The Offence Slavery in Australia
The word ‘slavery’ is often associated with situations of extreme power disparity between ‘masters’ and ‘servants’ in generations gone-by. But the reality is the enslavement of humans by other humans persists across the globe to this very day, including right...
Mark Standen: Corrupt Crime Commission Czar
A young schoolboy who aspired to be a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) pilot could not have dreamed his adult life would be entangled with Dutch drug cartel godfathers, semi-trailer drug manufacturing operations, millions of dollars in cash. But budding...
Honour Killings: Committing Murder to Restore Reputation
If ever the label attached a crime is a misnomer, perhaps it is the offence of ‘honour killing’. This category of murder is where a person intentionally kills another to protect and/or restore the dignity and repute held hitherto for someone...
A History of the Codification of Law and the Separation of Powers
Laws and legal systems are meant to be the framework by which moral standards and social order are maintained, with the utilitarian objective of benefiting a social group as a whole; whether that be a tribe, community, a nation-state and...
A History of Crime: Investigations, Trials and Punishments
Criminal law is concerned with acts committed against society as a whole, and criminal offences, also known as crimes, are prosecuted by agents of the state such as police, public prosecutorial services and other governmental regulatory bodies, such as the...
Evolution of Contempt of Court Charges
Contempt of court charges have existed as far back as the 12th century, when it was called, ‘Contempt of the King’ under Anglo Saxon Laws. During the reign of King Edward the Confessor and King William the Conqueror, the offence...
Political Prosecutions: Abusing the Justice Process for Political Advantage
The former first minister of Scotland’s devolved parliament was served papers which read, ‘Her Majesty’s advocate v Alexander Elliot Salmond’. It was a prosecution on 14 sexual offences alleged to have occurred whilst Mr Salmond, the former leader of the...
Corruption Pervades Police Forces in Australia and the United Kingdom: Part 1
It has been said that ‘absolute power corrupts absolutely’, and perhaps the organisations which best establish the truth of this maxim are police forces and services, wherever they may be. This article seeks to set out how the corrupt activities...
A History of the New South Wales Crime Commission
The New South Wales Crime Commission Act 1985 enabled the establishment in the following year of a law enforcement agency with extraordinary investigative powers and little oversight. The Act was superseded by the Crime Commission Act of 2012, whose stated...
Attempted Assassination of Queen Elizabeth II: Revenge Was the Motive
The Jallianwala Bagh massacre occurred when British soldiers shot and killed approximately 400 unarmed protesters, men, women and children, injuring 1,200 in Amritsar, India in 1919. Many historians say the casualties were much higher than reported, dependent on whether the...
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