The Impact of Stagnant Legal Aid Rates on Access to Justice in Australia
Access to justice is a foundational principle of the rule of law and is often phrased as requiring “the right of equal access to justice for all” through governments providing “fair, transparent, effective, non-discriminatory and accountable services.” In Australia, this principle was described in Dietrich v. The Queen as “the equal justice for all principle.” [...]
The Call is Coming from Inside the House: Sex Discrimination in Australia’s Parliament
Within the past 12 months, Jacinda Ardern has resigned as New Zealand’s prime minister, former Australian PM Julia Gillard’s famous “misogyny speech” celebrated its tenth anniversary, and the high-profile retrial against Australian Liberal Party staffer Bruce Lehrmann for the alleged rape of colleague Brittany Higgins was dropped for posing a “significant and unacceptable risk” to [...]
Preventing Nuclear War: Legal Obligations for an Imperiled Planet
“Scholars build the structure of peace in the world.” Babylonian Talmud; Order Zera’im, Tractate Berakoth, IX Background of the Problem Back in the late 1960s, at Yale Law School and Princeton University’s Department of Politics, a series of joint-programs was developed under the heading of World Order Studies. This advanced academic series focused upon the [...]
Syria stripped of voting rights by chemical weapons watchdog after poisonous gas discovery
Syria was stripped of its voting rights on Wednesday at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), after recent findings evidenced their use of poisonous gas throughout the nation’s civil war. A two-thirds majority of nations voted to strip Syria’s Bashar al Assad regime of its rights and privileges as a member of [...]
After the midterm elections, it is worth considering how we might change our founding document, the U.S constitution, and update it so that it reflects the times we live in. One glaring example of a needed update is the Electoral College. Actually, I should say “eliminate” instead of “update”. Specifically, Article II, Section 1, Clause [...]
"Sanctuary Cities" to Find Sanctuary in the Rehnquist and Roberts Courts
JURIST Guest Columnist Hugh D. Spitzer of the University of Washington School of Law discusses US Supreme Court decisions which could derail the anticipated efforts by president-elect Trump to punish so-called "sanctuary cities" ... During the recent election campaign, candidate...
A Federal Expungement Law Should Be a Priority in Any Future Criminal Justice Reform Effort
JURIST Guest Columnist Nicholas M. Wooldridge of LV Criminal Defense discusses the need for federal expungement legislation... This article is currently under review Introduction Do ex-offenders who successfully complete their sentence deserve a chance to wipe the slate clean? The...
China passed a new anti-terrorism law on Sunday which requires technology companies to provide information to the government obtained from their products and make information systems "secure and controllable." The law also restricts media organizations...
JURIST Guest Columnist W. David Ball of Santa Clara Law, discusses the legal framework behind the Nebraska and Oklahoma law suit against Colorado to invalidate Colorado's marijuana law...In December 2014, Oklahoma and Nebraska took the unusual step of filing a...
JURIST Guest Columnist Danielle Ardner, Valparaiso University Law School, Class of 2016, discusses how Cleveland police are obstructing Ohio's mandatory DNA collection law...It was 15 years before serial rapist and murderer Larry McGowan had his DNA properly collected in Ohio...
