Staking a truth claim : Constructing a document in two laws

The documentary 'Two Laws' constitutes a legal document in support of the Borroloola claim to their land and contributes to the decolonisation of the images of Aboriginal Australia, which have circulated within ethnographic cinema, television journalism and fiction film. The 'two laws' of the film's title refer to white law and 'the Law', the system which regulates Borroloola social interactions and relationships with the land.

Legal issues: minors' decision-making capacity to refuse life-saving and life-sustaining treatment: legal and psychiatric perspectives

Laws in Belgium and the Netherlands permit euthanasia and assisted suicide for seriously ill children who experience "constant and unbearable suffering" – they have the capacity to request death by lethal injection if they convey a "reasonable understanding of the consequences" of that request. The child's capacity to understand death is therefore a prerequisite to the implementation of the request. However, modern neuro-psychological and fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) studies of the relationship between the neuro-anatomical development of the brain in human beings and their emotional and experiential capacity, demonstrates that both are not fully developed until the early 20s for girls and mid-20s for boys. Unlike Belgium and the Netherlands, the clinical and legal implications of the immaturity of the brain on medical decision-making of minors, in particular life and death decisions, have been implicit in the Australian courts' approach to the refusal of life-saving and life-sustaining treatment by minors. This approach is exemplified by X v Sydney Children's Hospitals Network [2013] NSWCA 320 (and a series of earlier cases).

Legal issues: Disciplinary proceedings for inappropriate prescription of opioid medications by medical practitioners in Australia (2010-2014)

An analysis of 32 cases reported between July 2010 and September 2014 byprofessional disciplinary tribunals in New South Wales and Victoria againstmedical practitioners found guilty of inappropriately prescribing Sch 8 medications(mainly opioids) and Sch 4 drugs (mainly benzodiazepines) demonstrated, among others, a lengthy delay between the occurrence of the miscreant conduct and the conclusion of disciplinary proceedings. The study also raised questions about the appropriateness of utilising common criminal law theories of punishment and deterrence by non-judicial tribunals.

The payment of dividends : legal confusion, complexities and the need for comprehensive reform

Submissions have closed on exposure draft legislation intending to amend thetest for payment of dividends under s 254T of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth).Until 2010, a dividend could only be paid out of profits of a company. Sincethen, the dividends provision has been repealed and replaced with a newprovision, which allows a company to pay dividends if it satisfies an “assetsgreater than liabilities”, “fair and reasonable to shareholders” and “no materialprejudice to creditors” test. This article first examines why the profits test wasomitted from s 254T, before examining the current dividends provision,identifying the shortcomings of the 2010 reforms and critically evaluating theprovisions proposed to replace the current s 254T. The article then considersinternational developments, with a focus on New Zealand and a look at SouthAfrica, as examples of dividends tests in overseas jurisdictions, beforeproposing how to address the current confusion and uncertainty. The articleconcludes that the proposed amendments to s 254T will only partly addressexisting problems. Thus, comprehensive reform in this area of the Australiancorporation’s law is recommended.

Legal liability, government intervention, and auditor behavior : evidence from structural reform of audit firms in China

This paper investigates how legal liability influences audit quality and audit fees, particularly in the presence of government intervention. Since 2010, all Chinese audit firms were required to transform from a structure of limited liability company (LLC) to limited liability partnership (LLP), which removes the cap on the liability exposure of negligent auditors. By adopting this natural experiment, we document the following findings: first, after audit firms reorganize as LLPs, auditors are more likely to (1) issue modified audit opinions and going-concern opinions, (2) constrain clients’ earnings management, and (3) charge a premium in audit fees, which suggest that exerting unlimited legal liability on negligent auditors improves both audit quality and audit fees. Second, the effect of the LLP adoption is more pronounced when auditors are from local audit firms, and clients are controlled by local governments. Further analyses suggest that the stock prices of clients positively react to the reform event, which indicates that LLP adoption improves the overall value of audits. In summary, our empirical findings are consistent with the argument that legal liability is able to effectively shape auditor behavior in emerging markets where the other institutional mechanisms are relatively weaker and government intervention is heavy.

Research collaborations and "authorship": differentiating legal from management norms

The question of who should take credit as the authors of collaborative research papers has long been a matter for discussion, especially within scientific institutions. However, that discussion has not sufficiently taken account of the legalities of the situation. Particularly since the passing of moral rights legislation in Australia and elsewhere, institutional norms are in conflict with the legal rules concerning the attribution of authorship. Yet, when researchers take their grievances to the courts, it is the legal rules that will prevail. The present article considers the institutional rules against their legal counterparts and the steps that have been, and might in future be, taken to manage this divergence of norms.