Young and Smith on ‘Who Built This Fence? Regenerating Faculty Landscapes for Lasting Educational Reform'

Professor Simon Young and Kirstie Smith of the University of Southern Queensland School of Law and Justice have published a new paper titled 'Who Built This Fence? Regenerating Faculty Landscapes for Lasting Educational Reform'.  The article appears as a book chapter in Nicole Watson and Heather Douglas (eds), Legal Education through an Indigenous Lens: Decolonising the Law School (Routledge, 2024).  Here is the abstract:

"This chapter offers tactics to address obstacles to incorporating Indigenous knowledge and building First Nations student support at a young regional law school. Viewing structural reform as a critical early step in achieving sustainable pedagogical advances, the chapter proposes means of breaking institutions away from the old exclusionary habits of law and education by advocating for changes to be made at the grassroots level. The chapter discusses a range of methods for these purposes: building relevant connections and reciprocal collaborations (with communities, the profession, alumni and other parts of the university); collecting and curating resources; ensuring First Nations’ visibility in physical and digital spaces; illustrating a sustained commitment to First Nations issues in public lectures and seminars; identifying new pathways and opportunities for students; embracing the inter-disciplinary nature of many First Nations issues; and understanding where expert First Nations advice and leadership are required."

Young on ‘Indigenous Rights in Freshwater: Mapping the Contest Space in Australia, New Zealand and Canada’

Professor Simon Young of the University of Southern Queensland School of Law and Justice has co-written a new paper (along with Sarah Down and Sharon Mascher) titled 'Indigenous Rights in Freshwater: Mapping the Contest Space in Australia, New Zealand and Canada’.  The article appears in Volume 39 of the Environmental and Planning Law Journal.

Young on ‘Commentary on Yorta Yorta Aboriginal Community v Victoria (judgment re-written by Marcelle Burns)’

Professor Simon Young of the USQ School of Law and Justice has published a ‘Commentary on Yorta Yorta Aboriginal Community v Victoria (judgment re-written by Marcelle Burns)’.  The piece appears in Indigenous Legal Judgments: Bringing Indigenous Voices into Judicial Decision Making (Routledge, 2021) edited by Nicole Watson and Heather Douglas.

Young on 'Transparent triage policies during the COVID-19 pandemic: a critical part of medico-legal risk management for clinicians’

 Professor Simon Young of the USQ School of Law and Justice has co-written an important new article titled 'Transparent triage policies during the COVID-19 pandemic: a critical part of medico-legal risk management for clinicians’.  The article, co-written with Eliana Close, Lindy Willmott, Tina Cockburn, Will Cairns, and Ben White, appears in Volume 215(2) of the Medical Journal of Australia. 

Young on 'Legal Challenges to ICU Triage Decisions in the Covid-19 Pandemic: How Effectively does the Law Regulate Bedside Rationing Decisions in Australia?'

 Professor Simon Young of the USQ School of Law and Justice has co-written (with Tina Cockburn, Lindy Wilmott, and Ben White) a new article titled 'Legal Challenges to ICU Triage Decisions in the Covid-19 Pandemic: How Effectively does the Law Regulate Bedside Rationing Decisions in Australia?'  The article appears in Volume 44(1) of the University of New South Wales Law Journal.  Here is the abstract:

"The COVID-19 pandemic has raised the difficult question of how to ration scarce intensive care resources when a health system is overwhelmed. Despite substantial ethical scholarship addressing these rationing decisions, little is known about the legal position in Australia. This article considers various legal challenges in response to a clinical scenario denying intensive care admission and a ventilator to a critically ill patient with COVID-19. The article considers key challenges in negligence, criminal law, administrative law, human rights law, and under the parens patriae jurisdiction and guardianship legislation, and how they would apply to this scenario. The article concludes that while there are many obstacles to a successful legal challenge, the law can provide important scrutiny and guidance in the design of decision-making processes and triage policies. To adequately protect individual interests, the article supports calls in the ethical literature to make these policies transparent for public scrutiny."

Young on ‘The ‘Blue Sky effect’: A repatriation of judicial review grounds or a search for flexibility?’

Professor Simon Young of the University of Southern Queensland School of Law and Justice has published a new article titled ‘The ‘Blue Sky effect’: A repatriation of judicial review grounds or a search for flexibility?’ The article appears in Volume 98 of the Australian Institute of Administrative Law Forum. 

Young co-authors "Constitutional promises of indigenous recognition: Canada, Vanuatu and the challenges of pluralism"

Professor Simon Young of the USQ School of Law and Justice has co-authored a new paper (with Professor Jennifer Corrin of UQ) titled "Constitutional promises of indigenous recognition: Canada, Vanuatu and the challenges of pluralism".  The article appears in Volume 48(4) of the Common Law World Review.  Here is the abstract:

"The Constitutions of Canada and Vanuatu commit to recognition of ‘Aboriginal rights’ and ‘customary laws’, respectively. The translation of these aspirations has led the courts deep into the challenges of pluralism, magnified here by the weight of colonialism and constitutional context. This article explores the progress in these two contrasting countries to provide a broader view of the undertaking. It is argued that the persistence of visible problems reveals more fundamental difficulties and that the collaboration essential to the task of ‘recognition’—and to shoring up Western legal systems in the modern reality—must begin earlier and run deeper."

Young on "The Increments of Justice: Exploring the Outer Reach of Akiba’s Edge Towards Native Title ‘Ownership'

Professor Simon Young of the USQ School of Law and Justice has published a new article in the University of New South Wales Law Journal.   "The Increments of Justice: Exploring the Outer Reach of Akiba's Edge Towards Native Title 'Ownership'" has the following abstract:

"The Torres Strait regional sea claim, culminating in the High Court decision of Akiba v Commonwealth, signalled a new respect for the holistic relationships and dominion that underlay First Peoples’ custodianship of land and waters. The ‘Akiba correction’ centred upon a distinction between ‘underlying rights’ and specific exercises of them – and produced in that case a surviving right to take resources for any purpose (subject to current regulation). The correction emerged from extinguishment disputes, but the significance of this edge towards ‘ownership’ was soon evident in ‘content’ cases on the mainland. Yet there are new challenges coming in the wake of Akiba. What of the many native title determinations that have been settled or adjudicated on pre-Akiba thinking? And what does this renaissance in native title law offer to the communities that will fail (or have failed) the rigorous threshold tests of continuity – also crafted with the older mindset?"