Australian Jurors' Perspectives on Expert Evidence. This inter-state, industry and research collaborative project will shed light on how courts, lawyers and experts can best work together to assist juries in their decision-making task. With the cost of a criminal jury trial running well in excess of $20,000 per day, policy-makers are keen to find ways of improving the efficiency of criminal trials. Improving the performance of the jury system will benefit the Australian community by enhancing th ....Australian Jurors' Perspectives on Expert Evidence. This inter-state, industry and research collaborative project will shed light on how courts, lawyers and experts can best work together to assist juries in their decision-making task. With the cost of a criminal jury trial running well in excess of $20,000 per day, policy-makers are keen to find ways of improving the efficiency of criminal trials. Improving the performance of the jury system will benefit the Australian community by enhancing the quality and reducing the cost of the criminal justice system. By intimately involving the judges and forensic scientists in this project we maximise the potential for the results of our research to be adopted by those in a position to improve the jury system.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE160101542
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$350,000.00
Summary
Regulating internet content through notice-and-takedown. This project is designed to create a set of principles to help governments, firms and civil society organisations to address harmful online content in more sophisticated ways. Such groups are increasingly seeking to influence the intermediaries that provide internet services to take more responsibility for content on their networks. Globally, these intermediaries receive millions of requests to remove content posted by users each month. Th ....Regulating internet content through notice-and-takedown. This project is designed to create a set of principles to help governments, firms and civil society organisations to address harmful online content in more sophisticated ways. Such groups are increasingly seeking to influence the intermediaries that provide internet services to take more responsibility for content on their networks. Globally, these intermediaries receive millions of requests to remove content posted by users each month. This project seeks to understand how Australian and international intermediaries respond to takedown requests in three areas: copyright, defamation, and hate speech. It aims to create new knowledge about how intermediaries can be influenced to regulate internet content, and how due process and freedom of speech can be protected.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE210100525
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$421,625.00
Summary
Reconceptualising copyright to improve access to screen culture . This project examines the impact of copyright law in Australia’s screen industries, focusing on distribution and access to audiovisual material. It seeks to understand how copyright law and practice can better ensure that the wealth of humankind’s recorded creative output is available for people to enjoy, learn from, and reuse. It combines novel digital research methods with in-depth interviews to study the challenges of licensing ....Reconceptualising copyright to improve access to screen culture . This project examines the impact of copyright law in Australia’s screen industries, focusing on distribution and access to audiovisual material. It seeks to understand how copyright law and practice can better ensure that the wealth of humankind’s recorded creative output is available for people to enjoy, learn from, and reuse. It combines novel digital research methods with in-depth interviews to study the challenges of licensing and distribution in the screen industries, where copyright is at its most complex. It aims to provide rigorous evidence to inform the development of technology-neutral regulation for Australia's copyright industries, improve copyright licensing markets, and unlock the value of under-distributed screen content.Read moreRead less
Regulating and countering structural inequality on digital platforms. This project aims to find legal, ethical, technical, and commercial opportunities to counter inequality online. It uses machine learning and custom data collection tools to create new knowledge about how digital platforms—including search engines, social media, peer economy, and news platforms—can help to tackle misogyny, racism, and other forms of structural discrimination. It uses this knowledge to investigate the extent to ....Regulating and countering structural inequality on digital platforms. This project aims to find legal, ethical, technical, and commercial opportunities to counter inequality online. It uses machine learning and custom data collection tools to create new knowledge about how digital platforms—including search engines, social media, peer economy, and news platforms—can help to tackle misogyny, racism, and other forms of structural discrimination. It uses this knowledge to investigate the extent to which private sector digital platforms can be expected to monitor and regulate the actions of their users, what responsibilities they have to avoid contributing to discrimination, hatred, intolerance and abuse, and how the law should develop to ensure that our digital environment is more equal and fair. Read moreRead less
Protected Action Ballots and Protected Industrial Action under the Fair Work Act: The Impact of Ballot Procedures on Enterprise Bargaining Processes. Under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), lawful industrial action may be taken by employees in support of collective bargaining, provided that they have first authorised the action in a secret ballot. This research project explores the effect of the statutory process by which a bargaining representative of such employees seeks permission from the Fair W ....Protected Action Ballots and Protected Industrial Action under the Fair Work Act: The Impact of Ballot Procedures on Enterprise Bargaining Processes. Under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), lawful industrial action may be taken by employees in support of collective bargaining, provided that they have first authorised the action in a secret ballot. This research project explores the effect of the statutory process by which a bargaining representative of such employees seeks permission from the Fair Work Commission to conduct a ballot. It will examine the impact of the ballot requirement and statutory process on decision-making by bargaining representatives and subsequent employee access to industrial action in order to understand the effect of the regulatory scheme on enterprise bargaining behaviour. It is the first empirical study of strike ballots, analysing an important public policy area.Read moreRead less
Just spaces: security without prejudice in the wireless courtroom. How do jurors respond to seeing defendants in a glass cage, in a traditional wooden dock or at the Bar table? The project will examine how courtroom design shapes attitudes; and, bringing together court executives, architects and researchers, will show how flexible wireless courtrooms can meet both security and human rights standards.
