Our wicked foreign game : why has association football (Soccer) not became the main code of football in Australia?

This essay examines the role of soccer in Australian popular life, emphasizing the game's position of secondary importance to rugby or Australian Rules in different regions. It draws on international comparisons with the USA or white British colonies to argue that in a uniquely multicultural country like Australia with established sporting traditions, domestic experience of the game could shape the past, present and future of soccer in the country. Given the cultural diversity of the state, it should work towards a strategic competitive advantage for the popularization of soccer in contemporary Australia

Socially optimal criminal court waiting times : a partial investigation

Criminal courts provide a forum for conducting prosecutions with a guilty plea or a trial. Since queues are used as the basis for rationing scarce court facilities delays are inevitable, however courts are invariably criticised as being inefficient as a consequence. This focus on court delay defined as the time elapsing between the listing of the case in the court list and its final disposition is misleading. Rather, attention should be drawn to the considerably longer period between the initiation of proceedings and the conclusion of the case. In the case of defendants not granted bail, this pre-trial delay confers both costs and benefits on society and this observation can be used to ascertain socially optimal pre-trial waits.

Alarmed, but not alert in the "war on terror"? The High Court, Thomas V Mowbray and the Defence Power

The article examines the judgment in Thomas v. Mowbray by the High Court in Australia handed down during the so called 'War on Terror'. According to the author, (i) the High Court de-emphasized the importance of the difference between war and peace in fixing the scope of the defence power in the Australian Constitution in a manner which was inconsistent with its earlier celebrated decision in the Communist Party Case in 1950 during the Cold War; and (ii) failed to apply a sufficiently rigorous test of proportionality in characterising the impugned Commonwealth laws. The article discuss the legal background and social implications of the High Court's decision, using the Communist Party Case in 1950 as a point of comparison.

Multiple regime shifts in concurring and dissenting opinions on the U.S. Supreme Court

In a previous issue of this journal, Smyth and Narayan (2004) examine structural change in the level of consensus on the High Court of Australia. In this article we adopt a similar strategy to that employed in Smyth and Narayan (2004) to estimate both the number and location of structural breaks in concurring and dissenting opinions on the U.S. Supreme Court. Although it has commonly been believed that there has been one regime shift on the U.S. Supreme Court, corresponding to the breakdown in the consensual norm in the 1930s or 1940s, we find that there have been three breaks in consensus. We find that two of the three breaks in dissenting opinions correspond closely to the beginning of the terms of Taney and Stone as Chief Justice, with the third occurring in the middle of Chase's term. We find that two of the three breaks in concurring opinions correspond closely to the beginning of the terms of Taney and Hughes and that the third break in concurring opinions occurs in the middle of the Warren Court.

Professional issues related to allegations and assessment of child sexual abuse in the context of family court litigation

This article focuses on the challenge of dealing with allegations of child sexual abuse in the context of the Family Court of Australia. Of all cases that come before the Court, those involving such allegations are relatively uncommon. they tend to be the most difficult cases, however, and are more likely to require a trial and the involvement of qualified practitioners. The review establishes that parental separation is a special circumstance in which sexual abuse may be more likely to occur, and many allegations of sexual abuse are found to be true. There is evidence, however, that a proportion of allegations made by people other than the child concerned may be false. Whether these false allegations are well intentioned and genuinely believed, or maliciously motivated has been a contentious issue. Issues considered include the mishandling of cases, the failure by professionals to consider equally plausible alternative hypotheses than the sexual abuse of a child, confirmation bias, and the profound repercussions of allegations for all members of the family. It is concluded that all allegations of child sexual abuse must be evaluated in a thorough and sensitive manner to separate the few false allegations from the many that are true.