Kirby Seminar Series

2 October 2008
12:00–1:00 PM

J.N. Lewis Seminar Room)

Dr Chris S Renschler

Associate Professor, University of Buffalo, The State University of New York, USA

“Decision-Support Tools for Integrated Natural Resources and GeoHazards Management: Scientific and Legal Challenges for Development and Implementation”

Dr Renschler is currently a Visiting Fellow in the School of Geography, Planning and Architecture at the University of Queensland in Brisbane.  His seminar will discuss issues relating to decision- and policy-making in natural resources or natural hazards management and specifically, his current project involving the development of a conceptual framework for measuring, assessing, and monitoring an integrated Community Resilience Index (CRI), a toolkit that integrates quantitative and qualitative methods using spatial and non-spatial data to identify scientifically defensible indicators for community resilience, and an implementation plan that enables local and regional stakeholders to continuously monitor and enhance their resilience against episodic and slow-onset extreme events.

Professor John Becker

Professor, Penn State University

Australian Water Law Reform: A Case Study for Reform of Water Law Systems

Ms Susan Franck

Assistant Professor, University of Nebraska Law College

International Law and Empiricism: Reality Testing Claims About International Investment Disputes

Professor Donna Craig

Centre for Environmental Law, Macquarie University

Recognition of Customary Law in Natural Resource Management

Phillip Falk

Griffith University

Workshop on Indigenous Inclusive Teaching and Learning Practices in Law

This seminar will address a holistic approach to developing and implementing Indigenous knowledge and perspectives within the Law School. This holistic approach encompasses the elements of Curriculum Development; Teaching and Learning, Indigenous Research; Staff Development and Training; and Student Support. These elements will be explored by drawing upon Mr Falk’s experience at Griffith University’s School of Law.

Phillip Falk is a Wiradjuri man (Central West NSW) who resides in Bundjalung country in Northern NSW. He is a Senior Lecturer at Griffith University’s School of Law and specialises in Indigenous curriculum development and its implementation..

Matthew Skinner

Partner, Allens Arthur Robinson

Climate Change Litigation — How real is the risk?

Aileen Kennedy

Associate Lecturer, School of Law, UNE

The Undiscovered Country: Brain death, cognitive death and wrongful life

Hon. Greg James QC

President, Mental Health Review Tribunal

“Mental Health Law Reform in New South Wales”

Peter Long

Long Howland Lawyers & Advisors

Economics, Business and Law in the Blender of Farm Succession

Professor Indira Carr

University of Surrey

Corruption: Legal Solutions and Limits of Law

Mr Craig Collins

Lecturer, UNE School of Law

Pericles was a Plumber: Towards Resolving the ‘Vocational’ and ‘Liberal’ Dichotomy in Legal Education

Dr Rob McLaughlin

Royal Australian Navy
Legal Adviser, Military Strategic Commitments, Australian Defence Headquarters, Canberra

Current and Evolving Challenges in the Law of Armed Conflict

Dr McLaughlin will discuss changing paradigms in the law of armed conflict, including civilianisation of military issues and militarisation of civilian issues.

Dr Ann Brower

Lincoln University, Christchurch NZ

Closing the Deal at any Cost: Principals, Agents, and Sub-Agents in New Zealand Land Reform

Ellickson (1991) argues that welfare-enhancing norms, not the law, often prevail when adjudicating disputes over property. In 1990, about 20% of the South Island of New Zealand consisted of Crown land under long-term lease to pastoral farmers. 77 leaseholds have since been partially privatised through “tenure review,” a bilateral exchange of property rights whereby lessees acquire freehold title to part of their former leaseholds and the Crown resumes land for conservation. Using data on the 77 deals completed to date, we test and reject the hypothesis that the value of property rights exchanged drives prices, no matter who claims to own which rights. Instead, prices lie on or below the lessees’ demand curve for freehold land, and reveal that who acquires how much land is irrelevant to price. This is consistent with both Ellicksonian and agency theories. Heretofore classified prices appear to give rise to a principal-agent problem with a new twist — the contractor subagent. The ministerial principal directs the agent to close deals at minimal cost to the Crown; but the agent rewards the subagent for closing deals, regardless of cost. Hence subagents do not resist lessees’ rent-seeking, and the lessees’ demand curve serves as the lower bound for generosity in price. This outcome is welfare-enhancing to all present at the negotiating table — the lessee, the agent, and the subagent — at the expense of the public.
Ann L. Brower, Adrian Monks and Philip Meguire

Justin Rose

Ag Law Centre, UNE

Legal Pluralism and Environmental Governance in Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and the Federated States of Micronesia

Justin Rose is among an international team of scholars currently investigating the ongoing and adapting roles of customary laws and indigenous institutions in environmental governance in Melanesia and Micronesia, as well as interactivity between these and state-based laws, institutions and interventions. Justin’s seminar overviews this research, discusses its relevance to broader discourses in policy and law and for ecologically sustainable development, and summarises the preliminary findings.

