from the chiropractor board and 0.6% from the medical board. Conclusion: It appears that complementary medicine practitioner regulation works at least as well as conventional regulation, and at most complementary medicine boards take a stricter interpretation of misconduct though more research would need to be undertaken to state this definitively. Our findings indicate that the public are using the statutory complaint mechanisms available to them with respect to the three CM groups.
Silink, A & Ryan, D 2018, 'VICARIOUS LIABILITY FOR INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS', The Cambridge Law Journal, vol. 77, no. 3, pp. 458-461.
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*C.L.J. 458 THE common law has long recognised that people who engage independent contractors will not ordinarily be liable for the wrongdoing of those contractors, outside a closely guarded class of exceptional relationships in which the principal bears a personal liability for their negligent conduct. Selection of a properly qualified and competent contractor will ordinarily suffice to discharge any primary duty of care to victims of the contractor's torts imposed on the principal. Vicarious liability traditionally required finding an employment relationship between the principal and the wrongdoer. However the scope of vicarious liability has recently been expanded. In a quartet of cases (Catholic Child Welfare Society v Various Claimants [2012] UKSC 56, [2003] 2 A.C. 1 (noted J. Bell [2013] C.L.J. 17)); Cox v Ministry of Justice [2016] UKSC 10, [2016] A.C. 660; Mohamud v WM Morrison Supermarkets plc [2016] UKSC 11, [2016] A.C. 677; Armes v Nottinghamshire County Council [2017] UKSC 60, [2018] A.C. 355 (noted S. Deakin [2018] C.L.J. 15)), the Supreme Court recognised that vicarious liability may also be imposed in respect of the acts of persons who are in a position "akin to employment".
The "akin to employment" test was first recognised in what may be described as atypical working relationships, such as those of religious personnel, and prison workers, who were neither employees nor independent contractors as traditionally understood. But the test has come to be applied as a general test for the imposition of vicarious liability outside relationships of employment, and uncertainty has emerged as to the reach of the test to traditionally understood independent contractors. The issue of the test's reach has emerged starkly from the decision of the Court of Appeal in Barclays Bank plc v Various Claimants [2018] EWCA Civ 1670, in which the bank was held vicariously liable for the wrongdoing of a doctor who, by any traditional test, was as independent a contracto...
Silink, AJ 2018, 'Trustee exoneration from trust assets - Out on a limb? The tension between creditor expectations and the 'clear accounts' rule', Journal of Equity, vol. 12, pp. 58-58.
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This article examines the proper characterisation of the trustee’s right of indemnity with particular focus upon the exoneration limb, pursuant to which a trustee can discharge outstanding trust liabilities directly from trust assets. Its existence is uncontroversial. However, questions have been raised as to whether the exoneration limb should be subject to the so-called ‘clear accounts rule’ which limits a trustee from availing itself of the right to indemnity to the extent that the trustee has an outstanding obligation to restore the trust fund. This limitation upon the availability of the indemnity to the trustee necessarily affects the ability of creditors to access trust assets to discharge trust debts. This is because the creditor’s right to be subrogated to the trustee’s indemnity gives it no higher right than the trustee has — if the indemnity has been lost to the trustee, it is lost to the creditor. This article considers the justification for the clear accounts rule with respect to its application to the exoneration limb of the indemnity.
Silink, AJ 2018, 'Vicarious liability of a bank for the acts of a contracted doctor', Journal of Professional Negligence, vol. 34, pp. 46-46.
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The long-standing dichotomy between employees and independent contractors in vicarious liability - never entirely without its difficulties in application, but nonetheless, a central tenet of vicarious liability for more than a century - has been eroded in the last five years. Confirmed in the mid-nineteenth century in Quarman v Burnett, 1 the delineation has endured despite regular criticism: an employer may be vicariously liable for acts of an employee, but not generally for the negligence or intentional wrongdoing of an independent contractor, aside from directly authorised acts.2The first steps in dismantling the requirement for an employment relationship were in recognising that working relationships that did not fit the traditional analysis of employment could nonetheless give rise to vicarious liability. In Cox v Ministry of Justice (Cox),3 Lord Reed noted that 'in recent years the courts have sought to explain more generally the basis on which vicarious liability can arise out of a relationship other than that of employer and employee'.4 Since 2012, a series of cases has recognised vicarious liability in particular working relationships that do not meet a traditional definition of employment, but which bear certain incidents (defined in Various Claimants v Catholic Child Welfare Society (CCWS) by Lord Phillips5) that could be regarded as 'akin to employment' as found in that case between a priest and church, or as between a prisoner performing work duties in a prison and the Ministry of Justice responsible for the prison service (Cox).Various Claimants v Barclays Bank Plc (Barclays Bank) marks a significant step directly into the once out-of-bounds territory of vicarious liability for acts of independent contractors.6 In this case, the incidents or criteria for the requisite relationship developed in CCWS and Cox were applied to a situation that would otherwise have been traditionally viewed as one of an independent contractor and the court a...
