Melbourne Law School Collegial Conversations

Semester 1, 2010

Glenn Patmore (MLS)

Ministerial irresponsibility?

The continuing political fallout for the Federal Government arising from the home insulation scheme has once again shone a spotlight on the concept of Ministerial responsibility within our democratic structures. In this talk, Glenn will outline the theory and practice of the concept and invite discussion about its ongoing evolution.

STOP PRESS: Glenn has turned his presentation into an article published in the National Times on Friday, 5 March 2010.

Beth Thornburg (SMU Dedman School of Law, Dallas, USA)

Manipulation of public perception of law and courts

Politicians have long sought to shape their messages to appeal to voters.  But today in the United States corporate interest groups carry on well-financed, sophisticated campaigns to create voter pressure on legislators and judges to limit plaintiffs' recoveries, and to do so they villainize claimants, their lawyers, and the courts themselves.  Their primary tools are images and anecdotes, with some deceptive numbers thrown in for good measure.  Is this happening in Australia as well (perhaps in the name of 'tort reform')?  What impact will these campaigns have on public confidence in and support for the courts and legal system more generally?

(Elise Bant's presentation has been moved to 14 April)

David Studdert (Federation Fellow, Melbourne School of Population Health and MLS)

Health care reform in the US and Australia:  Do the legislatures have the prescription right?

A month is a long time in politics.  In December, the US Congress looked set to pass a major overhaul of the country’s ailing health care system.  With the loss of the late Senator Ted Kennedy’s seat in Massachusetts to a Republican, the future of the health reforms is now uncertain.  In this Collegial Conversation, David Studdert will outline the American situation.  Because 2010 is a year in which the Rudd government’s long-promised shake-up of Australia ’s health system is likely to occur, he will also initiate a discussion of some of the key challenges that health systems in all developed countries currently face.

A link to Professor Studdert's Opinion piece in the Age on this topic is here.

Jeannie Paterson (MLS)

Gender and Career; Aspirations and Expectations of Law Students

Jeannie will discuss a 2009 survey, undertaken with Melissa Castan, Maryanne Dever, Helen Watt and Paul Richardson, which sought to investigate the expectations and aspirations of first and later year law students at Monash University and any gender differences in those views.

Helen Anderson (MLS)

Protection of employee entitlements

Employees are poorly served by corporate insolvency legislation, compared to some other stakeholders. Helen Anderson was awarded her first ARC grant in 2009 to consider whether generous legislative provisions in favour of the Commissioner of Taxation could be adapted to the protection of unpaid employee entitlements. In this conversation, she discusses her planned research and welcomes guidance from experienced empirical researchers.

The art of editing

Elise will share some thoughts arising from recent experiences of editing a collection and having her work edited in turn. The general theme of the conversation is the difficulty of balancing legitimate (and illegitimate?) editorial concerns with the author’s right to retain her authorial ‘voice’.

No Collegial Conversation - Staff Meeting (Postponed)

Eva-Maria Svensson (University of Gotheburg)

Requiring law students to study gender equality

In 1999, new requirements were introduced for several university exams in Sweden. The law students were supposed to learn about how the organisation of society, family conditions and domestic violence affect men’s and women’s lives. A project was financed by the Swedish Government in order to develop methods for the implementation and to generate curriculum materials on this issue. The implementation of these requirements had interesting results, in terms of reluctance and institutional resistance. 

Andrew Dickinson (Solicitor-Advocate, England and Wales)

The Europeanisation of Private Law in England

Michelle Foster (MLS)

Refugee Policy under Rudd: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back…

Since its election, the Rudd Government has sought to emphasise that compliance with Australia’s international obligations, particularly under the 1951 Refugee Convention, is a key method by which we may repair the ‘enormous damage’ done to our international reputation under the Howard government. Accordingly, from 2007-2009, the Government made some significant changes to bring Australia’s refugee protection scheme back into line with international law.  However, the announcement by the Government in early April 2010 that the processing of new asylum applications from Sri Lanka and Afghanistan was to be immediately suspended seems a radical policy departure from these goals.  Michelle will lead a discussion on the implications this shift signals in respect of Australia’s international refugee obligations and also reflect on what it means for advocates and others interested in refugee protection.

