Inhibiting outrage: tactics and counter-tactics in legal cases of sexual harassment

Sexual harassment can be conceptualised as an interaction between harassers and targets. Utilising 23 detailed legal transcripts, this study explored evidence of a range of perpetrator tactics and target counter-tactics. These tactics can be readily fitted into the backfire framework, which proposes that powerful perpetrators of perceived unjust acts are likely to cover up the actions, devalue the target, reinterpret the events, use official channels to give an appearance of justice, and intimidate or bribe people involved. Targets can respond using counter-tactics of exposure, validation, reframing, mobilisation of support, and resistance. The findings have implications for raising awareness of harassing tactics and recommendations for effective informal responses in organisations.

Learning to reflect in the first year of legal education : the key to surviving legal education and legal practice

Lawyers and law students suffer significant rates of depression and substance abuse. This paper suggests that Law Schools have an obligation to assist students to develop the emotional intelligence necessary in order to cope with the stressful nature of legal practice. We draw on Schön’s discussion of the indeterminate zone of professional practice to suggest that reflective practice is the means by which students can become sufficiently emotionally intelligent to become balanced and happy lawyers. We suggest that incorporating reflective practice in intentional curriculum design in the first year of law is an effective first step in assisting students to develop the emotional intelligence necessary to survive the study and practice of law.

A collaborative model for learning and assessment of legal placements

This paper will report on the evaluation of a new undergraduate legal workplace unit, LWB421 Learning in Professional Practice. LWB421 was developed in response to the QUT’s strategic planning and a growing view that work experience is essential to developing the skills that law graduates need in order to be effective legal practitioners (Stuckey, 2007). Work integrated learning provides a context for students to develop their skills, to see the link between theory and practice and support students in making the transition from university to practice (Shirley, 2006). The literature in Australian legal education has given little consideration to the design of legal internship subjects (as distinct from legal clinic programs). Accordingly the design of placement subjects needs to be carefully considered to ensure alignment of learning objectives, learning tasks and assessment. Legal placements offer students the opportunity to develop their professional skills in practice, reflect on their own learning and job performance and take responsibility for their career development and planning. This paper will examine the literature relating to the design of placement subjects, particularly in a legal context. It will propose a collaborative model to facilitate learning and assessment of legal work placement subjects. The basis of the model is a negotiated learning contract between the student, workplace supervisor and academic supervisor. Finally the paper will evaluate the model in the context of LWB421. The evaluation will be based on data from surveys of students and supervisors and focus group sessions.

Site survey and analysis of highway trucks overloading status quo in Anhui

In 2004, with the increasing overloading restriction requirements of society in Anhui, a provincial comprehensive overloading transportation survey has been developed to take evaluations on overloading actuality and enforcement efficiency with the support of the World Bank. A total of six site surveys were conducted at Hefei, Fuyang, Luan, Wuhu, Huainan and Huangshan Areas with four main contents respectively: traffic volume, axle load, freight information and registration information. Via statistical analysis on the survey data, conclusions were gained that: vehicle overloading are very universal and serious problems at arterial highways in Anhui now. The traffic loads have far exceeded the designed endure capacity of highways and have caused prevalent premature pavement damage, especially for rigid pavement. The overloading trucks are unimpeded engaged in highway freight transportation actually due to the disordered overloading enforcement strategies and the deficient inspecting technologies.

Nutritional status and information needs of medical oncology patients receiving treatment at an Australian public hospital

This study aimed to identify: i) the prevalence of malnutrition according to the scored Patient Generated-Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA); ii) utilization of available nutrition resources; iii) patient nutrition information needs; and iv) external sources of nutrition information. An observational, cross-sectional study was undertaken at an Australian public hospital on 191 patients receiving oncology services. According to PG-SGA, 49% of patients were malnourished and 46% required improved symptom management and/or nutrition intervention. Commonly reported nutrition-impact symptoms included: peculiar tastes (31%), no appetite (24%) and nausea (24%). External sources of nutrition information were accessed by 37%, with popular choices being media/internet (n=19) and family/friends (n=13). In a sub-sample (n=65), 32 patients were aware of the available nutrition resources, 23 thought the information sufficient and 19 patients had actually read them. Additional information on supplements and modifying side effects was requested by 26 patients. Malnutrition is common in oncology patients receiving treatment at an Australian public hospital and almost half require improved symptom management and/or nutrition intervention. Patients who read the available nutrition information found it useful, however awareness of these nutrition resources and the provision of information on supplementation and managing symptoms requires attention.

