This article critically engages with the concept and practice of ‘wellbeing’. Over the last decade, managerial practices have broadly introduced ‘wellbeing’ policies into the workplace, including the legal workplace. While these practices, in principle, can offer important forms of support for staff under professional stress, they can also be counterproductive, and have the effect of escalating stress

This article explores the practice of the media to unreasonably intrude on victims' privacy in Australia by reference to three women whose sexual harassment grievances were published by the media without their consent. This article argues that the protection of a victim’s privacy is a fundamental human right which should trump competing public interest considerations in the Australian context. In the

More and more young Australians are undertaking periods of work experience as a part of their study or independently to facilitate their transition into employment. They are often subject to a significant power disparity compared to others in the workplace, and need the placement to finish a course, and/or to get practical experience, connections and industry references. This makes them vulnerable

Many local councils in Australia commence their meetings with prayer. Case law in the United Kingdom holds that English local councils do not have power to commence their meetings with prayer. This article argues that the reasoning of the UK case law applies with equal force in Australia with the result that the practice of many Australian local councils of incorporating prayers into their formal meetings

We examine the effect of vicarious trauma on various stakeholders in the legal profession. Criminal lawyers are likely to experience higher levels of vicarious trauma than other lawyers. Additionally, lawyers are at a heightened risk of vicarious trauma compared to other helping professionals such as mental health workers. We identify a range of strategies that can be implemented at an organisational

After prolonged periods of criminalisation, 20th and 21st century law reform has now moved abortion care closer to being regulated as health care in all Australian jurisdictions. However, no jurisdiction has yet tested the proposition that specific laws for abortion care are unnecessary. This article analyses the capability of health law, policy and ethics to regulate abortion comprehensively, without

This article critically assesses a key question raised repeatedly during the tenure of US President Donald Trump – could (or should) the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution have been invoked to suspend him from office? Although moot in a practical sense following the 2020 US presidential election, exploring this question from an Australian perspective provides the opportunity to reflect on fundamental

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Australia was facing an incipient eviction crisis, the gravity of which had been obscured by inadequate data and the gradual mounting of systemic problems of unaffordability and insecurity. This article reviews the legal framework around tenancies and evictions and the sparse data it produces. Tribunal data obtained by the author shows that Australia’s two largest jurisdictions

Australia’s National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children, launched in 2010, has emphasised the need for integrated responses across government agencies, specialist domestic and family violence services and the justice system. This article presents an evaluation of an integrated, community-based domestic and family violence response service that uses a rare model of co-location

Recently, interest in ‘bush tucker’ foods has surged. Indigenous Australians should be empowered to determine how their knowledge is used when these products are commercialised. To exercise control over the development of the native foods industry, Indigenous Australians could establish a certification regime to ensure that their knowledge is appropriately converted into commercial products. This could

The upward trend of incarceration rates persists among women in Victoria, with increasingly punitive sentencing and onerous new bail laws. At the same time, the complex needs of women in the criminal justice system are becoming the focus of greater study and documentation. This article presents the case for a specialist women’s list under the Magistrates’ Court of Victoria jurisdiction, based in principles

This article considers key non-disclosure cases in the United Kingdom and Australia and the potential for prosecution disclosure failings to lead to miscarriages of justice. The authors discuss disclosure obligations in the context of the police–prosecution relationship and aspects of police culture that may facilitate practices of non-disclosure. They note that cultures of non-disclosure can place

Discussions about the human rights of LGBTIQ people tend to centre around two vastly different issues, namely, marriage equality and the criminalisation of same-sex sexual conduct. However, looking only at these two high-profile issues ignores the many pressing concerns facing LGBTIQ people around the world. This article identifies and analyses eight other human rights issues that urgently need addressing

Long before fantasy fiction was ‘a thing’, and The Hobbit and Game of Thrones popularised mythical beasts on screens around the world, Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges compiled his own bestiary, The Book of Imaginary Beings, brimful with fabulous animals. They were ‘fabulous’, of course, because they were the stuff of fables – often based on tales from long ago and far away. Mythical creatures

The Northern Territory’s Burial and Cremation Bill 2019 has been criticised as a gross form of disrespect to traditional Aboriginal law, with Indigenous people arguing that the Bill criminalises the operation of Aboriginal law on Aboriginal land, and may lead to an increase in already high incarceration rates. Should the law in this area seek to strike a ‘balance’ between Aboriginal law and the policy