Dr Dayle Smith

Brisbane Bar (Retired)

Quo Warranto? (By What Authority?)
The Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal

A special screening of rarely seen footage of the tokyo war crimes tribunal with commentary by Dr Smith, including observations on the parallels with the US Military Commission trials of David Hicks and others.

Professor Michael Hahn

University of Waikato, Hamilton, NZ

The World Trading System – From Single Undertaking to a Two-Track Approach

The Treaty establishing the World Trade Organization and the attached Agreements dealing with trade in goods, trade in services, trade-related intellectual property rights and, not the least, dispute settlement is viewed by many scholarly writers as a treaty of constitutional quality. Its dispute settlement mechanism is more advanced than any other international dispute settlement mechanism. Even more important than such a theoretical classification is the acceptance by Member States. The WTO Dispute Settlement is massively used by Members, making sure that by and large violations of WTO law will be established by and in an impartial forum on a regular basis. While this has not prevented Member states from breaking WTO law, it is probably fair to say that adherence to WTO obligations is high. The success of the WTO – Vietnam joined as the 150th Member recently – could be the cause for some of its difficulties. Since the establishment of the WTO more than 250 bilateral trade agreements have been concluded. As of today almost half of the world’s trade is (also) governed by those FTAs.

Professor Hahn’s Kirby Seminar will highlight the problems caused by this multitude of partially overlapping trade regimes and propose potential remedies. He is an expert on international economic law, in particular WTO and EC foreign trade law. After a receiving a law degree from Frankfurt University, Professor Hahn joined the prestigious Max-Planck-Institute for Comparative Public Law and Public International Law in Heidelberg, Germany as a research fellow. He earned his doctorate with a study on “Unilateral Suspensions of GATT Obligations as Reprisal”. Professor Hahn held positions at several German and US Law Schools. In October 2005 he was appointed Professor at the University of Waikato Law School. He also teaches as a visiting Professor at Saarland University. Professor Hahn’s latest publications deal with cultural diversity, EC foreign trade law and legal problems of the regulation of biotechnology. He has just been invited to co-author the 3rd edition of the standard WTO treatise Matsushita/Schoenbaum/Mavroidis, The WTO – Law, Practice and Policy (OUP, 2^nd ed. published in 2006). Professor Hahn is also a Member of the International Law Association’s International Trade Law Committee.

Professor Brad Sherman

Director Australian Centre for Intellectual Property in Agriculture, University of Queensland

The Original Clones – On the Emergence of Intellectual Property Rights in Living Organisms

Craig Collins

Lecturer, UNE School of Law.

The Libel Trials of Andrew Bent, 1825–1838

This paper is introduced with an overview of the larger PhD project, ‘Defamation in the Australian Colonies, 1824–1874’, including an approach to methodology and explanation as to how this sub-topic fits into that larger picture as something of a case study. Andrew Bent, as an ex-convict, is not widely recognised for initiating the free press in the Australian colonies. In the period 1825–1838, Bent was a defendant in some nine libel actions in the Supreme Court of Van Diemen’s Land. Two of these cases are examined as having particular significance, with a specific focus upon the role of defamation law in transforming the nature and boundaries of public speech in Van Diemen's Land over the relevant period.

Professor Jim Jackson

School of Law and Justice, Southern Cross University.

University Governance: Councils, Vice Chancellor’s Executives, Academic Boards and the Law

Professor Jackson was the foundation Dean of the School of Law and Justice, Southern Cross University, and headed the School until February 1998. His specialities are in commercial, company and higher education law. He is the author of a number of books and articles, including Australian Corporate Law with Tomasic and Woellner. Professor Jackson’s doctorate was entitled “Academic Freedom in Australian Universities”. Currently he is publishing in the areas of academic freedom, legal obligations of members of university councils, and the application of the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth) to universities.

Cormack Dunn

Corrs Chambers Westgarth Lawyers.

