Hindsight is a great teacher. In this article, CLA member Estelle Blackburn analyses what turned Eric Edgar Cooke, born with a cleft palette and harelip, from a social misfit into a serial killer whose reign of terror over a city ended half a century ag…
Remember Major Mori, the charismatic, smooth-talking US military defence lawyer who was allocated to David Hicks’ Guantanamo Bay case? While fighting for Hicks, Mori was dudded by his own side…and he is fighting back. Here’s the latest minor win i…
Bruno Marevich, a senior naturopath whose entire life is concern for health, was shocked at Gold Coast airport to be suddenly forced to undergo full body scanning and radiation exposure…under threat of instant detention, a fine, possibly jail and then a…
Prisoners, parent of prisoners, prisoner aid and help groups, prison reform groups, warders, jail superintendents, police, lawyers…all should be aware of a new opportunity to have your voices heard in this major inquiry by a Federal Parliament Senate…
Australia seems to be facing increasing miscarriages of justice cases: people who are not guilty are jailed for years, sometimes decades, the guilty go free, and relatives suffer major trauma, sometimes twice and thrice over. CLA member Barbara Etter –…
Chief Justice Wayne Martin gives an excellent backgrounder in this speech as to why and how a new mental health court in WA next year will fulfil a major need, as he demonstrates with statistics drawn from other jurisdictions around Australia.
Read th…
Lloyd Rayney is innocent, a judge has ruled, in a high-profile murder case in WA…but not so the police. Judge Brian Martin has been scathing of police behaviour in the case, and so far no officer has been called to account. Former WA Police Assistant…
The NSW Ombudsman, Bruce Barbour, has made 46 recommendations to improve police use of stun guns after undertaking a six-month study of incidents in NSW. The Ombudsman’s media release has an overview of his findings, and there’s a link to stun gun video…
Defence Minister Stephen Smith must immediately deliver his response to a major report, now a year old, which lays bare a half-century history of rape, sexual and physical, and administrative abuse in Defence. The report implicates currently serving sen…
We all call for those whose positions we oppose to apply the ‘rule of law’. But what exactly is it? Or, if there’s no definition we can agree on, what should it be? CLA media spokesperson Rebecca Prior discusses the issues, and also points to an article…