On May 31, 2010, Australia filed its Application Instituting Proceedings against Japan in the Registry of the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The commencement of the action by Australia brings to a head the dispute (sometimes acrimonious) concerning Japan’s annual Southern Ocean whale hunt that has persisted over twenty years. In general terms, Australia alleges that the implementation of the Second Phase of the Japanese Whale Research Program under Special Permit in the Antarctic (JAPRA II) is a breach of obligations assumed by Japan under the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (“ICRW”), as well as its other international obligations under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) for the preservation of marine mammals and the marine environment. This brief note outlines the allegations and offers a brief analysis.

This paper concerns curriculum development for online learning in a commercial law course using a process of sustained action-research. We identify and discuss four main characteristics in this process: a need to respond to an external requirement for change (i.e. going online): one or two key guiding teaching and learning principles; an incremental, flexible timeline over three consecutive iterations; a collaborative, supportive partnership between educators and educational consultants . There were two levels of action: learning what was required for curriculum redevelopment and learning about the process of supporting educational development itself. Substantive outcomes included the: sustained adoption of the practices of active learning and curriculum alignment; conceptual development of discussion as a learning tool; acceptance of the fundamental value and practical role in developing purposeful reflection provided by a ‘critical friend.’

This paper arises out of a concern for the future of feminist legal scholarship in the academy. First, it considers the significance of the implosion of the category ‘woman’, suggesting that it should be understood in its particular epistemic context. Secondly, it considers the impact of the contemporary market paradigm on feminist legal scholarship and on feminist academics generally. As the prognosis is not optimistic, the paper poses the question as to whether the more appropriate site for feminist legal academics might be outside the academy.

Maintaining the community pharmacy arrangement within the Australian pharmaceutical industry is essential to appropriate maintenance of health care provision in Australia. Retaining legislative prohibitions on the range of permissible pecuniary interests in the “business of a pharmacy” is likely to ensure that pharmaceuticals continue to be provided to patients outside a hospital setting in circumstances that are optimally beneficial, safe and cost-effective. An Australian state legislature's policy of authorising only registered pharmacists to hold pecuniary interests in a pharmaceutical business is analyzed in connection with the case of Attorney General (NSW) v. Now.com.au Pty Ltd [2008] NSWSC 276.

The Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) came into force on 1 January 2005. Prior to and subsequently to the AUSFTA being concluded, controversy surrounded the debate over its impact on Australia’s health policy, specifically on regulation of pharmaceutical patents and Australia’s cost-effectiveness system relating to prescription medicine prices known as the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). This article examines the expectations of both parties in the pharmaceutical sector concerning the AUSFTA, as well as how successfully they were achieved. It seeks to analyse important relevant outcomes for regulators, the public and pharmaceutical industry, as well as lessons about how trade negotiations relating to health and medicines policy should be approached in future. To investigate whether AUSFTA-related regulatory changes may lead to higher medicines prices in Australia we looked at recent PBS Public Summary Documents (PSDs) to discover examples of PBS-approved F1 (patented) drugs, over the period from July 2008 until June 2009, that failed to establish cost-effectiveness over F2 (generic) comparators (with mandated price cuts) and were thence cost-minimised. This period was chosen since the major price effects of the potentially AUSFTA-related National Health Amendment (Pharmaceuticals Benefits Scheme) Act 2007 (Cth) came into effect from August 2008.

This article revisits the zonal malapportionment endemic in Queensland’s electoral system before the Fitzgerald Inquiry and examines how reform was won. The process is found to be one of liberalising but not ground-breaking catch-up. Viewing Queensland’s zonal system in the larger perspective of manipulation of electoral maps, this article compares Premier Bjelke-Petersen with populist strongmen in South Australia (Playford) and Québec (Duplessis), who employed similar rhetoric to entrench themselves. Ultimately, as others had, Queensland’s agrarian chauvinism proved long-running but brittle. The Queensland example is intriguing for the paradoxes it presented. An important rhetorical component of it was the signalling of anti-democratic values inherent in the zonal system. The electoral manipulations merged pretence with openness. The pointed rejection of democratic pluralism married with the projection of an image of leadership by right. Bjelke-Petersen was proud to govern over, rather than through, democracy.

Silver in nanoparticle form is used extensively worldwide in hospital and general practice settings in dressings as a treatment for external wounds, burns, and ulcers. Nanosilver also is an increasingly important coating over embedded medical devices, inhibiting the development of biofilm. Nanosilver disinfectant sprays and polymer coatings are being widely promoted as protective against viral infections. Nanosilver additionally is widely used for its anti-bacterial properties in food processing and packaging, as well as consumer products used for domestic cleaning and clothing.

This article argues that medical devices, therapeutic products and domestic food and goods containing nanosilver, though offering therapeutic benefits, must be subject to precautionary regulation because of associated public health and environmental risks, particularly from large volumes of nanosilver in waste water. It first examines the use of nanosilver in a variety of contemporary medical and domestic products and this utilization may assist in resolving global public health problems such as restricted access to safe food, water and medical care. It then discusses the mechanisms of toxicity for nanosilver, whether it should be classified as a new chemical entity for regulatory purposes and whether its increased usage poses significant environmental and public health risks. The article next critically analyses representative international regulatory regimes (the United States, European Union, United Kingdom and Australia) for medical and domestic use of nanosilver. The conclusion includes a set of recommendations for improving international regulation of nanosilver in terms of both its safety and potential positive contribution to global public health. Author's proof copy.

Despite valiant endeavours by feminist, critical race, and Queer scholars to transform the legal culture, the transformative project has been limited because of the power of corporatism, a phenomenon deemed marginal to the currently fashionable micropolitical sites of critical scholarship. However, liberal, as well as postmodern scholarship, has largely preferred to ignore the ramifications of the “new economy,” which includes a marked political shift to the right, the contraction of the public sphere, the privatization of public goods, globalization, and a preoccupation with efficiency, economic rationalism, and profits. This paper argues that technical reasoning, or “technocentrism,” has enabled corporatism to evade scrutiny. It explores the meaning of “technocentrism,” with particular regard to legal education. Because corporate power does not operate from a unitary site, but is diffused, the paper shows how it impacts upon legal education from multiple sites, from outside as well as inside the legal academy in a concerted endeavour to maintain the status quo.

Engineered nanoparticles are now well recognised to possess a range of apparently unique and as yet under-researched toxicities Safety concerns about such nanoparticles in cosmetics such as sunscreens are fuelled by consideration of factors such as their size, high mobility in the body and unusual reactivities. Yet, published research relied upon by safety regulators suggests there are no significant adverse health effects from nanoparticle sunscreen preparations [such as those containing nanoparticulate zinc oxide (ZnO) and titanium dioxide (TiO2)] despite free radical formation in the presence of light. This is chiefly because of minimal dermal absorption of skin-applied nanoparticles below the dead and highly keratinised cells of the stratum corneum. Influential non-governmental organisations and a NSW parliamentary inquiry have expressed concern that this research has inadequately accounted for issues associated with chronic use of these sunscreens over hairy, damaged or aged skin or flexural creases.

It may be time for Australian safety regulators to apply the precautionary principle in this context and increase labelling requirements about the use of nanoparticles in sunscreens.