scholarly journals An open and reproducible analysis of a controversial criminal law decision: Mission IMM-possible?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Chin
Keyword(s):  
Open Source Software ◽  
Research Process ◽  
High Court ◽  
The Public ◽  
Judicial Decisions ◽  
Research Fields ◽  
Law And Policy ◽  
Criminological Research ◽  
Reproducible Analysis ◽  
High Court Of Australia

Reproducibility and open access are central to the research process, enabling researchers to verify and build upon each other’s work, and allowing the public to rely on that work. These ideals are perhaps even more important in legal and criminological research, fields that actively seek to inform law and policy. This article has two goals. First, it seeks to advance legal and criminological research methods by serving as an example of a reproducible and open analysis of a controversial criminal evidence decision. Towards that end, this study relies on open source software, and includes an app (https://openlaw.shinyapps.io/imm-app/) allowing readers to access and read through the judicial decisions being analysed. The second goal is to examine the effect of the 2016 High Court of Australia decision, IMM v The Queen, which appeared to limit safeguards against evidence known to contribute to wrongful convictions in Australia and abroad.

scholarly journals What the Australian Public Knows About the High Court

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-63
Author(s):  
Ingrid Nielsen ◽  
Russell Smyth
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Representative Sample ◽  
Adult Population ◽  
Public Support ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
High Court ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Role ◽  
High Court Of Australia

Existing studies for the United States examine the extent to which the public is knowledgeable about US courts, arguing that knowledge of the courts is linked to public support for their role. We know little, though, about the Australian public’s awareness of the High Court of Australia. We report the results of a survey of a representative sample of the Australian adult population, administered in November 2017. We find that few Australians know the names of the Justices, the number of Justices on the Court, how the Justices are appointed or for how long they serve. Awareness of recent cases decided by the Court is mixed. We find that age and education are better predictors of awareness levels than is gender. Our findings are important because in the absence of awareness of the High Court, the potential exists for the public to see the Court as having a more overt political role than it has, which may lower esteem for the Court. The potential for this to occur is exacerbated if, and when, politicians attempt to drag the High Court into the political fray, by attributing political motives to it that it does not have.

scholarly journals Developing the Esperanto of quality

2001 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Jennifer W Majoor ◽  
Joseph E Ibrahim
Keyword(s):  
Health Care Providers ◽  
New South ◽  
Royal Infirmary ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
High Court ◽  
The Public ◽  
South Wales ◽  
Public Inquiry ◽  
Personal Performance ◽  
High Court Of Australia

Professionalism is a complex and ill-defined concept and the impending Report of the Public Inquiry into thepaediatric cardiac surgery service at the Bristol Royal Infirmary continues to heighten debate on the subject.Bolsin offers examples of operational definitions from the Privy Council (United Kingdom), the state healthauthorities in New South Wales and Victoria, and the High Court of Australia. He also provides an implicitdefinition of professionalism that encompasses the collection and use of personal performance data forindividual health care providers and organisations.

The use of Foreign Law by the High Court of Australia

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Spottiswood
Keyword(s):  
Legal System ◽  
Common Factors ◽  
Appellate Courts ◽  
International Consensus ◽  
High Court ◽  
Judicial Decisions ◽  
Normative Question ◽  
Foreign Law ◽  
High Court Of Australia ◽  
The Normative Question

Justices of the High Court of Australia have a broad discretion to follow foreign judicial decisions based on whether they consider a decision to be persuasive. But it is difficult to assess what it is about a foreign decision that makes it likely to be followed by the High Court. This has created uncertainty that is problematic for both litigants and the court. To help address the uncertainty associated with the High Court's use of foreign decisions, this article identifies common factors that explain when the High Court is likely to follow foreign decisions. By drawing on theories of persuasive authority and closely analysing decisions from 2015 and 2016, I argue that the High Court is more likely to follow foreign decisions that: (1) are about legislation or instruments with similar words to those in dispute; (2) emanate from certain jurisdictions; (3) are from apex or appellate courts; (4) are raised by litigants; and (5) reflect values common to the Australian legal system. Conversely, the area of law, international consensus and the date of foreign decisions are unlikely to influence the High Court's willingness to follow foreign decisions. These factors can help litigants use foreign decisions effectively and may be used by legal scholars to scrutinise the legitimacy of the High Court's use of foreign decisions and to address the normative question of how the High Court should use foreign law.

The Constitutionalisation of Free Trade by the High Court of Australia and the Court of Justice of the European Union

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Kiefel ◽  
Gonzalo Villalta Puig
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
The European Union ◽  
High Court ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
Competitive Effects ◽  
Law And Policy ◽  
Court Of Justice ◽  
High Court Of Australia ◽  
Domestic Regulation

Together with matters of multilateral and bilateral regulation, domestic regulation affects the law and policy of economic relations between the European Union (eu) and Australia. This article discusses the constitutional determinants of the Australian single market and the significance to its development of the free trade jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union. When Australia was federated, free trade between the States and the removal of barriers at the borders were at the forefront of constitutional objectives. They find expression in Section 92 of the Australian Constitution. It took some time for the jurisprudence to develop by reference to principles of competition. Recent decisions of the High Court of Australia highlight the need to prove that a law or measure may have anti-competitive effects within a market to hold it invalid. Application of this (unacknowledged) test of proportionality invites comparison with eu law and opens to question the usefulness of protectionism as a criterion of constitutional invalidity for trade without borders in the ‘new economy’.

scholarly journals Freedom of speech issues in Peach v Toohey and a hypothetical variant of that case

