Law, state sovereignty and religious terror: renewing the relevance of early modern political jurisprudence. Modern political thought has lost touch with early modern political jurisprudence. Premised on this hypothesis, the project reconstructs the historical role of political jurisprudence as the discipline that conferred legitimacy on the sovereign state under the rule of law, the great invention to end religious war. As a vital instrument of peaceful coexistence among Europe's warring faiths ....Law, state sovereignty and religious terror: renewing the relevance of early modern political jurisprudence. Modern political thought has lost touch with early modern political jurisprudence. Premised on this hypothesis, the project reconstructs the historical role of political jurisprudence as the discipline that conferred legitimacy on the sovereign state under the rule of law, the great invention to end religious war. As a vital instrument of peaceful coexistence among Europe's warring faiths, this early modern discipline is directly relevant to today's renewed concerns with public security against religious terror. The project will both recover the relevance of political jurisprudence, and provide a major historical corrective to anti-juridical and anti-statist research agendas.Read moreRead less
How just is our criminal justice system? Crime reduction, retribution and their impact on substantive criminal law. The aims of punishment impact dramatically on the substantive criminal law. Although there have been various attempts to develop general theories of criminal responsibility, this is the first study to apply integrated theories of punishment to specific offences, and the analytical structure of the criminal law.
By exploring the tensions between crime reduction and retribution, t ....How just is our criminal justice system? Crime reduction, retribution and their impact on substantive criminal law. The aims of punishment impact dramatically on the substantive criminal law. Although there have been various attempts to develop general theories of criminal responsibility, this is the first study to apply integrated theories of punishment to specific offences, and the analytical structure of the criminal law.
By exploring the tensions between crime reduction and retribution, the project develops a theory of criminalisation; concrete proposals for the reform of core offences, a criminal code and systematic sentencing principles; thereby improving the efficiency, fairness and accountability of the criminal justice system.Read moreRead less
Legal and social dynamics of eBook lending in Australia’s public libraries. Legal and social dynamics of eBook lending in Australia’s public libraries. This project aims to develop an evidence base of quantitative and qualitative data about how eBooks are used in libraries. EBooks have tremendous beneficial potential, particularly for Australians in remote areas and those with impaired mobility or vision. However, libraries’ rights to acquire and lend them are more restricted than for physical b ....Legal and social dynamics of eBook lending in Australia’s public libraries. Legal and social dynamics of eBook lending in Australia’s public libraries. This project aims to develop an evidence base of quantitative and qualitative data about how eBooks are used in libraries. EBooks have tremendous beneficial potential, particularly for Australians in remote areas and those with impaired mobility or vision. However, libraries’ rights to acquire and lend them are more restricted than for physical books. Libraries and legal, social and data science researchers will investigate eBook lending practices and understand their social impacts. The project will identify ways of reforming policy, law, and practice to help libraries fulfil their public interest missions. This project is expected to enable libraries to extract more value from existing public investments.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE180100577
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$321,983.00
Summary
Rethinking institutional culpability: criminal law, philosophy and horror. This project aims to reconceptualise institutional culpability, examining what systemic failure occurs when public enquiries that detail harms inflicted rarely result in criminal prosecutions or sanctions. It addresses the pressing need to provide practical insight into legislative responses (or the lack thereof) to corporate harms. This project is expected to have national and international benefits in terms of both prac ....Rethinking institutional culpability: criminal law, philosophy and horror. This project aims to reconceptualise institutional culpability, examining what systemic failure occurs when public enquiries that detail harms inflicted rarely result in criminal prosecutions or sanctions. It addresses the pressing need to provide practical insight into legislative responses (or the lack thereof) to corporate harms. This project is expected to have national and international benefits in terms of both practical law reform and theoretical constructions of culpability.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE130100418
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$374,906.00
Summary
Responsibility in criminal law. The principle of criminal responsibility lies at the heart of our criminal justice systems. This project provides a systematic analysis of criminal responsibility in the context of the NSW criminal law. It engages Australian scholarship in, and enhances Australia's contribution to, an important and growing field.
