Archive for May, 2009

About 200 students from more than 30 schools throughout northern NSW visited the University of New England last Friday to indulge their interest in mathematics in a full day of maths-based activities.

Now in its 15th year, the annual Year 8 Mathematics Day at UNE allows keen mathematics students to meet their peers from other schools, and to compete with them in a range of interesting and enjoyable activities. Working in teams of four, the students develop skills in cooperative problem solving while applying their classroom mathematics to the solution of practical, real-life problems.

The students, accompanied by their mathematics teachers, came from as far away as Inverell, Coffs Harbour, Kempsey, Port Macquarie and Wee Waa. A team from Bishop Druitt College in Coffs Harbour won the trophy in the Secondary Schools Division, and a team from Bowraville Central School was the winner in the Central Schools Division. Each of the members of the two winning teams received a certificate and a medallion, and their schools will hold the perpetual trophies throughout the coming year. Both Bishop Druitt College and Bowraville Central School are first-time trophy winners at the Year 8 Mathematics Day.

The event is sponsored each year by the UNE-based National Centre of Science, ICT and Mathematics Education for Rural and Regional Australia (SiMERR), UNE’s School of Education, and the New England Mathematical Association. More than 20 people from these organisations were involved in the preparation and presentation of this year’s event.

“After 15 years, the day is still meeting the needs of students and schools, and is receiving high praise from both the participants and their parents,” said Professor John Pegg, the Director of SiMERR. “Most significantly, it helps to highlight the important role that mathematics plays across the educational spectrum, and how mathematics underpins so many of the trades and professions in today’s society.”

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here shows a student from Guyra Central School intent on solving a problem during the Year 8 Mathematics Day at UNE.

This article was produced by UNE’s Marketing and Public Affairs and reproduced here with their permission.

In the next installment of the Kirby Seminar Series, coordinated by the UNE School of Law Research Committee, Dr Jonathan Crowe, Senior Lecturer at the University of Queensland, will speak on the topic of “The Priority Of Contextual Meaning: A Theory of Judicial Interpretation”. The seminar will take place at noon on 19 May 2009 in the Lewis Seminar Room (W38, Law School building).

In his paper, Dr Crowe argues that, in interpreting legal texts, judges should seek to give effect to their contextual meaning: the meaning they hold when considered in the full light of their broader social and moral context. He will argue first that, as a descriptive matter, contextual meaning is necessarily prior to any more restricted form of textual interpretation; that is, the contextual meaning of a legal text is its ordinary meaning. He will then advance two arguments for the proposition that, other things being equal, judicial interpretation of legal texts ought to follow their ordinary (or contextual) meaning. The final parts of his paper explore the nature and limitations of the contextualist model of judicial practice. The possibility of conflicts between contextual factors at different levels of abstraction makes it necessary to distinguish between narrow and wide versions of the contextualist methodology. He argues that wide contextualism offers the best overall account of judicial practice.

Assoc Professor Jurgen Brohmer and Dr Eric Ghosh, together with Professor Helen Ware from Peace Studies, were recently invited to speak at a public forum in the Armidale Town Hall chaired by Mr Tony Windsor MP on matters raised by the Commonwealth Government’s National Human Rights Consultation. The forum was organised by ANTaR.

The Human Rights Forum - audio file. The forum question time - audio file.

From left: Professor Helen Ware, Mr Tony Windsor MP, Mrs Lesley Widders (ANTaR Co-convenor), Dr Eric Ghosh, Ms Jenny Greaney and Associate Professor Jürgen Bröhmer

An  international conference organized by A/Prof Jürgen Bröhmer from the University of New England Law School will bring together leading German and Australian constitutional law experts to discuss key constitutional principles from both a German and Australian perspective.
The conference will take place at the ANU in Canberra on 22 - 23 May 2009 and coincide with the 60th anniversary on 23 May of the Germany’s post-war constitution, the “Grundgesetz” (Basic Law).
The German and Australian constitutions bear similarities and differences. The German constitution contains a prominent and powerful catalogue of human rights limiting the exercise of all governmental power, a feature not found in the Australian constitution. Both constitutions erect a federal order but federalism has developed significantly different. Both countries have powerful constitutional courts and it will be interesting to see what the differences and similarities are and how the two constitutions and the two constitutional courts empowered to interpret them have shaped the political and legal reality in the two countries.

… ein Grundgesetz für das gesamte Deutsche Volk
… a basic law for the entire German people

Keynote speakers will be His Excellency Dr Michael Witter, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Hon Jon Stanhope MLA, Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory, and the Hon Justice Maxwell, President of the Court of Appeal, Victoria. Distinguished legal experts from Australia and Germany will present a range of issues from their respective perspectives.

The conference will take place Friday, May 22 and Saturday, May 23 at University House of ANU.

For further information visit the conference website or contact A/Prof Jurgen Brohmer, School of Law, University of New England.