The New South Wales Law Reform Commission Draft Proposals on consent in sexual offences: a missed opportunity?

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 346-358
Author(s):  
Rachael Burgin ◽  
Jonathan Crowe
Keyword(s):  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Law Reform ◽  
Sexual Offences ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Missed Opportunity

Establishing Boundaries

2011 ◽  
pp. 146-157
Author(s):  
Christopher Brien
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Effective Communication ◽  
Law Reform ◽  
Competing Interests ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Workplace Monitoring ◽  
Acceptable Use Policies

This chapter examines workplace monitoring in Australia. Competing interests between those of employees and employers are outlined. Recent decisions by courts and tribunals in Australia are considered. Information technology or acceptable use policies that are part of the contract of employed are identified as a means of establishing boundaries. The relevant reports of both the New South Wales Law Reform Commission and the Victorian Law Reform Commission are also discussed. The idea that Commonwealth legislation could be enacted to simplify the process of establishing boundaries is noted. This activity should be viewed more generally as strengthening the protection of privacy in Australian law. Management and workers both have responsibilities in establishing boundaries with regard to workplace monitoring. Effective communication between employers and employees is an essential part for creating a culture of respect and trust within an organization.

Why Her Behaviour Is Still on Trial: The Absence of Context in the Modernisation of the Substantive Law on Consent

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Annie Cossins
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Assault ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Rape Myth Acceptance ◽  
Rape Myth ◽  
Law Reform ◽  
Victim Blame ◽  
Sexual Autonomy ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Substantive Law

Two cases studies illustrate the paradox at the heart of the substantive law of sexual assault – that it is possible (i) for a woman who does not communicate her consent to be deemed to consent; and (ii) for a defendant to have a reasonable belief about a woman’s consent even though it is accepted that she did not consent, both of which undermine the concept of her sexual autonomy. In light of the research on rape myth acceptance (‘RMA’) which shows that RMA is one of the most consistent predictors of victim blame in sexual assault scenarios, this article discusses how sexual assault law reform in New South Wales in 2007, which introduced a ‘communicative’ model of consent, has been subsequently undermined by the decisions in two recent judge-alone trials. Options for reform are discussed in light of the community standards expected under a ‘communicative’ model of consent.

scholarly journals Who benefits from the equalising of age of consent provisions?: A critical analysis of the Wood Royal Commission Paedophile Inquiry recommendation for a lower minimum age of consent

2001 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-38
Author(s):  
Judith Lancaster
Keyword(s):  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Royal Commission ◽  
Final Report ◽  
Sexual Offences ◽  
Protective Mechanisms ◽  
Age Of Consent ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Minimum Age ◽  
Commission Recommendation

When the Wood Royal Commission into the New South Wales Police Service released its final Report on the Paedophile Inquiry in August 1997, its recommendation to remove the distinction between heterosexual and female homosexual sex and male homosexual sex by lowering the age currently set for the latter category surprised many citizens. There was concern, firstly, about the fact that the lack of satisfactory protective mechanisms in the prevailing laws would escape investigation and, secondly, that acts previously understood to be paedophilia and pederasty would be de-criminalised, thereby increasing the vulnerability of young Australians to sexual predators.The Crimes Amendment (Sexual Offences) Bill, introduced into the New South Wales Parliament in October 1997, and reintroduced in 1999, suggests a firm determination to implement the Royal Commission recommendation on consent, notwithstanding the fact that such change would be implemented in the absence of community debate and without addressing the implications of de-criminalisation. Although the Bill was rejected in the Upper House on both occasions, it is believed that further attempts will be made in the near future and, again, it will be in the absence of broad community debate. It is also widely believed that, should a change of this nature be implemented in New South Wales, it will have implications for children in other states across Australia.This paper explores the implications of equalising at a lower rather than higher minimum age of consent.

scholarly journals Strip Searches, Police Power and the Infliction of Harm: An Analysis of the New South Wales Strip Search Regime

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vicki Sentas ◽  
Michael Grewcock
Keyword(s):  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Law Reform ◽  
Public Attention ◽  
Drug Detection ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Police Data ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Detection Dog ◽  
Police Vehicles

Police misuse of strip search powers at music festivals, at train stations, in police vehicles and at other locations has been subject to sustained public attention in recent years. This article traces the evolution of strip search practices in New South Wales, explores the legal and policy context in which they have developed, highlights the individual and social harms arising from them and discusses the need for fundamental law reform. We argue that recent controversies regarding police strip searches and drug detection dog operations in New South Wales show policing to be simultaneously a law-making and a law-abusing power. By examining concepts concerned with how police construct their own working rules, police data and testimony provided to the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission (LECC), we explain how police justify conducting strip searches that should otherwise be considered unlawful.

scholarly journals The First Limb of Barnes v Addy: A Taxonomy in Tatters

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
The Hon Justice David J S Jackson
Keyword(s):  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Law Reform ◽  
High Court ◽  
The Core ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Statutory Law ◽  
The Law ◽  
Court Of Appeal

<em>This lecture is given in tribute to Tony Lee. That is only fitting. He is a scholar of international significance and he was personally responsible for much of the core statutory law reform in this State on the subjects of Trusts and Succession Law. Not long after the High Court’s decision in Farah Constructions Pty Ltd v Say-Dee Pty Ltd (‘Farah’), I asked Professor Lee what he thought about it. He said this: ‘Well, David, after all these years of reading cases I think that cases where plaintiffs don’t win generally don’t decide very much about the law.’ Then he said: ‘But I don’t know, what do you think?’ I was taken aback. At that time, I was full of the joys of the High Court’s decision. First, I thought it had rescued indefeasibility from the scrap heap, particularly so far as bank mortgages were concerned. Secondly, whilst I now agree with Professor Keith Mason’s point of view that the High Court’s treatment of the New South Wales Court of Appeal was intemperate, I was not unhappy then that the High Court had stemmed the tide of those who were intent on bending first limb Barnes v Addy liability into a restitutionary framework.</em>

scholarly journals Feminist Interventions in Law Reform: Criminalising Image-Based Sexual Abuse in New South Wales

Laws ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kcasey McLoughlin ◽  
Alex O’Brien
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
New South ◽  
New South Wales ◽  
Public Consultation ◽  
Law Reform ◽  
Consultation Process ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Women's Lives ◽  
The Government ◽  
Image Based Sexual Abuse

Feminist legal theorists have had something of an uneasy relationship with law reform. Although feminist academics and lawyers have contributed much to law reform efforts that have sought to improve women’s lives, feminists have nonetheless taken divergent positions regarding the extent to which these efforts can truly dismantle the masculinist character of law through law reform projects. This article revisits these tensions and, in so doing, seeks to better understand the extent to which feminists can meaningfully contribute to law reform projects. The criminalisation of image-based sexual abuse in New South Wales (Australia) serves as a case study to examine and re-examine these tensions. In September 2016, the New South Wales government announced that it was proposing to criminalise the distribution of certain images without consent. Following a public consultation process, the government legislated for a new offense directed at the distribution of these images. Although there is certainly not one all-encompassing feminist understanding of image-based sexual abuse, the importance of understanding this practice as abuse and as existing within a culture that normalises and sustains nonconsensual activity nonetheless has been a key feminist concern in agitating for law reform in this area. This article examines the extent to which the legislative response took seriously the harms engendered by image-based sexual abuse.

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