Using the tax system to collect fines

In this article we consider the possibility that fines could be collected through the tax and social welfare systems in the same way as higher education contributions and child support payments are currently administered. We argue that the existing system of fine collection and enforcement leads to high default rates and reduces the usefulness of fines as a sanction. We consider a range of models for the implementation of an income-related fine collection system, and discuss their possible implications for issues including judicial independence, the time taken to repay fines and aggregate fine revenue.

(Table 1) Sample locations and clay mineral data of sediment surface samples from the Barents Sea region

A new surface sediment sample set gained in the western Barents Sea by the MAREANO program has been analysed for basic clay mineral assemblages. Distribution maps including additional samples from earlier German research cruises to and off Svalbard are compiled. Some trends in the clay mineral assemblages are related to the sub-Barents Sea geology because the Quaternary sediment cover is rather thin. Additionally, land masses like Svalbard and northern Scandinavia dominate the clay mineral signal with their erosional products. Dense bottom water, very often of brine origin, that flows within deep troughs, such as the Storfjorden or Bear Island Trough, transport the clay mineral signal from their origin to the Norwegian-Greenland Sea.

William Smith - 200 years of geomodelling celebrated at IAMG

The International Association for Mathematical Geosciences (IAMG) commemorated William Smith (23rd March 1769 - 28th August 1839) and 200 years of geomodelling with geological surveys and academics across the globe at the 17th annual conference of the IAMG in Freiberg, Germany from the 5th to 13th September 2015. The aim of the IAMG is to promote the use of mathematics, statistics and geoinformatics in the geosciences. The annual IAMG conference is an opportunity for geoscientists to collaborate with mathematicians and statisticians and present their recent work. The

17th annual IAMG conference, with 300 participants from across the world, differed from previous IAMG conferences in that it included a special ‘Day of Surveys’ to acknowledge 200 years of science and methodologies to construct maps.

Effects of the 2005 reforms on legal responses to women who kill intimate partners

2015 marks a decade since the release of the Victorian Law Reform Commission's Defences to Homicide: Final Report. The Commission's Final Report recommended major changes to the law of homicide in Victoria and in 2005, the Victorian government responded to the 56 recommendations by implementing the largest package of homicide law reforms since the abolition of the death penalty. This book brings together leading scholars, legal practitioners and the former Victorian Attorney-General to provide a comprehensive examination of the Victorian experience of reform, including its perceived successes and failures. This is a controversial area of the law that continues to present challenges in practice. Since the 2005 reforms further reform of the law has occurred in Victoria and a range of divergent approaches to homicide law reform have been introduced and animated debate across Australia and internationally. With such a high level of law reform activity nationally this book provides a timely analysis of the extent to which the Victorian reforms have improved legal responses to lethal violence and with what effect in practice. To enhance this analysis the book also looks internationally to consider the operation of homicide law in England and Wales, Canada and New Zealand and what lessons could be gained from an Australian perspective from differing approaches to reform.

This book explores a number of issues concerning the operation of the law of homicide, sentencing practices, the role of the media, evidence reforms, legal culture, political influences and future reform challenges for Victoria and other Australian jurisdictions. In examining all aspects of the 2005 homicide law reforms, the book draws on the views of those who were involved in reviewing the law of homicide in Victoria, those who recommended and implemented reform, and those who have played a key role in the monitoring and evaluation of the law post-reform in Victoria but also more widely in Australia and internationally. The resulting analysis will be of great interest to law, criminology and socio-legal scholars as well as legal practitioners and law reformers in Australia and comparative international jurisdictions.