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…
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…
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…
Bruce Schneier, world techno futurologist, has keyed for the Japan Times this spot-on summary of where privacy is headed in the all-digital, all-knowing, all-is-revealed world of the future. (Note: Mixi is a Japanese social networking site). Read more »…
Attorney-General Robert McClelland’s 450-page discussion paper proposes reforms to anti-terror laws claimed to be ‘valid, credible, effective and balanced’. But it’s questionable whether the proposals hit any of those marks: instead, they demonstrate a f…
Crime continues to trend down, but wobbly politicians still play the vote-seeking ‘law and order’ card, reacting to rabid media beat-ups. The latest serious crime bill lowers the bar for prosecutors, doubly punishes those who have already served time for…
US stun gun manufacturer, Taser International, is trying to quash findings of the Canadian equivalent of a Royal Commission, claiming unfairness by the inquiry commissioner and bias by the lawyer assisting him. British Columbia is implementing Commission…