CLA’s policy on criminal justice
All Australians are entitled to protection from arbitrary arrest and unnecessary detention; to a fair, speedy and public trial; to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, and to legal advice and representation.
Sentencing should be based on the principle of rehabilitation wherever possible.
Abortion is a difficult societal issue where health concerns are paramount. Women should have the right to make decisions about their own bodies. Laws around the issue of abortion should be based on health grounds, not criminal penalties.Abortion is a…
“Australia has one of the weakest legislatures in the democratic world,” says Clerk of the Senate,Harry Evans. Two changes could inject courage and power, says Dr Bede Harris, who proposes we change the voting system externally and the privileges system…
A Forth Worth, Texas, medical examiner has ruled that a stun gun killed a man this year. In three previous deaths following stun gun use in the US city, the medical examiner’s office had not ruled the weapon responsible. Michael Patrick Jacobs died of “s…
As East Timor celebrates 10 years of independence, a new film – Balibo – recounts the fate of Australian journalists when Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony. Our nation’s record over the invasion is appalling, as UN expert adviser on the East…
Governments must abide by Model Litigant policies, but so should private sector lawyers, NSW Legal Services Commissioner Steve Mark says. Extending the legal ‘fair go’ principle is necessary so the law can do its fundamental job, protecting the individua…
Australian are becoming more conscious of liberties and rights, and view with increasing suspicion excessive fear campaigns mounted by politicians and other power groups, CLA reports. Hope rises for a new human rights charter, and a privacy tort, but sti…
With Schapelle Corby’s health obviously suffering in a Bali jail, the Australian Government must step up efforts for a prisoner exchange agreement with Indonesia, possibly based on emergency mental health grounds in her case. Kay Danes, who has been thro…
Everything you own is suspect. With, say, $100,000 in assets, you have to prove you are not guilty of crime. Police – maybe using false identities – can go fishing in your tax files and your private bank records. As you try to fight to prove your inn…
Attorney-General Robert McClelland has spoken publicly about his personal commitment to ensuring the Commonwealth operates to the highest possible standards as a Model Litigant. Here’s the relevant extracts from his speech to a seminar in Canberra in lat…
One man’s freedom – that of Mohammed Jawad – was hard won from Guantanamo Bay, but he is at last, after more than six years, back home in Afghanistan. Here’s the story, written by one of the US military lawyers who secured Jawad’s freedom, David Frakt, o…