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The legal and social dimensions of financial hardship in Australia: Implications for legal, regulatory and policy frameworks. Financial hardship, the reduced ability to meet monetary obligations because of loss of employment, illness or disaster, is an increasing problem for both low-income and middle-income Australians. This project is the first in-depth study of the practical operation of Australia’s financial hardship laws, which are designed to protect Australians suffering financial hardshi ....The legal and social dimensions of financial hardship in Australia: Implications for legal, regulatory and policy frameworks. Financial hardship, the reduced ability to meet monetary obligations because of loss of employment, illness or disaster, is an increasing problem for both low-income and middle-income Australians. This project is the first in-depth study of the practical operation of Australia’s financial hardship laws, which are designed to protect Australians suffering financial hardship. Major surveys will be undertaken of senior staff of financial dispute resolution schemes, financial counsellors, consumer solicitors and consumer advocates as well as persons suffering financial hardship. The project outcomes will include improvements to dispute resolution involving financial hardship and consumer advisory services, and potential law reform proposals.Read moreRead less
Model Laws to Regulate the Use of Restraint on Persons with Disabilities. This project aims to address the current lack of a common legal framework for regulating the use of restraint on persons with disabilities in mental health, disability and aged care sectors. Through developing model laws and guidelines, this project aims to support the Disability Ministers’ National Framework for Reducing and Eliminating the Use of Restrictive Practices and the National Mental Health Commission’s work on r ....Model Laws to Regulate the Use of Restraint on Persons with Disabilities. This project aims to address the current lack of a common legal framework for regulating the use of restraint on persons with disabilities in mental health, disability and aged care sectors. Through developing model laws and guidelines, this project aims to support the Disability Ministers’ National Framework for Reducing and Eliminating the Use of Restrictive Practices and the National Mental Health Commission’s work on reducing and eliminating restraint. Its main objective is to benefit persons with disabilities by supporting government policies aimed at reducing, with a view to eliminating, the adverse consequences of coercive practices in general.Read moreRead less
Preventive Detention of High Risk Offenders: The Search for Effective and Legitimate Parameters. This Project will provide Australian policymakers with proposals for the management and treatment of high risk offenders that adopt international best practice standards and which are constitutionally valid and consistent with Australia's international legal obligations. It seeks to help safeguard the community from offenders considered at high risk of causing harm.
Electronic Health Records: Achieving an Effective and Ethical Legal and Recordkeeping Framework. Health records are essential to efficacious treatment and affect every individual. They are 'socially-critical' communications because the therapeutic relationship between doctor and patient is based on trust. Without any systematic ethical and legal safeguards or recordkeeping framework, the application of new technologies for networking health records lacks social credibility. This multidisciplina ....Electronic Health Records: Achieving an Effective and Ethical Legal and Recordkeeping Framework. Health records are essential to efficacious treatment and affect every individual. They are 'socially-critical' communications because the therapeutic relationship between doctor and patient is based on trust. Without any systematic ethical and legal safeguards or recordkeeping framework, the application of new technologies for networking health records lacks social credibility. This multidisciplinary study will provide a set of principles and standards relating to authenticity, ownership, access, privacy, and confidentiality of doctor-patient communications in a networked environment, which, if implemented, will benefit patients and the medical community thus furthering the development of a more efficacious national health system.Read moreRead less
Confidentiality in Therapeutic Relationships: Developing Guidelines for Mental Health Professionals. The outcome of this project will be a document on ethical standards that will contribute to a conceptual framework for resolving ethical, legal and professional issues that need to be addressed with regard to confidentiality in therapeutic relationships. By assisting with the establishment of guidelines necessary to promote clarity and confidence, the project will make a substantial contribution ....Confidentiality in Therapeutic Relationships: Developing Guidelines for Mental Health Professionals. The outcome of this project will be a document on ethical standards that will contribute to a conceptual framework for resolving ethical, legal and professional issues that need to be addressed with regard to confidentiality in therapeutic relationships. By assisting with the establishment of guidelines necessary to promote clarity and confidence, the project will make a substantial contribution to the effective implementation of a way of working which improves the delivery and quality of mental health care for patients and goes some way to ensuring greater safety for the public.Read moreRead less