Taylor, MP, Forbes, MK, Opeskin, B, Parr, N & Lanphear, BP 2018, 'Further analysis of the relationship between atmospheric lead emissions and aggressive crime: an ecological study', Environmental Health, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 1-3.
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After completing our study of lead and aggressive crime [10], it came to our attention that we might have erroneously combined lead in air data from two neighbouring air quality monitoring stations for the Boolaroo, New South Wales (NSW) suburb. We re-examined the data we initially compiled in 2011/2012, and it does appear that data from two neighbouring sites with overlapping names have been combined, as described below. Importantly, this error does not affect the results or conclusions of our original study.
Then, S-N, Carney, T, Bigby, C & Douglas, J 2018, 'Supporting decision-making of adults with cognitive disabilities: The role of Law Reform Agencies – Recommendations, rationales and influence', International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, vol. 61, pp. 64-75.
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Article 12 of the UNCRPD on equal recognition before the law, places an obligation on member states to 'provide access by persons with disabilities to the support they may require in exercising their legal capacity'. This has resulted in an increased focus on the concept and practice of supported decision-making, as opposed to substitute decision-making, for those with cognitive disabilities. To date, translation of this concept into law has been limited. However, Law Reform Agencies, tasked with reviewing legal decision-making schemes are increasingly recommending incorporation of legally recognised supported decision-making measures. This paper identifies the contribution of Law Reform Agencies' reports and recommendations to the evolving body of knowledge in relation to supported decision-making. In particular, it analyses the rationales for recommendations favouring the introduction of forms of legally recognised supported decision-making and the types of legal models of supported decision-making being recommended by Law Reform Agencies.
Thomson, M 2018, 'Bioethics and vulnerability: recasting the objects of ethical concern', Emory Law Journal, vol. 67, no. 6, pp. 1207-1233.
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Mainstream bioethics has long been challenged for its focus on the technological developments of biomedicine and principles of individual ethics. It is argued that the focus on these particular objects, and the delisting of the social context within which the ethical is constructed and experienced, limits the extent to which bioethics provides a contesting counter-weight to modern biomedicine. In response, this Article promotes Martha Fineman’s vulnerability theory as a new framework for bioethical deliberation. Fineman’s foundational concern with the embodied and embedded experience of being human puts the social at the heart of analytical enquiry. Further, a focus on the institutional structures within which we are all embedded provides a framework for assessing state responsiveness to its embedded citizens. Recognizing that mainstream bioethics has historically resisted the incorporation of other frameworks, this Article argues that the current turn to the social in the life sciences provides an important new context within which we might successfully reimagine bioethics and its objects of ethical concern.
Twemlow, J 2018, 'Made by Them, Followed by Us: Challenging the Perception of Law through the Deconstruction of Jurisprudential Assumptions', Griffith Journal of Law and Human Dignity, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 107-107.
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The standard position within western thought is that the bulk of domestic law derives from, and is legitimised by, the local populous. Through the institution of democratic representation, it is rationalised that the resulting law produced reflects the social consciousness of the population at the time. While there are a number of limitations to this argument, this paper focuses on the juxtaposition of this stance with the public perception that law is inaccessible, complicated, and prestigious. By looking at the ways in which jurisprudential assumptions contribute to this dissonance between law and the public and exploring what accessibility to the law means, this paper argues that law must acknowledge and incorporate different perceptions — that, at its core, access to law is about being able to engage in a conversation.
van Rijswijk, H 2018, 'Complicity as Legal Responsibility', Law & Literature, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 149-165.