Legal Issues Relating to the Notification of Australian Data Breaches

Advances in information and communications technologies during the last two decades have allowed organisations to capture and utilise data on a vast scale, thus heightening the importance of adequate measures for protecting unauthorised disclosure of personal information. In this respect, data breach notification has emerged as an issue of increasing importance throughout the world. It has been the subject of law reform in the United States and in other international jurisdictions. Following the Australian Law Reform Commission’s review of privacy, data breach notification will soon be addressed in Australia. This article provides a review of US and Australian legal initiatives regarding the notification of data breaches. The authors highlight areas of concern based on the extant US literature that require specific consideration in Australia regarding the development of an Australian legal framework for the notification of data breaches.

A 'deleterious' effect? : Australian legal education and the production of the legal identity

A body of critical legal scholarship argues that, by the time they have completed their studies, students who enter legal education holding social ideals and intending to use their legal education to achieve social change, have become cynical about the ability of the law to do so and no longer possess such ideals. This is explained by critical scholars to be the result of a process of ideological indoctrination, aimed at ensuring that graduates uphold the narrow and conservative interests of the legal profession and capitalist society, being exercised by law schools acting as adjuncts of the legal profession, and exercised upon the passive body of the law student. By using Foucault’s work on knowledge, power, and the subject to interrogate the assumptions upon which this narrative is based, this thesis intends to suggest a way of thinking differently to the approach taken by many critical legal scholars. It then uses an analytics of government (based on Foucault’s notion of ‘governmentality’) to consider the construction of the legal identity differently. It examines the ways in which the governance of the legal identity is rationalised, programmed, and implemented, in three Queensland law schools. It also looks at the way that five prescriptive texts to ‘surviving’ law school suggest students establish and practise a relation to themselves in order to construct their own legal identities. Overall, this analysis shows that governance is not simply conducted in the profession’s interests, but occurs due to a complex arrangement of different practices, which can lead to the construction of skilled legal professional identities as well as ethical lawyer-citizens that hold an interest in justice. The implications of such an analytics provide the basis for original ways of understanding legal education, and legal education scholarship.

The status of Australian nurse practitioners : the first national census

A five-section questionnaire was mailed to all 234 authorised Australian nurse practitioners in late 2007. An 85% response rate was achieved (202 responses). Respondents had a mean age of 47.0 years and 84.2% were women. Only 145 nurse practitioners (72% of respondents) reported being employed in Australia at the time of the census. Emergency nurse practitioners were the most commonly employed nationally (26.9%). Nearly one third of employed nurse practitioners reported that they were still awaiting approval to prescribe medications despite this being a core legislated skill. Over 70% stated that lack of Medicare provider numbers and lack of authority to prescribe through the Pharmaceut ical Benef its Scheme was extremely limiting to their practice. These findings are consistent with the international literature describing establishment of reformative

Behaviour disorders and teacher negligence

The purpose of this paper is to examine the legal implications of the continuing rise in the number of school children diagnosed with behaviour disorders. Not only are teachers now subject to a dense grid of legal regulation, they are also increasingly vulnerable to actions in tort. It will be argued here that as more and more children are labelled ‘disordered’, the duty of care become more onerous, and hence harder for teachers to meet. As a consequence, teachers are more likely to face claims of negligence. It is concluded that while the schooling system needs to retain a healthy scepticism about each new pathologising disorder that seeks special status for its sufferers, it also needs to provide greater training and resources for teachers regarding disorder management. It is also concluded that recent changes to negligence law regarding the issue of ‘reasonable foreseeability’ within breach of duty of care, may not be as significant as might have been hoped by the teaching community. Indeed, the elevated standard of care required by the increasing numbers of disordered pupils, places teachers in an ever more difficult legal position.

