scholarly journals Unsubstantiated representations: An unsubstantiated reform?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Thomas William Robert Lynskey
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Law Reform ◽  
Reform Process ◽  
Fair Trading ◽  
Consumer Law

<p>This essay analyses the recent amendment to the Fair Trading Act 1986 that created a prohibition of “unsubstantiated representations” in trade. The reform process presented an opportunity to bring the FTA in line with recent amendments to the Australian law that had addressed the same issues. However, New Zealand opted to go further. This essay traces the prohibition through the wider consumer law reform process to investigate how the final provision was arrived at. By critically analysing the process that led to the amendments, the essay suggests that the decision to create a prohibition was based on flawed reasoning. In particular, it is argued that New Zealand should have followed the Australian approach, and that creating a prohibition has instead produced unnecessary liability in the absence of sufficient justification.</p>

scholarly journals Unsubstantiated representations: An unsubstantiated reform?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Thomas William Robert Lynskey
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Law Reform ◽  
Reform Process ◽  
Fair Trading ◽  
Consumer Law

<p>This essay analyses the recent amendment to the Fair Trading Act 1986 that created a prohibition of “unsubstantiated representations” in trade. The reform process presented an opportunity to bring the FTA in line with recent amendments to the Australian law that had addressed the same issues. However, New Zealand opted to go further. This essay traces the prohibition through the wider consumer law reform process to investigate how the final provision was arrived at. By critically analysing the process that led to the amendments, the essay suggests that the decision to create a prohibition was based on flawed reasoning. In particular, it is argued that New Zealand should have followed the Australian approach, and that creating a prohibition has instead produced unnecessary liability in the absence of sufficient justification.</p>

scholarly journals Corporate Law Reform and the Political Environment: An Empirical Analysis Employing Public-Comment Procedure Data in Japan

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 309-328
Author(s):  
Hatsuru MORITA
Keyword(s):  
Business Environment ◽  
Corporate Law ◽  
Law Reform ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Environment ◽  
Reform Process ◽  
Corporate Managers ◽  
Legal Professionals ◽  
Public Comment ◽  
Technical Issues

AbstractCorporate law shapes the fundamental business environment and affects various stakeholders. It is possible to determine the behaviour of various stakeholders by examining the politics of the reform process of corporate law. In order to understand the process, this paper uses the notice-and-comment procedure (public-comment procedure). Under this procedure, people submit comments to the Ministry of Justice; some of the comments are reflected in the final Bill, while others are not. The paper performs a quantitative analysis of a hand-collected dataset from two recent public-comment procedures on corporate law reform. The results showed that the bureaucrats are rigid and not willing to take public comments seriously. However, on some technical issues, legal academics, and legal professionals influence the behaviour of the bureaucrats. In addition, the bureaucrats employed these comments to honour the technical views of professionals. In other cases, corporate managers significantly influence the reform process.

scholarly journals Should New Zealand Shirk Its Obligations? A Critical Perspective on Private Law Scholarship

2016 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 429
Author(s):  
Bevan Marten ◽  
Geoff McLay
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Law Reform ◽  
Coherent System ◽  
Private Law ◽  
Compensation Scheme ◽  
Critical Perspective ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Party Autonomy ◽  
Accident Compensation

This article concerns the role of the private law scholar in New Zealand, and how such scholars use their skills to improve the law. It argues that while an obligations scholar's preference may be to engage with the courts and other academics in their scholarly activities, a focus on statutory reform better suits New Zealand conditions. Scholars should share their talents with policy makers, law reform bodies and legislators, helping to explain the importance of a coherent system of private law, and how this may be achieved. The authors then go a step further by suggesting that, in the New Zealand context, the preferable approach to reform may be one involving policy-based solutions exemplified by the accident compensation scheme, as opposed to approaches based on traditional private law principles such as party autonomy.

Improving the law reform process: Opportunities for empirical qualitative research?

