Principals and legal risk : complacency or concern?

There has been an increasing awareness across many jurisdictions of potential legal issues that might arise in schools. These issues range from bullying to sexual misconduct, from injury to negligence. In a recent study in Singapore, despite the increased attention to such issues, school principals displayed a range of attitudes toward legal risk and a diverse range of strategies to minimise it. The findings were compared to those from a small scale study of senior educators in Queensland in order to ascertain commonalities and differences of view. This paper summarises those views and suggests some basic principles to help those in positions of leadership to avert unwanted legal attention.

Educational malpractice : legal cases and educators' views

The notion of being negligently and legally liable for poor teaching that results in the failure of students being able to achieve expected educational outcomes is an unimaginable prospect. However, there is an emerging trend of legal proceedings being brought against teachers, blaming them for low scores in literacy, numeracy or even the failure to pass an examination. The duty implied on educators to ensure the educational well-being of their students and the breach of such duty is what is commonly termed in the literature “educational malpractice” or “educational negligence.”

In this article, several cases relating to educational malpractice that took place in the U.S., the U.K., and Australia are reviewed, and the cases demonstrate that the courts are beginning to show a willingness to extend the tort of negligence to students’ intellectual harm. The author then conducted a small-scale investigation to ascertain the views of school principals regarding this issue, with very interesting results.

Utilise basic legal concepts in the completion of work routines RUA AG2810 RM

A study guide for the unit of competency, RUA AG2810RM

Learning guide. Observe legal obligations RUA AG2811RM

A study guide for the unit of competency, RUA AG2811RM

Psycho-social, ethical and legal arguments for and against the retrospective release of information about donors to donor-conceived individuals in Australia

In the February 2011 report on its inquiry into the past and present practices of donor conception in Australia, the Australian Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee called for the introduction of legislation to regulate donor conception in all jurisdictions that do not have it in place "as a matter of priority". It further called for the establishment, "as a matter of priority", of a national register of donors to enable donor-conceived individuals to access identifying information about their donor. The Senate Committee left open the question as to whether the legislation and central register should have retrospective effect. This article focuses upon that question. It shows that arguments concerning the privacy, confidentiality and anonymity of some donors who may wish to remain anonymous are outweighed by the manifest injustice faced by donor-conceived individuals who are denied access to such information, as well as their families and donors who wish to exchange this information.

The use of insects and associated arthropods in legal cases : a historical and practical perspective

 Forensic entomology has generally been recognised among law enforcement and the wider community as a science employed in the estimation of time since death. The utility of this science in contributing to the provision of time frames resulting in the focusing of valuable investigative resources has certainly been of the greatest importance. However, arthropods have been exploited extensively for their ability to provide information in a multitude of other situations, including cases of neglect, the food industry, and information relating to the cause and manner of death. This chapter will discuss the realm of information obtainable from insects and related groups in the forensic context, including and beyond the recognised time since death applications. Two areas of current research, molecular forensic entomology and entomotoxicology, will be discussed for their potential impact in the field.

Data warehouse design and legal visualization – the applicability of H2 for reporting

The steady increase of regulations and its acceleration due to the financial crisis heavily affect the management of regulatory compliance. Regulations, such as Basel III and Solvency II particularly impact data warehouses and lead to many organizational and technical changes. From an IS perspective modeling techniques for data warehouse requirement elicitation help to manage conceptual requirements. From a legal perspective attempts to visualize regulatory requirements – so called legal visualization approaches – have been developed. This paper investigates whether a conceptual modeling technique for regulatory-driven data warehouse requirements is applicable for representing data warehouse requirements in a legal environment. Applying the modeling technique H2 for Reporting in three extensive modeling projects provides three contributions. First, evidence for the applicability of a modeling technique for regulatory-driven data warehouse requirements is given. Second, lessons learned for further modeling projects are provided. Third, a discussion towards a combined perspective of information modeling and legal visualization is presented.