Speeding in Australia and China : a comparison of the influence of legal sanctions and enforcement practices on car drivers

Despite increasingly sophisticated speed management strategies, speeding remains a significant contributing factor in 25% of Australia’s fatal crashes. Excessive speed is also a recognised contributor to road trauma in rapidly motorising countries such as China, where increases in vehicle ownership and new drivers, and a high proportion of vulnerable road users all contribute to a high road trauma rate. Speed choice is a voluntary behaviour. Therefore, driver perceptions are important to our understanding of the nature of speeding. This paper reports preliminary qualitative (focus groups) and quantitative (survey) investigations of the perceptions of drivers in Queensland and Beijing. Drivers’ definitions of speeding as well as their perceptions of the influence of legal factors on their reported speeds were explored. Survey participants were recruited from petrol stations (Queensland, n=833) and car washes (Beijing, n=299). Similarities were evident in justifications for exceeding speed limits across samples. Excessive speeds were not deemed as ‘speeding’ when drivers considered that they were safe and under their control, or when speed limits were seen as unreasonably low. This appears linked to perceptions of enforcement tolerances in some instances with higher perceived enforcement thresholds noted in China. Encouragingly, drivers in both countries reported a high perceived risk of apprehension if speeding. However, a substantial proportion of both samples also indicated perceptions of low certainty of receiving penalties when apprehended. Chinese drivers considered sanctions less severe than did Australian drivers. In addition, strategies to avoid detection and penalties were evident in both samples, with Chinese drivers reporting a broader range of avoidant techniques. Implications of the findings for future directions in speed management in both countries are discussed.

Behaviour disorders and the negligent teacher

The purpose of this paper is to examine the legal implications of the continuing rise in the number of school children diagnosed with behaviour disorders. Not only are teachers now subject to a dense grid of legal regulation, they are also increasingly vulnerable to actions in tort. It will be argued here that as more and more children are labelled ‘disordered’, then the concomitant duty of care requirements for teachers becomes more onerous. As a consequence, teachers are less likely to be able to defend themselves against claims of negligence. It is concluded that while the schooling system needs to retain a healthy scepticism about each new pathologising disorder that seeks special status for its sufferers, it also needs to provide greater training and resources for teachers regarding disorder management. It is also concluded that recent changes to negligence law regarding the issue of ‘reasonable foreseeability’ within breach of duty of care, may not be as significant as might have been hoped by the teaching community. Indeed, the elevated standard of care, as required by increasing numbers of disordered pupils, place teachers in an ever more difficult legal position.

Interaction between visual status, driver age and distracters on daytime driving performance

This study investigated the effects of visual status, driver age and the presence of secondary distracter tasks on driving performance. Twenty young (M = 26.8 years) and 19 old (M = 70.2 years) participants drove around a closed-road circuit under three visual (normal, simulated cataracts, blur) and three distracter conditions (none, visual, auditory). Simulated visual impairment, increased driver age and the presence of a distracter task detrimentally affected all measures of driving performance except gap judgments and lane keeping. Significant interaction effects were evident between visual status, age and distracters; simulated cataracts had the most negative impact on performance in the presence of visual distracters and a more negative impact for older drivers. The implications of these findings for driving behaviour and acquisition of driving-related information for people with common visual impairments are discussed

Trends in demographic, health behaviour factors, and self-perceived weight status : influences on obesity in Australia from 1995 to 2005

