The landlord's duty and unsafe premises

Case note on Sheehy v Hobbs [2012]. It is well established that a landlord owes a tenant a duty of care to “take reasonable care to avoid foreseeable risk of injury to their prospective tenants and members of their household”.1 What often arises is the question of how far the scope of that duty extends. In Sheehy v Hobbs [2012] QSC 333 the plaintiff was injured when she fell down a flight of internal stairs of the townhouse she leased from the defendants. The plaintiff claimed damages for a breach of duty owed to her in negligence, and also alleged breaches of the duties owed to her pursuant to s 103 of the Residential Tenancies Act 1994 (Qld) and her tenancy agreement.

Exploring board dynamics : director participation during board meetings

Despite board meetings representing the main arena where directors discharge their duties and make critical corporate decisions, we know little about what occurs in the boardroom. Consequently, there is increasing academic interest in understanding how meetings are run and how directors participate. This study contributes to this emerging literature by exploring the impact of board meeting arrangements on directors’ interactions and perceptions of meeting effectiveness. We video-taped board meetings at two Australian corporations operating in the same industry and use an in-depth analysis of interactions and board processes to reveal that a rather small difference in meeting arrangements (i.e. the timing and length of meetings) had a significant influence on interaction patterns. Specifically, given significant amounts of environmental turbulence in the sector, director inclusiveness and participation were reduced as time pressure increased due to shorter meetings, lowering director perceptions of meeting effectiveness.

A flexible optimisation model for the railway crew scheduling problem

Addressing the Crew Scheduling Problem (CSP) in transportation systems can be too complex to capture all details. The designed models usually ignore or simplify features which are difficult to formulate. This paper proposes an alternative formulation using a Mixed Integer Programming (MIP) approach to the problem. The optimisation model integrates the two phases of pairing generation and pairing optimisation by simultaneously sequencing trips into feasible duties and minimising total elapsed time of any duty. Crew scheduling constraints in which the crew have to return to their home depot at the end of the shift are included in the model. The flexibility of this model comes in the inclusion of the time interval of relief opportunities, allowing the crew to be relieved during a finite time interval. This will enhance the robustness of the schedule and provide a better representation of real-world conditions.

Swine flu, doctors and pandemics : Is there a duty to treat during a pandemic?

The swine influenza (H1N1) outbreak in 2009 highlighted the ethical and legal pressures facing general practitioners and health workers in emergency departments in determining the nature and limits of their obligations to their patients and the public. Health workers require guidance on the multiple, overlapping, and at times conflicting legal and ethical duties owed to patients and prospective patients, employers and fellow health workers, and their families. Existing sources of advice on these issues in Australia, by way of statements of medical ethics and other sources of advice, are shown to be in need of further amplification if health workers are to be provided with the certainty and guidance required. Given the complexity of the issues, Australia would therefore benefit from more extensive consultation with the variety of stakeholders involved in these questions if pandemic plans are to smoothly deal with future crises in an ethically and legally sound manner.

Legal rights during pandemics : federalism, rights and public health laws - a view from Australia

Pandemic influenza will cause significant social and economic disruption. Legal frameworks can play an important role in clarifying the rights and duties of individuals, communities and governments for times of crisis. In addressing legal frameworks, there is a need for jurisdictional clarity between different levels of government in responding to public health emergencies. Public health laws are also informed by our understandings of rights and responsibilities for individuals and communities, and the balancing of public health and public freedoms. Consideration of these issues is an essential part of planning for pandemic influenza.

What now?

On her first day as a liaison librarian not so long ago, Kelly Johnson was filled with excitement but also trepidation. Core duties such as learning and teaching support were safely in her comfort zone. Collection management, however, was still more theory than practice.

