11.04.2022
WEBINAR INVITATION
What goes where? A comparative discussion of the legislative puzzle
Tuesday 24 May 2022 at 4.30PM AEST (90 minutes)
2.30pm AWST, HKT, SGT | 6.30pm NZST | 7.30am BST
As the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) moves forward with its current inquiry into the simplification of corporations and financial services legislation, it is turning its attention to regulatory design and the hierarchy of laws.
Relevant questions include:
- How should the statutory and regulatory framework be designed to support complex areas such as financial services?
- Where should the law be located to achieve coherence and navigability?
- If the law needs detail to function, whose job should it be to provide it?
Join the ALRC as it hosts a panel of international experts from Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore, and the UK to discuss these and related issues.
| REGISTER FOR WHAT GOES WHERE? WEBINAR |
Monash interns update
Last month we welcomed our newest Monash Law Clinic interns to the ALRC.
We are excited to provide Sophie Barron, Laura Falzon and Alessio Silvestro with learning opportunities that complement their law reform interests.
Financial Services Legislation Interim Report A
Submissions now online
The ALRC is committed to listening to the views of stakeholders. In November last year, submissions were invited in response to 16 proposals and 8 questions raised in the ALRC’s Financial Services Legislation Interim Report A.
Submissions are now available to download from the ALRC website.
Submissions, together with further consultations, surveys, workshops, and seminars, will form part of the evidence base for subsequent Interim Reports and the Final Report.
Further submissions will be invited following the release of Interim Report B later this year.
| VIEW STAKEHOLDER SUBMISSIONS |
Recent presentations
UCL Regulating Digital and Crypto-finance Webinar
On Tuesday 22 March, the Centre for Ethics and Law at University College London hosted the webinar, Regulating Digital and Crypto-finance: A Conversation Across Borders. The panel bought together a number of experts, including ALRC Special Counsel Dr Andrew Godwin, to discuss the reform agendas that may be pursued in different jurisdictions relating to crypto-finance and digital finance innovations more broadly.
| REGULATING DIGITAL AND CRYPTO-FINANCE WEBINAR RECORDING |
2022 Rare Books Lecture
On Wednesday 2 March, the Melbourne Law School hosted the 2022 Rare Books Lecture. Dr Andrew Godwin, ALRC Special Counsel, presented a lecture on the life and career of Melbourne Law School graduate, William Ah Ket, Australia’s first barrister of Chinese origin.
| 2022 RARE BOOKS LECTURE RECORDING |
2022 Walyalup (Fremantle) Law Conference Keynote Address
On 18 February, the Piddington Society and Fremantle Community Legal Centre hosted the 2022 Walyalup (Fremantle) Law Conference. The Hon Justice SC Derrington, President of the ALRC, provided the opening keynote address on judicial bias, titled ‘Without Fear or Favour’.
| DOWNLOAD KEYNOTE ADDRESS |
Recent publications
COVID-19, the principle of legality and the “legislative bulldozer” of the Biosecurity Act 2015 (Cth): Newman v Minister for Health and Aged Care
In a recent article in the Public Law Review (2021) 32 PLR 267, Samuel Walpole (former ALRC Legal Officer) and Dr William Isdale discuss an unsuccessful legal challenge brought in relation to a COVID travel ban.
The travel ban was introduced roughly a year ago, in response to the emergence of the Delta strain of COVID-19. The Minister for Health and Aged Care prevented entry into Australia of persons travelling from India, using powers provided under the Biosecurity Act 2015 (Cth).
Shifting sands in the regulation of financial risk
At the core of financial services law is the concept of risk.
In this article in the Queensland Law Society’s Proctor, Dr William Isdale and Nicholas Simoes da Silva provide an overview of the key themes arising from the latest ALRC Background Paper, Risk and Reform in Australian Financial Services Law (FSL5).
| READ SHIFTING SANDS IN THE REGULATION OF FINANCIAL RISK |
Tidying our house of law: bringing the Marie Kondo philosophy to the Commonwealth statute book
The Commonwealth statute book has become a sprawling manor house. It has its charms and its beauty. But a house of this age needs constant care, lest lawyers, judges, policymakers, or litigants be crushed beneath a poorly maintained colonnade.
In a new piece on the Australian Public Law Blog, Nicholas Simoes da Silva and Dr William Isdale consider how we can make the Commonwealth statute book ‘more liveable’ – in particular, by removing ‘dead law’ and ‘dark law’.
| READ TIDYING OUR HOUSE OF LAW ARTICLE |
Fighting the system: New approaches to addressing systematic corporate misconduct
Does a system of conduct offence have the potential to enhance corporate criminal law’s effectiveness?
Read Matt Corrigan and Samuel Walpole’s article in the Sydney Law Review to explore alternatives to traditional approaches to corporate criminal liability.
Building on the ALRC’s recommendations in the Corporate Criminal Responsibility Report, this article considers a novel type of offence — one that criminalises systems of conduct or patterns of behaviour by corporations.
| DOWNLOAD FIGHTING THE SYSTEM ARTICLE |
PODCAST
Law Council of Australia BLS Report
ALRC President the Hon Justice SC Derrington speaks with Professor Pamela Hanrahan and John Keeves about the ALRC’s current review of the legislative framework for corporations and financial services regulation.
| LISTEN TO BLS REPORT PODCAST |
Judicial Impartiality Final Report
The ALRC’s Final Report on Judicial Impartiality was submitted to the Attorney-General of Australia, Senator the Hon Michaelia Cash on 6 December 2021.
We look forward to participating in public discussions on the recommendations in due course.
In April 2021, the ALRC published a Consultation Paper containing questions and draft proposals for public comment. Submissions in response to the Consultation Paper are published on the ALRC website.
| READ MORE ABOUT THE INQUIRY |
Inquiry Background Papers
The ALRC produces background papers which are intended to provide a high-level overview of topics of relevance to each Inquiry.
Judicial Impartiality
- The Law on Judicial Bias: A Primer (JI1)
- Recusal and Self-Disqualification (JI2)
- The Federal Judiciary – the Inquiry in Context (JI3)
- Conceptions of Judicial Impartiality in Theory and Practice (JI4)
- Ethics, Professional Development, and Accountability (JI5)
- Cognitive and Social Biases in Judicial Decision-Making (JI6)
- The Fair-Minded Observer and its Critics (JI7)