Author: Mark Aronson, Matthew Groves

Research theme: Administrative Law

Judicial Review of Administrative Action and Government Liability Seventh Edition (2022, Thomson Reuters) is one of Australia’s most respected legal texts. It was selected as the first title in Thomson Reuters’ prestigious Lawbook Library Series, because it represents definitive legal scholarship and publishing excellence in Australian law.

For almost three decades, this work has both mapped and supported development of the law and practice of judicial review of administrative action throughout Australia. Repeatedly cited in the High Court of Australia, this landmark work remains the definitive scholarly work for judicial officers, practitioners and students alike.

In this edition, the authors have restructured the book, and have added new chapters responding to debate about Australia's distinctive approach to judicial review and the obligation to support administrative decisions with statements of reasons.

A search of relevant government publications does not provide any evidence of an official definition for maritime security that has been adopted by the Australian Government. A range of government departments and authorities use the term, but invariably without any accompanying definition.

Author: Annika Reynolds

Research theme: Environmental Law, Legal Education

As legal practice adapts to the changing expectations lawyers face, law schools must also adapt to ensure they continue to engage their student populations. How law schools can teach the wider “climate-conscious” advocacy skills that future legal generations will require remains an underexplored area. In this article, we propose one novel approach law schools might take, namely,  creating  and implementing a parliamentary inquiry submission student writing program. We argue that such an approach

Research theme: Law and Technology, Legal Education

This article explores the future role for e-mooting in legal education. It analyses the skills that students can gain from online competitions with regard to the increasing use of online court hearings and conferences by the wider legal profession and assesses the improvements to accessibility and equity that result from hosting competitions online. It argues that such benefits justify the continuation of online-only competitions where law schools are not subsidising travel and accommodation to teams and provides practical guidance to law schools in designing and managing online mooting programs.

Author: Seumas Miller, Mitt Regan, Patrick F. Walsh

Associate Professor David Letts AM CSM has authored a chapter, 'Intelligence sharing among coalition forces', that appears in National Security Intelligence and Ethics (Routledge, 2021). Since the end of World War II, there have been numerous examples of coalition operations involving two or more military forces, including some operations that have been held under the authority of the United Nations through the passing of a UN Security Council Resolution. 1 Other types of multinational operations, comprising both formal alliances that are set up under treaty arrangements, such as NATO, 2 and more informal coalitions that are typically established under ad hoc arrangements that deal with a specific issue or incident, such as the International Maritime Security Construct, 3 have been a feature of military operations for centuries. 4 Changes in the structure of alliances and coalitions have also been a regular occurrence, often driven by changes that occur in the political landscape of one or more partner State. There are also other types of cooperation that occur between military forces, such as routine participation in exercises and training activities, as well as exchange of personnel, staff meetings and high-level discussions between senior officials. Overall, these activities are all examples of two or more foreign militaries working together to achieve a common objective.

Research theme: Private Law, Regulatory Law and Policy

Examining the role of shareholders in modern companies, this timely book argues that more should be expected of shareholders, both morally and legally. It explores the privileged position of shareholders within the corporate law system and the unique rights and duties awarded to them in contrast to other corporate actors. Introducing the concept of shareholders as responsible agents whose actions and inactions should be judged on that basis, Stephen Bottomley unites a number of distinct corporate governance discussions including stewardship, activism and shareholder liability.

Author: Illan rua Wall , Freya Middleton, Sahar Shah, CLAW

Research theme: International Law

The Critical Legal Pocketbook provides the tools for law students to uncover the hidden intricacies of law. Law creates an ethical and rational facade for itself, but beneath the surface you will find that it has its monsters; the leviathan of the state, the golems of racism and misogyny, the hydra of coloniality, the vampire of capitalism. These roam throughout law’s subterranean structures. At the same time, law is often painted as a heroic defence of the innocent against these terrors. Legal education likes to forget the ways that law was essential in generating structures of domination and subjection. 

Dr Ntina Tzouvala authored Chapter 8, 'How to run an empire (lawfully)'.

Author: Jason Allen

Research theme: Regulatory Law and Policy

This article explores legal and constitutional dimensions of central banks’ powers to create money, ‘central bank reserves’, through monetary policy operations. Despite the prominence of monetary authority since the Financial Crisis, the law supporting the creation of central bank reserves is very obscure, as is the role of law in structuring constitutional authority over money. We de-mystify those important matters in three steps. First, we explain, for a legal audience, the role of central bank reserves in the financial system and broader economy. Secondly, we analyse the legal basis for the creation of central bank reserves in three prominent ‘North Atlantic’ monetary jurisdictions: the US Dollar, Euro and Sterling systems. Thirdly, we show how the legal structure of central banking intermediates the constitutional state's authority over money through parts of the financial system, focusing on high-profile policy proposals, including ‘QE for the people’, and the creation of central bank digital currencies.

Research theme: Regulatory Law and Policy

Monetary finance (money creation by central banks to fund public expenditure) is a high-profile part of economic, political and policy debates concerning the legitimacy of central banks in liberal economies and democracies. This article makes a distinctively legal contribution to those debates by analysing the legal frameworks governing monetary finance in three prominent central banking systems between 2008 and 2020: the Federal Reserve System, the Eurosystem and the Bank of England. It begins by explaining the law governing central bank and national treasury relations in the United States, the EU and the UK. It then examines how that law operated under the unconventional monetary policies adopted by central banks in response to the financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. The article concludes by reflecting on the challenges monetary finance presents to the sui generis position of central banks in the liberal constitutional order.