Measurement of energy expenditure of daily tasks among mothers of young children

There is currently some debate about whether the energy expenditure of domestic tasks is sufficient to confer health benefits. The aim of this study was therefore to measure the energy cost of five activities commonly undertaken by mothers of young children. Seven women with at least one child younger than five years of age spent 15 minutes in each of the following activities: sitting quietly, vacuum cleaning, washing windows, walking at moderate pace (approx 5km/hour), walking with a stroller and grocery shopping in a super-market. Each of the six 'trials' was completed on the same day, in random order. A carefully calibrated portable gas analyser was used to measure oxygen uptake during each activity, and data were converted to units of energy expenditure (METS). Vacuum cleaning, washing windows and walking with and without a stroller were found to be 'moderate intensity activities' (3 to 6 METs), but supermarket shopping did not reach this criterion. The MET values for these activities were similar to those reported in the Compendium of Physical Activities (Ainsworth et al., 2000). However, the energy expenditures of walking, both with and without a stroller, were higher than those reported in the Compendium. The findings suggest that some of the tasks associated with domestic caring duties are conducted at an intensity which is sufficient to confer some health benefit. Such benefits will only accrue however if the daily duration of these activities is sufficient to meet current guidelines.

Crisis on impact : responding to cyber attacks on critical information infrastructures

In the developing digital economy, the notion of traditional attack on enterprises of national significance or interest has transcended into different modes of electronic attack, surpassing accepted traditional forms of physical attack upon a target. The terrorist attacks that took place in the United States on September 11, 2001 demonstrated the physical devastation that could occur if any nation were the target of a large-scale terrorist attack. Therefore, there is a need to protect criticalnational infrastructure and critical information infrastructure. In particular,this protection is crucial for the proper functioning of a modern society and for a government to fulfill one of its most important prerogatives – namely, the protection of its people. Computer networks have many benefits that governments, corporations, and individuals alike take advantage of in order to promote and perform their duties and roles. Today, there is almost complete dependence on private sector telecommunication infrastructures and the associated computer hardware and software systems.1 These infrastructures and systems even support government and defense activity.2 This Article discusses possible attacks on critical information infrastructures and the government reactions to these attacks.

Duty in the time of epidemics : what China and Zimbabwe teach us

In November 2002, a man with ‘atypical pneumonia’ treated in Foshan hospital, Guangdong Province, in the People's Republic of China, was the first known case of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). However, it was not until April 2003 that the Chinese government admitted to the full scale of ‘atypical pneumonia’ cases infected with SARS, two months after the disease had rapidly spread across the world with initial infections in Hong Kong and Vietnam sourced to Guangdong. In 2008, Zimbabwe experienced one of the biggest outbreaks of cholera ever recorded. By February 2009, the disease had spread across all of Zimbabwe's 10 provinces and to neighbouring countries—Botswana, South Africa, Zambia and Mozambique—causing thousands of infections amongst their populations. This article seeks to examine what duties the Chinese and Zimbabwe states had to protect their citizens and the international community from these outbreaks. The article refers to the findings of the International Law Commission's study into the role of states and international organisations in protecting persons in the event of a disaster to consider whether there is an international duty to protect persons from epidemics. The article concludes that both cases reveal a growing concept of protection that entails an international duty to assist individuals when an affected state proves unwilling or unable to assist its own population in the event of a disease outbreak.

Policing in Context : An Introduction to Police Work in Australia

Policing in Context is a well structured introductory text that gives students the practical information they need to grasp the diverse roles, duties, powers and problems of policing in Australia. This book approaches policing in three key sections, creating a natural flow of information. The first section sets up the basic knowledge needed for understanding the history, context and structure of policing in Australia. The second section provides a description of the core skills, tasks and operations of police work. In the final section, chapters cover and reflect on contemporary and emerging issues.

