Authors: Andrew Macintosh, Megan C. Evans, Dean Ansell, Marie Waschka

Centre: 

Research theme: Administrative Law, Environmental Law

Since 2014, the centrepiece of Australia’s climate policy has been the Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF), a $4.5 billion fund that incentivises emissions reduction activities across the economy and forms the basis of Australia’s carbon market. Under the ERF, projects that reduce emissions receive credits that can be sold to the Australian Government and private entities that are required to, or that voluntarily choose to, offset their emissions.

Earlier this year, we went public with details of serious integrity issues with the ERF, labelling it ‘environmental and taxpayer fraud’. While a number of long-held concerns with the scheme exist, we have initially focused on the ERF’s most popular carbon credit methods: human-induced regeneration (HIR); avoided deforestation; and landfill gas. Our analysis suggests up to 80% of the carbon credits issued to projects under these methods lack integrity. That is, they do not represent real (emissions have not been reduced) or additional (the reduction would have happened anyway) abatement.

Authors: Donald Butler, Megan C. Evans, Dean Ansell, Marie Waschka

Centre: 

Research theme: Administrative Law, Environmental Law

Since 2014, the centrepiece of Australia’s climate policy has been the Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF), a $4.5 billion fund that incentivises emissions reduction activities across the economy and forms the basis of Australia’s carbon market. Under the ERF, projects that reduce emissions receive credits that can be sold to the Australian Government and private entities that are required to, or that voluntarily choose to, offset their emissions.

Earlier this year, we went public with details of serious integrity issues with the ERF, labelling it ‘environmental and taxpayer fraud’. While a number of long-held concerns with the scheme exist, we have initially focused on the ERF’s most popular carbon credit methods: human-induced regeneration (HIR); avoided deforestation; and landfill gas. Our analysis suggests up to 80% of the carbon credits issued to projects under these methods lack integrity. That is, they do not represent real (emissions have not been reduced) or additional (the reduction would have happened anyway) abatement.

Authors: Faith Gordon, Catherine Flynn, Bianca Johnston

Centre: CIPL

Research theme: Law and Gender

Young women in Australia experience serious risks from intimate partner violence (IPV) as a form of family violence. However, there has been a lack of attention to the impact of this on young women and, as a result, these risks are not well understood. This article critically examines existing literature, policy and research and in doing so, specifically explores the ways in which young women aged between 10 and 20 years old are represented and positioned in contemporary family violence discourses. Framed by a review of socio-political and cultural history, the paper highlights the early colonial, patriarchal foundations of Australia, which have specific implications for the challenges that contemporary young women experience in situations of IPV. With a particular emphasis on the Australian context, this article employs both an intersectional and critical feminist lens, with a key focus on the dimensions of adolescent development and youth social geographies. Focusing specifically on these dimensions, including development, gender and age, highlights the important role that feminist social work perspectives and practices can contribute to uncovering, understanding and responding to young women's experiences of intimate partner violence through policy and advocacy.

Authors: Faith Gordon, Paul Reilly

Centre: CIPL

Research theme: Law and Technology

Online platforms can help public information campaigns reach target audiences who are unlikely to engage with content distributed via traditional media. This paper adds to this emergent literature, as the first study of the Ending the Harm campaign, which is designed to change public discourse about paramilitary-style attacks in Northern Ireland. Campaign effects were explored through interviews (N  =  7) conducted with key stakeholders, as well as the results of a quantitative survey of residents (N  =  805) in areas most affected by these attacks. Results indicate that exposure to the ETH advertisements correlated with a belief that PSAs were unjustified. Platforms like Snapchat helped the campaign reach younger demographics (16–34 years old). Nevertheless, it was unclear whether self-reported changes in attitude toward PSAs would lead to sustained behavioral changes.

Authors: Faith Gordon, Paul Reilly

Centre: CIPL

Research theme: Law and Technology

Online platforms can help public information campaigns reach target audiences who are unlikely to engage with content distributed via traditional media. This paper adds to this emergent literature, as the first study of the Ending the Harm campaign, which is designed to change public discourse about paramilitary-style attacks in Northern Ireland. Campaign effects were explored through interviews (N  =  7) conducted with key stakeholders, as well as the results of a quantitative survey of residents (N  =  805) in areas most affected by these attacks. Results indicate that exposure to the ETH advertisements correlated with a belief that PSAs were unjustified. Platforms like Snapchat helped the campaign reach younger demographics (16–34 years old). Nevertheless, it was unclear whether self-reported changes in attitude toward PSAs would lead to sustained behavioral changes.

Authors: Andrew Macintosh, Dean Ansell

Centre: 

Research theme: Environmental Law

The ERF’s carbon offset crediting scheme is an indispensable part of the policy framework required to ensure Australia achieves its net zero target in a cost-effective manner. Abandoning carbon offsets would substantially increase the cost of achieving the target and forego the many environmental and social co-benefits that can be generated from a well-functioning offset market. However, significant reform is needed to ensure the ERF generates real and additional abatement and performs its intended functions.

