Trump likes to see himself as a wartime president like Churchill or Lincoln. The Brits flattered the first proposity by giving him dinner in Churchill’s birthplace, Blenheim Palace. He recently projected the second proposity by having himself interviewed at the Lincoln Memorial. He is not the solution to America’s problems – he is a result […]

My new book, Indigenous Courts, Culture and Partner Violence, published by Palgrave Macmillan in May 2019, considers what aspects of the sentencing process are most important in influencing a change in attitude and behaviour of Indigenous[1] offenders who repeatedly engage in abusive behaviour towards their partner, and what types of justice processes better meet the […]

Last month, mining giant Rio Tinto destroyed caves in the Juukan Gorge in Western Australia while blasting in the area as part of its mining operations. The caves contained archaeological treasures evidencing human occupation spanning some 46,000 years. As such, they represent globally significant sites far older than Stonehenge and the Pyramids of Egypt. But […]

On 29 January 2019 the Federal Government commenced a trial of the Cashless Debit Card (CDC) in the Hinkler region, which includes Hervey Bay and Bundaberg. The broad objectives of the trial are to decrease substance abuse and gambling, as well as promote ‘socially responsible behaviour’. The Explanatory Memorandum for the Bill introducing the CDC […]

Australian Research Council Linkage Project grants demonstrate Griffith University’s role in leading research initiatives.

There has rarely been a greater test of our structures of governance than the flurry of lawmaking amidst the declared emergency of the COVID-19 pandemic. Self-containment and restrictions on public (physical) engagement are starting to take their toll. Consequently, while fearful of the worst-case scenario of this terrible disease, some individuals are eager to ‘return […]

International lawyers love a good crisis, argues Hilary Charlesworth, though this tendency can often impoverish the discipline of international law. So whilst all eyes are drawn to the pandemic, we alert you to the closing of civil society space in many parts of the globe, including for women human rights defenders. On 16 March 2020, […]

As a Western liberal democracy, Australia enjoys a high standard of governance. Our law making and enforcement systems are designed with checks and balances whose purpose is to distribute power and thereby hold decision-makers to account. Part of the function of government, however, is to be responsive to the needs of the population. In the […]

As the world faces a significant financial crisis as a result of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, Nation States will need to enact a variety of regulatory measures to protect now fragile economies and the financial wellbeing of citizens. There is a risk that enacting such measures could lead to foreign investor claims against […]

Law is different in Australia. The origins of the Australian state in a military-run British prison camp. the legal fictions of terra nullius that dispossessed, displaced an failed to see the sovereignty of First Nation peoples and the efficiency currently witnessed in controlling the population and the economy during the current bio-emergency, suggest that law, and governing the land through law, […]

Across the country, over 43,000 people spend their days in crowded prisons, unable to practice even basic hygiene, such as effective hand-washing. Even more dire is the inevitable spread of the Novel Coronavirus within Australia’s prisons if effective preventative measures are not implemented. In a time when seniors and those with underlying conditions are told […]

This is the final of a series of five blogs on COVID 19 and human rights, focusing on the timeline of the virus. Blog 1 focused on the beginning of the virus in China, in relation to the right to freedom of expression and rights of access to information. Blog 2 focused on the crisis […]

‘Around 1 million species already face extinction, many within decades, unless action is taken to reduce the intensity of drivers of biodiversity loss’ according to the 2019 global assessment from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES 2019). It found the key drivers (in order of greatest impact) are changes in land […]

This is the fourth of a series of five blogs on COVID 19 and human rights, focusing on the timeline of the virus. Blog 1 focused on the beginning of the virus in China, in relation to the right to freedom of expression and rights of access to information. Blog 2 focused on the crisis […]

The Australian government has no business hitching its star to Donald Trump or to poke the Chinese bear by promoting a one-sided investigation.  Trump blamed China and the WHO and said he would investigate the latter. Australia offered an ‘independent’ investigation into the origins of COVID-19 and China’s initial response. If we are going to […]

This is the third of a series of five blogs on COVID 19 and human rights, focusing on the timeline of the virus. Blog 1 focused on the beginning of the virus in China, in relation to the right to freedom of expression. Blog 2 focused on the crisis in hospitals across the world in […]

This is the second of a series of five blogs on COVID 19 and human rights, focusing on the timeline of the virus. Blog 1 focused on the beginning of the virus in China, in relation to the right to freedom of expression. These next two blogs focus on “the present” – measures being taken […]

The COVID 19 pandemic is wreaking havoc across the globe. Every segment of most societies will be profoundly impacted. The crisis is detrimentally affecting all civil, political, economic, social, cultural, and developmental rights. Consider the following as a small sample of rights that are harmed: those of domestic violence victims forced to isolate with abusive […]