2016 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 546-563
Author(s):  
Natalia Hanley ◽  
Bianca Fileborn ◽  
Wendy Larcombe ◽  
Nicola Henry ◽  
Anastasia Powell
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Perceived Value ◽  
Qualitative Research Methods ◽  
Law Reform ◽  
Reform Process ◽  
Reform Processes

Research on law reform has identified a variety of factors that help or hinder the reform process, but it has not systematically explored the role that empirical research plays and could play in enabling and enhancing law reform. Drawing on a series of qualitative interviews with criminal law reform experts in Victoria, we analyse the current uses and perceived value of empirical research in criminal law reform and explore opportunities for qualitative research methods to be used more systematically or extensively to improve criminal law reform processes and outcomes.

scholarly journals ‘The Very Foundations of Any System of Criminal Justice’: Criminal Responsibility in the Australian Model Criminal Code

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 8-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arlie Loughnan
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Law ◽  
Criminal Responsibility ◽  
Criminal Code ◽  
Law Reform ◽  
Reform Process ◽  
Conceptual Level ◽  
Top Down ◽  
The Core ◽  
Reform Project

The Model Criminal Code (MCC) was intended to be a Code for all Australian jurisdictions. It represents a high point of faith in the value and possibility of systematising, rationalising and modernising criminal law. The core of the MCC is Chapter 2, the ‘general principles of criminal responsibility’, which outlines the ‘physical’ and ‘fault’ elements of criminal offences, and defines concepts such as recklessness. This paper assesses the MCC as a criminal law reform project and explores questions of how the MCC came into being, and why it took shape in certain ways at a particular point in time. The paper tackles these questions from two different perspectives—‘external’ and ‘internal’ (looking at the MCC from the ‘outside’ and the ‘inside’). I make two main arguments. First, I argue that, driven by a ‘top down’ law reform process, the MCC came into being at a time when changes in crime and criminal justice were occurring, and that it may be understood as an attempt to achieve stability in a time of change. Second, I argue that the significance of the principles of criminal responsibility, which formed the central pivot of the MCC, lies on the conceptual level—in relation to the language through which the criminal law is thought about, organised and reformed.

Refining the Right to Information in Vietnamese Consumer Law: Insights from Australia

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-83
Author(s):  
Lam Uyen Lu ◽  
Niloufer Selvadurai
Keyword(s):  
Consumer Protection ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Consumer Welfare ◽  
Regulatory Framework ◽  
Law Reform ◽  
Legal Systems ◽  
Consumer Law ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Right To Information ◽  
The Right

AbstractIn upholding a consumer's right to information, regulations prohibiting misleading or deceptive conduct perform a critical role in supporting consumer welfare and encouraging equity in business and commerce. While Vietnam enacted a Law on Consumer Protection in 2010, its provisions in this area are limited in ambit and application. In order to improve the effectiveness of a consumer's right to information in Vietnam, it is useful to examine the Australia Consumer Law which has a sophisticated regulatory framework in this area. By comparing the laws prohibiting misleading or deceptive conduct in the Vietnamese Law on Consumer Protection and the Australia Consumer Law, this article identifies certain similarities and differences between the two legal systems, thereby clarifying shortcomings that can lead to inadequacies and inefficiencies of this area of the law and providing a platform for law reform in Vietnam.

Corporal Punishment: Law Reform Lessons for Australia from South Africa and New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laetitia-Ann Greeff
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Corporal Punishment ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
National Level ◽  
Law Reform ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
In Loco Parentis ◽  
A Charge ◽  
The Impact

This article compares the law reform methods employed by South Africa and New Zealand to eliminate the defence of ‘moderate and reasonable chastisement’ to a charge of common assault, to determine the best possible law reform strategy for Australian jurisdictions, within the context of its federal system of governance. South Africa and New Zealand banned corporal punishment on a national level, with South Africa prohibiting the use of corporal punishment by way of the judicial condemnation of the Constitutional Court in 2019, and New Zealand’s legislation to ban corporal punishment through Parliamentary processes in 2007. Corporal punishment in the home is still legal in Australia if administered by parents or those in loco parentis. This article focuses on the three Australian States that have enacted human rights legislation—Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and Queensland—and the impact of this legislation on judicial law reform. In this regard, the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty is discussed in terms of its ability to limit public interest litigation’s viability to strike down inconsistent legislation. The article suggests that all three countries can learn from one another concerning the successes and/or failures of law reform. Furthermore, the article concludes by acknowledging that even though formal abolition is the norm in South Africa and New Zealand, corporal punishment remains widespread. Parents and those in loco parentis must be supported by continual education initiatives to bring about requisite social and cultural change.

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