Law Commons^™

Imprisoning Rationalities, Eileen Baldry, David Brown, Mark Brown, Chris Cunneen, Melanie Schwartz, Alex Steel

David C. Brown

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 …

Advancing Maritime Australia, Warwick Gullett, Clive Schofield, Joanna Vince

Warwick Gullett

According to the Australian Institute of Marine Science Index of Marine Industry, Australia is 'one of the great marine nations of the world' with the 'potential to become an oceanic superpower'. This assessment is based on the size of Australia's marine jurisdiction, the extent and variety of the resources within it, and the strength and economic contribution of Australia's marine industries. It is easy to agree with this positive assessment. Part B of this book explains the vast geographical extent of Australia's marine jurisdiction, as well as Australia's rights and responsibilities within this area, and outlines its resources and their …

Cancellation Provisions In Australia's Commonwealth-Managed Fisheries, Richard Mason, Warwick Gullett

Warwick Gullett

In its recently completed review of Commonwealth fisheries policy the Australian Government, following submissions from the commercial fishing industry, agreed to examine the implications of replacing the power in the Fisheries Management Act 1991 (FM Act) to cancel fishing concessions for non-compliance with management measures that increased financial penalties. Industry argued that the cancellation provisions undermine the security of access rights and the Australian Government had accepted that the current provisions may be an impediment to investment in Commonwealth-managed fisheries. This paper reviews these concerns in light of property rights and compliance issues and concludes that there are no compelling …

Australia's Marine Jurisdictions Under International And Domestic Law, Warwick Gullett, G. Rose

Warwick Gullett

This chapter explains Australia's international maritime zones and domestic marine jurisdictions in order to understand the nature and geographical operation of laws that apply in Australian waters. The task of determining the type of laws that can operate in Australian waters, as well as the geographical extent of those laws, is particularly difficult because Australia is a federation. In addition to authorising the Australian Parliament to make certain laws offshore, the Australian Constitution also enables the state parliaments to regulate some offshore activities. It is helpful if these laws are spatially defined so that people can know which laws apply …

Regulating Fishing In Australia: From Mullet Size Limits To International Hot Pursuits, Warwick Gullett

Warwick Gullett

Fisheries laws simply regulate human interactions with fish. Yet it is an enormous challenge to get them right. The central problem with which fishing laws need to deal is that technological advancements continually enable people (especially commercial fishers) to increase their ability to catch fish. This may be coupled with an increasing number of people fishing, or perhaps a relatively stable number of people fishing but changing their practice such as intensively fishing in one location. Human activities affecting fish are ever changing and, as a result, so too are fisheries laws. Past fishery collapses (such as cod stocks off …

Smooth Sailing For Australia's Automatic Forfeiture Of Foreign Fishing Vessels, Warwick Gullett

Warwick Gullett

The High Court of Australia has brought to a close one chapter of the various legal proceedings arising out of Australia’s arrest of the Russian fishing vessel Volga in 2002. The vessel was arrested on the high seas immediately adjacent to Australia’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) surrounding the Heard and McDonald Islands in the Southern Ocean. It was suspected (and later found as a matter of fact) to have been engaged in unlawful fishing for the prized Patagonian Toothfish within Australia’s EEZ two to three weeks prior to its detection and seizure by Australian authorities. The circumstances of the seizure …

The Precautionary Principle In Australia: Policy, Law And Potential Precautionary Eias, Warwick Gullett

Warwick Gullett

The precautionary principle has been adopted in such a widespread fashion that it is now difficult to find in either the international environmental arena or countries with advanced environmental protection frameworks an environmental policy document, a new environmental law, or even a political statement about environmental management that does not include a reference to the principle or reflect some of the core ideas of the precautionary concept. References to the principle can be found in documents produced by organizations such as the European Environment Agency, the World Trade Organization, and of course the United Nations; in numerous environmental treaties ranging …

Prompt Release Procedures And The Challenge For Fisheries Law Enforcement: The Judgement Of The International Tribunal For The Law Of The Sea In The 'Volga' Case (Russian Federation V Australia), Warwick Gullett

