Unfair terms in residential land contracts : will the Australian consumer law improve a buyer’s bargaining position?

The prohibition on unfair contract terms in standard form consumer contracts has the potential to significantly impact on the terms of contracts for the sale of land. The definition of ‘consumer contract’ includes contracts for the sale or grant of an interest in land to an individual wholly or predominantly for personal or domestic use. Therefore, a contract for the purchase of a residence for personal occupation by the buyer, as opposed to a purchase for investment purposes, will be a consumer contract potentially attracting the application of the unfair terms provisions. Significant consumer protection mechanisms already exist in most state jurisdictions requiring disclosure of relevant matters to the buyer and providing remedies for the provision of misleading conduct. Minimal evidence of unfair terms in land contract was presented to the Productivity Commission Inquiry into the Australian Consumer Policy Framework raising the question as to whether there is an identified problem of unfair terms in real estate contracts and if so, whether the same economic and ethical rationales justify regulatory intervention. This article examines what effect if any the introduction of the unfair contract provisions will have on the enforcement of residential land contracts and the viability of previously accepted conditions if challenged as being “unfair terms”. The article concludes that despite the existence of several potentially unfair terms in some land contracts, the intervention of the rules of equity to overcome perceived hardship or unfairness to buyers from strict enforcement of terms means the unfair terms provisions are only likely to operate on terms untouched by those principles. In the authors’ view the scope for operation of the unfair terms provisions will be limited to terms untouched by the principles of equity and consumer protection legislation making it unlikely that there will be any significant realignment of the contractual obligations and rights of buyers and sellers of land.

Providing a law degree for the real world : perspective of an Australian law school

As a result of a two year curriculum review, QUT’s undergraduate law degree has a focus on first year student transition, integration of law graduate capabilities throughout the degree and work integrated learning. A ‘whole-degree’ approach was adopted to ensure that capabilities were appropriately embedded and scaffolded throughout the degree, that teaching and learning approaches met the needs of students as they transitioned from first year through to final year, and that students in final year were provided with a capstone experience to assist them with transition into the work place. The revised degree commenced implementation in 2009. This paper focuses on the ‘real world’ approach to the degree achieved through the first year program, embedding and scaffolding law graduate capabilities through authentic and valid assessment and work integrated learning to assist graduates with transition into the workplace.

“A problem of versions” : laying down the law in the school playground

Purpose This chapter investigates an episode where a supervising teacher on playground duty asks two boys to each give an account of their actions over an incident that had just occurred on some climbing equipment in the playground. Methodology This paper employs an ethnomethodological approach using conversation analysis. The data are taken from a corpus of video recorded interactions of children, aged 7-9 years, and the teacher, in school playgrounds during the lunch recess. Findings The findings show the ways that children work up accounts of their playground practices when asked by the teacher. The teacher initially provided interactional space for each child to give their version of the events. Ultimately, the teacher’s version of how to act in the playground became the sanctioned one. The children and the teacher formulated particular social orders of behavior in the playground through multi-modal devices, direct reported speech and scripts. Such public displays of talk work as socialization practices that frame teacher-sanctioned morally appropriate actions in the playground. Value of paper This chapter shows the pervasiveness of the teacher’s social order, as she presented an institutional social order of how to interact in the playground, showing clearly the disjunction of adult-child orders between the teacher and children.

Regulatory responses to auditor independence dilemmas – who takes the stronger line?

A key part of corporate governance reforms in Australia, as represented by CLERP 9, addresses concerns over the audit function and the role of independent auditors in monitoring managers and providing useful information to stakeholders about the financial position of the company. In comparing the regulatory responses to auditor independence dilemmas, there have been claims that CLERP 9 is less ‘stringent’ than the reforms imposed by the Sarbanes Oxley Act in the US. This paper looks at three particular situations that have been the subject of recent reform to strengthen independence: the mandatory rotation of auditors, recruitment of former auditors as board members, and provision of non-audit services to clients. In each case, we compare the similarities and differences of the regulatory response between Australia and US, to distil the efficacy of the CLERP 9 approach.