Ethics in project management : some Aristotelian insights

Purpose My aim is to introduce, in the project management field, an Aristotelian ethics lens moving beyond the classical deontological and consequentialism approaches underlying the current ethical practices and codes of ethics and professional conducts. In doing so, I wish to pose the premises of a debate on the implications of a conscious ethical perspective for the structure and agency relationship within the project management field Design/methodology/approach Project management is a knowledge field on its own right. However the current perspectives applied to make sense and develop the field (modernism vs. postmodernism) leads to dichotomous thinking rather than recognizing the merits and contextual validity of both sides. I call for Aristotelian Ethics as a way of moving beyond this dichotomous thinking. I introduce briefly Aristotelian Ethics and its consequences in term of relation theory – practice, means and ends, facts and values, and finally politics (i.e. being part of a community of practitioners). Then I illustrate some consequences for the field taking PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct and APM Code of Professional Conduct as supports for discussion Findings I suggest a need for revisiting and/or redesigning the codes of ethics and professional conducts for project management according to an Aristotelian perspective, in order to move beyond the normative limitations of classical deontological (conflict between competing duties, exemplified by PMI Code) or consequentialism (focusing on the "right" outcome to the detriment of duties, exemplified by APM Code) approaches (both, in fact, leading to a disconnection means and ends, and facts and values). This implicates shifting our view from the question "what is my duty?" to the questions "why should I undertake my duty?" and "how ought I act in this situation?" Practical implications Raising Professional Bodies, Industry and Education institutions awareness and consciousness and leading them to rethink about codes of ethics and the implications for the way they conceive practice and research, bodies of knowledge, credentialing, education... Originality/value To the best of my knowledge, this kind of discussion has not yet been conducted within the project management field, and considering the implication of project management in our life and for the well being of the society, an ethical debate may present some value(s)

Duty to the court and the administration of justice : some examples, implications and clarifications

No liberal democracy can survive without popular trust in its judicial system. The legal profession and the judiciary enjoy a level of independence and autonomy from the executive that makes them both powerful and privileged. A UNIQUE AND ORGANIC DUTY: So long as the courts are seen to fulfil their duty to guard against encroachments by the executive on the freedoms and rights of individual citizens with integrity and credibility, they maintain enough public support to retain their normative authority. But support for those with power and privilege is easily undermined. It is contingent upon trust. Lawyers who breach that trust in ways that go to the heart of the legal system ought to expect to be made examples of and to suffer severe penalties. The good news is that the sorts of breach discussed here should be neither difficult to anticipate nor to avoid – in theory. In practice, smart and honest lawyers sometimes fall foul of these duties for all sorts of understandable (if not condonable) reasons. Law does not get practised in a social or cultural vacuum. Lawyers are people, and people have weaknesses, failings and stresses...

Nondelegable duty : the implications of Woodland v Essex County Council

English law has long recognised that nondelagable duties exist, but it does not have a single theory to explain when or why - arguable, one might add, until now. That is the value of the reasons for judgement in Woodland v Essex County Council.

Equity in Australian estate litigation

Equitable claims are increasingly arising in Australian estate litigation, particularly in conjunction with family provision applications. Since the leading decision in Bridgewater v Leahy, in addition to undue influence and unconscionable bargain claims, actions based on equitable estoppel, constructive and resulting trusts, breach of fiduciary duty, and breach of legislative duties that mirror equitable obligations are increasingly being brought in contemporary estate litigation. Such litigation often raises challenging issues for claimants, including evidentiary hurdles and allegations of undue delay, especially when claims are made post-mortem in relation to inter vivos dealings with property. Accordingly, solicitors need to ensure that they fully understand the nature and potential application of equitable claims in estate litigation, or face the prospect of incurring liability to clients for professional negligence. This article explores recent trends in Australian estate litigation involving equitable claims.

Unpacking director financial literacy : a Delphi study from Australia

The ‘Centro case’ confirmed that each individual director is responsible for financial governance and must be able to ‘read and understand’ financial statements. Despite the centrality of director financial literacy to directors duties, practitioner and academic literature have failed to clearly define or provide evidence-based reliable measures of director financial literacy. This paper seeks to address this weakness by presenting the initial results of a Delphi study on unpacking the conceptualisation of director financial literacy. We have found that director financial literacy involves more than reading and understanding financial statements. Rather, it encompasses capabilities in applying accounting concepts to the analysis and evaluation of financial statements. As such director financial literacy may be more accurately described as ‘director accounting literacy’.