Both ‘women in law’ and ‘women and law’ have assumed great significance over the last century. Women have not only struggled to be admitted to the legal profession and to be accepted as members of the jurisprudential community, but they have also sought to change the myriad laws relegating women to subordinate status within the broader society. Substantive equality for women nevertheless remains elusive

During the COVID-19 pandemic, courts around the world have introduced a range of technologies to cope with social distancing requirements. Jury trials have been largely delayed, although some jurisdictions moved to remote jury approaches and video conferencing was used extensively for bail applications. While videoconferencing has been used to a more limited extent in the area of sentencing, many were

In 2018, the Corrective Services Administrators’ Council updated the Standard Guidelines for Corrections in Australia (2012), renaming them the Guiding Principles for Corrections in Australia. This was an opportunity to ensure alignment with the 2015 United Nations Mandela Rules. However, the Guiding Principles are less aligned with the Mandela Rules than the 2012 Guidelines were. That is, they represent

This article examines compassionate sentencing as a model of therapeutic jurisprudence. More specifically, it makes the case for the use of compassionate sentencing as a method for the criminal justice system to better respond to cases of domestic violence victims who kill their abusive partners. By applying a discourse analysis to two case studies, I illustrate the nature and benefits of a compassionate

Biodiversity loss continues to be one of the greatest issues for this generation despite the development of International Environmental Law (IEL). By examining the anthropocentric nature of the Con...

This article examines the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s proposal that privacy laws be amended to provide individuals with a right of ‘erasure’ (Digital Platforms Inquiry, rec 16(...

In the recent case of Pell v The Queen, the High Court quashed the jury’s verdict and reversed the decision of the Court of Appeal (majority) in Victoria. This article analyses the High Court’s approach to determining the facts that were open to the jury and to determining whether the jury erred in finding Cardinal Pell guilty. The High Court’s decision raises important issues about the jury as Australia’s

Before COVID we happily took a train to our workplace without wearing a mask, leaving our computer at home. We used email and the phone to link to people. With relative abandon, we vacuumed up a vast range of digital technology from frivolous fitness apps to multiple office screen processes likes Microsoft Teams and Zoom. We often failed to distinguish between what was simply playful and what was actually

This article uses the experiences of professional soccer player Abdelhak ‘Appie’ Nouri, who suffered a cardiac arrhythmia at 20 years of age during a pre-season friendly in 2017, as the stepping off point for examining the use and regulation of genetic testing in sport and the human rights implications of genetic testing child athletes for the purposes of talent identification and performance enhancement

When the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) struck in early 2020, the Commonwealth government eased reporting deadlines and extended the date for firms required to submit modern slavery statements under Australia’s Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth). The economic recession caused by COVID-19 has produced the necessary conditions for further exploitation and enslavement of vulnerable individuals. This article

Objects have social lives like humans and are invested with the properties of social relations. We restore performativity to the journeying objects of the Maseit street magicians by drawing on our ...

This article provides an overview of the response of Australian courts to the COVID-19 crisis, and critically examines a number of structures and systemic issues that arise from the shift to the online deliver of justice. It places the current responses in the context of the emerging literature regarding online dispute resolution, and draws upon that literature to consider issues including open justice

This article identifies tensions between the human rights central to a return to classroom-based education during the COVID-19 pandemic. It notes the complexity of balancing rights to health, education and work for students, teachers and school staff, including for the most vulnerable in those groups. The authors argue that Australia would be well served by a comprehensive human rights framework to

There is a growing literature on wellness for law in Australia and elsewhere. Significant uncertainty exists, however, about what exactly wellness means in this context. I argue that wellness is not best understood either as the absence of psychological distress or as the presence of life satisfaction or positive affect. I propose an alternative understanding of wellness that centres around the role

Australia’s system of law and government contains a range of mechanisms through which the executive branch is held to account for its actions. However, in emergencies, these accountability mechanisms are often significantly eroded in a range of ways. This article examines how the forms and types of powers that Australian governments have relied on to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic have avoided many

