Digital Commons Network^™

"Ask For More Time": Big Data Chronopolitics In The Australian Welfare Bureaucracy, Andrew M. Whelan

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Since 2016, welfare recipients in Australia have been subject to the Online Compliance Intervention (OCI), implemented through the national income support agency, Centrelink. This is a big data initiative, matching reported income to tax records to recoup welfare overpayments. The OCI proved controversial, notably for a "reverse onus," requiring that claimants disprove debts, and for data-matching design leading frequently to incorrect debts. As algorithmic governance, the OCI directs attention to the chronopolitics of contemporary welfare bureaucracies. It outsources labor previously conducted by Centrelink to clients, compelling them to submit documentation lest debts be raised against them. It imposes an active …

Boycott Them! No, Boycott This! Do Choice Overload And Small-Agent Rationalization Inhibit The Signing Of Anti‐Consumption Petitions?, Ulku Yuksel, Nguyen T. Thai, Michael S. Lee

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

The Internet and social media have increased the number of organizations and individuals asking consumers to sign petitions against transgressing brands. This raises a question as to whether such increases in requests to sign a petition to support a boycott positively or negatively impact on consumer willingness to enact anti-consumption. Via experiments, this study investigates the effect that choice overload has on consumers signing a petition in support of a boycott call. The findings establish that individuals who need to make a choice from numerous boycott calls (i.e., large choice-sets) are less likely to sign a petition to support a …

Amnesty For Drug Traffickers? That's One Mexican Presidential Candidate's Pitch To Voters, Luis Gomez Romero

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Mexico's presidential front-runner wants to end violence in Mexico by pardoning drug traffickers and corrupt officials. Some 235,000 people have died in the country's 11-year cartel war.

#Fear&Loathing In Sydney: Law, Justice And The Experience Of Fear In A Hashtag World, Cassandra E. Sharp

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

It is now commonplace for political discourse, news reports, and popular fictions to draw on themes of political violence and threats to national and individual security as mechanisms for the perpetuation of fear. Stories (whether fictive or factual) of terrorism, crisis, surveillance, racial stereotyping, and the fallibility of law have become a very real part of the mediated experience of fear for the public, and they provoke a number of questions surrounding complex issues of protectionism, identity, trust, and the conflation of law and justice. It has been argued that such stories are constructed and utilized by key decision-makers as …

The Meaning Of ''Intoxication'' In Australian Criminal Cases: Origins And Operation, Julia Quilter, Luke J. Mcnamara

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Although alcohol and drug use features prominently in many areas of criminal offending, there has been limited investigation of how the effects of alcohol and other drugs are treated by criminal laws and the criminal justice system. This article examines the framing of judicial inquiries about ''intoxication'' in criminal cases in Australia. It illustrates the diverse types of evidence that may (or may not) be available to judges and juries when faced with the task of determining whether a person was relevantly ''intoxicated.'' It shows that in the absence of legislative guidance on how the task should be approached, courts …

Evidence-Based Campaigning, Brian Martin

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Background: When promoting public health measures, such as reducing smoking, there are many different approaches, for example providing information, imposing legal restrictions, taxing products, and changing cultures. By analogy with evidence-based medicine, different approaches to campaigning for health promotion can be compared by obtaining evidence of effectiveness. However, evaluating the effectiveness of campaigning approaches is far more difficult than evaluating drugs or medical procedures, because controls are seldom possible, endpoints are difficult to specify, multiple factors influence outcomes, and the targets of campaigns are people or organizations that may resist.

Methods: Ten ideal campaigning types are proposed: positive …

What's In A Hashtag? Vulnerability As A Transformative Disposition Within Social Media, Cassandra E. Sharp

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

This article focuses on the disposition of vulnerability as expressed within social media using hashtags. It argues that individuals use and facilitate emotion within social media narratives to frame and contextualise normative expectations of the legal system; and that these stories collectively create one narrative of transformative vulnerability. In particular, the author argues that in times of crisis, vulnerability is constituted and maintained through the prism of fear perpetuated in social media narratives. Yet, at the same time, these narratives also contain within them the blueprints for hope - through narratives of solidarity and unity - resistance to fear is …

