Collins on 'Taking an action reflective assessment approach when teaching dispute management'

 Professor Pauline Collins of the USQ School of Law and Justice has published a new article titled 'Taking an action reflective assessment approach when teaching dispute management'.  The article appears in Volume 18(1) of the Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice.  Here is the abstract:

"Encouraging life-long learner skills and preparing students for a new style of lawyering in the 21st Century to meet changing needs requires approaching teaching in renewed ways. This paper describes the action reflection learning approach adopted when teaching a mediation law course in an Australian law school. The approach and outcomes are described with specific attention to how this style of teaching enriches the student experience. Student reflections describe the teaching method as having developed their skills, learning and appreciation of a new conflict resolution advocacy style."

Braun on 'A Close Look at the German and Australian Anti-FGM Framework: Concerns About Equal Protection and Equal Application'

 Dr Kerstin Braun, a Senior Lecturer at the University of Southern Queensland School of Law and Justice, has published a new article titled 'A Close Look at the German and Australian Anti-FGM Framework: Concerns About Equal Protection and Equal Application'.  The article is co-written with Martin Brose and appears in Volume 15(12) of the Review of International Criminal Law Doctrine.  Here is the abstract:

"Estimates suggest that on a global scale more than 200 million females are living with Female Genital Mutilation (‘FGM’). During FGM, female genital organs are altered or injured to varying degrees without a medical purpose. While the practice mostly affects girls and women in some African, Asian and Middle-Eastern countries, cases of FGM have also been reported in Western states, including Germany and Australia. Both are states which have recently seen an increase in immigration, including from countries where FGM is traditionally practiced. In the international context, the issue is consistently discussed as a human rights violation and states are called upon to ensure that the relevant practices are criminalised. Over past decades, an increasing number of Western and African countries, including Germany and Australia, have responded to this phenomenon by enacting additional criminal laws specifically addressing the act of FGM.

This article first provides a brief introduction to the issue including how the World Health Organisation (‘WHO’) defines FGM and how the debate on FGM is framed in the international context. It subsequently analyses the anti FGM laws introduced in Germany and Australia identifying similarities and differences. The analysis informs subsequent debate on whether the laws could be discriminatory in nature or applied arbitrarily based on two considerations. Firstly, the laws aim to protect migrant girls from harmful traditional practices and therefore exclusively focus on female genitals. This could be discrimination based on sex if male circumcision of infants and boys is a comparable practice and male and female procedures are treated differently without legitimate justification. Secondly, while the wording of the criminal laws suggests that they apply to all alterations of female genitals without a medical purpose, in practice, in both countries, they have been interpreted to only relate to traditional procedures excluding female genital cosmetic surgeries and genital piercings, performed with increasing popularity in the West. The article concludes that the legitimacy of the anti-FGM framework is doubtful in Germany and Australia based on these considerations and analyses avenues suggested to overcome these inconsistencies. It concludes that while some of the suggested approaches result in less protection for children too young to consent and are therefore undesirable, others are unlikely to find support in practice in Germany and Australia due to ‘pragmatic’ and political reasons as well as international pressure. This creates the problematic situation that the current anti-FGM framework will continue to operate in the two countries. The article closes by questioning whether governments can expect compliance with arbitrary criminal laws and relatedly whether these laws can have the desired impact on those who they are trying to protect in practice – girls with migrant backgrounds."

Collins on 'Private Military Security Companies: Addressing Accountability – A Suggested Model for Control’

 Professor Pauline Collins of the USQ School of Law and Justice has published a new paper titled 'Private Military Security Companies: Addressing Accountability -- A Suggested Model for Control'.  The paper
appears as Chapter 10 in Cullen, Kastner, and Richmond (eds.), The Politics of International Criminal Law (Brill, 2020).  

Gray on 'Corporations and their Contributions to Public Debates'

 Professor Anthony Gray of the USQ School of Law and Justice has published a new article titled 'Corporations and their Contributions to Public Debates'.  The article appears in Volume 36(1) of the Australian Journal of Corporate Law.  Here is the abstract:

"Corporations are increasingly contributing to controversial public debates. This raises important questions regarding the purpose of a corporation, where a range of views have been expressed, including the shareholder primacy theory, stakeholder primacy theory, communitarian notions, and concepts of corporate social responsibility. This article argues that there are real questions surrounding the legitimacy of such contributions. It also considers directors’ legal responsibilities under the Corporations Act, and considers arguments that directors may be in breach of these obligations by devoting company resources in pursuit of social ends. It also considers arguments that corporations have a protected freedom to contribute to political discussion, before concluding that if parliament so wished, it could legislate to make it clear that corporations are, or are not, legally entitled to devote resources towards the pursuit of non-profit objectives, including social causes. In the absence of such clarification, there are significant legal doubts over the efficacy of such behaviour."

Gray on 'Executive Detention in the Time of a Pandemic'

 Professor Anthony Gray of the USQ School of Law and Justice has published an important new article titled 'Executive Detention in the Time of a Pandemic'.  The article appears in Volume 27(4) of the Australian Journal of Administrative Law.  Here is the abstract:

"The global COVID-19 pandemic has raised many important legal issues in Australia. One was the legality of proposed detention of an individual at the behest of an authorised person, on the basis the person was considered likely to breach the lockdown measures. Though the Victorian Government eventually abandoned this contentious proposal, it raised significant controversy, and is considered worthy of examination in this article."

Patrick on "Path Dependency, the High Court, and the Constitution"

 Dr Jeremy Patrick, a Lecturer in the USQ School of Law and Justice, has published a new article titled 'Path Dependency, the High Court, and the Constitution.'  The article appears in Volume 30(2) of the Journal of Judicial Administration.  Here is the abstract:

"Path dependence is a concept that originally arose in the field of economics before gaining currency with political scientists and historians. The essence of path dependency is that temporality matters: once a decision is made, it often becomes “locked-in” and persists despite the existence of more efficient or otherwise better alternatives that could become apparent later. The tentative hypothesis advanced here is that the concept of path dependency is useful for understanding why some doctrines of Australian
constitutional law have changed dramatically since first developed while others remain largely the same. An example of one arguably path-dependent line of doctrine and one arguably non-path-dependent line of doctrine are discussed and analysed to demonstrate the possibilities and limitations of the theory."

Gray on 'Fiscal Arrangements in the Australian Federal System' in Breda's 'La Contrattazione Costituzionale Dei Livelli Di Autonomia'

Professor Anthony Gray of the USQ School of Law and Justice has published a paper titled 'Fiscal Arrangements in the Australian Federal System.'  The paper appears as a chapter in a collection co-edited by Dr Vito Breda, a Senior Lecturer at USQ.  The collection is titled La Contrattazione Costituzionale Dei Livelli Di Autonomia and is published by Editorale Scientifica.