Go Directly to Gaol – New Frontiers in OHS Law

Mr Dunn is acting for the first CEO of a publicly listed company charged with an OHS offence. These are criminal offences which carry a possible sentence of imprisonment for up to 5 years. This prosecution is the first of a number now on foot and reflects a significant change in policy by the NSW government towards director and manager obligations under OHS legislation. Mr Dunn will present on the ramifications this prosecution policy has upon persons charged and its appropriateness in light of limits under the legislation. Mr Dunn has acted for a number of large international and Australian corporations in relation to OHS prosecutions. Prior to joining Corrs Chambers Westgarth Lawyers in 2004, Mr Dunn worked for the NSW Police, WorkCover NSW and the NSW Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Professor Hilary Charlesworth

Professor in RegNet and Director of the Centre for International Governance and Justice. Professor of International Law and Human Rights in the College of Law, ANU.

The Problems of Building Justice and Democracy after Conflict

Professor Charlesworth’s interests are in international law and human rights law. She has held visiting appointments at Washington & Lee School of Law, Harvard Law School, NYU Global Law School and in 2005 was the 24^th Wayne Morse Professor at the University of Oregon. Current research projects include the legitimacy of UN Security Council decisions, the impact of international law on Australian law and the role of women in international dispute resolution. She has worked with various non-governmental human rights organisations on ways to implement international human rights standards and was chair of the ACT Government’s inquiry into an ACT Bill of Rights, which culminated in the adoption of the ACT Human Rights Act 2004. She is Patron of the ACT Women’s Legal Service. In 2005, she was awarded a Federation Fellowship by the Australian Research Council.

Dr Charlotte Smith

Lecturer, School of Law, University of Reading

Reformulating the Body Spiritual: The Identification and Representation of the Church of England in the Later Nineteenth Century

Associate Professor Russell Hogg

Russell Hogg has published widely in the areas of criminology and criminal justice studies, including Policing the Rural Crisis (Federation Press, 2006, co-authored with Kerry Carrington) and Critical Criminology: Issues, Debates, Challenges (Willan, 2002, co-edited with Kerry Carrington). He is also co-editor of a forthcoming collection of essays on crime in rural Australia.

Executive Proscription of Terrorist Organisations

Associate Professor Belinda Bennett

Pro-Dean (Teaching Programs) and Director of the Centre for Health Governance, Law and Ethics at the Faculty of Law, University of Sydney

The Next Pandemic?: Globalisation and Public Health Laws

Dr Joellen Riley

Senior Lecturer, Sydney Law School, University of Sydney

A critical overview of Work Choices and its impact on the regulation of the Australian labour market

Dr Joellen Riley has been teaching and researching in the fields of labour law and commercial law since joining the Law Faculty of the University of Sydney in 1998. She is also a consultant with Harmers Workplace Lawyers, and academic adviser to the Law Society of NSW’s Specialist Accreditation Committee on Employment and Industrial Law. Her publications include Workplace Relations: A Guide to the 1996 Changes (LBC, 1997), Employee Protection at Common Law (Federation 2005), and she has two books due for publication in 2006 – The Law of Work with Rosemary Owens (OUP) and Work Choices: A Guide to the 2005 Changes with Kate Peterson (LBC).

Amanda Kennedy (nee Williamson)

PhD Candidate, School of Law, UNE

’Supple, Sassier and Commercially-Minded‘? Assessing the current higher education employment relations agenda and the drive to individualise the Australian academic employment relationship

Dr Mike Redmayne

Reader in Law, London School of Economics

What is wrong with character evidence?

Abstract: The common law has traditionally excluded bad character evidence against defendants (bad character evidence usually means that the accused has a previous conviction). Thus, if D is on trial for burglary, evidence that he has previously committed burglary cannot be admitted; there are various exceptions to the rule, eg where the previous conviction provides particularly compelling evidence of guilt. The usual reason given for the exclusionary rule is that bad character evidence is prejudicial, but that is not very convincing. Taking this as given, the question arises: what other reasons might there be for generally excluding bad character evidence? In this paper, I explore other possible exceptions, drawing on literature in criminology and sentencing theory to probe the possibility that the exclusionary rule might be justified by a concern for the autonomy of defendants.

Aileen Kennedy

Associate Lecturer, School of Law, UNE

Trafficking in humans for sexual exploitation: An assessment of Australia’s law and policy response.

Dr David Hamer

Senior Lecturer, School of Law, UNE

Reconciling reverse burdens of proof with the presumption of innocence under the Human Rights Act 1998 (UK)

Dr Liz Fisher

Tutorial Fellow in Law at Corpus Christi College, Oxford University

‘A Duty to Be Cautious’: The Precautionary Principle and Australian Courts and Tribunals

Professor Pat Carlen

[Co-hosted with Sociology, School of Social Sciences]
Visiting Professor of Criminology, Kent University, United Kingdom

Imprisonment and the Penal Body Politic

Carolyn Middleton

LLM research student, School of Law, UNE

Is the judicial discretion to admit illegally or improperly obtained evidence, predictable or effective?

