Governing virtual worlds : to what extent is it possible to empower players and preserve their rights in virtual worlds, and what is the best method of doing so?

In this paper the author considers the possibilities for establishing democratic governance in virtual worlds. He looks at the freedoms currently available to players in “Second Life”, contrasting these to those established in Raph Koster’s “A Declaration of the Rights of Avatars”, and assess whether some restrictions are more necessary in game spaces than social spaces. The author looks at the early implementations of self-governance in online spaces, and consider what lessons can be taken from these, investigating what a contemporary democratic space looks like, in the form of “A Tale in the Desert”, and finally considers how else we may think of giving players more rights in these developing social spaces.

Unspeakably present: The (un)acknowledgment of diverse sexuality and gender human rights in Australian youth justice systems

A number of international human rights frameworks protect the rights of young people in contact with the criminal justice system in states parties, including Australia. These frameworks inform youth justice policy in Australia’s jurisdictions. While the frameworks protect young people’s right to non-discrimination on the grounds of ‘race’, religion and political opinion, the rights of young people to non-discrimination on the grounds of sexuality and gender diversity are not explicitly protected. This is problematic given that lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ) young people appear over-represented in youth justice systems. This article argues that the exclusion of this group from human rights frameworks has an important flow-on effect: the marginalisation of the right of LGBTIQ young people to non-discrimination in policy and discourse that is informed by international human rights frameworks. After outlining the relevant frameworks, this article examines the evidence about LGBTIQ young people’s interactions with youth justice agencies, particularly police. The evidence indicates that the human rights of LGBTIQ young people are frequently breached in these interactions. We conclude by arguing that it is timely to consider how best to protect the human rights of LBGTIQ young people and keep their rights on the agenda.

The garden of Australian dreams: The moral rights of landscape architects

This article considers the moral rights controversy over plans to redesign the landscape architecture of the National Museum of Australia. This dispute raises issues about the nature and scope of moral rights; the professional standing of landscape architects; and the culture wars taking place in Australia. Part 1 considers the introduction of the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000 (Cth), with its special regime for architecture and public sculpture. It focuses upon a number of controversies which have arisen in respect of copyright law and architecture - involving the National Gallery of Australia, the National Museum of Australia, the Pig ’n Whistle pub, the South Bank redevelopment, and the new Parliament House. Part 2 examines the dispute over the Garden of Australian Dreams. The controversy is a striking one - as the Australian Government sought to subvert the spirit of its own legislation, the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000 (Cth). Part 3 engages in a comparative study of how copyright law and architecture are dealt with in other jurisdictions. In particular, it considers the dual operation of the Architectural Works Copyright Act 1990 (US) and the Visual Artists Rights Act 1990 (US) and a number of controversies in the United States - over the Tilted Arc sculpture, a Los Angeles tower block that appeared in the film Batman Forever, a community garden mural, a sculpture park, and the Freedom Tower.

Moral rights and their application in Australia: a book review

In Moral Rights and Their Application in Australia, Maree Sainsbury offers a summary of the new moral rights regime established in Australia in 2000. It is a decent guide and handbook to moral rights for legal practitioners, the authors of copyright work, and the users of copyright material. As the author notes: "The Australian moral rights legislation impacts on the rights and obligations of many people in diverse circumstances, from the creator of a highly unique work of art to the designer of a web site incorporating factual information or graphics which someone else has created. Any person creating or dealing with copyright material should be aware of the moral rights implications. This book provides a detailed analysis of the moral rights legislation, while stressing the fundamental provisions. It also provides some useful practical guidance for those who are affected, both in general terms and with respect to the more specific situations outlined above." Maree Sainsbury provides an enjoyable account of the history and nature of moral rights. She charts the romantic, Continental origins of moral rights, and explains their translation to countries, such as Australia and the United States.

Mary Robinson's declaration of climate justice: Climate change, human rights and fossil fuel divestment

In her biography, Everybody Matters: My Life Giving Voice, Mary Robinson explained how she became interested in the topic of human rights and climate change, after hearing testimony from African farmers, with Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

The legality of deep packet inspection

Deep packet inspection is a technology which enables the examination of the content of information packets being sent over the Internet. The Internet was originally set up using “end-to-end connectivity” as part of its design, allowing nodes of the network to send packets to all other nodes of the network, without requiring intermediate network elements to maintain status information about the transmission. In this way, the Internet was created as a “dumb” network, with “intelligent” devices (such as personal computers) at the end or “last mile” of the network. The dumb network does not interfere with an application's operation, nor is it sensitive to the needs of an application, and as such it treats all information sent over it as (more or less) equal. Yet, deep packet inspection allows the examination of packets at places on the network which are not endpoints, In practice, this permits entities such as Internet service providers (ISPs) or governments to observe the content of the information being sent, and perhaps even manipulate it. Indeed, the existence and implementation of deep packet inspection may challenge profoundly the egalitarian and open character of the Internet. This paper will firstly elaborate on what deep packet inspection is and how it works from a technological perspective, before going on to examine how it is being used in practice by governments and corporations. Legal problems have already been created by the use of deep packet inspection, which involve fundamental rights (especially of Internet users), such as freedom of expression and privacy, as well as more economic concerns, such as competition and copyright. These issues will be considered, and an assessment of the conformity of the use of deep packet inspection with law will be made. There will be a concentration on the use of deep packet inspection in European and North American jurisdictions, where it has already provoked debate, particularly in the context of discussions on net neutrality. This paper will also incorporate a more fundamental assessment of the values that are desirable for the Internet to respect and exhibit (such as openness, equality and neutrality), before concluding with the formulation of a legal and regulatory response to the use of this technology, in accordance with these values.

