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In early 2022, an unprecedented flood event in Lismore, New South Wales plunged an entire community into trauma and chaos. I draw upon this event to highlight the imperative for climate activism in the academy. Activist research, and activist teaching in law classrooms, are already reshaping the law of the Holocene in response to the climate crisis and will increasingly do so. I suggest that, in light of their ecological privilege, academics must also modify their personal and professional conduct. We must all be climate activists, if only because climate will spare none of us. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional approaches to legislating to protect individual rights in Australia have utilised the language and discourse of international human rights law, attracting both support and criticism from key political actors and commentators. In South Australia, where no human rights legislation exists, past efforts to generate sustained public and political support for the enactment of international human rights principles into legislation have been unsuccessful. This is despite ongoing instances of human rights breaches occurring within the South Australian community. The reasons are varied and warrant careful consideration in order to identify and evaluate future options for improving the legal protection of human rights. One potential option is to reframe the discourse associated with human rights legislation. This could involve moving away from a legalistic approach that draws from international human rights law concepts and instead embrace the language of human security to refocus public and political attention on the need to secure dignity, equality and safety for the community. This article explores whether the language of human security, and the strategies identified by the United Nations Development Programme towards achieving human security, could create new opportunities for legislative reform in South Australia. It also considers the potential shortcomings of this approach, having regard to successful attempts to enact human rights legislation in other Australian states and territories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young Australians exiting Out-of-Home Care (OOHC) face some of the most challenging access to justice issues due to experiences of trauma, increased interactions with the justice system, distrust of government services, high rates of socioeconomic disadvantage and a lack of accessible support services. This article outlines the experience of the Mid North Coast Legal Centre (MNCLC) which, through the LevelUP Project, aimed to bridge this access to justice gap with a shake-up of the traditional legal services model. Through this experience, MNCLC offers some suggestions for legal centres seeking to improve access to justice for this disadvantaged group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines sexual harassment as it affects the legal profession, weighing up the efficacy of the legislative provisions in Australia in the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) (SDA). The article considers the recommendations for reform made by various reviews in recent years and the 2021 amendments to sexual harassment provisions. Following consideration of the alternate legislative drafting options and analysis of the approach taken in New Zealand, this article concludes that to address the systemic sexual harassment culture in the legal profession, change needs to go beyond the scope anticipated in current legislative amendments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biodiversity loss continues to be one of the greatest issues for this generation despite the development of International Environmental Law (IEL). By examining the anthropocentric nature of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) I will argue that how we attribute value to wildlife and the human-centric construction of law are the key reasons for the failures of IEL. Ultimately a shift in attitude is required if we are to effectively halt environmental degradation and protect wildlife species under IEL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

State prison populations in the United States have been regularly declining since 2009, and, at the end of 2014, the combined federal and state prison population was at its lowest level since 2005. Criminologists were caught by surprise by this development in the country that epitomized contemporary 'mass incarceration'. Their theoretical accounts were steeped in a 'punitive worldview' that left no space for the stabilization and eventual decline in mass incarceration in the United States. This article focuses on policy processes, rather than structural conditions, as drivers of penal change. The article begins with an overview of theories of punishment and their shortcomings. The framework that guides our study is based on the concept of 'critical junctures', which are seedbeds of long-term transformative change that present opportunities and constraints for actors in the penal field. The empirical research presented here analyses the adoption of legal reforms aimed at reducing mass incarceration by the 50 US states. We find that a trifecta of conflicting actors – legal, political and public – accounts for the complex and sometimes contradictory ways in which states move towards penal reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In her critique of anti-discrimination law, 'The Liberal Promise', Professor Margaret Thornton argued that the law could have a limited impact on social change partly due to the privatised way in which discrimination claims are resolved. This Brief explores the influence of Thornton's work and suggests that, 30 years on, her claims still ring true. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal must be independent from inappropriate influence, and the perception of such influence, in order to effectively perform its duties of de novo merits review of government decisions. Drawing on recent controversies surrounding the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in 2017, this article concludes that the current mechanisms of Administrative Appeals Tribunal member reappointment exposes the Administrative Appeals Tribunal to a risk of inappropriate influence by the government of the day or at least a risk of public perception to that effect. After examining several possible reforms to minimise this risk, this paper proposes the creation of an independent reappointment committee for the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a large uptake of social media use by legal professionals over recent years, but with the embrace of the 21st-century lawyer comes an obligation to not only use social media but to do so ethically. Undoubtedly, social media presents a number of ethical challenges for the profession. However, with risk mitigation strategies,Web 2.0 can be used to gain clients through advertising, gather important evidence, serve court documents, network with others in the field and, most importantly, educate the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to domestic and international concern about individuals being exploited for labor or commercial sex, the U.S. Government passed legislation in 2000, creating a new crime of human trafficking and devoting resources to the identification of victims and prosecution of perpetrators. Since that time, all 50 states have passed legislation criminalizing trafficking of persons, yet law enforcement responses to these new legal mandates have been uneven. Recent research suggests police agencies are generally unprepared to identify and respond to human trafficking incidents in local communities and, as a result, relatively few cases have been identified. Using data from medium-to-large municipal police agencies in the United States, this research examines competing explanations for the adoption of responses in the wake of new human trafficking laws. The findings suggest the importance of institutional explanations including organizational experience with change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]