HSC Legal Studies: News Watch

HSC Legal Studies: Human rights

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:26:10 +1100

We have just published our new web guide for HSC Legal Studies: Human Rights.

This web guide will help HSC Legal Studies students locate resources related to human rights - both in Australia and internationally.

One key objective of the Legal Studies syllabus is that students develop skills in investigating, analysing and communicating relevant legal information and issues. To achieve this, a student will learn to locate, select, organise, synthesise and analyse legal information including legislation, cases, media, international instruments and documents.

general information about human rights
human rights in Australia and
international human rights

You will also find information about human rights issues such as bill of rights, terrorism, human trafficking and sexual slavery, discrimination, child soldiers, child brides and the death penalty.

Please make this link a favourite or bookmark on your computer so that you can easily return to it - it might take a couple of weeks for these links to be added to our Find Legal Answers website for HSC Legal Studies.

You will find all the Legal Studies Libguides from the State Library website.

HSC Legal Studies: Preliminary Part 1

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:18:49 +1100

We have just published our new web guide for Year 11 Preliminary Legal Studies - HSC Legal Studies: Preliminary Part 1.

This web guide will be an excellent introduction to the Australian Legal System, law reform and law reform in action.

This guide will help you find websites, useful books, key legislation and court cases. You can also find media reports from newspapers and legal journals in our online databases. You can easily find information about crime, going to court and criminal justice issues. Have a look and browse some of the links.

We have developed some online video clips for using the State Library databases for locating newspaper articles and magazine articles. These will be helpful for you and your students in developing skills in using them competently.

You can find all the Legal Studies Libguides from the State Library website.

Same-sex couples and marriage

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:17:13 +1100

Will same-sex couples be able to marry in Australia? The Federal Parliament is planning on debating this topic later this year. You might like to read the following media reports:

'Marriage made easier for same-sex couples' by Dan Harrison, SMH, 27 January 2012
'Gay debate delayed to lift support' by Stephanie Peatling, SMH, 5 February 2012

If you are interested in exploring this issue further, as a topic either for Law reform in action or Family, you might like to read Same-sex marriage by Gareth Griffith, Briefing Paper No 3/2011 (July 2011), NSW Parliamentary Library. This paper does not argue the case for or against the recognition of same-sex marriages but provides a comprehensive review of recent legal developments in Australia and beyond.

The following articles are available on Informit Online – Law for those of you with a library card for the State Library:

'"True and good citizens": Rodney Croome on the history of freedom to marry in Australia' by Rodney Croome (2011) 203 Overland 15-25
'The wind of change is blowing' by Paul Gerber & Adiva Sifris (2011) 28 (1) Law in Context 1-7
'The social construction of marriage in Australia: implications for same-sex unions' by Charlotte Frew (2011) 28 (1) Law in Context 78-91
'Same-sex marriage: a worldwide trend?' by Jamie Gardiner (2011) 28 (1) Law in Context 92-107
'International trends in marital agreements: a progress report' by David Hodson (2009) (November) International Family Law 245-249
'Aspiring to gay marriage not the answer, says academic' by Anne Susskind (2009) 47 (5) Law Society Journal 22-23
'Discrimination: to the exclusion of all "others"?' by Magdalena McGuire (2009) 34 (3) Alternative Law Journal 197

There are a number of books written on same-sex marriage available at the State Library of NSW if you are interested in exploring this issue more broadly. See this list from the catalogue.

Drive-by shootings - can they be stopped?

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:44:09 +1100

Sydney has had over fifty drive-by shootings occur since March 2011. Since New Year's Day there have been at least ten different incidents spread across different suburbs of Sydney.

About the drive-by-shootings in Sydney

There have been numerous articles in the media about the these drive-by shootings. For example:

'Police frustrated by 10th drive-by-shooting' by Lisa Davies and Nick Ralston, SMH, 18 January 2012;
'Drive-by-shooting surge shakes Sydney residents' by Michael Edwards, ABC Online, 12 January 2012;
'Police can't promise end to Sydney's shooting spree', ABC Online, 14 January 2012;
'A lone wolf's golden farewell' by Ilya Gridneff, SMH, 15 January 2012
To find other articles in the media, you can search ProQuest ANZ Newsstand if you have a State Library card. If you select 2011 or january 2012 and type in 'drive-by-shootings' you will find many results which you can then browse by date or modify by name of suburb if you are interested in a particular incident.

Two responses to these drive-by-shootings

Many people hold the view that it is only be a matter of time before some innocent bystander becomes a victim when guns are being fired in quiet suburban streets. How to stop them has been the subject of much debate. Two responses have been suggested:

forcing witnesses and victims to speak
tightening the existing gun laws

Right to silence

Police often face a 'wall of silence' with many witnesses refusing to speak about the incidents. Should the right to remain silent be a right that remains, or should all people whether they are a victim or witness be compelled to speak? Should police be given similar powers to the NSW Crime Commission in investigating these drive-by shootings?

You might want to read the following opinion pieces:

'Protecting the rule of law', SMH Editorial, 18 January 2012
'Should the right to silence by removed?' Opinions of Scott Weber, Nicholas Cowdery, Robyn Cotterell-Jones and Mirko Bagaric, SMH, 21 January 2012
'Pledge to ban silence of shooting victims' by Anna Patty, SMH, 14 January 2012

Tougher gun laws

The second question raised by this spate of drive-by shootings is whether gun laws should be further tightened or changed to reduce the number of guns owned. If this particular issue is of interest, read 'Courts must back police over guns' by Tim Priest, The Australian, 20 January 2012. We have discussed gun law reforms in an earlier post 'Legacy of Port Arthur'.

