The School of Law at the University of New England has announced the launch of a new online Journal: the International Journal of Rural Law and Policy.

The Journal publishes special themed editions as well as unsolicited, relevant and peer reviewed articles as they are completed. It covers the many interdisciplinary and complex issues which make up rural law and policy. The journal is online and is free to registered users.

The journal’s editor, Prof Paul Martin, said: “There are many excellent journals that deal with legal doctrine and practice, policy and institutions, and with themes relevant to rural people and the rural context. However there is a relative lack of concentrated attention upon the unique issues and features of rural law and policy. We believe that rural issues are sufficiently distinctive and important to justify a specialist focus and have international relevance. We offer the medium of this journal as a platform to explore and share the learning.”

 The journal has adopted an “open access” policy, with the intention of replicating some of the features of the modern community to benefit both readers and authors. They are taking advantage of the flexibility that modern technology provides, by publishing:

• Editions, which comprise papers on a theme. The theme in the first Special Edition is on the topic of ‘Water Law: Through the Lens of Conflict’. Papers in the edition are based on a colloquium held in January 2011 at the University of New England, Australia.
• Regular publications of unsolicited, relevant papers on an ad hoc basis. Scholars and practitioners are invited to submit papers for peer review and inclusion.
• Commentary.  Comment is invited (see the comment link to each paper) upon all papers published in the journal. On a periodic basis, the comments will be reviewed and a ‘commentary ‘published.

Prof Martin said: “We hope that by these means the International Journal of Rural Law and Policy will generate a lively community of scholars of rural law and policy, as well as contributing innovative and useful ideas to the field.”

Link to Journal website.

A UNE graduate in law has won a prestigious international fellowship valued at at $70,000 per year, for two years.

Dr Mark Lewis Shepheard, a PhD graduate from the University of New England, is one of 70 inaugural Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship recipients.

“The Banting Postdoctoral Fellowships is a prestigious new program to attract and develop the world’s best and brightest postdoctoral researchers in Canada,” according to a media statement from the High Commission of Canada.

“The program aims to develop their leadership potential and position recipients as research leaders of tomorrow,” the statement goes on to say.

Dr. Shepheard is one of only two Australian recipients of the highly competitive fellowships, and an equal number were awarded to US and UK researchers.

“This demonstrates the high quality and calibre of postdoctoral researchers from Australia,” the High Commission statement says, adding: “The two Australian researchers are looking forward to undertaking their research in Canada and the opportunity the Banting Fellowship presents.”

Dr Shepheard will undertake his research at McGill University in Montreal. It will centre on legal challenges of sustainable water management.

Dr Shepheard said: “Banting Fellowships provide a unique opportunity for me to further my academic career at McGill’s prestigious Faculty of Law. The Faculty offers a dynamic and supportive environment for interdisciplinary scholarship and innovative approaches to socio-legal research methods.”

He went on to say that staff at McGill were “experienced in working across disciplines, highlyconnected to a network of researchers in sustainable water development, law and society, and offer unique relationships with hydro electric crown corporations”.

“This will be invaluable as I develop and test my research ideas”.

Media contacts: Mary-Lou Hayman, Manager of Academic Relations/Education Marketing at the High Commission of Canada (cnbra.academic@international.gc.ca).

A University of New England law student has won the inaugural prize in a prestigious national competition focused on copyright law.

Wellett Potter, who is studying for a Master of Laws at UNE, won the $4000 Kevin Lindgren Prize with an innovative presentation on the copyright implications of “music borrowing” in Australian law that included a live performance on the recorder by Ms Potter. The winner and the university will each receive $2000.

Music borrowing is the practice of an artist taking a small amount of music from another’s composition and using it in his or her own work.

In her presentation, Ms Potter cited a recent Federal Court case, Larrikin Music v EMI (2010), where Australian pop group “Men at Work” was found to have infringed Larrikin’s copyright by reproducing part of the “Kookaburra” song in the flute riff of the group’s 1981 single “Down Under”.

Ms Potter also made a point of comparing the status of music borrowing in Australian law with its status in the copyright law of Germany. “Music borrowing is allowed by law in parts of Europe,” Ms Potter said. “If the Larrikin case had been tried in Germany, the music borrowing involved would likely have been allowed.”

The Kevin Lindgren Prize was awarded at the biennial Copyright Law and Practice Symposium to the best student presentation on copyright from three finalists. The prize was established by the Copyright Society of Australia and named after Dr Kevin Lindgren, a former Judge of the Federal Court of Australia and former president of the Copyright Tribunal.

Dr Lindgren was among the judges when Ms Potter gave her presentation at the offices of Gilbert + Tobin, a prestigious Sydney law firm, who hosted the event.

Ms Potter said that although it “wasn’t easy” giving a presentation in front of some of the country’s leading copyright experts, she was on familiar ground with the topic, having completed her honours thesis on music borrowing at UNE last year. “This made my presentation an appropriate topic for the competition,” she said.

“I really enjoy intellectual property law,” Ms Potter said, describing it as “a fascinating and dynamic part of the law”.

Ms Potter said she had received “outstanding support” from UNE’s School of Law, singling out Prof Jürgen Bröhmer and Heather Ann Forrest for their encouragement and support of her competition bid.

Chief Justice Robert French will discuss the topic of “statutory interpretation and parliamentary intention” in a public lecture at the University of New England next Friday, September 23 at 5 pm at the Lecture Theatre 4 (EBL Building, next to the Law Library).

The Frank Kitto lecture is the annual lecture of the Law School and its main academic event of the year. The lecture is public and open to anyone who is interested. The Law School would particularly invite practitioners from the broader region to come and see the Chief Justice and the Law School.

Robert Shenton French was appointed Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia in September 2008. At the time of his appointment he was a judge of the Federal Court of Australia, having been appointed to that office in November 1986.

He graduated from the University of Western Australia in science and law. He was admitted to practice in 1972 and practised as a barrister and solicitor in Western Australia until 1983 when he went to the Western Australian Bar. From 1994 to 1998 he was President of the National Native Title Tribunal. At the time of his appointment he was an additional  member of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory and a member of the Supreme Court of Fiji. He was also a Deputy President of the Australian Competition Tribunal and a part-time member of the Australian Law Reform Commission. From 2001 to January 2005 he was president of the Australian Association of Constitutional Law. Chief Justice French was appointed a Companion in the General Division of the Order of Australia in 2010.

The lecture will commence at 5:30 PM in the John Dillon Lecture Theatre in the EBL building at the University of New England. Refreshments will be provided from 5 PM.

Enquiries: School of Law (Belinda Eastgate) on 6773 2091 or 6773 3598 or email belinda.eastgate@une.edu.au.