Professor Charles Rickett

Sir Gerard Brennan Professor of Law; Head, TC Beirne School of Law, The University of Queensland

The Province of the Law of Tracing

Stuart Kaye

Professor, Dean of Law, University of Wollongong

Australia’s Maritime Boundary with East Timor: The Rise and Fall of the Timor Gap

Robert Laurence

Robert A Leflar Distinguished Professor of Law, University of Arkansas, United States

Sovereignty & Property: American Indian law, Australian Aboriginal law and the concepts of ownership and governance

Michael Eburn

Senior Lecturer, School of Law, University of New England

The Felons Apprehension Acts 1865–1899 (NSW)

Peter Cane

Professor, Head of Law, Law and Philosophy Program, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University

The New Face of Advocates’ Immunity

Harry Geddes

Associate Professor, School of Law, The University of New England

The Modern Approach to Statutory Interpretation

John Becker

Professor of Agricultural Economics and Law
The Pennsylvania State University, USA

Community Conflicts Over Large Scale Production Facilities: A Research Report

Barbara Holborow

Former Magistrate of the NSW Children’s Court

Is There Really a Juvenile Justice?

Christopher Enright

PhD Student in Law, School of Law, University of New England.
Author of: Legal Techinque (2002), Federation Press

Models for Working with Law – Teaching and Researching

Mark Lunney

Associate Professor, School of Law, University of New England

Historical Context in the Common Law of Tort: How to Get It and What to Make Of It

Mark Spackman

Professor, School of Biological, Biomedical & Molecular Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of New England

ARC Research Grants: Tips and Hints

Frank Brennan

Lawyer, Jesuit Priest, Social Justice Campaigner
Author of: Tampering with Asylum; Legislating Liberty; Too Much Order With Too Little Law etc.

Can Lawyers Help Resolve the Timor Gap Crisis?

Jim Thomson

LLM, PhD Harvard

A Tub to a Whale: The Non Utility of a Bill of Rights in Australia

Martin Chanock

Professor, School of Law and Legal Studies, La Trobe University

Globalisation and Legal Transplants: Understanding Law in Context

Stephen Guest

Professor of Legal Philosophy, Faculty of Laws, University College London.
Author of: Ronald Dworkin (2^nd ed, 1997) and Positivism Today (1996).

A Comparison of Integrity with Justice as a Model for Law.

Amanda Williamson

PhD Student, School of Law, University of New England

Contemporary Employment Relations in Australia: Assessing the Impact of Individualism and Collectivism upon the Academic Employment Relationship

Imtiaz Omar

Senior Lecturer, School of Law, University of New England

Trial of Hicks and Habib by Foreign Military Court: Constitutional Issues and Executive Decision Making

John Coombs QC

Former President, Australian Bar Association and New South Wales Bar Association

How Can You Appear For Someone You Know Is Guilty?

Stephen Colbran

Professor, School of Law, University of New England

Is The Law Lecture Dead?

Mark Lunney

Associate Professor, School of Law, University of New England

Human Rights and Private Law – An Unhappy Combination?

Michael Macklin

Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Arts, University of New England. Former Senator for Queensland in the Federal Parliament

Making law – the perspective of a philosopher parliamentarian

Sandra Welsman

Director, Australian Centre of Agriculture and Law, University of New England

Interfaces of Agricultural Business, Science and Law

Emilia Della Torre

Lecturer, School of Law, University of New England

The Buck Stops Here! Responsibilities of States for Wrongs Committed by Private Individuals

Paul Latimer

Associate Professor, Department of Business Law and Taxation, Monash University

Current Issues in Corporate Governance

Justice Tony North

Federal Court of Australia

On-country native title hearings

Ivan Shearer

Challis Professor of International Law, University of Sydney
Member of the Order of Australia (AM), 1995

War, armed conflict and the circumstances in which any state may use force against another state without the authority of the United Nations Security Council

Eric Ghosh

Lecturer, School of Law, University of New England

Constitutionalism and the Revival of the Republican Political Tradition: an Alternative Approach to Protecting Human Rights

David Hamer

Lecturer, School of Law, University of New England

Justice, Probability & Juridical Proof

Sam Garkawe

Associate Professor, School of Law and Justice, Southern Cross University

The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission – A Worthy Mechanism of Accountability or a Dangerous and Unjustified Compromise?

Justice Michael Kirby

Justice of the High Court of Australia

The Future of Human Rights