Authors: Donald Butler, Dean Ansell

Centre: 

Research theme: Environmental Law

The ERF’s carbon offset crediting scheme is an indispensable part of the policy framework required to ensure Australia achieves its net zero target in a cost-effective manner. Abandoning carbon offsets would substantially increase the cost of achieving the target and forego the many environmental and social co-benefits that can be generated from a well-functioning offset market. However, significant reform is needed to ensure the ERF generates real and additional abatement and performs its intended functions.

Authors: Marie Waschka, Dean Ansell

Centre: 

Research theme: Environmental Law

The ERF’s carbon offset crediting scheme is an indispensable part of the policy framework required to ensure Australia achieves its net zero target in a cost-effective manner. Abandoning carbon offsets would substantially increase the cost of achieving the target and forego the many environmental and social co-benefits that can be generated from a well-functioning offset market. However, significant reform is needed to ensure the ERF generates real and additional abatement and performs its intended functions.

Authors: Ntina Tzouvala,

Centre: CIPL

Research theme: International Law

The purpose of this paper is dual, and it has to do with specificity. First, it aims to show that a “law and political economy” approach to international law has been and will be distinct from its US counterpart. To do so, it offers an overview of both the prevailing approaches to and critical engagements with the field. Having shown that neoliberal hegemony is upheld within international law by an admixture of heterogeneous modes of reasoning, the author proceed to argue that this heterogeneity also permeates critical scholarship. This heterogeneity has enabled critical approaches to flourish, but often to the detriment of a consistent, coherent, and purposeful engagement with political economy. The second aim is to show that Marxism offers a distinct and distinctly useful set of analytical tools for international law. Having offered an overview of existing strands of Marxist thought, the author also reflects on the work that remains to be done.

Authors: Rebecca Monson,

Centre: CIPL

Research theme: International Law

How would a polycentric property system react to mass movements of people caused by escalating climate change? Drawing on multidisciplinary perspectives, the article suggests an analytical frame for polycentric property system responses to climate migration. The case study is Solomon Islands, a South Pacific state with high levels of environmental vulnerability, where people draw on various governance mechanisms to secure proprietary relationships with land. These governance mechanisms not only encompass property rights derived from the state, but also proprietary relationships secured through social norms, informal agreements, and acts of mutual coordination. The key argument is that governance mechanisms to secure property rights for climate migrants have absorptive limits that affect broader processes of adaptation to climate change. The heuristic of absorptive capacity provides a basis to consider adaptive property law for a future of climate migration.

Authors: Jolyon Ford,

Centre: CIPL

Research theme: Law and Technology

This provocative book investigates the relationship between law and artificial intelligence (AI) governance, and the need for new and innovative approaches to regulating AI and big data in ways that go beyond market concerns alone and look to sustainability and social good.

Authors: Greg Weeks, Matthew Groves

Centre: CIPL

Research theme: Administrative Law

On 7 February 2022, The Australian National University awarded degrees of Doctor of Laws honoris causa to three of its Emeritus Professors: Robin Creyke, John McMillan and Dennis Pearce. Professors Creyke, McMillan and Pearce have been honoured for their immense contributions to Australian administrative law previously, having each been made Officers of the Order of Australia and Fellows of the Australian Academy of Law. Each has also been the subject of a festschrift, a “published collection of legal essays written by several authors to honour a distinguished jurist”. While Professors Creyke, McMillan and Pearce each have a distinguished record of public service (including as members of the Administrative Review Council and as long-serving executive members of the Australian Institute of Administrative Law), it was especially pleasing for them to be recognised as academics with connections to the ANU going back decades.

Authors: Ntina Tzouvala,

Centre: CIPL

Research theme: International Law

The purpose of this paper is dual, and it has to do with specificity. First, it aims to show that a “law and political economy” approach to international law has been and will be distinct from its US counterpart. To do so, it offers an overview of both the prevailing approaches to and critical engagements with the field. Having shown that neoliberal hegemony is upheld within international law by an admixture of heterogeneous modes of reasoning, the author proceed to argue that this heterogeneity also permeates critical scholarship. This heterogeneity has enabled critical approaches to flourish, but often to the detriment of a consistent, coherent, and purposeful engagement with political economy. The second aim is to show that Marxism offers a distinct and distinctly useful set of analytical tools for international law. Having offered an overview of existing strands of Marxist thought, the author also reflects on the work that remains to be done.

Authors: Andrew Macintosh,

Centre: 

Research theme: Environmental Law

The available data provide compelling evidence that the majority of the abatement credited under the Emissions Reduction Fund’s (ERF) landfill gas methods has not been additional. It appears that in the order of two-thirds of the abatement credited under the methods would have occurred in the absence of the incentive provided by the issuance of ACCUs. The non-additional abatement credited under these methods equates to approximately 19.5 million Australian carbon credit units (ACCUs), or almost 20% of the total number of ACCUs issued under the ERF to the end of 2021. These credits are likely to have been worth more than $300 million.