Warwick Gullett

On 23 December 2002, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea ('ITLOS') ordered the prompt release of the Russian 1ongline fishing vessel Volga, at the time detained by Australian authorities in Fremantle, upon the posting of a bond or other security of A$l 920 000. The Volga was arrested for allegedly fishing without authorisation by a boarding party from the Royal Australian Navy frigate HMAS Canberra in the Australian Exclusive Economic Zone ('EEZ') surrounding Heard and McDonald Islands in the Southern Ocean on 7 Februarv 2002. At issue in the ITLOS proceedings was not whether the activities of …

Judicial Integrity: A Call For Its Re-Emergence In The Adjudication Of Criminal Cases, Robert M. Bloom

Robert M. Bloom

A court can invalidate or rectify certain kinds of offensive official action on the grounds of judicial integrity. In the past, it has served as a check on overzealous law enforcement agents whose actions so seriously impaired due process principles that they shocked the bench’s conscience. The principle not only preserves the judiciary as a symbol of lawfulness and justice, but it also insulates the courts from becoming aligned with illegal actors and their bad acts. The 1992 case of U.S. v. Alvarez-Machain, however, may have signaled a departure from past practices. This article reviews current Supreme Court cases and …

Untangling The Web: Exploring Internet Regulation Schemes In Western Democracies, Renee Keen

San Diego International Law Journal

This Comment investigates past censorship schemes proposed and implemented by selected democratic administrations, in order to develop an improved framework and accompanying infrastructure that may accomplish the goals that these policies envisioned, but failed to achieve. The difficulty of this undertaking is in developing the intermediate and legally defensible parameters under which a regulation scheme can endure and gain support in a democratic society. The greater difficulty lies in developing a system that can accomplish these objectives in the burgeoning and ever-changing cyber realm. The challenges posed by Internet activity are novel ones, and the legitimacy of the actions taken …

Recommendations For Australia’S Implementation Of The National Emergency Warning System Using Location-Based Services, Anas Aloudat, Katina Michael, Roba Abbas

Professor Katina Michael

Mobile alerts, notifications and location-based emergency warning systems are now an established part of mobile government strategies in an increasing number of countries worldwide. In Australia the national emergency warning system (NEWS) was instituted after the tragic Black Saturday Victorian Bushfires of February 2009. In the first phase, NEWS has enabled the provision of public information from the government to the citizen during emergencies anywhere and any time. Moving on from traditional short message service (SMS) notifications and cell broadcasting to more advanced location-based services, this paper provides executive-level recommendations about the viability of location-based mobile phone services in NEWS …

The Mediation Meta-Model: The Realities Of Mediation Practice, Nadja Alexander

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In this article, I expand on the literature and present a meta-model for thinking about mediation practice. The Mediation Meta-Model is a structure for identifying different mediation approaches and how they relate to one other. It makes no claim to universal application. Rather, it offers a conceptual road-map for an increasingly complex and sophisticated array of practices which share the name mediation. The theoretical foundations and analysis for the Meta-Model have been included in previous work (2008).It is well known in Australian mediation circles that mediation practice does not always correspond to the dominant facilitative training model—even though, on the …

Submission To The Alrc National Classification Review, Kimberlee G. Weatherall

Kimberlee G Weatherall

This submission addresses online censorship in Australia. It was made to the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) in response to its Issues Paper in the National Classification Review.

Sharpening The Blue Pencil In Australian Consumer Law: The Striking Out Of Unfair Contract Terms In Land Transactions, Annette Greenhow

Annette Greenhow

In Australia, like many other jurisdictions, principles of fairness and transparency underpin modern consumer protection laws applying to traditional consumer transactions. These laws had, until recently, focused on those transactions involving the supply of goods or services for personal, domestic or household use, and in the case of the supply of goods, to personal property transactions. An overriding objective of consumer protection law is to shore up the bargaining position so that the perceived weaker party has access to greater rights of redress should the stronger party seek to exploit that weakness. The commencement of the new Australian Consumer Law …

