Making
Australia a green and pleasant land
by John Corkill
If John Corkill were Attorney General he would overhaul national environmental laws so they were consistent with the real concerns about the environment held by many mainstream Australians.
Attorney General,
Chief Law Officer of the Crown: But where is the law?
by Rebecca La Forgia
The government has recently introduced bold strategies to circumvent the rule of law. These include the Pacific Solution where asylum seekers are processed off shore to avoid judicial review by the High Court and excising areas such as Christmas Island from the migration zone thereby creating a legal vacuum for asylum seekers. This article explores this deliberate retreat from the rule of law and suggests that the Attorney-General's role, as chief law officer of the Crown, should be to advocate against this strategy and work to achieve ministerial aims within the rule of law.
Stop undermining
human rights
by Natasha Stott Despoja
Natasha Stott Despoja would adopt
an entirely different approach to the current Attorney General. Rather than
introducing legislation designed to undermine human rights in Australia, she
would initiate measures to strengthen their protection.
Restoring liberty,
fairness and good legal practice
by Eva Cox
Eva Cox puts forward a social change activist's program of remedial action for the Attorney General.
Legal
theory and law reform: Some mainstream and critical approaches
by Margaret Davies
Legal philosophy is sometimes regarded as an abstract intellectual activity which has little to do with the practicalities of law, including the practicalities of law reform. This article considers some of the contributions legal philosophers have made to law reform including some of the concerns which critical legal scholars have held about law as a central mechanism for achieving social change. The author's intention is to begin to make a case for legal theory which directly promotes an interest in the questions of legal change and law reform, without discarding its more "abstract" concerns. Law reform ought to be undertaken reflectively in the context of other, more fundamental, transitions, such as transitions in social and political discourses. Of equal interest to a legal theorist is the view that law reform ought also to be undertaken in the context of transitions in how law is understood conceptually. Law reform is in many contexts limited as an instrument of change. It must be coupled with an emphasis on social change and change in the way law is perceived, in order that fundamental shifts can occur.
Applying
therapeutic jurisprudence from the Bench: Challenges and opportunities
by Michael King
Therapeutic jurisprudence explores the law's healing potential. It is commonly associated with problem-solving courts such as drug courts and domestic violence courts. However, therapeutic jurisprudence is relevant to the work of all judicial officers for it asserts that legal processes can be designed to enhance the wellbeing of participants and thereby promote a more comprehensive resolution of legal problems and greater litigant satisfaction with the justice system..
Crusingforsex.com:
An empirical critique of the evidentiary practices of the Australian Refugee
Review Tribunal
by Catherine Dauvergne and Jenni Millbank
The evidentiary practices of tribunals,
rather than the courts, are vital to asylum outcomes as it is in tribunals that
the vast majority of cases are finally determined. In the course of a six-year
comparative study of over 300 refugee tribunal decisions made in Canada and
Australia, the authors found the evidentiary practices and procedures developed
by the Australian Refugee Review Tribunal operating at such a routinely low
standard that they contribute to decisions that are manifestly unfair and potentially
wrong in law. Evidence was often poor in quality and inappropriately utilised
by decision makers. Inappropriate uses of evidence included: a markedly gender-blind
approach to evidence, selective editing and use of available evidence, and an
indiscriminate approach to questions of weight and relevance of evidence.
Consumer
Affairs - The Cinderella of government policy making
by Simon Smith
The consumer protection achievements
of the 1970s have been undermined by shifts in market regulation and withdrawal
of state resources in the 1990s. This article calls for a radical return to
prioritised consumer protection at the national level, from consumer policy
through consumer credit and product safety to more accountable ADR schemes and
consumer protection agencies
Degraded
site, degraded law
by Jeremy Tager
This article examines an Administrative
Appeals Tribunal judgment relating to a coastal development approval at Nelly
Bay, Magnetic Island, North Queensland. In particular it examines the manner
in which the AAT relied on the previous degradation of the site as the foundation
both for findings of fact and determinations of law. The article examines the
implications of the judgment and the 'degraded site' argument for other coastal
developments.
Asylum
seekers: Australia and Europe - worlds apart
by Jane McAdam
Australia is the only western country
with a mandatory detention regime for unlawful asylum seekers. This article
contrasts Australia's policy of mandatory detention with procedures in Europe,
where detention is exceptional and employed for specific purposes and limited
periods of time. It examines the effect which a proposed Directive will have
on harmonising European laws on detention, further emphasising the divide between
Australian and European approaches.
Vanuatu: Determining
chiefly title: from courts to custom and back again
by Miranda Forsyth
This Brief analyses the recent judgment of the Vanuatu Supreme Court in Chief Waya Tenene and Saul Kalmarie v Kalmetabil Kalmet Nmak (Civil Case No. 203 of 2002, 25 June 2003). The case concerns a dispute over chiefly title, and the ruling demonstrates judicial innovation in attempting to synthesise the courts and traditional dispute resolution processes; as well as raising issues regarding the relationship of the courts, the common law and custom.
Torrens
Title: Karl Marx and Australian land titles
by Justice J.W. Shaw
This Brief reports on a little known
connection between Australia and 'Das Kapital'..
Voluntarism:
Ambition or service? Peter Costello on civil society
by Graeme Orr
This Brief ponders the vision of civil society articulated by the Deputy Prime Minister Peter Costello.
| Comments or suggestions on the pages to Liz.Boulton@law.monash.edu.au |  |