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The latest issue of the Australian Law Journal (Volume 99 Part 11) contains the following material:

CURRENT ISSUES – Editor: Justice François Kunc

  • The Statewide Treaty in Victoria
  • Practical Legal Training Reform Developments
  • The Curated Page

CONVEYANCING – Editors: Robert Angyal SC and Brendan Edgeworth

EQUITY AND TRUSTS – Editor: Aryan Mohseni

FAMILY LAW – Editor: The Hon Justice Grant Riethmuller AM

Articles

Fulfilling the Promise – 50 Years of the Australian Law Reform Commission – Mordecai Bromberg and Andrew Godwin

The 50th Anniversary of the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) presents an opportunity to celebrate its achievements to date and contemplate its future. This article discusses the ALRC’s history since 1975 with reference to its historical origins, its institutional attributes and the inquiries that it has conducted. In particular, it examines the purpose of institutional law reform (the “why” of institutional law reform), the different functions that the ALRC performs (the “what” of institutional law reform), and the way in which the ALRC performs those functions (the “how” of institutional law reform). The article concludes with observations about the value of the ALRC and its future in fulfilling the promise of institutional law reform.

Of Mice, Men and Machines: A Future Direction for Legal Personhood – Daniel Goldsworthy

Law personifies its subjects. Once a legal person, certain rights, duties and obligations follow. At least that is the standard picture; but that picture is somewhat incomplete. The orthodox view of legal personhood is that it requires no necessary connection with human personhood; the legal person is simply whomever, or whatever, law says it is. And recently, the law has had quite a lot to say on expanding these conceptual boundaries. Examples include conferring legal personhood on a range of natural phenomena (such as rivers, mountains, and mother nature), movements to extend legal personhood to animals, as well as related but adjacent conversations about the appropriate legal recognition for AI. Such instances require careful consideration of the nature and scope of legal personhood in order that we may pursue its coherent and principled development. This article makes a modest case for how we might do so.

For the PDF version of the table of contents, click here: New Westlaw Australia – ALJ Vol 99 No 11 Contents

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