Controversies of legal interpretation: a philosophical investigation of reasoning and adjudication in some recent contentious cases. A series of High Court decisions in Australia since the 1980's generated a public controversy about the role of moral and political values in adjudication. It has been charged that judges are engaged, not in an exercise of technical legal interpretation, but rather in illegitimate and politically partisan ?judicial activism.? The project investigates the theoretica ....Controversies of legal interpretation: a philosophical investigation of reasoning and adjudication in some recent contentious cases. A series of High Court decisions in Australia since the 1980's generated a public controversy about the role of moral and political values in adjudication. It has been charged that judges are engaged, not in an exercise of technical legal interpretation, but rather in illegitimate and politically partisan ?judicial activism.? The project investigates the theoretical and applied questions of legal interpretation implicit in this argument. It rejects the charge of judicial activism. It proposes a ?value-maximizing? theory of reasoning and interpretation that characterizes adjudication in contentious cases as precisely a process of theorizing about relevant moral and political values.Read moreRead less
Transition to a clean energy future: the role of climate change litigation in shaping our regulatory path. As the world seeks a clean energy future, courts in Australia and other key fossil fuel-producing nations, like the United States, are increasingly hearing cases seeking to block the use of coal due to its climate change effects. This project critically assesses the role such climate litigation plays in generating regulatory momentum to address climate change.
The Future of Television: Australian Legal Protection of Digital Broadcast Content. Free-to-air broadcasting performs central democratic, economic and cultural functions, with a key place in Australia's media. But technological changes pose fundamental and urgent challenges for broadcasters. By investigating mechanisms to protect digital content, the project will advance understanding of a crucial issue in the digital economy. The project will increase understanding of options for protecting bro ....The Future of Television: Australian Legal Protection of Digital Broadcast Content. Free-to-air broadcasting performs central democratic, economic and cultural functions, with a key place in Australia's media. But technological changes pose fundamental and urgent challenges for broadcasters. By investigating mechanisms to protect digital content, the project will advance understanding of a crucial issue in the digital economy. The project will increase understanding of options for protecting broadcast content to promote innovation in content production and distribution, while not restraining reasonable content uses nor hindering innovative consumer electronics. Australian policies should foster an innovative and diverse broadcasting sector to serve Australian public interests. The project promotes this vital objective.Read moreRead less
Responding to Climate Change: Australia's Environmental Law and Regulatory Framework. Climate change presents Australia with unparalleled sustainability challenges. Impacts on environmental resources will require an integrated legal and socio-economic regulatory response. An effective and adaptable environmental law framework will be crucial for adaptation and mitigation measures. The project addresses this need by undertaking a comprehensive, interdisciplinary evaluation of Australia's legal ca ....Responding to Climate Change: Australia's Environmental Law and Regulatory Framework. Climate change presents Australia with unparalleled sustainability challenges. Impacts on environmental resources will require an integrated legal and socio-economic regulatory response. An effective and adaptable environmental law framework will be crucial for adaptation and mitigation measures. The project addresses this need by undertaking a comprehensive, interdisciplinary evaluation of Australia's legal capacity to respond to climate change, so identifying appropriate governance structures and regulatory tools. This analysis is vital to positioning Australian environmental law to manage climate change impacts and associated social, ecological and economic costs and to ensure compliance with international obligations.Read moreRead less
The prospects for justice in the legal reform of police administrative detention powers in China. Australia's security and economic well-being is becoming increasingly closely tied to China. Australia has a strong interest in China's continued economic well-being, as well as promoting the rule of law and valuing the protection of human rights. The effective legal protection of human rights is of vital concern to our relationship, to China's long term stability and to China's increasing participa ....The prospects for justice in the legal reform of police administrative detention powers in China. Australia's security and economic well-being is becoming increasingly closely tied to China. Australia has a strong interest in China's continued economic well-being, as well as promoting the rule of law and valuing the protection of human rights. The effective legal protection of human rights is of vital concern to our relationship, to China's long term stability and to China's increasing participation in international human rights fora. This project will enhance our understanding of struggles to effect legal reform of contentious police powers and to improve protection of citizens' rights through reforming law enforcement practices. It will contribute to ongoing Sino-Australian cooperation to promote human rights protection.Read moreRead less