Lessons from Asian Peacebuilding. War causes not only human suffering; it threatens the health and education of generations of children, sets back regional economies and encourages warlords to become transnational criminals who traffic in drugs, people, money laundering, guns and terror. Fresh insights will be obtained from the successes and failures of attempts to build peace in societies such as Afghanistan. These national and regional diagnoses will enhance the quality of Australia's contribu ....Lessons from Asian Peacebuilding. War causes not only human suffering; it threatens the health and education of generations of children, sets back regional economies and encourages warlords to become transnational criminals who traffic in drugs, people, money laundering, guns and terror. Fresh insights will be obtained from the successes and failures of attempts to build peace in societies such as Afghanistan. These national and regional diagnoses will enhance the quality of Australia's contribution to security and stability in our part of the globe and increase national capacity to contribute to global peace strategies.Read moreRead less
The Neo-Liberal Legal Academy. Profound changes are occurring in the character of Australian public universities, particularly in respect of the commodification of education, of which no study has yet been undertaken. Using the discipline of law as a case study, this project proposes to study the ramifications of change with particular regard to legal academics, legal education and the constitution of legal knowledge. While the main focus will be directed to the Australian legal academy, compari ....The Neo-Liberal Legal Academy. Profound changes are occurring in the character of Australian public universities, particularly in respect of the commodification of education, of which no study has yet been undertaken. Using the discipline of law as a case study, this project proposes to study the ramifications of change with particular regard to legal academics, legal education and the constitution of legal knowledge. While the main focus will be directed to the Australian legal academy, comparisons will be effected with New Zealand, Canada and the United Kingdom which evince similar trends. The study is expected to remedy a lacuna in knowledge and to inform higher education policy.Read moreRead less
Fairness and equity for victims of crime: what do victims want, and why don't they get it? The goal of the research is to assist justice and crime victims services agencies to understand their role in relation to crime victims and to develop more effective and responsive ways to meet this important social and justice challenge. The research will contribute to a better understanding how traditional legal and justice processes can be made consistent with victims' needs for procedural fairness and ....Fairness and equity for victims of crime: what do victims want, and why don't they get it? The goal of the research is to assist justice and crime victims services agencies to understand their role in relation to crime victims and to develop more effective and responsive ways to meet this important social and justice challenge. The research will contribute to a better understanding how traditional legal and justice processes can be made consistent with victims' needs for procedural fairness and equity of outcomes. The project will establish a strong theoretical and policy framework for a principled, fair and responsive justice system that is informed by the diverse interests of its constituents and consumers. This research has the support of Victims Support Australasia and in-principle agreement from four member services.Read moreRead less
The Use of Information and Cryptographic Technology to Restrict Competition. This project will deliver the following benefits:
- Improve the understanding of how security technologies can be misapplied to restrict competition;
- Development of an early warning mechanism to assist regulators in determining when anti-competitive behaviour is occurring thorough the use of security technologies;
- provide assistance to the Australian Government, and thus the Australian economy, by developing an i ....The Use of Information and Cryptographic Technology to Restrict Competition. This project will deliver the following benefits:
- Improve the understanding of how security technologies can be misapplied to restrict competition;
- Development of an early warning mechanism to assist regulators in determining when anti-competitive behaviour is occurring thorough the use of security technologies;
- provide assistance to the Australian Government, and thus the Australian economy, by developing an international framework that can be promoted to Australia's major trading partners to achieve a harmonisation of complimentary competitive regulation.
- The provision of criteria for consideration by Australian industry in developing new products that may incorporate security technologies
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Interpreting Constitutions: A Comparative and Theoretical Study. Constitutional provisions that are ambiguous, vague, or insufficiently explicit must often be interpreted by judges. Should the judges be guided by contemporary values, rather than the original intentions of the founders? That is problematic, because interpretation is then difficult to distinguish from change. Constitutions usually require that they be changed only by some special, democratic procedure. Australian scholars have onl ....Interpreting Constitutions: A Comparative and Theoretical Study. Constitutional provisions that are ambiguous, vague, or insufficiently explicit must often be interpreted by judges. Should the judges be guided by contemporary values, rather than the original intentions of the founders? That is problematic, because interpretation is then difficult to distinguish from change. Constitutions usually require that they be changed only by some special, democratic procedure. Australian scholars have only begun to consider such issues, which have been debated in America for decades. This project will involve a comparison of the methodologies of constitutional interpretation in five different countries, and a theoretical inquiry into the underlying normative and linguistic principles.Read moreRead less