Authors: Andrew Macintosh, Don Butler, Dean Ansell

Centre: 

Research theme: Environmental Law

The Human-induced Regeneration (HIR) method is a centrepiece of the Australian Government’s Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF). Broadly, the method allows landholders to earn carbon credits, known as Australian carbon credit units (ACCUs), for the regeneration of native forests through changes in land management. At present, the HIR method accounts for the most project registrations of any method under the ERF, the most Australian carbon credit units (ACCUs) issued of any method, and more than 50% of all ACCUs contracted through the ERF purchasing scheme, worth approximately $1.5-$1.6 billion. HIR project areas now stretch across more than 20 million hectares of Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia and, in these areas, the method is having a material influence on property markets.

Authors: Andrew Macintosh, Don Butler, Megan C Evans, Pablo R Larraonda, Dean Ansell, Philip Gibbons

Centre: 

Research theme: Environmental Law

The Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF) is the centre-piece of the Australian Government’s climate policy. It was first introduced in 2014 and is comprised of three main elements: a carbon offset crediting scheme, which issues Australian carbon credit units (ACCUs) to projects that abate emissions; a purchasing scheme, whereby the Clean Energy Regulator (on behalf of the Australian Government) voluntarily purchases ACCUs from eligible offset projects; and the ‘Safeguard Mechanism’, which imposes emission obligations on designated large facilities that can be met through the relinquishment of ACCUs. 

Authors: Wenting Cheng,

Centre: CIPL

Research theme: Law and Technology

International clean technology diffusion is essential to mitigate and adapt to climate change, while fast and optimal diffusion can be prevented by the paywall of patents. This article explores the deficiency in clean technology diffusion caused by the legal fragmentation and rule complex of international environmental law and intellectual property law. It systematically examines three pathways to foster international clean technology diffusion through: restriction of intellectual property, including imposing external restraints in environmental law; striking internal balancing in maximizing TRIPS flexibilities; and keeping the status quo. It argues that treaty pathways may not work, and an operable pathway to promote clean technology diffusion is to maximize and consolidate TRIPS flexibilities in national laws. This option challenges the popular proposal of a “Doha-like” declaration on TRIPS and climate change due to the paralyzed multilateral trade mechanism, asymmetrical negotiation power of developing countries, prolonged negotiation process, and categorization problem in treaty negotiations.

Authors: Akshaya Kamalnath,

Centre: CIPL

Research theme:

The current focus on the monitoring role of the corporate board has come under much criticism. Independent directors play a significant role within this model. However, their ability to truly function independently has been rightly questioned in the last decade. Independent directors are impeded by two main problems: first, the lack of access to relevant information, for which they are reliant on management, and second, the high likelihood of being captured (to varying degrees) by management. There have been various suggestions to fix these problems, ranging from enhancing board diversity to drastically reforming the current model of corporate boards. This Article argues that diversity holds the promise of slowly reforming the current board model, so long as well-considered measures are taken. To that end, this Article will propose a model of board governance that relies on providers of supplemental board services as intermediaries to facilitate diversity on boards. This model will, on the one hand, allow companies to attract both the best and diverse directors and on the other hand, allow board candidates (especially diverse candidates) to make well-informed decisions about taking on directorships. Eventually, companies may choose to share these reports with investors and the general public to signal their commitment to diversity and governance. Finally, the proposed model has the potential to drive boards to take on more of an advisory role along with the current focus on monitoring.

Authors: Faith Gordon,

Centre: CIPL

Research theme: Law and Technology

Beyond Cybercrime: New Perspectives on Crime, Harm and Digital Technologies extends criminological scholarship by examining how digital technologies are conceptualised within research on crime and (in)justice. Guest editors Faith Gordon, Alyce McGovern, Chrissy Thompson and Mark A. Wood present contributions that broaden our theoretical and conceptual understandings of the technology–harm nexus and provide criminologists with new ways of moving beyond cybercrime.

Authors: ,

Centre: CIPL

Research theme: International Law

This paper assesses the significance of the Digital Trade Chapter of the Australia—EU FTA and focuses on the disciplines necessary to boost digital trade. In the ongoing negotiations, the EU and Australia are likely to agree upon conventional digital trade disciplines (e.g., e-signatures, e-authentication, paperless trading, customs duties on electronic transmissions) as well as provisions on online consumer trust and spam, and more contemporary disciplines on source code disclosure and data localisation. These disciplines can undoubtedly contribute to boosting digital trade between Australia and the EU. However, data flows and data protection will remain a sticky issue in the ongoing negotiations, given the differences in data protection laws of the EU and Australia, and the EU’s exceptionally defensive approach in data protection. Instead of bypassing such issues, the FTA negotiators should view the negotiations as an opportunity to build mutual consensus and foster cooperation in formulating standards and mechanisms for data transfer. Further, the negotiations provide an opportunity for adopting deeper disciplines on digital trade facilitation that can nurture start-ups as well as experimenting with novel models for regulatory cooperation in nascent policy areas including AI ethics and open government data.