Semester 2, 2010

Carole Hinchcliff and Alissa Sputore (MLS)

The Law Library in 2010

This conversation will focus on recent developments with the Law Library’s services and collection. Carole and Alissa will discuss the Law Research Service and the types of projects they can assist with, recent additions to the collection and other initiatives happening in the Law Library. They welcome questions and suggestions of services that will meet the needs of MLS staff and students. 

 Glenn Patmore and Ann O'Connell (MLS)

Student supervision: The Advanced Legal Research experience 

This conversation will address the expectations of supervisors and students as well as the joys, problems, and issues that arise in supervising and marking ALR papers.

Professor The Hon Gareth Evans AO QC (Honorary Professorial Fellow, The University of Melbourne; President Emeritus, International Crisis Group and Co-Chair, International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament)

Where Next on Nuclear Disarmament? 

By way of background, please refer to the Report of the International Commission on Nuclear Proliferation and Disarmament (of which Professor Evans is Co-Chair) at www.icnnd.org and recent speeches at www.gevans.org.

Jeremy Gans (MLS) and John Tobin (MLS)

Putting Our Articles Online for Free

The research committee is thinking about whether the law school should encourage and help its staff to make articles they write publicly available for free.  For instance, the law school could try to negotiate with law journals to permit you to republish your articles in an open access depository on the web (e.g., Austlii, SSRN).

If you are interested in reading more about this, Alissa has placed some recent papers on the O drive: O:\ISS Document Transfer\Law Research Service\Open Access Resources. 

Mike Schmitt (Durham Law School and visitor to APCML)

http://www.dur.ac.uk/research/directory/staff/?mode=staff&id=8260

Why it is a good idea to have a website for a research project

Caron and Janette will address this topic by reference to their experience in building:

www.cartel.law.unimelb.edu.au

15 September 2010

Kristen Walker (MLS)

Rowe v Electoral Commissioner 

Kris will discuss the recent High Court decision declaring invalid Howard -era laws that close the electoral rolls on the day that writs for an election are issued.

 Sean Cooney (MLS)

‘The discussion will be around changes to the RHD program relating to selection and monitoring progress. Sean will discuss our experience to date with the expression of interest system, as well as initiatives (from the MLS or the central university) to assist candidates to reach completion’

The RHD Program and the EOI

Our new healthcare identifiers and linked health records: An overdue step to improved health services or another threat to our privacy?

 Claire Winton Burn (Lawyer and Masterchef Contestant (Final 10))

"Taking the road less travelled: life after law"

7 July 2009

(cancelled due to illness)
 

Experts Attacking Experts: Early Toxicologists, the Arsenic Wars, and the Crisis in US Forensic Science

A copy of David's presentation is available here.

The Pacific Contract Code Project

Kevin Jon Heller (Melbourne Law School)

Bashir and the ICC
Postponed to 20 August.

Justice Sotomayor's nomination

Michael Musheno (San Francisco State University)

Growing up with Stories in America's Outback: Bringing Story-Telling to Socio-Legal Studies

Andrew Godwin (Melbourne Law School)

Teaching transactional law subjects and transaction skills

Alison Duxbury (Melbourne Law School)

My time at the Centre for Transnational Legal Studies

Bashir and the ICC

Repatriation and curation of indigenous evidence

Elise Bant (Melbourne Law School)

An Australian in Oxford

No Collegial Conversation - Staff Meeting

Jeremy Gans and Kevin Jon Heller (Melbourne Law School)

Why blog?  Why not?

Links:  Jeremy's blog; Kevin's blog