Submission to NSW Legislative Council on the publication of names of children involved in criminal proceedings
12 December 2007: The Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) makes the following submission to the NSW Legislative Council’s Standing Committee on Law and Justice in relation to the prohibition on the publication of names of children involved in criminal proceedings.In making this submission, the ALRC draws on its experience from current and past inquiries. In …
Publications
Read moreOpening of AAL Symposium – Remarks
Prof David Weisbrot AM, President Australian Law Reform Commission, 17 July 2007, Government House, BrisbaneYour Excellency, Chief Justices, Attorneys-General, Fellows and most distinguished guestsAt long last. It is with great pleasure — and some considerable relief — that I am here to help launch, after several years of hard work, planning and preparation, Australia’s newest learned …
News/Media Release
Read moreUWS Symposium: Sedition, free speech and the war on terror
Prof David Weisbrot AM, President, Australian Law Reform Commission, 20 March 2007 Free speech or ‘sedition’? Prohibitions on encouraging violence Introduction In its November 2005 package of anti-terrorism laws, the Government introduced a set of five ‘modernised sedition offences’, including: three offences that prohibit ‘urging others to use force of violence’ to overthrow the Constitution or …
News/Media Release
Read moreComplexity, courtroom games must go in evidence shake-up
Wednesday, 8 February 2006: Australia must have a single set of streamlined, flexible evidence laws that will protect witnesses as well as parties, recognise the importance of confidential relationships, and curb legal ‘games’ in the courtroom, Australia’s peak law reform agency said today. “It is crazy that we currently have so many different evidence law …
News/Media Release
Read morePolicy Transparency, Genetic Counselling and the Required Legal Infrastructure
Presentation by Professor David Weisbrot, President of the Australian Law Reform Commission, to the Symposium on ‘The Legal Implications of Biobanking: An Initial Review of the Legal Infrastructure Development of Taiwan’s Pilot Project’, 8 August 2005. Synopsis Following the sequencing success of the Human Genome Project, research into population genetics is likely to bring the next generation of …
News/Media Release
Read moreProtection of human genetic information
The terms of reference directed the ALRC and the Australian Health Ethics Committee (AHEC) to consider, with respect to human genetic information and the samples from which such information is derived, how best to:protect privacy;protect against unfair discrimination; andensure the highest ethical standards in research and practice.The experience of the inquiry, mirrored overseas, is that …
Inquiries
Read moreReview of the Judiciary Act 1903
The terms of reference required the ALRC to review the Judiciary Act and related legislation, taking into account, among other things, whether these Acts provide for the efficient administration of law and justice in the exercise of federal jurisdiction.The ALRC was specifically asked to consider such matters as the source, scope and exercise of federal …
Inquiries
Read moreReform of the civil justice system and economic growth: Australian experience
Professor David Weisbrot, President, Australian Law Reform Commission, ‘Court Reform and Economic Growth’, Fundación ICO Conference, Madrid, 19 October 2000[Not for quotation or publication without the permission of the author or the Conference organisers.]SynopsisThe Australian Law Reform Commission recently completed its four-year inquiry into the federal civil justice system, culminating in the publication of its …
News/Media Release
Read moreReview of the federal civil justice system
The Australian Law Reform Commission’s review of the federal civil justice system was instigated in November 1995 after concerns that Australian legal proceedings were becoming excessively adversarial and that this was having a damaging effect on the delivery of justice.Managing justice: A review of the federal civil justice system (ALRC Report 89) represents the culmination …
Inquiries
Read moreOccupiers’ liability
At the time of the inquiry (which commenced in July 1984), the common law on this subject was excessively technical and lacked uniformity. The outcome of a case would depend on the relationship between the occupier and the visitor—for example, whether they were invited onto the property or were trespassing. This process of classification often …
Inquiries
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