Digital technologies are being used to combat the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic through a variety of methods, including monitoring compliance with quarantine and contact tracing. These uses of technology are said to promote public health outcomes but risk undermining rights to privacy. In this article we focus on the use of digital technologies for contact tracing, such as the COVIDSafe

Cannabis law reform is unlikely in Australia because section 90 of the Constitution gives the exclusive power to tax goods to the Commonwealth, yet it is the states and territories that have the power to decriminalise use. What incentive does a state have to decriminalise cannabis if they cannot tax it? This article summarises the High Court’s s 90 jurisprudence. It also briefly explores the question

Australia’s parliamentary model of rights protection depends in large part on the capacity of the federal Parliament to scrutinise the law-making activities of the Executive government. Emergency law-making undertaken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic has challenged the Australian Parliament’s capacity to provide meaningful scrutiny of proposed laws, particularly identifying and addressing the impact

In her critique of anti-discrimination law, 'The Liberal Promise', Professor Margaret Thornton argued that the law could have a limited impact on social change partly due to the privatised way in which discrimination claims are resolved. This Brief explores the influence of Thornton's work and suggests that, 30 years on, her claims still ring true.

This article considers how the response to COVID-19 in Australia may be examined and challenged by the Human Rights Act 2004 (ACT), the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities 2006 (Vic) and the Human Rights Act 2019 (Qld) (collectively, the Australian HRAs). It also considers the unique model of rights protection provided at the Commonwealth level under the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny)

In recent years there have been significant changes in global drug policy. This article considers these developments. I provide a brief introduction to the history of global drug policy, followed by an overview of the current state of play, both in Australia and abroad. Inspired by a recent injunction by New South Wales Deputy Coroner Harriet Grahame to think differently about drug problems, I then

Justice Carolyn Simpson had a judicial career spanning a quarter of a century – the longest serving of any of the Supreme Court of New South Wales’ women judges. In this article, we critically examine both the image projected at Justice Simpson’s elevation to the Court in 1994 and the legacy crafted about her upon her retirement. As we move forward into a new century of Australian women in law, these

On 17 March 2020, Tasmania entered a ‘state of emergency’ in response to COVID-19. Parliament stands adjourned, and the executive is regulating the crisis through delegated regulations that significantly limit civil rights and freedoms. Despite assurances that Tasmania’s Subordinate Legislation Committee would scrutinise executive power throughout the crisis, its role has been limited, due to an overly

This article examines the increasing tendency towards governance of people through their representation via data. In its most contemporary iteration, the COVID-19 pandemic has seen the release of contact tracing apps – in Australia, COVIDSafe. While public discourse about the apps has focused principally on the important issue of data privacy, there are other possible effects whereby participation

In late November 2019, two weeks before the UK general election, a terrorist attack was carried out against attendees at a London rehabilitation conference involving released prisoners, killing two participants and seriously injuring others. The event and aftermath raise a number of issues including: the politicisation of the killings; responsibility for failings in a range of criminal justice processes;

This reflection explores how emotion shapes lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) rights and law reforms. Drawing on case studies from Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, the author maps how disgust regulates sexuality, hate manifests in hate crime penalties, anger arises in anti-discrimination measures, fear polices refugee law, anxiety shapes trans children’s

There is a popular myth that pathogens such as COVID-19 do not discriminate. Of course they do. Epidemiologists, caregivers and those working with vulnerable cohorts know from experience that the effects of severe illness are never homogenous across demographics. Those among us who are poor, indigent, elderly, incarcerated, Indigenous or disabled are disproportionally affected in terms of health, financial

Law enforcement has experienced difficulties retrieving information stored on the mobile devices of suspects. Over the last years, a number of Australian jurisdictions enacted legislation that allows police officers to compel an individual to unlock their device (such as providing a PIN or fingerprint to unlock the device). Non-compliance with these legislative provisions is punishable by imprisonment

Australia was the first country to introduce laws mandating the wearing of helmets by bicyclists with the aim of enhancing road safety for cyclists. Examining the law and its administration in NSW, we point to some serious problems and anomalies with the law. We argue safety concerns have been relegated and the fine for the offence has lost any sense of proportionality with offending, parity with penalties

