Community sanctions in Australian criminal justice. This project aims to understand the place of community sanctions in the Australian criminal justice system. At a time of record high imprisonment rates, community sanctions that are alternatives to prison do not have a clear purpose. This limits evaluation of their effectiveness and undermines public confidence in criminal justice. The project will examine the use of community sanctions for Indigenous people, women and people with mental/cognit ....Community sanctions in Australian criminal justice. This project aims to understand the place of community sanctions in the Australian criminal justice system. At a time of record high imprisonment rates, community sanctions that are alternatives to prison do not have a clear purpose. This limits evaluation of their effectiveness and undermines public confidence in criminal justice. The project will examine the use of community sanctions for Indigenous people, women and people with mental/cognitive impairment in three jurisdictions. This is intended to inform scholarly and public debates and to contribute to policies and practices that reduce inequality and enhance justice.Read moreRead less
Bringing Indigenous voices into judicial decision-making. This project aims to show how judgments can be written so as to be inclusive of Indigenous people's voices and histories. This project will extend methodologies created by international scholars for correcting the absence of women’s voices, and produce the missing Indigenous judgment in twenty decisions of Australian superior courts. The gulf between judge-made law and the lived experience of Indigenous litigants will also be explored thr ....Bringing Indigenous voices into judicial decision-making. This project aims to show how judgments can be written so as to be inclusive of Indigenous people's voices and histories. This project will extend methodologies created by international scholars for correcting the absence of women’s voices, and produce the missing Indigenous judgment in twenty decisions of Australian superior courts. The gulf between judge-made law and the lived experience of Indigenous litigants will also be explored through an in-depth examination of four test case exemplars. This project’s benefits include building a new relationship between Australian judges and Indigenous people and contributing to Australia's jurisprudence on Indigenous people and the law.Read moreRead less
Judges' work, place and psychological health - a national view. This project aims to address the human, juridical and financial costs of judicial officers’ work-related psychological harm. This harm is implicated in early retirement, sick leave and suicide. It threatens appropriate courtroom conduct, procedural fairness and impartial adjudication. The project seeks to generate new knowledge of the stress judicial officers experience and the individual and institutional mechanisms for managing st ....Judges' work, place and psychological health - a national view. This project aims to address the human, juridical and financial costs of judicial officers’ work-related psychological harm. This harm is implicated in early retirement, sick leave and suicide. It threatens appropriate courtroom conduct, procedural fairness and impartial adjudication. The project seeks to generate new knowledge of the stress judicial officers experience and the individual and institutional mechanisms for managing stressors, combining socio-legal and psychological approaches. Expected outcomes include evidence-based understandings to inform recruitment and retention strategies specific to this highly specialized workforce. This should provide significant benefits for judges’ work capacities and courts' delivery of justice.Read moreRead less
Contemporary populism and constitutional democracy. This project aims to explain and evaluate constitutional populism, or regimes that have come to power in a global wave of ‘populist’ parties challenging traditional ones. The project will identify, reconstruct, and evaluate legal and constitutional aims of, and institutional solutions adopted by, such regimes. It will examine whether they respect the forms of democracy, or just pay lip service to, for example, principles of the rule of law and ....Contemporary populism and constitutional democracy. This project aims to explain and evaluate constitutional populism, or regimes that have come to power in a global wave of ‘populist’ parties challenging traditional ones. The project will identify, reconstruct, and evaluate legal and constitutional aims of, and institutional solutions adopted by, such regimes. It will examine whether they respect the forms of democracy, or just pay lip service to, for example, principles of the rule of law and constitutionalism, while working to subvert such principles. The project will focus on what ‘new populists’ do with power once they have it, what the consequences are for a global view of democracy, and on informing Australia’s geopolitical engagement with such regimes.Read moreRead less
Data science in humanitarianism: novel law and policy challenges. This project aims to study how agencies such as the United Nations make use of data science to support decision-making and resource allocation in humanitarian and development work and confront law and policy challenges emergent in this context. Its bridging of socio-legal inquiry and developments in information and communications technology will produce new international law and policy knowledge. Expected outcomes include better i ....Data science in humanitarianism: novel law and policy challenges. This project aims to study how agencies such as the United Nations make use of data science to support decision-making and resource allocation in humanitarian and development work and confront law and policy challenges emergent in this context. Its bridging of socio-legal inquiry and developments in information and communications technology will produce new international law and policy knowledge. Expected outcomes include better insight into the limits of automated decision-support techniques and their perceived legitimacy in different settings, and resulting reform recommendations, as well as building technology-related skills that are important for Australia's changing economy. Aid donors and recipients worldwide will benefit from changes in law and policy designed to ensure the legitimacy of decisions in humanitarian and development work.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE210101055
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$334,775.00
Summary
