Category Archives: Law

On innocence… lost?

Posted on 5 April, 2010 by admin

By Rewi Lyall Firstly, I was relatively pleased to see Joe Hockey on Lateline a few days ago talking, amongst other things, about CCTV. He’d given a speech earlier in the evening where he had apparently expressed some disquiet about … Continue reading →

Posted in Australia, Law, Politics | Leave a comment

Private surveillance

Posted on 6 January, 2010 by admin

By Rewi Lyall In the light of suggestions that Japanese whalers have, through a third party, hired aircraft to conduct surveillance on anti-whaling group Sea Shephed, the ABC reports that Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard is seeking legal advice on … Continue reading →

Posted in Australia, Law, Politics | Leave a comment

Of pimps, prostitutes, dealers and freedom

Posted on 21 October, 2009 by admin

By Rewi Lyall In an earlier post I briefly discussed the issue of civil rights in Australia, particularly as to how we justify infringing rights in order to deal with specific segments of society. It’s a distinctly worrying trend, but … Continue reading →

Posted in Australia, Law, Western Australia | 1 Comment

A case of child marriage in Indonesia

Posted on 21 October, 2009 by admin

By Rewi Lyall Some of you may not be aware of a recent case in Indonesia involving child marriage. A cleric, Syech Puji, was charged with child sexual abuse under the Child Protection Act and the Criminal Code, for marrying … Continue reading →

Posted in Indonesia, Law | Leave a comment

Conventional arms trade treaty – towards less limited limitation?

Posted on 20 October, 2009 by admin

By Rewi Lyall To date, treaties regulating the conventional arms industry have been largely limited to banning specific types of weapon, be that exploding bullets, chemical weapons and most recently landmines. Controlling the trade in more run-of-the-mill things like guns … Continue reading →

Posted in International relations, Law | 3 Comments

Against Indigenous autonomy

Posted on 24 August, 2009 by admin

Last week I got involved in a debate on the Pollbludger which was sparked by one poster there who set out a range of acts a government could pursue that might alleviate social and economic disadvantage faced by Aboriginal people … Continue reading →

Posted in Australia, Law, Politics | 2 Comments

Terrorism or treason?

Posted on 13 August, 2009 by admin

These are some initial observations on the facts as far as I have been able to determine them from media reports. There is no question that the provisions of the Commonwealth Criminal Code pertaining to terrorism, under which men arrested … Continue reading →

Posted in Australia, Law | Leave a comment

In Australia, they came first for the terrorists… or, why don’t Australians care about rights?

Posted on 23 July, 2009 by admin

Somehow it doesn’t quite have the same ring, but the sentiment behind the famous poem by Pastor Martin Niemöller (with apologies go to the deceased Pastor) about effects of the rise of Nazism in Germany on their political opponents and … Continue reading →

Posted in Australia, Law, New South Wales, Western Australia | 1 Comment

Outrage must follow Coroner’s report into another death in custody

Posted on 12 June, 2009 by admin

The Western Australian Coroner, Alistair Hope, has handed down his findings into the death of an Aboriginal elder in January 2008. The man was being transported from Laverton to Kalgoorlie. As the ABC has reported, the man ‘was effectively cooked … Continue reading →

Posted in Law, Western Australia | Leave a comment

A time for war

Posted on 12 June, 2009 by admin

This is, obviously, a huge issue and one that I’m not going to thoroughly cover in one post, but it’s pretty important to the consideration of other related subjects and so warrants initial discussion.  As a general principle, I am … Continue reading →

Posted in International relations, Law | Leave a comment