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Articles 1 - 18 of 18
Full-Text Articles in Law
Broader Social Context As A Lens For Learning: Teaching Criminal Law, Alex Steel, Melanie Schwartz
Broader Social Context As A Lens For Learning: Teaching Criminal Law, Alex Steel, Melanie Schwartz
Alex Steel
This chapter considers how best to teach criminal law in broader social contexts and beyond a focus on positivist doctrinal accounts. It provides examples of how broader social science research could be included within a criminal law curriculum.
Imprisoning Rationalities, Eileen Baldry, David Brown, Mark Brown, Chris Cunneen, Melanie Schwartz, Alex Steel
Imprisoning Rationalities, Eileen Baldry, David Brown, Mark Brown, Chris Cunneen, Melanie Schwartz, Alex Steel
Alex Steel
Imprisonment is a growth industry in Australia. Over the past 30-40 years all state and territory jurisdictions have registered massive rises in both the absolute numbers of those imprisoned and the per capita use of imprisonment as a tool of punishment and control. Yet over this period there has been surprisingly little criminological attention to the national picture of imprisonment in Australia and to understanding jurisdictional variation, change and continuity in broader theoretical terms. This article reports initial findings from the Australian Prisons Project, a multi-investigator Australian Research Council funded project intended to trace penal developments in Australia since about …
Both Giving And Taking: Should Misuse Of Atms And Electronic Payment Systems Be Theft, Fraud Or Neither?, Alex Steel
Both Giving And Taking: Should Misuse Of Atms And Electronic Payment Systems Be Theft, Fraud Or Neither?, Alex Steel
Alex Steel
Although transactions via automatic teller machines and other computerised cash payment systems are now very widespread the criminal law relating to their misuse remains confused. Unauthorised withdrawals can be prosecuted as both theft and fraud. By contrast, similar behaviour involving interactions with human tellers is generally not criminal. The result is a deeply flawed and contradictory legal landscape. This article provides an analysis and critique of the case law and legislation that has led to this result and proposes an alternative statutory offence that better reflects the commercial and consumer realities of electronic transactions.
Commercial Fraud: Cases And Commentary (2011 Edition), Alex Steel
Commercial Fraud: Cases And Commentary (2011 Edition), Alex Steel
Alex Steel
This monograph - published online - is a detailed analysis of theft and fraud laws in NSW. It was developed for UNSW Law students because of a lack of any up to date commercially published text on theft and fraud. It contains extracts and commentary on all key offences and caselaw. It has been substantially revised to account the introduction of new fraud offences in NSW in 2010. The law was current as of 2011.
New Zealand's Approach To Dishonesty, Alex Steel
New Zealand's Approach To Dishonesty, Alex Steel
Alex Steel
This is an updated and abridged version of an earlier article "The Meanings of Dishonesty in Theft" Common Law World Review 38 (2009): 103-136( http://works.bepress.com/alex_steel/17) . It compares New Zealand, English, Canadian and Australian meanings of dishonesty in theft.
New Fraud And Identity-Related Crimes In New South Wales, Alex Steel
New Fraud And Identity-Related Crimes In New South Wales, Alex Steel
Alex Steel
The Crimes Amendment (Fraud, Identity and Forgery Offences) Act 2009 commenced on 22 February 2010. It represents a significant change to fraud offences in New South Wales. The Act codifies dishonesty in line with the Ghosh test, replaces over 30 fraud offences with one main offence based on deceptively obtaining financial advantage, rewords the forgery offences and introduces a suite of identity crime offences. The Act continues to move away from offences based on common law larceny and interference with property rights toward general offences based on a statutory defined concept of dishonesty. However, larceny and related offences have been …
The True Identity Of Australian Identity Theft Offences: A Measured Response Or An Unjustified Status Offence?, Alex Steel
Alex Steel
New offences to deal with internet based identity crime have been created worldwide in recent years and there has been concern at the breadth of such offences. This article provides a detailed analysis of Australian versions of these offences and compares them to other internet related offences, with a focus on Australian and Canadian approaches to the issues. After defining what is meant by identity theft and identity crime it provides an overview of some of the differences in the nature of digital crime that have led to calls for specific legislation, and some of the problems that face traditional …
What's To Know? The New Cartel Offence, Alex Steel
What's To Know? The New Cartel Offence, Alex Steel
Alex Steel
This article examines the mental elements of the new cartel offence in the Australian Trade Practices Act 1974. it compares the wording of the offence to the interpretation of mental elements under the Commonwealth Criminal Code in R v Tang, a High Court decision on the mental elements of sexual servitude (sex slavery) offence. It concludes that there is no practical difference between the mental elements of the cartel criminal offence and parallel civil penalty provisions and argues that additional mental elements are needed to justify the criminalisation of cartel activity.
Bail In Australia: Legislative Introduction And Amendment Since 1970, Alex Steel
Bail In Australia: Legislative Introduction And Amendment Since 1970, Alex Steel
Alex Steel
This paper examines the rate of amendment of bail laws across Australian jurisdictions since the 1980’s. It examines stated justifications for those changes by Parliamentarians in a number of jurisdictions and seeks to provide insights into the increasing rate of legislative amendment in some states in recent years. The paper analyses whether Australia wide trends exist or whether the reasons for amendment are more locally based.