Glass Cages In The Dock?: Presenting The Defendant To The Jury, David Tait

Chicago-Kent Law Review

The architecture of the courtroom provides insights into the philosophy of justice espoused by the community—it embodies particular perspectives about the presumption of innocence, the dignity of the person, the right to effective representation, and more generally, the right to a fair trial. The physical position of the accused in a criminal trial, the subject of this Article, varies considerably between jurisdictions, from a privileged place at the defense table to a dock isolated from other courtroom participants. The legal issues associated with the place of the accused are particularly evident when the dock is enclosed in glass. This Article …

Slides: Adapting To Climate Change: Lessons Learnt From The Australian Water Experience, Will Fargher

Conversation with Water Management Reps from Colorado and Australia: "Adapting to Climate Change: Lessons Learned from Australia" (February 14)

Presenter: Will Fargher, National Water Commission, Australian Government

18 slides [4 have titles only and are missing images]

Slides: Environmental Water In Australia, Chris Arnott

Conversation with Water Management Reps from Colorado and Australia: "Adapting to Climate Change: Lessons Learned from Australia" (February 14)

Presenter: Chris Arnott, Managing Director, Alluvium Consulting

30 slides

A Comparative Review Of Environmental Policies And Laws Involving Hazardous Private Dams: 'Appropriate' Practice Models For Safe Catchments, John D. Pisaniello

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Generally, the world’s largest dams have been erected and managed
by governments, while individual owners have been responsible for private
dams. Both kinds of dams have experienced technical failures that
have resulted in tragic losses of life as well as disastrous damage to property
and environment, and this has generated serious concerns regarding
dams’ safety worldwide. In Australia, despite the fact that attention has
been focused on the physical and technical integrity of medium- to largescale
dams, the smaller private dams have been virtually ignored with
regard to their serious potential and actual problems. Specifically, private
dams pose threats to …

Standing On A Spectrum: Third Party Standing In The United States, Canada, And Australia, Gwendolyn Mckee

Barry Law Review

This article examines third party standing cases in the United States, Canada, and Australia. It demonstrates that third party standing can only be understood with reference to the role of modern courts in broad-based, constitutional style rights protection. This type of protection has been the main factor driving courts to create exceptions to the traditional standing requirements. It is only once these exceptions have been established that a court begins to consider allowing third party standing in cases that do not involve rights. The effects of this theory can be seen in the three countries examined in this article.

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 …

Submission Fiona David And Anne Gallagher Regarding Law Reform Australian Trafficking In Persons Law, Fiona M. David Ms, Anne T. Gallagher Dr

Fiona David

This is a submission made in response to a discussion paper issued by the Australian Government, "The Criminal Justice Response to Slavery and People Trafficking; Reparation; and Vulnerable Witness Protections". This submission comments on the compliance of Australian law with the UN Protocol against Trafficking in Persons, supplementing the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, notes gaps in the legal framework and provides recommendations for reform.

Decent Work, Older Workers And Vulnerability In The Economic Recession: A Comparative Study Of Australia, The United Kingdom, And The United States, Susan Bisom-Rapp, Andrew D. Frazer, Malcolm Sargeant

Faculty of Law - Papers (Archive)

In countries with aging populations, the global recession presents unique challenges for older workers, and compels an assessment of how they are faring. To this end, the International Labour Organization's concept of decent work provides a useful metric or yardstick. Decent work, a multifaceted conception, assists in revealing the interdependence of measures needed to secure human dignity across the course of working lives. With this in mind, in three English-speaking, common law countries - Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States - this article considers several decent work principles applicable to older workers and provides evaluations in light of …

Australia's Maritime Economic Interests, Andrew Forbes

Faculty of Law - Papers (Archive)

Over the past two decades there has been an increasing lament from Western navies that their countries suffer from ‘sea blindness’. What is meant is that there is an apparent lack of public understanding and appreciation of the importance of the oceans for national prosperity. The concern is that if the importance of the oceans is not understood, then the importance of the multifaceted roles of navies in providing protection will not be understood. Whether or not sea blindness exists, maritime economic interests represented by the oceans are important and are discussed below.