Duterte And His Quixotic War On Drugs, Lowell B. Bautista

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has remained an enduring fodder of international news since he was sworn in as the country's 16th president in June 2016. Despite massive criticisms from within the Philippines and overseas, he seems intent on taking his country down an untrodden, dangerous, lawless and bloody path. The president's relentless campaign to eliminate drugs in the country has resulted in a rapidly rising number of deaths occurring on a daily basis. A little more than six months into the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte, records show that his anti-drug war campaign has resulted in over 7,000 deaths, or an …

Evidence Of Intoxication In Australian Criminal Courts: A Complex Variable With Multiple Effects, Luke J. Mcnamara, Julia Quilter, Kate Seear, Robin Room

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

This article reports on the second stage of a national study of how the effects of alcohol and other drugs are treated by criminal laws and the criminal justice system. Based on a mixed methods analysis of more than 300 appellate court decisions from all Australian jurisdictions handed down in the period 2010-2014, we identify the multiple points at which legal significance is attached to evidence that the accused, the victim or a witness was 'intoxicated' at the time of the alleged commission of a criminal offence. Focusing on the rules and principles endorsed by appellate courts in relation to …

Is The Us Really Ready To End Its Drug War?, Luis Gomez Romero

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

In recent years an international movement to reform global narcotics policies has been growing, with activists and presidents alike declaring that the United States' "war on drugs" has failed. Now it seems the US has finally gotten the message - from Latin America, at least, whose nations have long borne the brunt of international drug prohibition.

What Does Donald Trump Think About Drugs?, Luis Gomez Romero

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

In recent years, many countries - with the conspicuous exception of Indonesia and the Philippines - have been rethinking the international war on drugs. The world, it seems, has grown tired of mass incarceration, militarised law enforcement and endless interdiction of drug shipments that nonetheless keep arriving at borders.

Submission Re: City Of Melbourne's Proposed Activities (Public Amenity And Security) Local Law 2017, Luke J. Mcnamara, Julia Quilter, Tamara Walsh

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

No abstract provided.

Submission To Alrc, Incarceration Rates Of Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Peoples, Russell G. Hogg, Julia Quilter

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

The case for reform to address the massively disproportionate incarceration rates of ATSI peoples can and should be made on the basis that it can bring about a more effective, as well as a fairer, system of criminal justice, one that engages with the legacy of historical injustice rather than perpetuating it. A realisable aim is to make communities safer as well as reducing reliance upon costly and damaging criminal justice policies and practices. ATSI people have the greatest investment in this as the principal victims of crime within their communities. With thoughtful, evidence-based reforms, there need be no necessary …

Divergent Evolution In The Law Of Torts: Jurisdictional Isolation, Jurisprudential Divergence And Explanatory Theories, James Goudkamp, John Murphy

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Since the fi rst wave of law-and-economics scholarship in the United States in the early 1970s, scholars have spent a tremendous amount of time trying to come to grips with tort law from a theoretical perspective. Richard Posner was on the crest of that wave, and his voluminous writings 1 revolutionised how tort law is understood. He contended that tort law (as well as the law generally) is best explained on the ground that it maximises societal wealth. Posner, writing together with William Landes, asserted that ' the common law of torts ' should be accounted for ' as if …

Defences In Unjust Enrichment: Questions And Themes, Andrew Dyson, James Goudkamp, Fred Wilmot-Smith

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

This book is the second in a series of four that is concerned with defences to liability arising in private law. We felt, and still feel, that the topic has not received the attention that it deserves. 1 We are not alone in holding this view. 2 By contrast, defences have dominated the research agendas of many scholars of the criminal law.3 The asymmetry in attention to defences in these different fields is striking in part because of the apparent parallels between the two domains. For instance, the distinction in private law between causes of action and defences arguably mirrors …

Indefinite Detention Of People With Cognitive And Psychiatric Impairment In Australia Submission 59, Linda Roslyn Steele

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

No abstract provided.

