Archive for the 'Law' Category

Link to The Specator Australia article (15 August 2009), ‘Loose Laws’, about Bryan Pape’s High Court challenge. Bryan Pape and Jurgen Brohmer from the UNE Law School discuss Bryan’s High Court challenge of the Tax Bonus Act. The audio file is available from the link below.

Access the audio file.

For further information see:

Pape v The Commissioner of Taxation of the Commonwealth of Australia & Anor [2009] HCATrans 59 (30 March 2009) at http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/HCATrans/2009/59.html

and

Pape v The Commissioner of Taxation of the Commonwealth of Australia & Anor [2009] HCATrans 60 (31 March 2009) at
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/HCATrans/2009/60.html

The next Kirby Seminar, titled ‘Capital Punishment and Diplomatic Protection: Australia s Experience in Responding to its Citizens in Peril‘ will be delivered by Professor Don Rothwell (ANU) on Tuesday 14 July at 12 noon in the Lewis Seminar Room in the Law School.
Throughout the past decade Australia has been confronted with a number of challenges arising from its citizens being sentenced to death in overseas countries. In some instances, as with a number of Australians held in Vietnam, the Australian government has been successful in requesting that clemency be applied and the death sentence has been commuted. In other instances, such as the case of Van Nguyen in Singapore in 2005, the government’s diplomatic efforts have failed. Currently, there are three Australians on death row in Indonesia; all members of the so-called Bali Nine who were arrested for drug trafficking offences in Bali in 2005. Whilst the Australians held in Bali had yet to exhaust their local judicial remedies, there is growing concern as to their plight and what options may ultimately be open to the Australian government to ensure the death penalty is not applied. This seminar will explore these issues, especially the rights and obligations the Australian government may have towards its citizens who are being detained overseas and in circumstances of peril. It will also review the position of successive Australian governments towards the death penalty.

When: 12 noon, Tuesday 14th July 2009

Where: Lewis Seminar Room, W38 Law School Building

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.

Bryan Pape and Jurgen Brohmer from the UNE Law School discuss Bryan’s High Court challenge of the Tax Bonus Act. The audio file is available from the link below.

Access the audio file.

For further information see:

Pape v The Commissioner of Taxation of the Commonwealth of Australia & Anor [2009] HCATrans 59 (30 March 2009) at http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/HCATrans/2009/59.html

and

Pape v The Commissioner of Taxation of the Commonwealth of Australia & Anor [2009] HCATrans 60 (31 March 2009) at
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/HCATrans/2009/60.html

Does the legal concept of a “duty of care” make it easier to solve environmental conflicts over farming? An experimental court case at the University of New England can be seen as a step towards answering that question.UNE’s Moot Court, within the School of Law, became the ‘New England Land and Environment Court of Appeal’ for the hearing of a hypothetical appeal case involving the alleged degradation of wetlands by a farmer.

The Hon. Keith Mason AC QC (pictured here), former President of the Court of Appeal of NSW, presided over the hearing, in which the farmer and the Attorney General were represented by opposing teams of lawyers - some of them specialists in environmental law. The legal participants in the moot court hearing travelled to UNE from Sydney, Lismore and Gunnedah, as well as from Armidale.

Their inquiry focused on the concept of ‘duty of care’ as it relates to farmers’ environmental responsibilities. “The main issue was whether the legal concept of a ‘duty of care’ is an effective and fair way of managing environmental disputes,” Mr Mason said.

“Everybody agrees that we have a long-term duty to look after our land so that the environment is sustainable,” he continued. “But would it be fairer to have just a general ‘duty of care’ for farmers, or a more detailed regulatory framework?”

“While farmers would probably prefer a general ‘duty of care’ to a lot of regulation,” Mr Mason said, “could leave them more open to being sued.”

“Although the concerns of farmers are focused on their farming interests,” he added, “they aren’t narrow or selfish concerns.”

Mark Shepheard, a CRC for Irrigation Futures research student at UNE, organised the hearing as part of his PhD project investigating the role of the ‘duty of care’ concept in managing conflict about farming and the environment. The project is being supervised by Professor Paul Martin, the Director of UNE’s Australian Centre for Agriculture and Law, and Associate Professor Mark Lunney from UNE’s School of Law.

For yesterday’s hearing, Mr Shepheard created ‘legislation’ (based on current laws in Queensland and South Australia), and outlined the background to the case and the courtroom scenario. “We took the kind of legislation that exists, and looked at the problems that could arise when it’s applied in the courtroom,” he said.

Mr Shepheard agreed that support for the ‘duty of care’ concept was widespread throughout the community. “But how does a farmer translate that concept into practical measures?” he asked. “Yesterday’s experiment has taken a significant step towards answering that question by identifying some of the problems involved in explaining ‘duty of care’ in practical terms.”

THE PHOTOGRAPH displayed here shows the Hon. Keith Mason AC QC presiding in UNE’s Moot Court in September 2008. Clicking on this image reveals a photograph of Mr Mason with Mark Shepheard, the research student who organised yesterday’s moot court hearing.

(Written by UNE journalist, Dr Jim Scanlan, Sept 2008)
Article reproduced with permission from UNE’s news list.