Melbourne Law School News

Melbourne Students At 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission.

Melbourne LLB students James Pappas and Jack O’Connor recently completed a vacation internship with the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission, established on 16 February to investigate the causes and responses to the bushfires which swept through parts of Victoria in late January and February 2009.

Working with the Research team, they assisted with the preparation of the Commission’s interim report. Mr Pappas said of his experience: “My internship placement at the Royal Commission was an invaluable experience. I feel very privileged to have made an appreciable contribution to the Royal Commission Research team, by undertaking legal and policy research and analysis into matters concerned with the Commission’s Terms of Reference. It was also an honour to meet and liaise with the Commissioners. I highly recommend that other Melbourne Law School students nominate to undertake the next internship with the Royal Commission in the summer holidays”.

The internship resulted from an arrangement between the Royal Commission and Melbourne Law School.

Recently introduced by the Careers Office, the Melbourne Law School Internship Program pro-actively assists students to experience a very diverse variety of workplaces, consistent with its “beyond the classroom approach”.

Pictured above are (l-r): Ron McLeod AM, Commissioner; Susan Pascoe AM, Commissioner; James Pappas; Jack O’Connor; and The Hon Bernard Teague AO, Chairperson.

Fri 9-Oct-09.

Law Research Service Wins National Award.

Melbourne Law School is delighted to announce that the Law Library’s Law Research Service has won the Australian Law Librarian of the Year Award for 2009.

The annual award, which comprises a trophy and cash prize donated by Legal Library Services Ltd, is made by the Australian Law Librarians’ Association (ALLA) to a librarian or team who has demonstrated excellence in the service they have provided. Nominees are measured on the value of the service provided to their organisation, and to the legal information profession as a whole.

This is the first year of the Law Research Service, which was introduced to support academic research in the Melbourne Law School by undertaking discrete research tasks and facilitating access to information. Research assistants are drawn from the law student body and supervised by Law Librarians to undertake sophisticated legal and interdisciplinary research and provide detailed research memos and relevant materials.

In making the award, ALLA noted that within its first six months the Law Research Service had been used by more than half of the faculty at Melbourne Law School and had received glowing testimonials.

Melbourne Law Librarian, Carole Hinchcliffe, and Law Research Service Advisor, Robin Gardner, accepted the award at the recent ALLA conference dinner on behalf of Alissa Sputore, Manager of the Law Research Service and her dedicated team.

Pictured above are (l-r): Robin Gardner (LRS Adviser), James Kearney, Cosima McRae, Elliot Luke, Julia Wang, Harvey Liu (Research Assistants), and Alissa Sputore (LRS Manager). Absent: Elly Patira

Fri 9-Oct-09.

MLS Interns At Voiceless Animal Protection Institute.

Bachelor of Laws students Edward Liew and Sining Wang recently travelled to Sydney to work as interns with Voiceless Animal Protection Institute.

At Voiceless, the pair was engaged in legal research and analysis for an upcoming report which will seek to expose legalised cruelty and promote informed debate. Mr Liew and Mr Wang also prepared news items for the Voiceless website on a range of domestic and international animal law-related matters and facilitated discussion on Voiceless Law Talk, the online discussion board.

The MLS Internship program has been introduced by the Careers Office to complement other “beyond the classroom” initiatives aimed at enhancing students’ learning experience and preparing them for the workforce. The program pro-actively assists students to experience a very diverse variety of workplaces.

The students greatly enjoyed their internship. The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper reported on their experience, and Mr Wang was also interviewed on Triple J radio.

The photo above features (l-r): Ondine Sherman (Joint Managing Director, Voiceless), Edward Liew, Brian Sherman AM (Joint Managing Director, Voiceless), Sining Wang and Katrina Sharman (Corporate Counsel, Voiceless).

Fri 9-Oct-09.

PhD Candidate Attends ILO-IFC Initiative, Geneva.

Nimmith Men, a PhD candidate at Melbourne Law School, has been invited to join the Better Work Advisory Committee, a joint initiative of the International Labour Organisation and the International Finance Corporation aimed at helping raise labour standards in order to improve the lives of over a million workers in developing countries.

In response to the invitation, Nimmith has offered his assistance and will be participating in meetings of the Committee to be held in Geneva. The first meeting is in October this year.

Nimmith, whose thesis topic is The Development of Alternative Dispute Resolution in the Cambodian Civil Justice System, is being supervised by Professor Camille Cameron and Associate Professor Sean Cooney . He is studying here with the assistance of an AusAID 'Australian Leadership Award' (ALA) scholarship. The ALA scholarships are prestigious awards offered each year to high achievers from the Asia-Pacific region to undertake postgraduate study and a Leadership Development Program in Australia.