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Complicity is emerging as a key cultural and critical term for understanding settler responsibility in postcolonial contexts – especially in thinking through the sense of responsibility arrived at through transitional justice processes. But what sense can we make of complicity within more pedestrian legal processes? Here, I examine an emergent narrative of complicity in “everyday law” through the framework of evaluating harms provided by the Royal Commission into Institutional Reponses to Child Sexual Abuse (“the Commission”). I analyze one case study in particular – the 19th public hearing of the Commission was held between October 22 and 31, 2014, and on November 14, 2014 (“the Bethcar Case Study”) – to provide a reading of complicity in the context of everyday legal proceedings that took place within the wider context of Australia's postcolonial reckoning of harms suffered by the Stolen Generations. This article focuses on the role and conduct of lawyers, and of law, in the civil proceedings relating to institutional responsibility for abuse, a process at a seeming distance from the scene of original trauma. I argue that the Commission makes available a narrative of the lawyers’ role in the ongoing violence against survivors – one story and case study that, as it concerns abuse in the context of the removal of Aboriginal children, is part of wider structural violence against Aboriginal people. The Commission provides a rich source for analyzing these legal processes and provides an archive of lawyers’ responsibility that is not normally made available through law. It examines the complicity of the legal profession in harms produced by the legal system itself.
van Rijswijk, H & Crofts, P 2018, 'Introduction: Implicated Legal Subjects', Law & Literature, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 1-9.
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Vogl, A 2018, 'The Genres and Politics of Refugee Testimony', Law & Literature, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 81-104.
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© 2017 by The Cardozo School of Law of Yeshiva University. This article explores the genre and form of narratives that refugee applicants must present in order to move from refugee applicants to (refugee) citizens. It addresses these narratives as they feature in the adjudicative setting of the oral hearing within refugee status determination (RSD) processes. My argument is that the generic aspects of credible refugee testimony constitute and reflect the non-citizen subject whom refugee-receiving states are willing to accept. Through a close reading of testimonial forms and dialogue within the oral hearing, I show that the narratorial voice required of refugees is that of the realist novel’s omniscient narrator, who can confidently account for herself and others. Second, drawing on Joseph R Slaughter’s work on the relationship between the novel and human rights discourse, I argue that the narrative of a ‘genuine’ refugee is marked by the literary conventions of the Bildungsroman. Just as in the reconciliatory genre of the Bildungsroman, refugees must present their evidence in the form of a linear narrative that moves towards self-possession and sovereignty, and that resolves in incorporation into the nation-state and citizenship.
Vrdoljak, AF 2018, 'Indigenous Peoples, World Heritage, and Human Rights', International Journal of Cultural Property, vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 245-281.
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Abstract:Indigenous peoples’ emphasis on protecting their cultural heritage (including land) through a human rights-based approach reveals the synergies and conflicts between the World Heritage Convention and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). This article focuses on how their insistence on the right to participate effectively in decision-making and centrality of free, prior, and informed consent as defined in the UNDRIP exposes the limitations of existing United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and World Heritage Convention processes effecting Indigenous peoples, cultures, and territories and how these shortcomings can be addressed. By tracking the evolution of the UNDRIP and the World Heritage Convention from their drafting and adoption to their implementation, it examines how the realization of Indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination concerning cultural heritage is challenging international law to become more internally consistent in its interpretation and application and international organizations to operate in accordance with their constitutive instruments.
Vrdoljak, AF 2018, 'Prosecutor v. Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi: Judgment and Sentence & Reparations Order (Int'l Crim. Ct.)', International Legal Materials, vol. 57, no. 1, pp. 17-79.
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On September 27, 2016, Trial Chamber VIII of the International Criminal Comt (ICC or Court) delivered its Judgment and Sentence in the case of The Prosecutor v. Ahmad Al Faqi Al Mahdi. On August 17, 2017, it rendered the Reparations Order in this case. 2 The Court for the first time found a defendant responsible for intentionally attacking protected cultural and religious sites, while relying on specialized treaties for the protection of cultural heritage. It is also the first time that an international criminal court, while drawing on international human rights law, has delivered an order for reparations pertaining to this international crime. The tension between the Court's Judgment and Sentence and its Reparations Order highlights that these two areas of international law, international cultural heritage law and international human rights law, remain unaligned.
Vrdoljak, AF 2018, 'Wywiad', Santander Art and Culture Law Review, vol. 2018, no. 1, pp. 15-20.
Wilding, D & King, I 2018, 'Reviewing the Layered Model', Intermedia, vol. 46, no. 1, pp. 13-17.
Xia, X & Ding, G 2018, '“Three Sections and Six Steps” Practical Teaching Method on the Cultivation of the Legal Practice Thinking—— Taking the Case of Hunan Happy Sunshine Co.,Ltd. Prosecuting Xunlei Co.,Ltd. for Improper Competition as an ExampleChinese Full Text', Theory and Practice of Contemporary Education, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 23-28.
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