Termination of a minor’s pregnancy : critical issues for consent and the criminal law

The recent Supreme Court decision of Queensland v B [2008] 2 Qd R 562 has significant implications for the law that governs consent and abortions. The judgment purports to extend the ratio of Secretary, Department of Health and Community Services (NT) v JWB and SMB (1991) 175 CLR 218 (Marion’s Case) and impose a requirement of court approval for terminations of pregnancy for minors who are not Gillick-competent. This article argues against the imposition of this requirement on the ground that such an approach is an unjustifiable extension of the reasoning in Marion’s Case. The decision, which is the first judicial consideration in Queensland of the position of medical terminations, also reveals systemic problems with the criminal law in that State. In concluding that the traditional legal excuse for abortions will not apply to those which are performed medically, Queensland v B provides further support for calls to reform this area of law.

The Criminal Codes : Commentary and Materials

This edition has been substantially revised to increase overall clarity and to ensure a balanced examination of the criminal law in the 'Code' states, Queensland and Western Australia. The work has been brought up-to-date in all areas and provides valuable comment on the recent wide-reaching reforms to the law of homicide in Western Australia. Significant developments in both states discussed in this edition include: The abolition of wilful murder and infanticide, and the new definition of murder (WA); The introduction of the new offence of unlawful assault causing death (WA); The abolition of provocation to murder (WA), and whether this excuse still has a part to play (Qld); The reformulation of the excuse of self-defence, and the introduction of excessive self-defence (WA); The creation of offences for drink spiking (Qld and WA); and Current and proposed sentencing considerations (Qld and WA). Fundamental principles of the criminal law are illustrated throughout the book by selected extracts from the Codes and case law, while additional materials foster critical reflection on the law and the need for reform.

Butterworths Questions and Answers : Criminal Law in Queensland and Western Australia

Criminal Law in Queensland and Western Australia is a new title in the Butterworths Questions and Answers (BQA) series, focusing on the criminal law in the main code states – Queensland and WA.

Generating Flash files of Your Lectures: Good Practice Strategies Helping Students Engage with Their Learning

Our students come from diverse backgrounds. They need flexibility in their learning. First year students tend to worry when they miss lectures or part of lectures. Having the lecture as an on line resource allows students to miss a lecture without stressing about it and to be more relaxed in the lecture, knowing that anything they may miss will be available later. The resource: The Windows based program from Blueberry Software (not Blackberry!) - BB Flashback - allows the simultaneous recording of the computer screen together with the audio, as well as Webcam recording. Editing capabilities include adding pause buttons, graphics and text to the file before exporting it in a flash file. Any diagrams drawn on the board or shown via visualiser can be photographed and easily incorporated. The audio from the file can be extracted if required to be posted as podcast. Exporting modes other than Flash are also available, allowing vodcasting if you wish. What you will need: - the recording software: it can be installed on the lecture hall computer just prior to lecture if needed - a computer: either the ones in lecture halls, especially if fitted with audio recording, or a laptop (I have used audio recording via Bluetooth for mobility). Feedback from students has been positive and will be presented on the poster.

Reading and writing PE-files with PERWAPI

PERWAPI is a component for reading and writing .NET PE-files. The name is a compound acronym for Program Executable – Reader/Writer – Application Programming Interface. The code was written by one of us (Diane Corney) with some contributions from some of the early users of the tool. PERWAPI is a managed component, written entirely in safe C#. The design of the writer part of the component is loosely based on Diane Corney’s previous PEAPI component. It is open source software, and is released under a “FreeBSD-like” license. The source may be downloaded from “http://plas.fit.qut.edu.au/perwapi/” As of the date of this document the code has facilities for reading and writing PEfiles compatible with the latest (beta-2) release of the ”Whidbey” version of .NET, that is, the Visual Studio 2005 framework. An invocation option allows earlier versions of the framework to be targeted.

Reading and writing PE-files with PERWAPI

PERWAPI is a component for reading and writing .NET PE-files. The name is a compound acronym for Program Executable – Reader/Writer – Application Programming Interface. The code was written by one of us (Diane Corney) with some contributions from some of the early users of the tool. PERWAPI is a managed component, written entirely in safe C#. The design of the writer part of the component is loosely based on Diane Corney’s previous PEAPI component. It is open source software, and is released under a “FreeBSD-like” license. The source may be downloaded from “http://perwapi.codeplex.com”. As of the date of this document the code has facilities for reading and writing PEfiles compatible with the V2 or later frameworks.

Withholding and withdrawing life-sustaining treatment : criminal responsibility for established medical practice?

The law recognises the right of a competent adult to refuse medical treatment even if this will lead to death. Guardianship and other legislation also facilitates the making of decisions to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment in certain circumstances. Despite this apparent endorsement that such decisions can be lawful, doubts have been raised in Queensland about whether decisions to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment would contravene the criminal law, and particularly the duty imposed by the Criminal Code (Qld) to provide the “necessaries of life”. This article considers this tension in the law and examines various arguments that might allow for such decisions to be made lawfully. It ultimately concludes, however, that criminal responsibility may still arise and so reform is needed.

Narratives of mitigation : sentencing Indigenous criminal defendants in South Australia’s Higher Courts

In their statistical analyses of higher court sentencing in South Australia, Jeffries and Bond (2009) found evidence that Indigenous offenders were treated more leniently than non-Indigenous offenders, when they appeared before the court under similar numerical circumstances. Using a sample of narratives for criminal defendants convicted in South Australia’s higher courts, the current article extends Jeffries and Bond’s (2009) prior statistical work by drawing on the ‘focal concerns’ approach to establish whether, and in what ways, Indigeneity comes to exert a mitigating influence over sentencing. Results show that the sentencing stories of Indigenous and non-Indigenous offenders differed in ways that may have reduced assessments of blameworthiness and risk for Indigenous defendants. In addition, judges highlighted a number of Indigenous-specific constraints that potentially could result in imprisonment being construed as an overly harsh and costly sentence for Indigenous offenders.

An examination of the sentencing remarks of Indigenous and non-Indigenous criminal defendants in South Australia’s Higher Courts

Recent Australian research on Indigenous sentencing primarily explores whether disparities in sentencing outcomes exist. Little is known about how judges perceive or refer to Indigenous defendants and their histories, and how they interpret the circumstances of Indigenous defendants in justifying their sentencing decisions. Drawing on the ‘focal concerns’ approach, this study presents a narrative analysis of a sample of judges’ sentencing remarks for Indigenous and non-Indigenous criminal defendants convicted in South Australia’s Higher Courts. The analysis found that the sentencing stories of Indigenous and non-Indigenous offenders differed in ways that possibly reduced assessments of blameworthiness and risk for Indigenous defendants.