Some care, little responsibility? Promoting directors'and managers' legal accountability for Occupational Health and Safety in the workplace

Health and safety at work remains a serious and under-recognised problem in Australia. This paper argues for the importance of increasing the individual responsibility and accountability of senior managers and directors of corporations for the development and maintenance of occupational health and safety (OHS) standards in the workplace. In order to do so, the paper first sets out the range of statutory and general law duties and liabilities to which directors and senior managers are subject, considers to what extent these obligations have relevance in the OHS area and argues for the extension of these duties and liabilities in some circumstances. The paper then goes on to argue for a better legislative model for the legal responsibility of managers and officers, supported by the increased prosecution of individuals in appropriate circumstances, as well as acknowledging the benefits of a broader range of non-legal strategies to improve board level commitment to OHS that will influence corporate compliance overall.

Legal professional privilege and the foreign lawyer in Australia

Legal professional privilege is very important to lawyers and clients alike. It has evolved within the common law world over a period of centuries. In a domestic Australian context the test to establish what attracts advice privilege has become reasonably well settled. However, the increasingly international character of commerce has revealed new challenges. Is the current test appropriate to determine whether advice given outside Australia by a foreign lawyer is privileged? This article considers that question in detail. After examining the historical development of legal professional privilege, the article discusses Kennedy v Wallace (2004) 208 ALR 424 (at first instance) and Kennedy v Wallace (2004) 142 FeR 185 (on appeal). The article concludes that the current test is both capable and appropriate if properly applied.

Intention to create legal relations: the end of presumptions

Traditionally, courts have presumed that commercial parties intend to create legal relations when entering into agreements and that family members do not. Although not without their critics, until recently these twin presumptions appeared immutable. This article examines the trend to reduce the emphasis on these presumptions by some members of the judiciary in the selection of Australian and New Zealand cases and proposes that as a consequence of the High Court's decision in Ermogenous v Greek Orthodox Community of SA Inc (2002) 209 CLR 95 the intention to create legal relations presumptions should no longer be used in any context. It concludes by considering the implications for this area of law.

Police officers' and legal professionals' perceptions regarding how children are, and should be, questioned about repeated abuse

This study explored the perceptions of police officers and legal professionals (i.e., prosecutors, defence lawyers and a judge) about (a) what particularisation is, (b) the type of information that is required for particularisation to occur, and (c) how particularisation is best achieved in cases of repeated child abuse. The professionals' perceptions (all experts in this area) were elicited via individual in-depth semi-structured interviews. While all participants acknowledged the importance of particularisation, the views of the police officers varied in several important ways to those of the other professionals. Overall, the police officers perceived that highly specific details (such as the location, date and time of the offence) are essential for particularisation to occur, and that maximising the number of separate offences and specific details about each offence increases the chance of successful prosecution. In contrast, the legal professionals perceived that the primacy goal of the police officers should be to elicit a free-narrative account of one or more offences. A high proportion of specific questions was perceived to negatively impact on the child's credibility by contaminating the evidence. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Information systems development contracts : An exploratory study of Australian legal pratitioners' and information systems professionals' perceptions

IS professionals are primarily concerned with the development of a project to meet the goals of a client. Unfortunately, IS professional do not always pay close attention to the contract or to its management and are often unaware of the legal implications of the contracts to which they are assenting. Legal advice can be sought during pre-contractual processes to help ensure that the contract meets the expectations of all the parties. If the project does not meet stakeholder’s expectations, thus causing a contract to come into dispute, lawyers may be called in to review the contract and to seek a settlement. This paper reports an exploratory study of the differences in perceptions of IS development contracts that exist between IS professionals and legal practitioners.

Legal regulation and corporate governance in China`s top 100 listed companies

This article reports findings from an empirical study of corporate governance in China's top 100 listed companies. It examines the effectiveness of legal regulation, enforcement and remedies, finding that China's company and securities laws have not provided as string a legal framework for the protection of stakeholders im China's stock exchange listed companies as might be expected by investors.

"Desperately mortal": exclusion in Shakespeare's legal plays

Shakespeare's most explicitly 'legal' plays are The Merchant of Venice and Measure for Measure. Both examine the interaction between human desire on one hand and the law on the other. In both plays laws cuts through the social hierarchies, either neutralising or exaggerating them. Key characters find their exclusion nullified by the law, and then discover inclusion is far worse than exclusion.

Asian socialism & legal change : the dynamics of Vietnamese and Chinese reform

The immense process of economic and social transformation currently underway in China and Vietnam is well known & extensively documented. Less attention has been devoted to the critical process of Chinese & Vietnamese legal change In a unique comparative approach this book analyses recent developments in the legal sphere in China & Vietnam.