The failure of Australian legislation on indirect discrimination to detect the systemic racism which prevents Aboriginal people from fully participating in the workforce

Government figures put the current indigenous unemployment rate at around 23%, 3 times the unemployment rate for other Australians. This thesis aims to assess whether Australian indirect discrimination legislation can provide a remedy for one of the causes of indigenous unemployment - the systemic discrimination which can result from the mere operation of established procedures of recruitment and hiring. The impact of those practices on indigenous people is examined in the context of an analysis of anti-discrimination legislation and cases from all Australian jurisdictions from the time of the passing of the Racial Discrimination Act by the Commonwealth in 1975 to the present. The thesis finds a number of reasons why the legislation fails to provide equality of opportunity for indigenous people seeking to enter the workforce. In nearly all jurisdictions it is obscurely drafted, used mainly by educated middle class white women, and provides remedies which tend to be compensatory damages rather than change to recruitment policy. White dominance of the legal process has produced legislative and judicial definitions of "race" and "Aboriginality" which focus on biology rather than cultural difference. In the commissions and tribunals complaints of racial discrimination are often rejected on the grounds of being "vexatious" or "frivolous", not reaching the required standard of proof, or not showing a causal connection between race and the conduct complained of. In all jurisdictions the cornerstone of liability is whether a particular employment term, condition or practice is reasonable. The thesis evaluates the approaches taken by appellate courts, including the High Court, and concludes that there is a trend towards an interpretation of reasonableness which favours employer arguments such as economic rationalism, the maintenance of good industrial relations, managerial prerogative to hire and fire, and the protection of majority rights. The thesis recommends that separate, clearly drafted legislation should be passed to address indigenous disadvantage and that indigenous people should be involved in all stages of the process.

Digital rights management

Digital rights management allows information owners to control the use and dissemination of electronic documents via a machine-readable licence. Documents are distributed in a protected form such that they may only be used with trusted environments, and only in accordance with terms and conditions stated in the licence. Digital rights management has found uses in protecting copyrighted audio-visual productions, private personal information, and companies' trade secrets and intellectual property. This chapter describes a general model of digital rights management together with the technologies used to implement each component of a digital rights management system, and desribes how digital rights management can be applied to secure the distribution of electronic information in a variety of contexts.

Development of a 3-dimensional human skin equivalent wound model for investigating novel wound healing therapies

Numerous difficulties are associated with the conduct of preclinical studies related to skin and wound repair. Use of small animal models such as rodents is not optimal because of their physiological differences to human skin and mode of wound healing. Although pigs have previously been used because of their human-like mode of healing, the expense and logistics related to their use also renders them suboptimal. In view of this, alternatives are urgently required to advance the field. The experiments reported herein were aimed at developing and validating a simple, reproducible, three-dimensional ex vivo de-epidermised dermis human skin equivalent wound model for the preclinical evaluation of novel wound therapies. Having established that the human skin equivalent wound model does in fact “heal," we tested the effect of two novel wound healing therapies. We also examined the utility of the model for studies exploring the mechanisms underpinning these therapies. Taken together the data demonstrate that these new models will have wide-spread application for the generation of fundamental new information on wound healing processes and also hold potential in facilitating preclinical optimization of dosage, duration of therapies, and treatment strategies prior to clinical trials.

Adoption Law and Practice [2nd ed.]

This book addresses the modern law relating to adoption. It comes at a time of fundamental change in adoption practice as, increasingly, Irish couples look outside the jurisdiction for the child that will make their family complete.---------- * Examines and explains the new regulatory framework and the law now governing domestic and intercountry adoption.---------- * Provides a guide to the changes outlined in the Adoption Bill 2008 which also consolidates the provisions of seven previous statutes and incorporates the Hague Convention into Irish statute law.---------- * Considers the responsibilities of the new Adoption Authority, and the roles of other administrative and legal bodies.---------- * Sets out the adoption process, explaining the complexities of intercountry adoption, giving consideration to the interface between adoption and children in care and dealing with the rights of the parties involved.

