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The latest issue of the Australian Law Journal (Volume 97 Part 4) contains the following material:

CURRENT ISSUES – Editor: Justice François Kunc

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Developments Briefly Noted
  • A Conference and the 2023 Special Issue
  • Referendum Diary
  • The Curated Page

CONVEYANCING AND PROPERTY – Editors: Robert Angyal SC and Brendan Edgeworth

  • Crown Leases and Extinguishment of Native Title

AROUND THE NATION: NORTHERN TERRITORY – Editor: Hon Dean Mildren AM RFD KC

  • Juvenile Crime

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW – Editor: Anne Twomey AO

  • Law and the Coronation of King Charles III

EQUITY AND TRUSTS – Editor: Justice Mark Leeming

  • Swift Rebuff to Touts

TECHNOLOGY AND THE LAW – Editors: Lyria Bennett Moses and Angelina Gomez

  • Navigating the Policy Maze for Our Data

PERSONALIA – Editor: Emily Vale

Appointments

  • Commonwealth
  • Justice Jayne Jagot
  • Justice Shaun McElwaine
  • Justice Michael Feutrill
  • Justice Fiona Meagher
  • Justice Timothy McEvoy
  • Justice Lisa Hespe
  • Australian Capital Territory
  • Senior Counsel Appointments
  • New South Wales
  • Justice Dina Yehia
  • Northern Territory
  • Senior Counsel Appointments
  • Queensland
  • Justice Melanie Hindman
  • King’s Counsel Appointments
  • Victoria
  • Senior Counsel Appointments
  • Western Australia
  • Senior Counsel Appointments

Articles

Recommendations to Alleviate Gendered, Racial and Socioeconomic Inequalities in the Administration of the Bail System – Catherine Bugler and Alice Muir

Decades of reactive amendments to bail legislation have estranged bail from its purpose: to protect personal liberty and the presumption of innocence. These politicised changes have undermined fundamental criminal justice principles and contributed to an incarceration crisis. Disadvantaged groups – particularly women, people experiencing homelessness and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people – disproportionately bear the brunt of this injustice. We examine the court’s role in administering an inflexible system that traps vulnerable offenders in a cycle of stringent bail conditions and escalating tests which worsen existing inequalities. We make eight recommendations as to how court administrators can ameliorate these systemic inequalities. We propose court administrators proactively communicate with bailees, adopt flexible bail conditions, use court processes to avoid show cause situations, change how bail listings are managed, accommodate social services within court houses, engage in community-led cultural education and gather data about bail applications.

The Law of Recaption and the PPSA – Anthony Duggan

Section 123(1) of the Personal Property Securities Act 2009 (Cth) provides that if a debtor is in default, the secured party may repossess the collateral “by any method permitted by law”. The quoted words incorporate into the statute by reference the common law rules governing the recaption of chattels as modified by other applicable statutes. The purpose of this article is to survey the current state of Australian law on recaption in the context of secured transactions, to identify the extent, if any, to which force against either a person or property is permissible in the repossession process and to explore the secured party’s options in cases where the debtor resists an attempted repossession.

Tribunal Justice and Politics in Australia: The Rise and Fall of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal – Matthew Groves and Greg Weeks

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) was a landmark reform designed to provide a streamlined form of tribunal review that was a quicker and simpler alternative to judicial review. The defining power of the AAT is its ability to conduct review on the merits by an independent agency. That independence has come under challenge through the dramatic rise of appointments to the AAT of members with close political connections to the government of the day. The number and timing of these appointments have caused considerable public controversy. The AAT was so beleaguered by political appointees that it will be abolished. This article explains how institutional reforms made in the name of public sector efficiency laid the groundwork for the controversial appointments that followed. The article also argues that, while independence and suitability of members are important, the standing of institutions such as the AAT depends on other institutional factors.

BOOK REVIEW – Editor: Angelina Gomez

  • Australians Speak Out: Persuasive Language Styles, by Rodney G Miller

For the PDF version of the table of contents, click here: New Westlaw Australia – ALJ Vol 97 No 4 Contents.

Click here to access this Part on New Westlaw AU

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