Criminal Law And The Effects Of Alcohol And Other Drugs: A National Study Of The Significance Of "Intoxication" In Australian Legislation, Julia Quilter, Luke J. Mcnamara, Kate Seear, Robin Room

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Recent years have seen intense media scrutiny, concerted policy discussion and significant law reform on the relationship between the consumption of alcohol (and other drugs) and the commission of criminal offences. Much of the debate has been dominated by the view that, particularly for crimes of violence, the state of 'intoxication' produced by the consumption of alcohol and other drugs ('AOD') should be regarded as an aggravating factor that adds to the seriousness of the harm done and warrants additional punishment. Some recent legislative reform measures have unambiguously embraced this position. As important as it is, treating intoxication as an …

Sydney's Lockout Laws: Cutting Crime Or Civil Liberties?, Julia Quilter

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

The catalyst for the Institute of Criminology's Forum on 'Sydney's Lockout Laws: Cutting Crime or Civil Liberties?' was a rising tide of concern that measures introduced by the New South Wales ('NSW') Government in 2014, primarily designed to reduce alcohol-related violence, may have misjudged the balance required to simultaneously deliver on two community expectations: that residents and visitors in places likes Kings Cross and the Sydney CBD should have access to a dynamic entertainment scene supported by a healthy night-time economy and that those same residents and visitors should be, and feel, safe from violence.

The Definition And Significance Of 'Intoxication' In Australian Criminal Law: A Casestudy Of Queensland's 'Safe Night Out' Legislation, Julia Quilter, Luke J. Mcnamara, Kate Seear, Robin Room

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Australian criminal law is being actively reconfigured in an effort to produce a more effective response to the problem of alcohol-related violence. This article uses the Safe Night Out Legislation Amendment Act 2014 (Qld) as a case study for two purposes: i) to introduce a set of conceptual tools and typologies that can be used to investigate the relationship between 'intoxication' and criminal law; and ii) to raise a number of concerns about how the effects of alcohol and other drugs are implicated in laws governing police powers, criminal responsibility and punishment. We draw attention to the different and sometimes …

Submission To The Senate Community Affairs References Committee Inquiry Into Violence, Abuse And Neglect Against People With Disability In Institutional And Residential Settings, Including The Gender And Age Related Dimensions, And The Particular Situation Of Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander People With Disability, And Culturally And Linguistically Diverse People With Disability (26 June), Linda Roslyn Steele

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

This submission is made to the Senate Community Affairs References Committee’s (‘Senate Committee’) inquiry into violence, abuse and neglect against people with disability in institutional and residential settings, including the gender and age related dimensions, and the particular situation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with disability, and culturally and linguistically diverse people with disability (‘the Senate Inquiry’).

Questioning Law’S Capacity, Fleur Beaupert, Linda Roslyn Steele

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

The past ten years have witnessed an increased public awareness of the marginalisation and discrimination experienced by people with disability in the Australian legal system, and an associated proliferation of law reform reports on disability law.

Populism And Criminal Justice Policy: An Australian Case Study Of Non-Punitive Responses To Alcohol-Related Violence, Julia Quilter

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Populism is widely regarded in the literature as a negative and inherently punitive influence on criminal justice policy. This article challenges this view and highlights the ways in which populism can produce forms of citizen engagement in the criminal justice context that are new and progressive. These possibilities are illustrated through a close analysis of the responses to a single instance of ‘random’ fatal violence: the killing of Thomas Kelly in King’s Cross, Sydney, in 2012. This case study shows how a populist campaign powerfully realigned political allegiances to call for, and achieve, real and enduring action from the New …

Alcohol And Drug Fuelled Violence - Mandatory Aggravating Factor In Sentencing, Julia Quilter, Luke J. Mcnamara, Kate Seear, Robin Room

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

1: We refer to the Attorney General's request for the Sentencing Council to consider a proposal from the Thomas Kelly Foundation to make amendments to the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 ('the Act') aimed at deterring alcohol and drug fuelled violence.