Workplace Equality in International Organizations: A Way Forward

In this contribution, I am interested in how discrimination issues are manifested in employment relations in the United Nations (UN), a public forum to all states political leaders to advance their concerns, the World Bank, a financial organization that promotes economic development, mainly in developing countries, and the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), the eldest and largest global public program of the World Bank with a strategic network of diverse stakeholders that harnesses the best in science to produce more and better food, reduce poverty and sustain environments. Considering the immunity and privileges granted to international organizations, what are the current available legal procedures, at the national or international level, for workplace equality? How accountable and transparent are they, based on the practice of these organizations? Can discrimination biases that go beyond the known individual-based discrimination claims be identified? If so, how can they be challenged and changed? Based of the special position of international civil servants in international organizations and the duty to protect their fundamental rights, I claim that the limitation of opportunity by discriminatory biases and the psychic burden on the individual staff member, on daily basis, qualify for a workplace wrong and call for independent and impartial legal procedures that would ensure due process and fair treatment.

The experience of xenophobia in South Africa

In May 2008, xenophobic violence erupted in South Africa. The targets were individuals who had migrated from the north in search of asylum. Emerging first in township communities around Johannesburg, the aggression spread to other provinces. Sixty-two people died, and 100,000 (20,000 in the Western Cape alone) were displaced. As the attacks escalated across the country, thousands of migrants searched for refuge in police stations and churches. Chilling stories spread about mobs armed with axes, metal bars, and clubs. The mobs stormed from shack to shack, assaulted migrants, locked them in their homes, and set the homes on fire. The public reaction was one of shock and horror. The Los Angeles Times declared, “Migrants Burned Alive in S. Africa.” The South African president at the time, Thabo Mbeki, called for an end to “shameful and criminal attacks.” Commentators were stunned by the signs of hatred of foreigners (xenophobia) that emerged in the young South African democracy. The tragedy of the violence in South Africa was magnified by the fact that many of the victims had fled from violence and persecution in their countries of origin. Amid genocidal violations of human rights that had recently occurred in some countries in sub- Saharan Africa, the new South Africa stood as a beacon of democracy and respect for human dignity. With this openness in mind, many immigrants to South Africa sought safety and refuge from the conflicts in their homelands. More than 43,500 refugees and 227,000 asylum seekers now live in South Africa. The majority of people accorded refugee status came from Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Somalia. South Africa also hosts thousands of other migrants who remain undocumented.

The Law of Real Property Mortgages

This book examines the principles and practice of real estate mortgages in an easily accessible text referenced to all the Australian States. It specifically deals with the major theoretical and practical aspects of the land mortgage including vitiating factors in formation, mortgagees powers and duties and mortgagors’ rights both statutory and other, assignment, insurance and discharge. As a successor to Mortgages Law in Australia, this book adopts an exclusive focus on real estate mortgages in Australia and provides a thorough account of the law through analysis of the plethora of court decisions and statutory provisions in this area. Duncan and Dixon analyse the substance of the mortgage transaction from creation through to rights of enforcement. This analysis includes detailed consideration of the rights and obligations of both mortgagors and mortgagees covering topics such as priorities and tacking, insurance, variation and assignment, rights of discharge, entry into possession, foreclosure and power of sale. In addition, the book contains a separate chapter on factors that may affect the validity and enforcement of a mortgage together with separate consideration of a mortgagee’s right to enforce a guarantee provided on behalf of a mortgagor and the rights and liabilities associated with a receivership regime initiated by a mortgagee. Written for the national market, the book is one of the few substantial works on this subject for practitioners throughout Australia. It is a very accessible text which enables readers to decide whether or not they have a problem and provides primary guidance to its solution. The book has been deliberately, heavily referenced to incorporate statutory references from across Australia and contains extensive case analysis in order to satisfy both these objectives.

Water rights and water governance : a cautionary tale and the case for interdisciplinary governance

Although Australia is the world’s driest continent without the complication of international borders and a generally good governance reputation, its record of water governance is very poor. This chapter considers some of the potentially general lessons that might be derived for water governance. These include: the difficulties of delineatingwater rights; the apparent preference for creating property rights in unsustainable uses of water while failing to deliver basic water rights; the inter twining of carbon and water crises; the dangers of privatising networks that form natural monopolies; the dangers of disciplinary hubris where interdisciplinary understanding is critical. It concludes by starting to address some of the water governance issues raised by globalisation.

Estoppel in the face of consumer protection in land transactions- judicial reasoning or judicial intuition

Nationally, there is much legislation regulating land sale transactions, particularly in relation to seller disclosure of information. The statutes require strict compliance by a seller failing which, in general, a buyer can terminate the contract. In a number of instances, when buyers have sought to exercise these rights, sellers have alleged that buyers have either expressly or by conduct waived their rights to rely upon these statutes. This article examines the nature of these rights in this context, whether they are capable of waiver and, if so, what words or conduct might be sufficient to amount to waiver. The analysis finds that the law is in a very unsatisfactory state, that the operation of those rules that can be identified as having relevance are unevenly applied and concludes that sellers have, in the main, been unsuccessful in defeating buyers' statutory rights as a result of an alleged waiver by those buyers.