Recreational Cannabis: Regulate and Reap the Benefits
One in five US citizens now lives in a state where the use of recreational marijuana is permitted. On November 8 last year, another four US states voted in favour of marijuana legalisation, bringing the total number of states to eight, as...
Supreme Court Slams Law Firm for Failing to Provide Itemised Bill
By Blake O’Connor and Ugur Nedim A NSW Supreme Court judge has slammed Sydney law firm Brydens Lawyers for failing to provide a former client with an itemised bill of costs. Mr Tan Than Le was seriously injured in 2005...
Replacing Prison Bars with GPS Tracking Devices: An Interview with Professor Mirko Bagaric
Date of publication: 27 April 2017 The Australian prison system is failing, as incarceration rates are at an all-time high. As of June last year, there were 38,845 adult prisoners in corrective services custody, making the national imprisonment rate grow to 208...
Top DNA Analyst Sacked for Allegedly Fabricating Records
DNA evidence has become an increasingly important component of criminal investigations and prosecutions since its use became widespread in the 1990s. Today, police around the country can access the National Criminal Investigation DNA database, which contains the DNA profiles of hundreds of...
Casual Conversations Do Not Amount to Consorting
Since their enactment in 2012, the use of consorting laws by NSW police has come under significant scrutiny. The consorting law legislation was introduced into parliament by the O’Farrell government, ostensibly in response to rising gun violence attributed to motorcycle club members and organised...
Woman Faces Prison for Giving Cannabis Oil to Sick People: An Interview with Jenny Hallam
If you ask the South Australian police what they think of Jenny Hallam, they’ll call her a criminal. Ask many others, and they’ll say she’s their angel. Ms Hallam, a marijuana reform activist, is facing up to 10 years in...
The Healing Hand of Restorative Justice: An Interview with ANU’s Dr Miranda Forsyth
The Australian criminal justice system has come under criticism for incarcerating growing numbers of people. With recidivism rates closing in on fifty percent - meaning nearly half of those released from prison are back within 2 years – many believe a punitive...
Always Independent: An Interview with Murrawarri Republic Chair Fred Hooper
This weekend in Brisbane, the Referendum Council is holding the last of the Dialogues: a series of meetings with First Nations peoples to discuss the issue of recognising the nation’s Indigenous people within the Australian constitution. The findings from the meetings...
Can I Sue a Lawyer for Incompetence?
By Blake O’Connor and Ugur Nedim Law firm Shine Lawyers is facing civil proceedings in the Queensland Supreme Court for allegedly breaching its fiduciary duties to a client by failing to competently represent him in a compensation case. Adelaide lawyer...
Is War Looming with China and North Korea?
Veteran documentary maker John Pilger’s new film the Coming War on China screened on television last Sunday night. In it, Pilger “breaks the silence” on the US government’s recent military build-up that’s aimed directly at China. The Australian journalist explains that...