2004 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-152
Author(s):  
Patrick Keyzer
Keyword(s):  
Property Rights ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
Free Speech ◽  
Freedom Of Speech ◽  
Right To Know ◽  
High Court ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
The Law ◽  
High Court Of Australia

The purpose of this article is to consider the tensions within Australian free speech jurisprudence based on a hypothetical variant of the facts of the decision of the Supreme Court of the Northen Territory in Peach v Toohey. In particular, this article briefly explores the competing legal interests  that operate when journalists seek access to restricted areas, in this case aborginal land, in the course of an investigation. After considering the case and the issues it raises the author develops a hypothetical that draws out some of the deeper tensions in this area of the law. The article concludes with proposals for new apporoaches to the test developed by the High Court of Australia in Lange v Australian Broadcasting Corporation for the balancing of freedom to discuss political and governmental affairs—including the public right to know — against other legitimate objectives such as the maintence of property rights and the privacy interests that can be associated with propety rights. 

Public space of the trustworthiness of sociological knowledge: The case of electoral research

2020 ◽  
pp. 13-22
Author(s):  
OLEKSANDR STEGNII
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Negative Influence ◽  
Election Campaign ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Good Tool ◽  
Sociological Knowledge ◽  
The Public ◽  
Approval Ratings ◽  
The Impact

The paper analyses specific features of sociological data circulation in a public space during an election campaign. The basic components of this kind of space with regard to sociological research are political actors (who put themselves up for the election), voters and agents. The latter refer to professional groups whose corporate interests are directly related to the impact on the election process. Sociologists can also be seen as agents of the electoral process when experts in the field of electoral sociology are becoming intermingled with manipulators without a proper professional background and publications in this field. In a public space where an electoral race is unfolding, empirical sociological research becomes the main form of obtaining sociological knowledge, and it is primarily conducted to measure approval ratings. Electoral research serves as an example of combining the theoretical and empirical components of sociological knowledge, as well as its professional and public dimensions. Provided that sociologists meet all the professional requirements, electoral research can be used as a good tool for evaluating the trustworthiness of results reflecting the people’s expression of will. Being producers of sociological knowledge, sociologists act in two different capacities during an election campaign: as analysts and as pollsters. Therefore, it is essential that the duties and areas of responsibility for professional sociologists should be separated from those of pollsters. Another thing that needs to be noted is the negative influence that political strategists exert on the trustworthiness of survey findings which are going to be released to the public. Using the case of approval ratings as an illustration, the author analyses the most common techniques aimed at misrepresenting and distorting sociological data in the public space. Particular attention is given to the markers that can detect bogus polling companies, systemic violations during the research process and data falsification.

Search for Principle - The Government's Liability in Negligence for the Careless Exercise of its Statutory Powers

2000 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 629
Author(s):  
Thomas Geuther
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Public Law ◽  
Public Authority ◽  
Special Treatment ◽  
Duty Of Care ◽  
Supreme Court Of Canada ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
High Court ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
High Court Of Australia

For many years the English courts have struggled to develop a principled approach for determining when a public authority can owe a duty of care in respect of the exercise of its statutory powers. Initially, public authorities received no special treatment. Then the courts conferred an almost complete immunity on them, requiring public law irrationality to be established before considering whether a duty could arise. The English approach has not been adopted elsewhere in the Commonwealth. The High Court of Australia and the Supreme Court of Canada have developed different tests, and the New Zealand courts, while never explicitly rejecting the English position, have never followed it. This paper argues that a modified version of the Canadian Supreme Court's approach should be adopted in New Zealand. It proposes that irrationality be a precondition to the existence of a duty of care only where policy considerations are proved to have influenced the decisions of a public authority in exercising its statutory powers.

A Progressive Era Idea for Reforming Government that Didn’t Make It: Recall of Judicial Decisions

Public Voices ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 58
Author(s):  
Mordecai Lee
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Progressive Era ◽  
Academic Discipline ◽  
Public Reporting ◽  
Reform Movement ◽  
Court Decisions ◽  
The Public ◽  
Judicial Decisions ◽  
Progressive Reforms ◽  
Original Concept

As a reform movement and an academic discipline, American public administrationgenerally coalesced during the Progressive era (1890-1920). Progressive reforms for the public sector seeped deeply into the DNA of the field, including separation of civil servants from politics, reliance on expertise, fewer elected offices, and public reporting of agency activities. However, not all of the governmental reforms proposed during this era were enacted. One of the most controversial and least known was Theodore Roosevelt’s proposal in 1912 that the voters be able to have a referendum on major court decisions, permitting them to overturn those decisions. His idea was only enacted in Colorado, where it remained on the books until 1921. This article reviews the original concept and its history in Colorado.

User Property, User Rights, and User Privileges

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pascale Chapdelaine
Keyword(s):  
Public Law ◽  
Copyright Law ◽  
Future Application ◽  
Private Law ◽  
The Public ◽  
Freedom Of Contract ◽  
Competing Interests ◽  
Regulatory Changes ◽  
Law And Policy ◽  
User Property

This chapter proposes two principles that should inform the development of copyright law and policy and of user rights. The first calls for more cohesion between copyright law, private law, and public law, and for less exceptionalism in copyright law. The second requires that the balance in copyright law be adjusted for its future application as a mediation tool between the competing interests of copyright holders, users, intermediaries, and the public. Instituting positive obligations for copyright holders in relation to users and steering freedom of contract toward the objectives of copyright law are necessary regulatory changes to rectify ongoing imbalances. The principle of technological neutrality should guide the judiciary in its application of copyright’s objective of promoting a balance in copyright law. The proposed guiding principles lead to the creation of a taxonomy and hierarchy of copyright user rights that take into account the myriad ways users experience copyright works.

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