Public law accountability of outsourced government services. When government officials make decisions that affect a person's interests - eg whether to grant a social security payment or visa - the official must act lawfully, fairly and rationally. If they do not, there are means of review and redress for the affected individual via administrative law. But increasingly, government service delivery is outsourced and review mechanisms are lost. This project will analyse best practice approaches to ....Public law accountability of outsourced government services. When government officials make decisions that affect a person's interests - eg whether to grant a social security payment or visa - the official must act lawfully, fairly and rationally. If they do not, there are means of review and redress for the affected individual via administrative law. But increasingly, government service delivery is outsourced and review mechanisms are lost. This project will analyse best practice approaches to administrative review and redress in different outsourcing contexts. It will generate new knowledge about the operation and effectiveness of redress mechanisms. This will benefit policy-makers and the community by enhancing transparency, fairness and accountability in outsourced decision-making.Read moreRead less
Violence, Risk and Safety: The Changing Face of Australian Criminal Laws . Criminal laws have been radically transformed to keep Australians safe from violence. This project aims to complete the first national study of how and why criminal laws have proliferated and diversified so significantly. It will employ novel conceptual tools for investigating the 'drivers', ‘processes’ and ‘modalities’ of criminalisation, and complete socio-legal studies of sexual and domestic violence, homicide, alcohol ....Violence, Risk and Safety: The Changing Face of Australian Criminal Laws . Criminal laws have been radically transformed to keep Australians safe from violence. This project aims to complete the first national study of how and why criminal laws have proliferated and diversified so significantly. It will employ novel conceptual tools for investigating the 'drivers', ‘processes’ and ‘modalities’ of criminalisation, and complete socio-legal studies of sexual and domestic violence, homicide, alcohol-related violence, public disorder and the activities of criminal groups. The intended outcome is new knowledge about the causes and effects of innovation in criminal law-making. This research can benefit future public debate, policy development and law reform decisions about the role of criminalisation in enhancing safety.Read moreRead less
The foundations of civil justice in Australia. This project aims to provide an in-depth historical account of the origins of our civil justice system in Australia. Judicial institutions and their practices were key to the founding of civil society in the Australian colonies. This project will produce new knowledge about the origins of our civil justice system. The project will trace legal reformist ideas in England, their dissemination across Britain's Empire and the impact these had on how judg ....The foundations of civil justice in Australia. This project aims to provide an in-depth historical account of the origins of our civil justice system in Australia. Judicial institutions and their practices were key to the founding of civil society in the Australian colonies. This project will produce new knowledge about the origins of our civil justice system. The project will trace legal reformist ideas in England, their dissemination across Britain's Empire and the impact these had on how judges and administrators in the Australian colonies crafted their judicial practices to provide speedy and effective access to civil justice. As well as scholarly writing, this project will provide a podcast and multi-media website that explains how civil trials worked in the mid-nineteenth century.Read moreRead less
Optimising Industry-led Regulation for the Digital Platforms Era. This project aims to investigate how harms caused by digital platforms can be effectively prevented through co-regulation where industry develops rules enforced by a regulator. Widely used in the broader communications sector, ‘co-regulation’ remains chronically under-theorised and its effectiveness has never been adequately reviewed. Meanwhile, harms such as disinformation and violent content expand in both scale and impact. This ....Optimising Industry-led Regulation for the Digital Platforms Era. This project aims to investigate how harms caused by digital platforms can be effectively prevented through co-regulation where industry develops rules enforced by a regulator. Widely used in the broader communications sector, ‘co-regulation’ remains chronically under-theorised and its effectiveness has never been adequately reviewed. Meanwhile, harms such as disinformation and violent content expand in both scale and impact. This research will provide an evidential base for optimising co-regulation in the contemporary Australian communications environment, benefiting regulators seeking to meet public policy goals; consumers experiencing online harms; and platforms themselves, who might otherwise be subject to blunt regulatory tools.Read moreRead less
Australian human rights complaints: Litigation, mediation or conciliation. This project will assess the effectiveness of the mechanisms used to resolve human rights complaints in Australia – conciliation, mediation and litigation. It will be the first project to evaluate the effectiveness of these mechanisms in a human rights context. Working with industry partners from the legal sector and four human rights commissions, this project will generate new knowledge on human rights complaints and on ....Australian human rights complaints: Litigation, mediation or conciliation. This project will assess the effectiveness of the mechanisms used to resolve human rights complaints in Australia – conciliation, mediation and litigation. It will be the first project to evaluate the effectiveness of these mechanisms in a human rights context. Working with industry partners from the legal sector and four human rights commissions, this project will generate new knowledge on human rights complaints and on the views of key stakeholders about the effectiveness of the mechanisms used to resolve human rights complaints. This new information will inform legal and policy reform throughout Australia. The expected outcomes include developing a robust evidence-based model for human rights dispute resolution in the Australian context.Read moreRead less