Hart & Timoshanko on 'Ready for a Reboot: Law Schools Need to Reboot and Upgrade the Law Curriculum Now to Better Meet the Impacts of Technology'

Professor Caroline Hart and Dr Aaron Timoshanko of the University of Southern Queensland School of Law and Justice have published a new article titled 'Ready for a Reboot: Law Schools Need to Reboot and Upgrade the Law Curriculum Now to Better Meet the Impacts of Technology'.  The article appears in Volume 15 of the Journal of Australasian Law Academics Association.  The paper can be found on SSRN.  Here is the abstract:

"This paper investigates Australian legal education’s capacity to acknowledge and respond to the impacts of the increasing use of technologies aiding legal service delivery. While law academics are debating the extent of this impact, there are already new jobs with new titles requiring new skillsets, and these employment opportunities will go to the best-prepared graduates. Even within the current framework, law academics have the capacity to better equip graduates to succeed in this changing environment through leadership and engagement with the key players. The responsibility to lead this adapted legal education is best held by law schools carrying it out as a fiduciary role towards graduates rather than as a broker for broader tech-interests."

Gray on ‘Vanderstock v Victoria: Are “True” Consumption Taxes Forbidden to the States by Section 90 of the Australian Constitution?'

Professor Anthony Gray of the University of Southern Queensland School of Law and Justice has published a new article titled ‘Vanderstock v Victoria: Are “True” Consumption Taxes Forbidden to the States by Section 90 of the Australian Constitution?'  The article appears in Volume 44(4) of the Sydney Law Review.  Here is the abstract:

"The High Court of Australia will soon consider a constitutional challenge to recent Victorian legislation that imposes a fee on the use of a zero or lowemission vehicle. The challenge argues that such a fee is an excise tax, prohibited to the States by s 90 of the Australian Constitution. The Court will need to consider the current orthodoxy that a consumption tax is not an excise, and its longstanding interpretation of s 90. This column submits the High Court should extend the existing definition of excise to include true taxes on consumption. This would be most consistent with the view of the purpose of s 90 accepted by the High Court since 1949, and would remove an anomaly from existing law."