News and Media

Keep up to date with ALRC news and media!

28.06.2019

Where next for law reform? Seminars

In May and June 2019, the ALRC held four seminars on the future of law reform in conjunction with the Law Schools at UNSW, ANU and Melbourne University. To find out more about each seminar you can read a short summary: UNSW ANU Uni Melb Bribane

03.12.2019

Where next for law reform? Final Report Launch

On Monday 2 December 2019, the ALRC launched the final report of the Future of Law Reform project at a well-attended and high-spirited event in the Commonwealth Law Courts building in Brisbane. President of the ALRC, Justice Sarah Derrington, outlined the origins and purposes of the project, reflecting on the ALRC’s longstanding commitment to public …

02.12.2019

Report Launch – The Future of Law Reform

The Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) is today releasing a report suggesting an ambitious agenda for law reform over the next five years. The report will be launched by the current ALRC President, the Hon Justice Sarah Derrington, and the inaugural ALRC Chairman, Hon Michael Kirby AC CMG, in the Commonwealth Law Courts Building in …

27.11.2019

Corporate attribution – principled simplicity

In its Discussion Paper on Australia’s corporate criminal responsibility regime, the ALRC proposes a simplified method for attributing criminal responsibility to corporations. What follows is a short summary and explanation of the key principles underlying that proposal. The law treats corporations as ‘people’. Therefore, the prohibitions imposed on people are usually applicable for both humans …

19.11.2019

When Should Officers be Liable for Corporate Crime?

Research and consultations in the course of the ALRC’s Inquiry into Corporate Criminal Responsibility have highlighted the important role played by senior management in ensuring compliance throughout the different parts of a corporation. While corporations can be ‘a person’ under law, they are also made up of individuals – some of whom have authority and …

18.11.2019

Ensuring appropriate and effective regulation of corporations: A recalibration of Australian corporate regulation

In its Discussion Paper on Australia’s corporate criminal responsibility regime released on 15 November 2019, the ALRC proposes a new model of corporate regulation that aims to achieve more appropriate and effective regulation of corporations. Central to this is the adoption of a principled distinction between the use of criminal and civil regulation. A lack …

15.11.2019

ALRC Corporate Crime – Discussion Paper

The Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) today released a Discussion Paper, Corporate Criminal Responsibility (DP 87). Building on the work of the Hayne Royal Commission, the ALRC has found that Commonwealth criminal law as it applies to corporations is impenetrably complex and in need of significant reform. There is an overregulation by the criminal law …

14.10.2019

Sydney Seminar: Interrogating the English approach to prosecuting economic crime

Places are limited! To confirm your attendance please register here:

13.09.2019

Deodands and Frankpledges!

While there are clear commercial and economic benefits as a result of the creation of the corporation, the construction of a legal artifice of ‘the legal person’ raises fundamental questions about the applicability of the criminal law to that artifice. A corporation cannot be sent to jail. It has no soul that may be damned.

13.09.2019

Be Civil not Criminal: The Role of the Criminal law in the Regulatory Pyramid

— The reality we have found is that when you actually map the criminal laws which are applicable to corporations, what you find is much closer to a rhomboid than a neat pyramid. The scope and scale and pervasiveness of criminal offences which are potentially applicable to corporations, is shocking. — Read Venetia’s full speech …

04.09.2019

Of Shields and Swords – let the jousting begin!

Justice Derrington, President of the ALRC, presented at the Freedom19 Conference in Sydney. “On Thursday of last week, the Attorney-General released an exposure draft of religious freedoms reforms, which he intends to present to Parliament in final form in October. The exposure draft traverses many of the issues that were within the ALRC’s original terms …