Scrutiny of the federal government’s proposed new identity matching laws by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security has revealed new insights into both the rights intrusive nature of these laws, and the potential impact and influence of this Committee as a component of Australia’s exclusively parliamentary model of rights protection. This Brief contains a short description of

This article examines whether racially derogatory cartoons are capable of infringing Part IIA of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth). In particular, it examines the exemption of ‘artistic work’ in section 18D, which depends on the artistic work being published ‘reasonably’. Courts have struggled to apply the concept of ‘reasonableness’ to cartoons, noting that cartoons are exaggerated by their

On 28 August 2019, the Full Federal Court of Australia handed down its decision in four test cases selected by the Court as representative of over 50 cases brought on behalf of asylum seekers on Nauru and Papua New Guinea against the Minister for Home Affairs (the test cases). The test cases confirmed that the Federal Court does have the jurisdiction to hear negligence claims brought by immigration

This Brief introduces Picture Human Rights, an initiative which seeks to explain international human rights law concepts through illustration. The inaugural series for this initiative was tax and human rights, based on the author’s interpretations of editors Philip Alston and Nikki Reisch’s 2019 book, Tax, Human Rights, and Inequality. The Brief selects some highlights from this series and explains

This article examines whether there is sufficient clarity around the power of police officers to search a person’s mobile phone without a warrant and whether further legislative protections are needed. It examines the law in different Australian jurisdictions and argues that the law is uncertain and that greater clarity and safeguards are required to set the appropriate boundaries for the exercise

In the most recent television production of Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City book series, shown on Netflix, there is a moment at a dinner party where a group of ageing gay, white cismen are challenged by a younger coloured gay cisman about their use of language. The younger man is particularly annoyed about the word ‘tranny’, which operates to diminish, segment and exclude parts of the queer community

Ramona Vijeyarasa recently published in this journal an article advocating for the law in general, and legislation in particular, to be gender responsive. She argued that to redress gender inequali...

The Human Rights Act 2019 (Qld) is the first dedicated human rights statute enacted in Queensland and only the third law of this type in Australia. Its passage was the culmination of a sustained, grassroots campaign spanning five years. The success of this campaign can be explained through an understanding of the existing socio-political climate and resulting opportunities, and the strength of community

The Human Rights Act 2019 (Qld) is modelled on Victoria’s dialogue model for human rights protection, the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (Vic). This article provides a Victorian perspective on the operative provisions of Queensland’s Human Rights Act, particularly those which bind public entities, courts and tribunals when applying legislation (sections 13, 48, 58 and 59). The

In February 2019 Queensland became the third Australian jurisdiction to enact a statutory human rights charter. The Queensland Human Rights Act is modelled on the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 and the ACT Human Rights Act 2004. However, it also provides for an accessible complaints mechanism for alleged contraventions by a public entity, which is a significant point

Judicial analytics is the use of data to monitor, understand and predict judicial behaviour. This is a global phenomenon and a cause for both celebration and concern. Given the unique role of courts and the potential for judicial analytics to undermine the rule of law, there is a need to review and revise the current inertia in the Australian regulatory approach to this issue. This article calls for

Corporate crime causes significant social and environmental harm and its sentencing is frequently ineffective due to the ability of corporations to pass-on monetary fines to stakeholders such as workers and consumers. This article investigates the notion of equity fines or share dilution as an alternative corporate punishment that avoids the pitfalls of conventional monetary fines while acting as a

Gift cards are valid for a limited period of time and consumers cannot get refunds for any unused and expired monetary credit balance. Despite the recent federal and NSW gift card reforms, the reforms do not mandate gift cards to be refundable. By comparison, section 24 of the Australian Consumer Law may render the non-refundable term unfair and the gift card contracts would continue to apply without

This article examines the workplace rights and anti-discrimination protections available for Australian workers who experience family violence. Despite the significance of family violence as a workplace issue, federal anti-discrimination law and, until recently, the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) have failed to provide adequate protection to such employees. The author considers two recent developments in

The Council of Attorneys-General is currently reviewing Australia's existing uniform defamation laws. This article suggests three significant reforms that would improve the existing law.

Last year Queensland joined Victoria and the Northern Territory in formally committing to a conversation about a treaty with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This article explains what a treaty is, outlines the processes undertaken thus far, situates it within the broader national context, and explores several challenges moving forward.