Overweight and obesity are two of the most important emerging public health issues in our time and regarded by the World Health Organisation [WHO] (1998) as a worldwide epidemic. The prevalence of obesity in the USA is the highest in the world, and Australian obesity rates fall into second place. Currently, about 60% of Australian adults are overweight (BMI „d 25kg/m2). The socio-demographic factors associated with overweight and/or obesity have been well demonstrated, but many of the existing studies only examined these relationships at one point of time, and did not examine whether significant relationships changed over time. Furthermore, only limited previous research has examined the issue of the relationship between perception of weight status and actual weight status, as well as factors that may impact on people¡¦s perception of their body weight status. Aims: The aims of the proposed research are to analyse the discrepancy between perceptions of weight status and actual weight status in Australian adults; to examine if there are trends in perceptions of weight status in adults between 1995 to 2004/5; and to propose a range of health promotion strategies and furth er research that may be useful in managing physical activity, healthy diet, and weight reduction. Hypotheses: Four alternate hypotheses are examined by the research: (1) there are associations between independent variables (e.g. socio -demographic factors, physical activity and dietary habits) and overweight and/or obesity; (2) there are associations between the same independent variables and the perception of overweight; (3) there are associations between the same independent variables and the discrepancy between weight status and perception of weight status; and (4) there are trends in overweight and/or obesity, perception of overweight, and the discrepancy in Australian adults from 1995 to 2004/5. Conceptual Framework and Methods: A conceptual framework is developed that shows the associations identified among socio -demographic factors, physical activity and dietary habits with actual weight status, as well as examining perception of weight status. The three latest National Health Survey data bases (1995 , 2001 and 2004/5) were used as the primary data sources. A total of 74,114 Australian adults aged 20 years and over were recruited from these databases. Descriptive statistics, bivariate analyses (One -Way ANOVA tests, unpaired t-tests and Pearson chi-square tests), and multinomial logistic regression modelling were used to analyse the data. Findings: This research reveals that gender, main language spoken at home, occupation status, household structure, private health insurance status, and exercise are related to the discrepancy between actual weight status and perception of weight status, but only gender and exercise are related to the discrepancy across the three time point s. The current research provides more knowledge about perception of weight status independently. Factors which affect perception of overweight are gender, age, language spoken at home, private health insurance status, and diet ary habits. The study also finds that many factors that impact overweight and/or obesity also have an effect on perception of overweight, such as age, language spoken at home, household structure, and exercise. However, some factors (i.e. private health insurance status and milk consumption) only impact on perception of overweight. Furthermore, factors that are rel ated to people’s overweight are not totally related to people’s underestimation of their body weight status in the study results. Thus, there are unknown factors which can affect people’s underestimation of their body weight status. Conclusions: Health promotion and education activities should provide education about population health education and promotion and education for particular at risk sub -groups. Further research should take the form of a longitudinal study design ed to examine the causal relationship between overweight and/or obesity and underestimation of body weight status, it should also place more attention on the relationships between overweight and/or obesity and dietary habits, with a more comprehensive representation of SES. Moreover, further research that deals with identification of characteristics about perception of weight status, in particular the underestimation of body weight status should be undertaken.

Book Review: Larissa Behrendt, Chris Cuneen and Terri Libesman, Indigenous Legal Relations in Australia (Oxford University Press, Melbourne 2009) 376pp

Indigenous Legal Relations in Australia is a welcome and refreshing addition to the current literature on Indigenous legal issues. Written by a team of highly qualified Indigenous and non-Indigenous academics who share a long term commitment to Indigenous legal and social justice issues, this book provides a clearly written and accessible introductory text for tertiary students and general readers alike who are seeking to gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between Indigenous Australians and the Anglo-Australian legal system.

The impact of “empirical facts” on legal scholarship and legal research training

Lawyers have traditionally viewed law as a closed system, and doctrinal research has been the research methodology used most widely in the profession. This reflects traditional concepts of legal reasoning. There is a wealth of reliable and valid social science data available to lawyers and judges. Judges in fact often refer to general facts about the world, society, institutions and human behaviour (‘empirical facts’). Legal education needs to prepare our students for this broader legal context. This paper examines how ‘empirical facts’ are used in Australian and other common law courts. Specifically, the paper argues that there is a need for enhanced training in non-doctrinal research methodologies across the law school curriculum. This should encompass a broad introduction to social science methods, with more attention being paid to a cross-section of methodologies such as content analysis, comparative law and surveys that are best applied to law.