Public Intoxication In Nsw: The Contours Of Criminalisation, Luke J. Mcnamara, Julia Quilter

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

This article traces the history of the regulation of public intoxication in New South Wales (NSW) from the early 1800s to the present. We argue that although the formal legal status of public drunkenness and drinking has changed over time, and although different approaches have been prominent at different points in the history of NSW, public intoxication has been consistently and continuously criminalised for almost two centuries, despite official ‘decriminalisation’ in 1979. Shifts in regulatory modalities — including offence definitions, police powers, the involvement of local councils and enforcement practices — have been associated with significant changes in how the …

Children With Gender Dysphoria And The Jurisdiction Of The Family Court, Felicity Bell

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Gender dysphoria is described as ‘[m]ental distress caused by unhappiness with one’s own sex and the desire to be identified as the opposite sex’. Gender dysphoria is distinguished from being intersex, the subject of a recent Australian Senate Committee report, which is referable to physical characteristics. It is also distinguished from gender non-conformism, gender diversity or transsexualism as, in addition to identifying and living as one’s non-natal gender, it involves ‘clinically significant distress’. Unfortunately, children with gender dysphoria (and indeed many gender diverse young people) are almost by definition at a high risk of depression and anxiety, as well as …

Quick Fixes Aren't The Answer, Alcohol And Violence Have A Complex Relationship, Kate Seear, Julia Quilter, Luke J. Mcnamara, Robin Room

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

The NSW Sentencing Council is considering proposals to change the laws designed to address alcohol-related violence, including whether people who commit crimes while intoxicated should always be treated as more culpable when being sentenced. Like many attention-grabbing quick fixes to society’s ills, this is a really bad idea. If adopted, the reform could lead to even tougher sentences for crimes committed by people affected by alcohol. Although it’s tempting to think of such crimes as new problems requiring novel solutions, debates about the relationship between alcohol and violence, including how it should be dealt with by criminal laws, are anything …

Work With Men To End Violence Against Women: A Critical Stocktake, Michael Flood

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

This paper provides a critical assessment of efforts to involve men in the prevention of men's violence against women. Although there is a substantial evidence base attesting to the effectiveness of at least some strategies and interventions, this field is also limited in important ways. Violence prevention efforts often have focused on changing men's attitudes, rather than also seeking to transform structural and institutional inequalities. While feminist and queer scholarship has explored diversities and pluralities in the organisation of sexuality, much violence prevention work often assumes a homogenously heterosexual male constituency. Too often this work is conceptually simplistic with regard …

Institutional Influences On The Parameters Of Criminalisation: Parliamentary Scrutiny Of Criminal Law Bills In New South Wales, Luke J. Mcnamara, Julia Quilter

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Within criminalisation scholarship, there has been little engagement with the work of ‘real-world’ mechanisms for promoting principled law-making, like the activities of parliamentary scrutiny committees. This article reports on an examination of the New South Wales (‘NSW’) Legislation Review Committee’s findings and recommendations in relation to all criminal law bills during the period 2010–12 and assesses the impact of the Committee’s recommendations on the passage of bills through the NSW Parliament. It considers whether the potential for scrutiny committees to play an effective role in delineating the legitimate boundaries of criminalisation is realised in practice.

From Work With Men And Boys To Changes Of Social Norms And Reduction Of Inequities In Gender Relations: A Conceptual Shift In Prevention Of Violence Against Women And Girls, Rachel K. Jewkes, Michael G. Flood, James Lang

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Violence perpetrated by and against men and boys is a major public health problem. Although individual men's use of violence differs, engagement of all men and boys in action to prevent violence against women and girls is essential. We discuss why this engagement approach is theoretically important and how prevention interventions have developed from treating men simply as perpetrators of violence against women and girls or as allies of women in its prevention, to approaches that seek to transform the relations, social norms, and systems that sustain gender inequality and violence. We review evidence of intervention effectiveness in the reduction …

Rape Trials, Medical Texts And The Threat Of Female Speech, Julia Quilter

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Despite more than three decades of law reform, debate and scholarship designed to improve the legal response to rape, reporting rates remain low, attrition rates high, conviction rates low and conviction appeals in sexual assault matters have one of the highest rates of success (Kelly, Lovett & Regan 2005; Fitzgerald 2006; Daly and Bourhous 2010; Brown et al 2015). Furthermore, dissatisfaction with the criminal justice system remains a key issue for victims of sexual assault (Clark 2010; Daly 2011). This dilemma led Penny Pether to state: But all the speech and the writing, the scholarship and the legislation and the …