Capturing "organised crime" in Australian Law

This briefing paper presents and foreshadows ongoing PhD research by the first author into how understandings of organised crime in Australia have been shaped, and the extent to which these perceptions have influenced legislative and policing responses. It begins with an historical survey of significant models of organised crime, then reviews current Australian legislative strategies, and goes on to raise questions about the conceptual model that underpins these strategies. The paper concludes with a discussion of the potential policy implications of this research.

Chinese cultural competency and Australian law students: Reflections on the design of short term mobility programs

There is an emerging need for Australia’s law graduates to better understand the unique challenges and opportunities in our largest trading partner, China. Similarly, as China opens up to the world, its graduates are increasingly well-poised to make an indelible mark on Chinese-Australian relations, particularly in the areas of finance, property, trade and commerce. Chinese and Australian law schools must urgently develop a deeper awareness of each other’s language, culture and political systems in their graduates. The purpose of this article is to highlight the importance of Chinese cultural competency to Australian legal education and reflect on projects that enable students to attain a level of cultural competency over a short period. We do this by considering a recent ‘short term mobility project’ in Wuhan, China.

A model for the integration of legal research into Australian undergraduate law curricula

The marginalisation of the teaching and learning of legal research in the Australian law school curriculum is, in the author's experience, a condition common to many law schools. This is reflected in the reluctance of some law teachers to include legal research skills in the substantive law teaching schedule — often the result of unwillingness on the part of law school administrators to provide the resources necessary to ensure that such integration does not place a disproportionately heavy burden of assessment on those who are tempted. However, this may only be one of many reasons for the marginalisation of legal research in the law school experience. Rather than analyse the reasons for this marginalisation, this article deals with what needs to be done to rectify the situation, and to ensure that the teaching of legal research can be integrated into the law school curriculum in a meaningful way. This requires the use of teaching and learning theory which focuses on student-centred learning. This article outlines a model of legal research. It incorporates five transparent stages which are: analysis, contextualisation, bibliographic skills, interpretation and assessment and application.

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.

Stakeholder perspectives regarding the mandatory notification of Australian data breaches

The advent of data breach notification laws in the United States (US) has unearthed a significant problem involving the mismanagement of personal information by a range of public and private sector organisations. At present, there is currently no statutory obligation under Australian law requiring public or private sector organisations to report a data breach of personal information to law enforcement agencies or affected persons. However, following a comprehensive review of Australian privacy law, the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) has recommended the introduction of a mandatory data breach notification scheme. The issue of data breach notification has ignited fierce debate amongst stakeholders, especially larger private sector entities. The purpose of this article is to document the perspectives of key industry and government representatives to identify their standpoints regarding an appropriate regulatory approach to data breach notification in Australia.

Australian data breach notification : avoiding the State/Federal overlap

Mandatory data breach notification has become a matter of increasing concern for law reformers. In Australia, this issue was recently addressed as part of a comprehensive review of privacy law conducted by the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) which recommended a uniform national regime for protecting personal information applicable to both the public and private sectors. As in all federal systems, the distribution of powers between central and state governments poses problems for national consistency. In the authors’ view, a uniform approach to mandatory data breach notification has greater merit than a ‘jurisdiction specific’ approach epitomized by US state-based laws. The US response has given rise to unnecessary overlaps and inefficiencies as demonstrated by a review of different notification triggers and encryption safe harbors. Reviewing the US response, the authors conclude that a uniform approach to data breach notification is inherently more efficient.

Conceptualising a capstone experience for law students

Currently the final year curriculum in most, if not all, Australian law schools is delivered in a disjointed way which is not engaging final year students in a genuine capstone experience that supports the development of their professional identity and their transition out of university. The possible benefits of a capstone experience include preparing law students for the practice of law by assisting them to synthesise and extend their knowledge and skills, develop a professional identity that incorporates moral, ethical and social values, and become skilled problem solvers and life-long learners who can meet the rigours of the dynamic, competitive, and challenging world of twenty-first century legal practice. In 2009 the ALTC funded the “Curriculum renewal in legal education” project which seeks to achieve curriculum renewal for legal education through the articulation of a set of curriculum design principles for the final year and the design of a transferable model for an effective final year program. The three cornerstone capstone curriculum objectives identified by the project are closure of the tertiary experience, reflection on that experience, and transitioning from university student to legal professional. These cornerstone curriculum objectives will inform the development of the final year principles and model program. This paper will report on the progress that has been made on the project including a meeting of the project reference group held in February 2010 and the draft curriculum design principles.

The borders that law sets on entertainment

It is natural for those involved in entertainment to focus on the art. However, like any activity in even a free society, those involved in entertainment industries must operate within borders set by the law. This article examines the main areas of law that impact entertainment in an Australian context. It contrasts the position in relation to freedom of expression in Australia with that in the United States, which also promotes freedom of expression in a free society. It then briefly canvases the main limits on entertainment productions under Australian law.