Defining Civil Disputes: Lessons From Two Jurisdictions, Elizabeth G. Thornburg, Camille Cameron

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Court systems have adopted a variety of mechanisms to narrow the issues in dispute and expedite litigation. This article analyses the largely unsuccessful attempts in two jurisdictions - the United States and Australia - to achieve early and efficient issue identification in civil disputes. Procedures that rely on pleadings to provide focus have failed for centuries, from the common (English) origins of these two systems to their divergent modern paths. Case management practices that are developing in the United States and Australia offer greater promise in the continuing quest for early, efficient dispute definition. Based on a historical and contemporary …

Defining Civil Disputes: Lessons From Two Jurisdictions, Camille Cameron, Elizabeth Thornburg

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Court systems have adopted a variety of mechanisms to narrow the issues in dispute and expedite litigation. This article analyses the largely unsuccessful attempts in two jurisdictions - the United States and Australia - to achieve early and efficient issue identification in civil disputes. Procedures that rely on pleadings to provide focus have failed for centuries, from the common (English) origins of these two systems to their divergent modern paths. Case management practices that are developing in the United States and Australia offer greater promise in the continuing quest for early, efficient dispute definition. Based on a historical and contemporary …

Defining Civil Disputes: Lessons From Two Jurisdictions, Elizabeth Thornburg, Camille Cameron

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Court systems have adopted a variety of mechanisms to narrow the issues in dispute and expedite litigation. This article analyses the largely unsuccessful attempts in two jurisdictions - the United States and Australia - to achieve early and efficient issue identification in civil disputes. Procedures that rely on pleadings to provide focus have failed for centuries, from the common (English) origins of these two systems to their divergent modern paths. Case management practices that are developing in the United States and Australia offer greater promise in the continuing quest for early, efficient dispute definition. Based on a historical and contemporary …

The Price Of Access To The Civil Courts In Australia: Old Problems And New Solutions - A Commercial Litigation Funding Case Study, Camille Cameron

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

In the past decade litigation funding companies have assumed an increasingly prominent role in commercial litigation and class actions in Australia. The growth of commercial litigation funding is a predictable response to various features of Australia’s costs and fee allocation rules and practices, including the “loser pays” rule, the prohibition on lawyer’s charging contingency fees, the hourly billing practices of lawyers, and the open-ended and unpredictable nature of much civil litigation. This chapter explores the growth of commercial litigation funding in Australia and uses it as a window through which to view how Australia’s costs and fee allocation rules operate …

The Development Of Local Government In Australia, Focusing On Nsw: From Road Builder To Planning Agency To Servant Of The State Government And Developmentalism, Andrew H. Kelly

Faculty of Law - Papers (Archive)

This paper follows the legal and functional advancement of local government in NSW, Australia by examining three historical stages. It commences with its nineteenth century vestiges, moving on to compulsory incorporation and the gradual changes to modern but diverse individual councils. Issues include financial scarcity, the traditional property-based stranglehold and the burgeoning sheer power of the State Government in the planning sector.

Islamist Terrorism And Australia: An Empirical Examination Of The "Home-Grown" Threat, Sam Mullins

Faculty of Law - Papers (Archive)

Australian interests have been considered viable targets for Islamist terrorists since at least 2001, and Australians have suffered from attacks in Bali in 2002 and 2005, and Jakarta in 2004 and 2009. Moreover, Australian citizens have been involved in militant Islamist networks since the late 1980s, and similar to other Western countries in recent years there have been examples of ‘‘home-grown’’ plots to carry out domestic terrorist attacks. This article seeks to clarify the nature of the contemporary security threat within Australia by analysing the involvement of Australian citizens and residents in Islamist terrorism, both at home and abroad. The …

The Three Phases Of Local Government State Of Environment Reports In Nsw Australia: Complexity, Intricacy And Creativity, Andrew H. Kelly

Faculty of Law - Papers (Archive)

This paper explores the three phases of State of Environment Reports (SoERs) prepared by local councils in NSW since the introduction of the Local Government Act 1993 (NSW), which heralded significant change to local government's powers, functions and requirements. NSW is the only Australian jurisdiction where local SoERs are required. The first phase was responsive to environmental concerns but provided considerable confusion. The second was more ambitious and complex. The current phase provides considerable flexibility. This article leads to questions such as whether the SoER should be enveloped into the new 'Community Strategic Plan' or stand alone as a separate …