Threshold Decisions in Determining Whether to Prosecute Child Sexual Abuse. The objective of this project is new knowledge about the way police and prosecutors make decisions about the prosecution of child sexual assault that could be used to influence policy and practice. Few cases of child sexual abuse reported to the police ever go to court but recent research in New South Wales for the Royal Commission indicates that the proportion has declined sharply over the last decade or so. This projec ....Threshold Decisions in Determining Whether to Prosecute Child Sexual Abuse. The objective of this project is new knowledge about the way police and prosecutors make decisions about the prosecution of child sexual assault that could be used to influence policy and practice. Few cases of child sexual abuse reported to the police ever go to court but recent research in New South Wales for the Royal Commission indicates that the proportion has declined sharply over the last decade or so. This project aims to examine how police and prosecutors decide which cases proceed and why, and how they confer with each other as well as when and how they consult with complainants and their families. This project plans to also develop and test practice tools and principles for police and prosecutors with expected benefits for both them and the families involved.Read moreRead less
Using law and ending domestic violence: Women's voices. Domestic violence severely damages communities across the globe and law is recognised as a key mechanism for prevention and redress. This project aims to undertake a longitudinal study examining how women of diverse backgrounds use law to help them live a life free of violence. It will investigate what influences women's decisions to choose particular legal interventions but not others, and will identify any unintended consequences flowing ....Using law and ending domestic violence: Women's voices. Domestic violence severely damages communities across the globe and law is recognised as a key mechanism for prevention and redress. This project aims to undertake a longitudinal study examining how women of diverse backgrounds use law to help them live a life free of violence. It will investigate what influences women's decisions to choose particular legal interventions but not others, and will identify any unintended consequences flowing from legal engagement. This project aims to highlight what contributes to women’s satisfaction and sense of safety resulting from legal interventions over time, to make an important contribution to community education, policy implementation and law reform, both within Australia and internationally.Read moreRead less
The presentation of expert evidence in Australian criminal trials: the role of lawyers and experts. This project will shed light on how courts, lawyers and experts can work effectively together to deliver expert evidence in the courtroom. Improving the provision and effective use of expert evidence will benefit the Australian community by providing a better quality criminal justice system.
Sentencing and public confidence: public perceptions and the role of the public in sentencing practice and policy. Public confidence is critical to the effective operation of the criminal justice system. This project will generate much needed current national data on public attitudes about sentencing. It examines avenues for the incorporation of public opinion into sentencing policy and processes, and provides accurate measures of the factors involved. The results will enable governments to res ....Sentencing and public confidence: public perceptions and the role of the public in sentencing practice and policy. Public confidence is critical to the effective operation of the criminal justice system. This project will generate much needed current national data on public attitudes about sentencing. It examines avenues for the incorporation of public opinion into sentencing policy and processes, and provides accurate measures of the factors involved. The results will enable governments to respond to periodic crises in public confidence in constructive and informed ways, rather than act in response to law and order rhetoric, linked with harsh sentencing regimes, and costly and potentially unnecessary increases in incarceration rates.Read moreRead less