Alternative Law Journal

Media Release

20 December 1999

While party poopers and pedants assert that the new millennium and the new century won’t commence until the clock ticks over to 1 January 2001, the Alternative Law Journal has decided that now is as good a time as any to focus on particular legal issues that will engender debate well into the foreseeable future.

The December issue of the journal contains a wide range of articles from international and Australian writers. Dave Morris, one of the defendants in the ‘McLibel’ case, presents a fascinating and entertaining insight into the longest-running, and perhaps most infamous, libel case in UK history.

Closer to home, Michael Head explains the true effect of the ‘safe haven’ visas for Kosovar and Timorese refugees. He posits that while the political publicity machine managed to convince the public that the decision to grant visas was a magnanimous and humanitarian gesture, in reality it represents an effort ‘to extinguish the legal and democratic rights of unwanted asylum seekers’.

Karen Fletcher’s assessment of the devastating impact on prisoners of maximum-security units in Queensland will be an eye-opener for many readers. She describes going into such units as entering ‘a parallel universe where accused prisoners are guilty until proven innocent, given no information on the charges against them and given no forum in which to make their case anyway’.

The Stickybeak column features an interview with Jennie George, who recently announced her retirement as President of the ACTU. Find out what Jennie’s plans are post-ACTU!

• Henry Reynolds shares his thoughts on the future of Australia’s reconciliation and land rights movements, in an international context;
• Clare McNamara looks at the push to label genetically-modified food;
• 100 years of feminist reform is assessed by Marilyn Lake; and
• George Williams provides a brief analysis of the outcomes of the Republic Referendum.