Bikie gang cases in LIAC Crime Library

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:40:16 +1100

When two bikie gangs met at Sydney airport in March 2009 the resulting riot and affray left one member, Anthony Zervas, dead. A number of the gang members involved in this incident have been through the court system and been charged either with murder, manslaughter, affray or riot. We have added these decisions into the LIAC Crime Library. See Bikie gang cases in NSW. We will add any new decisions involved in this crime.

Uses and abuses of crime statistics

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:22:08 +1100

Australia is now into its 11th straight year of falling or stable crime rates, with property crime rates in some states lower than they have been in more than 20 years. Between 2000 and 2009 in Australia, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, national crime rates fell by:

39% for murder
43% for robbery
55% for burglary
62% for motor vehicle theft
39% for all forms of other theft.

And yet, the vast majority of Australians still think crime is going up. According to Dr Don Weatherburn, Director of the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, the reason for this is fairly clear. Most people get their information about crime from the media—and large sections of the media habitually distort, misrepresent and exaggerate the facts on crime. 'Uses and abuses of crime statistics' Contemporary Issues in Crime and Justice No 153, November 2011, discusses how crime statistics are collected, how reliable the sources are and how they can be used. There are really interesting sections, including using statistics to measure crime trends, evaluating law and order policies and testing hypotheses about crime. Importantly, examples are provided of how statistics have been distorted and misused by the media.

In a recent opinion piece in the Sydney Morning Herald, Dr Weatherburn has also discussed the importance of using evidence-based research in evaluating the effectiveness of any law and order policy: ‘Effective law and order policy need not be a shot in the dark’, SMH, 10 January 2012. The article discusses why policies that can be demonstrated to be ineffective in reducing crime remain in place, others are never evaluated and some that are effective are not pursued.

These two resources will provide great background for understanding the usefulness of crime statistics and why media reporting on law and order issues needs to be viewed with caution.

Australian legal system

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 14:10:42 +1100

Hot off the press - our popular Australian Legal System (Hot Topics 79, 2011) has been revised and updated!

This resource will be invaluable for all Year 11 students and new teachers to Legal Studies as it provides a readable overview of the following:

why do we have laws?
what is a legal system?
where does the Australian legal system come from?
how laws are made
who is in the Australian legal system
other influences on the Australian Legal System such as international law and customary law
what the law deals with - criminal, administrative and civil matters
government in Australia
the Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary
the legal profession and
finding the law.

There are numerous 'Hot tips' such as one on the 'rule of law' - an understandable definition. You will find this Hot Topics issue at your local public library or in your school library. If you would like to buy a copy of this issue fill in this order form.

Human trafficking and the Australian Federal Police

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 14:00:05 +1100

The most recent Annual Report of the Australian Federal Police (AFP) (2010-2011) includes their achievements in relation to human trafficking. Here are some interesting figures from the report:

during 2010-2011 the AFP worked on 45 investigations into trafficking (35 being new referrals); compared with
38 investigations during 2009-2010;

Approximately 69 per cent of the investigations were related to trafficking for sexual exploitation and the remainder related to trafficking for other forms of labour exploitation.

Investigation outcomes included:

the recovery of approximately $5 million as a result of an AFP human trafficking investigation; and
as a result of Operation Raspberry, which related to allegations of women being trafficked into the sex industry in Melbourne, the charging of the female suspect, a Chinese national, with two counts of sexual servitude and two counts of debt bondage in relation to two female victims.

The AFP changed the name of the Transnational Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking Team to Human Trafficking Teams on 30 May 2011 to better reflect the nature of this crime type. Teams are located in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. You can read the Annual Report for additional information.

Legal Aid NSW - their achievements

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 15:51:49 +1100

Legal Aid NSW provides legal services to disadvantaged clients across NSW in most areas of criminal, family and civil law. Their latest annual report provides helpful information about their services and who makes use of their services.

They conducted a research study to identify the 50 most frequent users of Legal Aid NSW services from 2005 to 2012. The annual report highlights some interesting findings. They found that, of their 50 highest service users, 90% were children or young people under 21 years of age. The average age of first contact with Legal Aid NSW for these users was 13 years. More than three quarters of these users were male and Australian born. The highest service user had 159 discrete dealings with Legal Aid.

Interestingly, of these high users, most approached Legal Aid NSW for help in a criminal law matter. Of these users, almost 50% had spent periods in out-of-home-care. A high percentage had been suspended or excluded from school, and 65% had attended four or more schools.

Three quarters of their high service users had been victims of neglect or experienced violence in their homes as children, half had a diagnosed mental illness, one third a cognitive impairment and two thirds had experienced homelessness.

One key finding suggested that for these young people any attempt at intervention into their lives happens when they reach court. It was suggested that if different agencies involved in the criminal justice and human services systems worked together more effectively this might have a positive impact on this small but "high need" group.

The annual report includes information on its services to Aboriginal people, older people, people with a mental illness and homeless. It also includes highlights from each practice area - criminal, family and civil. You will find interesting case studies.

HSC Legal Studies: Crime

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 15:47:44 +1100

We have just published our new web guide for HSC Legal Studies: Crime.

This web guide will help HSC Legal Studies students locate resources related to crime.

One key objective of the Legal Studies syllabus is that students develop skills in investigating, analysing and communicating relevant legal information and issues. To achieve this, a student will learn to locate, select, organise, synthesise and analyse legal information from a variety of sources including legislation, cases, media, international instruments and documents.

Please make this link a favourite or bookmark on your computer so that you can easily return to it - it might take a couple of weeks for these links to be added to our Find Legal Answers website for HSC Legal Studies.

Our page on Human Rights will be published soon!