Author: Michael Kumhof, Jason G Allen, Rosa M. Lastra, Simon Gleeson, Saule T. Omarova

Research theme: Regulatory Law and Policy

Based on legal arguments, we advocate a conceptual and normative shift in our understanding of the economic character of central bank money (CBM). The widespread treatment of CBM as a central bank liability goes back to the gold standard, and uses analogies with commercial bank balance sheets. However, CBM is sui generis and legally not comparable to commercial bank money. Furthermore, in modern economies, CBM holders cannot demand repayment of CBM in anything other than CBM. CBM is not an asset of central banks either, and it is not central bank shareholder equity because it does not confer the same ownership rights as regular shareholder equity. Based on comparisons across a number of legal characteristics of financial instruments, we suggest that an appropriate characterization of CBM is as ‘social equity’ that confers rights of participation in the economy’s payment system and thereby its economy. This interpretation is important for macroeconomic policy in light of quantitative easing and potential future issuance of central bank digital currency (CBDC). It suggests that in robust economies with credible monetary institutions, and where demand for CBM is sufficiently and sustainably high, large-scale issuance such as under CBDC is not inflationary, and it does not weaken public sector finances.

Author: Andrew Ray

Research theme: Law and Technology

Rapid technological advancement is changing the way that political parties, voters, and media platforms engage with each other. This along with cultural change has led to an emerging era of disinformation and misinformation driven by both domestic and foreign actors. Political deepfakes, videos created through the use of artificial intelligence, allow individuals to rapidly create fake videos indistinguishable from true content. These videos have the capacity to undermine voter trust and could alter electoral outcomes. Regulating disinformation however raises significant free speech concerns, as well as questions about where liability should fall. In particular, holding large technology and media platforms accountable for content could lead to unintended chilling effects around freedom of expression, harming rather than protecting democratic institutions. Proposed regulations should therefore be carefully analysed through the framework of the implied freedom of political communication, ensuring that any new laws are proportionate and tailored to the threat they seek to prevent. This article analyses how current Australian law interacts with political deepfakes and proposes two targeted amendments to our federal electoral regulations to reduce the threat they pose to elections.

From the complete coverage of chadaris to mini-skirts, and back again. From ancient carpet designs to woven depictions of tanks and Kalashnikovs. From photographs of unveiled women to an image of horror—the execution of a kneeling woman known as Zarmeena, videoed covertly by one of the few watching women. This remarkable book provides a history of Afghanistan through the visual.

The Kabul Stadium looms large because it was there, one afternoon in August 1959, that women first appeared in western dress at a celebration of Afghanistan’s independence—a turning point, not only for women in Afghanistan’s cities but also for the country itself, symbolising its embrace of the modern. It was also there, one afternoon in November 1999, that the Taliban killed Zarmeena.

Two Afternoons in the Kabul Stadium offers both a new way of seeing Afghanistan and a new way of understanding it.

Author: Andrew Ray, Arabella Young, Will Grant

Research theme: Regulatory Law and Policy

Policy makers globally often claim to use evidence when making policy decisions, but few studies have documented and evaluated the sources of evidence they rely on. This poses challenges to researchers and decision makers alike, as they struggle to assess the impact of research on policy. This study analysed citations in Australian federal parliamentary committee reports to better understand the role that academic sources play in shaping policy. Results show that academic sources are rarely cited by federal parliamentary committees, and of those that are cited, most are academic inquiry submissions or oral evidence, with very few citations of peer reviewed research. This finding points towards a need for academics seeking policy impact to engage more proactively with government inquiry submission processes. To incentivise this approach, we suggest that changes be made to the way that academic impact is measured within the university sector in order to avoid disincentivising researchers from making submissions to parliamentary inquiries.

Author: Andrew Ray, Bridie Adams

Research theme: Law and Technology

This article analyses how current Freedom of Information laws apply to automated decision-making systems. The authors argue that while current law may extend to automated systems its application is unclear, both to practitioners and government. Instead, amendments to the FOI Act 1982 (Cth) could clarify how the law operates with respect to automated systems, and better balance the underpinning objectives of the Act.

Research theme: Human Rights Law and Policy, International Law

Providing a unique analytical framework to capture a diverse, fragmented and highly evolving practice, the Research Handbook on Unilateral and Extraterritorial Sanctions is the key original reference work covering how sanctions have indisputably become central instruments of foreign policy.

Dr Anton Moiseienko authored Chapter 23, 'Due process and unilateral targeted sanctions'.

Research theme: Human Rights Law and Policy

The Invisible Hurdles project is an integrated justice project of four partner organisations the project leader is the Hume Riverina Community Legal Service (HRCLS) a program of Upper Murray Family Care and this research was funded through them by the Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioners grants program. The other three partners in this multidisciplinary and Health Justice Partnership are : Albury Wodonga Aboriginal Health Service (AWAHS) – this is an Aboriginal Community Controlled organisation; North East Support and Action for Youth (NESAY) is a leading agency supporting young people and their families in North East Victoria, servicing a vast region of seven municipalities; The Wodonga Flexible Learning Centre (WFLC) – this is a campus of the Wodonga Senior Secondary College - an alternative education centre was established in 2014. The project is run in the Hume Riverina region of Victoria and New South Wales focussing on ‘at risk’ young people.

Australia is asserting itself as a serious space player and needs a strategy to match its positioning. In 2018, the creation of the Australian Space Agency (ASA) gained international attention. The ASA’s mission is to develop the nation’s commercial space industry. The new focus on space in the 2020 Defence Strategic Update (DSU) firmly signalled Australia’s intent to advance its sovereign space capabilities.

Research theme: International Law

In June this year, the Antarctic Treaty will celebrate its 60th anniversary. The milestone has prompted questions as to whether a treaty negotiated in 1959 is capable of continuing to provide an appropriate governance framework for Antarctica.