Permanent Borrowing And Lending: A New View Of Section 6 Theft Act 1968, Alex Steel
Permanent Borrowing And Lending: A New View Of Section 6 Theft Act 1968, Alex Steel
Alex Steel
This paper considers the meaning and interpretation of the extended definition of “intention of permanently depriving” in the English Theft Act 1968 s 6. The article analyses the various judicial interpretations of the section, pointing out that a lack of reporting of decisions has led to inconsistent approaches to the section. The article uses transcripts of the full judgments to provide a detailed consideration of each case’s reasoning. Drawing on these reasons, a new way of approaching the section is suggested. On this approach the section is primarily one that deems certain actions to amount to an intention to permanently …
Commercial Fraud: Cases And Commentary, Alex Steel
Commercial Fraud: Cases And Commentary, Alex Steel
Alex Steel
This monograph - published online - is a detailed analysis of theft and fraud laws in NSW. It was developed for UNSW Law students because of a lack of any up to date commercially published text on theft and fraud. It contains extracts and commentary on all key offences and caselaw. The law was current as of 2008.
Problematic And Unnecessary? Issues With The Use Of The Theft Offence To Protect Intangible Property, Alex Steel
Problematic And Unnecessary? Issues With The Use Of The Theft Offence To Protect Intangible Property, Alex Steel
Alex Steel
This article questions whether misuse of intangible property should fall within the scope of theft — an issue on which Australian jurisdictions are currently divided. It provides an overview of the traditional limitation of larceny to moveable property and some of the difficult issues of interpretation of the modern theft offence that are related to the inclusion of intangible property. It then examines in detail a number of forms of intangible property to see if any of them are capable of forming the basis of a theft charge. The conclusion made is that intangible property is either unable to form …
The Harms And Wrongs Of Stealing: The Harm Principle And Dishonesty In Theft, Alex Steel
The Harms And Wrongs Of Stealing: The Harm Principle And Dishonesty In Theft, Alex Steel
Alex Steel
In ‘On the Nature and Rationale of Property Offences’ A P Simester and G R Sullivan argue that the Harm Principle can be used to justify property offences. This article provides a critique of that essay. It begins with an overview of the Harm Principle and some key criticisms of it. It then considers Simester and Sullivan’s argument that the conduct proscribed by property offences causes harm to the property regime generally. The article suggests that this is an overly broad notion of harm on which to base criminalisation, and one that fails to adequately identify which particular breaches of …
Money For Nothing, Cheques For Free? The Meaning Of ‘Financial Advantage’ In Fraud Offences, Alex Steel
Money For Nothing, Cheques For Free? The Meaning Of ‘Financial Advantage’ In Fraud Offences, Alex Steel
Alex Steel
This article offers a critique of the current understanding of the phrase ‘financial advantage’ in Australian fraud offences. It begins by considering the history and use of these offences, and ultimately argues that the concept embodied by the phrase is far more complex and uncertain than recent case law suggests. It examines the concept in relation to both the English pecuniary advantage offences and the additional phrase ‘any money or any valuable thing’ in the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) s 178BA offence, and contrasts it with offences based on the causing of detriment. It is suggested that discussions of defaulting …
Consorting In New South Wales: Substantive Offence Or Police Power?, Alex Steel
Consorting In New South Wales: Substantive Offence Or Police Power?, Alex Steel
Alex Steel
Since 1929 it has been an offence in New South Wales to habitually consort with reputed/convicted criminals. This article outlines the fears over so-called razor gangs that led to the offence's introduction and the role of the media in promoting the enactment of the offence. A detailed examination of the scope of the various elements of the offence, as defined by the courts is also provided. The paper also examines the historical and current use of the offence by police, and the degree of discretion involved in enforcement. The breadth of the offence is such that it effectively amounts to …
Vaguely Going Where No-One Has Gone: The Expansive New Computer Access Offences, Alex Steel
Vaguely Going Where No-One Has Gone: The Expansive New Computer Access Offences, Alex Steel
Alex Steel
Both the New South Wales and Australian Commonwealth governments have enacted major reforms to computer - related offences. These reforms are based on the Model Criminal Code Chapter Four: Damage and Computer Offences. The reforms move from an emphasis on access to an emphasis on damage. While they provide principled limitations on some previous offences they also introduce new sweeping offences relating to network impairment and control of data preparatory to other offences. This article outlines the elements of these new offences and highlights the issues that are likely to arise in their enforcement.
From Hard Labour To Spies V The Queen: Prosecuting Corporate Officers Under The Crimes Act, Alex Steel
From Hard Labour To Spies V The Queen: Prosecuting Corporate Officers Under The Crimes Act, Alex Steel
Alex Steel
While the Australian Corporations Law appears to provide a comprehensive scheme for the criminal liability of directors, officers and auditors of corporations, State Crimes Acts have significant offences directly aimed at corporate officer wrongdoing. This article provides a detailed analysis of the elements of these offences, with a concentration on the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) and the High Court decision of Spies v The Queen (2000) 74 ALJR 1263. The article also places the offences in their historical context and examines the degree of use of the offences.
An Appropriate Test For Dishonesty?, Alex Steel
An Appropriate Test For Dishonesty?, Alex Steel
Alex Steel
Courts have struggled to develop a test for dishonesty in both England and Australia. The English test as set out in Ghosh was considered by the Australian High Court in Peters v. The Queen but the court was unable to come up with a true majority opinion on the point. Differences of opinion on the meaning of the concept exist in Australian and English law, and a recent Consultation Paper by the Law Reform Commission of England and Wales has again raised the issue. This article reviews the different positions, and attempts to point a way forward for Australian law …