Principals’ and teacher leaders’ perceptions of their role and interaction under current Chinese reform : a case study in Shandong province

This study aims to explore the perceptions of principals and teacher leaders regarding their roles and the interaction between these roles in Chinese urban primary schools at the time of unprecedented curriculum reform. This involves a complexity of factors such as the influence of globalisation, the impact of traditional Chinese cultural attitudes towards education through Confucianism, and the implementation requirements of the current education reforms. All of these wider contextual factors help to shape the leadership practices that are described in the study. A qualitative exploratory case study approach has been utilised to undertake this investigation. The conceptual framework for this study draws upon scholars‘ work from Western countries but has been adapted in order to address three research questions for the study‘s focus on the context in Shandong province, Mainland China. Three research questions were addressed: First, what are principals‘ perceptions of their leadership roles in Mainland China under current educational reform? Second, what are teacher leaders‘ perceptions of their leadership roles in Mainland China under current educational reform? And finally, what are principals‘ and teacher leaders‘ perceptions of how their roles interact? With reference to the principals in the study, the findings confirm Gurr‘s (2008) comprehensive leadership model relating to four roles, specifically, learning and teaching, symbolic and cultural awareness, future orientation, and accountability. Significantly, some sub-roles that emerge from the data are uniquely Chinese. For example, school culture construction is a very deliberate process in which principals and their staff talked openly about and were involved in creating a positive school climate comprising spiritual, material, and system dimensions. Another finding relates to school feature construction. This refers to the process that principals and staff used to make their schools distinctive and different from other schools and included such features as the school‘s philosophy and the school-based curriculum. In seeking to understand the nature of teacher leadership in Chinese primary schools, this research confirms some findings identified in Western literature. For instance, teacher leaders in Shandong province were involved in decision-making, working with parents and community members, undertaking and planning professional development for staff, and mediating between colleagues (Day & Harris, 2002; Harrison & Killion, 2007; Leithwood, Jantzi, & Steinbach, 1999; Muijs & Harris, 2006; Smylie, 1992). However, some new aspects, such as a heightened awareness of the importance of accountability, emerge from this study. The study‘s conceptual framework also draws upon some significant insights from micropolitics and, in particular, two core constructs, namely cooperation and conflict (Blase, 1991), to explore the interactions between principals and teacher leaders. In this study, principals and teacher leaders employed exchange and facilitation as two strategies in cooperative processes; and they adopted enforcement and compromise in conflictive processes. Finally, the study‘s findings indicate that principals and teacher leaders were developing new ways of interacting in response to the requirements of significant education reform. Most principals were exercising their power through (Blase, 1991) their teacher leaders who in turn, were working in alignment with their principals to achieve the desired outcomes in schools. It was significant that this form of 'parallel leadership' (Crowther, Ferguson, & Ham, 2009) characterised the teacher leadership roles at this period of change to the curriculum in Mainland China.

UK pre-pack reforms : pause for thought in Australia?

On 31 March 2011 the UK Government announced new measures to regulate the use of pre-packaged sales in administration. The legislation is not expected until later in 2011, but the announcement heralds a shift in regulatory attitudes towards pre-packs in the UK which should give all local pre-pack advocates pause for thought when considering the merits of embracing the procedure in Australia. In the Jan-March 2011 edition of the Australian Insolvency Journal, an interesting article by Nicholas Crouch and Shabnam Amirbeaggi extolled the virtues of pre-packs and called for “legislative reform to embrace pre-packs” in Australia. By way of reply (and in a spirit of constructive debate) this article respectfully contends that while pre-packs certainly have their place in preserving business value in certain circumstances, Australia should be careful not to sleepwalk into adopting a procedure which legitimises phoenixing at the expense of creditor confidence and participation in our insolvency regime.