A fish out of water? Legal practitioner - practitioner teacher? Bourdieu, the legal field and the scholarship of teaching in practical legal training

It is surprising to discover during early doctoral research that there is a paucity of Australian scholarship using Bourdieu’s theoretical tools in the field of law, and in the sub-field of post-graduate pre-admission practical legal training. This article introduces Bourdieu’s conceptions of habitus, field, categories of capital, symbolic violence, and misrecognition. It describes how Bourdieu applied these tools to identify structural hostility between legal academics and practitioners, and the struggles for control in the field of law. Review of three North American studies that used Bourdieu’s theories follows, involving law students’ habitus in transition, class stratification in legal education, and gender stratification in law firm partnerships. Drawing on three internally connected ‘moments’ necessary to use Bourdieu’s tools, together with four critical questions concerning teachers’ engagement with the scholarship of teaching, this article identifies new questions for investigation. These questions will frame further research to discover whether the objective structures of the practical legal training field and the habitus of legal practitioners constrains them to act as ‘fish out of water’ in the context of a scholarship of teaching.

Learning leadership is in your hands : toward a scholarship of teaching in practical legal training

A scholarship of teaching in post-graduate pre-admission practical legal training is germane to perceptions of the quality of accreditation of young Australian lawyers practicing in a globalised profession. Traditional forms of teaching scholarship in law have been identified as influencing the well being of law students and practitioners. This article reviews literature that frames a definition and prerequisites for a scholarship of teaching, its traditional and potential forms, and its subject matter. It considers the present position of a scholarship of teaching in practical legal training, and the historical and organisational epistemological approaches to professional practical training (compared to academic education) that shape that position. Problems of validity, measurement, performativity, and engagement in teaching scholarship are introduced, followed by consideration of possible methodological approaches drawing on Schon’s conception of action research, together with emergent methodologies, technologies and practical considerations that enable individual practitioners to pursue and lead a scholarship of teaching in practical legal training. The article frames questions for further doctoral research in relation to practical legal training teachers’ engagement with the scholarship of teaching.

Keeping gender on the agenda : theorising the systematic barriers to women lawyers in corporate legal practice

Despite the implementation of policies and procedures to redress the gender imbalance at the higher echelons in Australian corporate law firms, only a paucity of women successfully tread the path to equity partnership. In this article, it is argued that it is the systemic, rather than the overt, barriers that present the major obstacle to sexual equality within the corporate legal workplace. Neo-Marxian thought, in particular the work of Charles Derber on the proletarianisation of professional workers, as well as contemporary feminist thought, is utilised to explore why profoundly gendered assumptions in relation to the 'ideal worker' norm remain deeply embedded in the mindsets and attitudes of those organising the legal workplace. It is suggested that fear of change to work practices within firms has not only an ideological but also a material base. It is economically determined. Highly trained women lawyers with family work responsibilities who take up flexible work arrangements in firms are fulfilling a proletarian role and their under-utilised labour is being extracted to increase profit share at the apex and facilitate the progress of their unencumbered colleagues along the path to partnership.

Divergent directions in reforming legal responses to lethal violence

Over the past three decades, debates about legal reforms to lethal violence have been evident across Australia and in other jurisdictions. While these debates have often arisen from shared concerns, the resulting reforms have taken different approaches to reformulating the defences to murder. This article considers the divergent approaches taken to reform and the process of law reform itself, documenting the significance of localised histories and high profile cases. It also questions whether reforms to the defences to murder have responded adequately to the varying contexts within which men and women kill. The analysis reveals the limitations of law reform inquiries that fail to take a comprehensive approach to considering the operation of the laws in this area. The article calls for ongoing critical analysis of homicide within and beyond the law.

Big pharma in legal battles for monopoly prices in India

Two large multinational pharmaceutical companies are fighting for patents and monopoly pricing in Indian courts. The outcomes of the cases – involving Novartis and Bayer – are likely to determine the country’s future as a major global supplier of low-cost essential medicines.