Alternative Law Journal

Media Release

17 March 1998

ALTERNATIVE LAW ISSUES

The orthodoxy of political and legal views on some current legal issues is challenged in the latest issue of the Alternative Law Journal.

According to this edition’s Editor, Peter Wilmshurst, two articles dispute the wisdom of the way we currently go about policing children and young people:

• Andrew Collins, a serving NSW police officer, reports on a real campaign in Newcastle dealing with a different and more cost effective way of handling graffiti artists instead of the more traditional "get tough" methods that pander to public perceptions and enable politicians to prance in the media about how serious they are about "crime".
• Brendan Delahunty makes a convincing case about the way NSW Police youth liaison officers should operate in their interaction with young people and how the Police Service can ensure its institutional and cultural practices change to ensure a more effective use of police resources.

Other articles examine criminal issues such as:

• Nathan Hodge’s discussion of the so called "homosexual advance defence"
• James Godfrey disputes the effectiveness of, and privacy issues associated with, methods of biometric identification of visitors to prisons
• Tobias Roberts considers the sub judice rule is passé given recent changes to the rules of evidence in Commonwealth and NSW law
• Matilda Bogner outlines developments in the obscure former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan relating to its new Criminal Code showing the locals have a few struggles ahead of them
• Brendan Cassidy's consideration of juries as community representatives
• Hilary Kincaid convincingly answers the question is censorship more of a threat than pornography?
• George Williams gives a detailed analysis of the recent Constitutional Convention.