The Julian Assange Saga: Secrets, Suspicions and Supreme Court Decisions
Australian citizen Julian Assange rocketed into the national consciousness in 2010. Assange is the co-founder of WikiLeaks, a website dedicated to publishing secret information and leaks from anonymous sources. That year, WikiLeaks published thousands of secret US military and diplomatic...
Should Child Killers Lose All Parental Rights?
NSW opposition leader Luke Foley says that parents who kill their children should lose all parental rights, including their right to parent children in the future. He recently announced in the Sunday Telegraph that Labor will propose a new law...
Sobriety Bracelets as an Alternative to Prison
Most of us are aware that very little rehabilitation occurs in prison, so naturally, alternatives to incarceration can be a good thing in the long run. One initiative to cut down on alcohol-fuelled crime and the rising prison population is...
Paying People Smugglers: Is it Ever Justified?
Stopping people from seeking asylum in Australia is an issue that has featured prominently in the political landscape over the past decade. And although Labor and the Coalition don’t always agree about politics, they both seem intent on waging an...
Police Mishandling of the Bowraville Murders
Over a period of five months between 1990 and 1991, three Aboriginal children disappeared from the same street in a housing mission near the NSW town of Bowraville. The bodies of 16-year-old Clinton Speedy Duroux and four-year-old Evelyn Greenup were...
The Magna Carta’s Fascinating Legacy
Although the Middle Ages isn’t renowned as the greatest era for human rights, the Magna Carta was written during that period and is revered and venerated as one of the earliest and most influential documents in the common law. It...
Women Imprisoned for Being Too Noisy During Sex
In a case of truth being stranger than fiction, a British woman has been imprisoned for two weeks for being too noisy during sex. That’s right - noisy sex. Following complaints from her sleep-deprived neighbours, the local council took action...
When a Drunken Hug Turned to Tragedy
Zak Harvey was having a great time. The 32-year-old was out on a Saturday night in Perth, clubbing and drinking. An affectionate person by nature, Harvey was on the street outside a nightclub giving hugs to passers-by in the early...
Alternative Verdicts in Criminal Law
Being charged with a criminal offence can be daunting, and being acquitted of the charges following a hearing or trial is obviously a desirable outcome for any defendant. But did you know that in some situations, you can be acquitted...
‘Dying Declarations’: ‘It was………..’
We’ve all seen it in movies - a killer has struck and, just before dying, the victim utters a clue that is instrumental in solving the whole mystery. This is known as a ‘dying declaration’ and often proves to be...