Land fraud and inappropriate dealings in an electronic environment : An Australian and New Zealand perspective

The thesis presented in this paper is that the land fraud committed by Matthew Perrin in Queensland and inflicted upon Roger Mildenhall in Western Australia demonstrates the need for urgent procedural reform to the conveyancing process. Should this not occur, then calls to reform the substantive principles of the Torrens system will be heard throughout the jurisdictions that adopt title by registration, particularly in those places where immediate indefeasibility is still the norm. This paper closely examines the factual matrix behind both of these frauds, and asks what steps should have been taken to prevent them occurring. With 2012 bringing us Australian legislation embedding a national e-conveyancing system and a new Land Transfer Act for New Zealand we ask what legislative measures should be introduced to minimise the potential for such fraud. In undertaking this study, we reflect on whether the activities of Perrin and the criminals responsible for stealing Mildenhall's land would have succeeded under the present system for automated registration utilised in New Zealand.

Analytical solutions of the multi-term modified power law wave equations in a finite domain

Fractional partial differential equations with more than one fractional derivative term in time, such as the Szabo wave equation, or the power law wave equation, describe important physical phenomena. However, studies of these multi-term time-space or time fractional wave equations are still under development. In this paper, multi-term modified power law wave equations in a finite domain are considered. The multi-term time fractional derivatives are defined in the Caputo sense, whose orders belong to the intervals (1, 2], [2, 3), [2, 4) or (0, n) (n > 2), respectively. Analytical solutions of the multi-term modified power law wave equations are derived. These new techniques are based on Luchko’s Theorem, a spectral representation of the Laplacian operator, a method of separating variables and fractional derivative techniques. Then these general methods are applied to the special cases of the Szabo wave equation and the power law wave equation. These methods and techniques can also be extended to other kinds of the multi term time-space fractional models including fractional Laplacian.

Using reflective practice assessment in the first year of law to encourage a positive professional identity and promote law student well-being

In this paper we argue that intentional curriculum design in the first year of law should encourage law students to develop an emergent sense of a positive professional identity. When first year law students engage with a nascent notion of a positive professional identity, their well-being is supported because their studies are informed and contextualised by a sense of purpose for their future professional life. In a first year law subject run for the first time at the QUT Law School in 2011, reflective practice was successfully used to achieve these goals. The paper discusses the subject, the opportunity of using reflective practice to teach a positive sense of professional identity, and some student perspectives on the subject’s design.

Harnessing the power of hope : happier law students to grow a healthier profession

With the recognition of the high incidence of depression and psychological distress in the legal profession, positive programs and education are being introduced at several levels, including law schools.

Promoting law student well-being through a first year law subject

-First, the incidence of psychological distress in law students is uncomfortably high. -Second, we cannot identify with precision the exact factors that are causing this psychological distress. -Third, cross sectional studies (by themselves) cannot tell us whether it is law school that is creating these levels of psychological distress, or whether prospective law students already possess these attributes. -Fourth, if law school is somehow causing or contributing to this psychological distress, cross sectional studies (by themselves) cannot tell us when in the law degree psychological distress is most likely to occur.

Reflective practice as a tool for addressing high levels of psychological distress in Australian law schools and the legal profession

This paper discusses: -The need for law schools to use curriculum as a site for positive interventions to support student psychological well-being. -The potential for law school interventions to impact on the psychological well-being of the profession. -Reflective practice as a possible tool for promoting psychological well-being in law school and the profession because it provides a way of coping with ‘indeterminate zones’ of experience.

Digital forensics in law enforcement: the case of online victimisation of children

Online victimisation of children is concerned with sexual abuse caused with the help of online technologies. Digital forensics is a powerful methodology to discover, prevent and bring criminals to justice. Digital forensics is dependent on tools and access to information from a variety of sources in digital government. This paper reports from a knowledge enhancement project to gain new insights into offender investigations in law enforcement.