Prior to coming to the Law School, Nimmith was employed as the Executive Director and Arbitrator/Conciliator at the Arbitration Council Foundation in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Tue 13-Oct-09.

Law Dean Critical of Labor?s ?Pacific Solution?.

Professor James C. Hathaway, Dean of the Melbourne Law School and a leading expert in international refugee law, has argued that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s recent appeal to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to detain a boat-load of Sri Lankans off Krakatoa Island is reminiscent of the Howard government’s highly-criticised ‘Pacific Solution’ scheme.

To read Professor Hathaway’s article, ‘Labor’s subtler Pacific Solution is just as shameful’, published in The Canberra Times, 19 October, 2009, click here (The same article, published under the title ‘On one point, Ruddock is right’, appeared in The National Times, 19 October 2009).

For comments made by Professor Hathaway on SKY News Australia, 14 October 2009, click here.

Professor Hathaway has also been quoted in the following publications in relation to the Sri Lankan asylum seekers’ being detained:

‘Jakarta alliance hit by both sides’, The Australian, 19 October 2009.

‘Rudd’s softer stance mugged by reality’, The Weekend Australian, 17-18 October 2009.

Tue 20-Oct-09.

Law Dean to return to full-time academic work on refugee law.

Mon 2-Nov-09.

2010 WTO Moot Court Team Announced.

The Melbourne Law School is delighted to announce the 2010 WTO Moot Court Melbourne team. Congratulations to Dean Merriman (2nd year JD), Kathryn Tomasic (3rd year LLB), Brendan Fitzgerald (3rd year LLB) and Timothy Lau (3rd year LLB) on their selection. The team is coached by Rudi Kruse, and Associate Professor Andrew Mitchell is the academic supervisor.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) has a unique dispute settlement system, with compulsory jurisdiction, appellate review, and a heavy caseload. The cases that come before it are often highly sensitive politically.

The Melbourne WTO team will be competing in the European Law Students' Association Moot Court Competition on WTO Law. Competing teams represent both the complainant and the respondent in a simulated case by preparing written submissions and presenting oral arguments before a mock WTO Panel. The regional round will be held in Adelaide in March 2010, and the international finals will be held in the Dominican Republic in June 2010. The 2009-2010 problem relates to national treatment in international trade, freedom of transit, and intellectual property, and the relationship between the WTO and regional free-trade agreements.

Melbourne Law School has a proud history of success in this competition, with previous teams achieving outstanding results, including winning the global competition in 2006-2007 and 2008-2009. Melbourne Law School wishes the 2009-2010 team the very best for the written submissions and regional oral round and thanks Telstra for its support.

Fri 6-Nov-09.

IILAH/ARC Workshop: Reasons of State: Security, Civility, Immunity, Life.

IILAH/ARC Workshop, Reasons of State: Security, Civility, Immunity, Life

(Convenor: Anne Orford)

IILAH will host a two-day workshop exploring the histories, objects, passions and strategies of modern statecraft. Confirmed speakers include:

Hilary Charlesworth (RegNet, ANU), Michael Dillon (Politics, Lancaster), Ian Duncanson (Postcolonial Studies, Melbourne), Luis Eslava (Law, Melbourne), Ann Genovese (Law, Melbourne), Lee Godden (Law, Melbourne), Graham Hammill (English, Buffalo), Mickaël Ho Foui Sang (Law, Melbourne and Paris X), Martti Koskenniemi (Law, Helsinki/NYU), Jacques Lezra (Comparative Literature, NYU), Philip Lorenz (English, Cornell), Shaun McVeigh (Law, Melbourne), Yoriko Otomo (Law, Melbourne), Robert Wai (Law, Osgoode) and Eric Wilson (Law, Monash). The workshop description is available here. That description draws on a short article published at this link.

Participant numbers are strictly limited. Please contact the IILAH Administrator if you are interested in attending the workshop: law-iilah@unimelb.edu.au

This workshop is funded by the Australian Research Council as part of a five-year Discovery Project on Cosmopolitanism and the Future of International Law.

Mon 9-Nov-09.

Asian Law Centre Occasional Seminar (with IPRIA): An introduction to the Intellectual Property High Court of Japan.

View the Seminar Flyer

Mon 9-Nov-09, 5:30PM.

10th Anniversary of Melbourne Law School?s Construction Law Program - 10th November.

Please join us at a seminar to reflect on the developments which have taken place during the past decade and to look forward to the way in which law and construction practice will – and, more importantly, should – interact in the future.

Melbourne Law School’s Construction Law Program has, since teaching of our specialist Masters and Graduate Diploma commenced in 2000, sought to make a substantial contribution to the ongoing development of construction law in Australia and around the world. This seminar offers an opportunity to reflect on the developments which have taken place during the past decade and to look forward to the way in which law and construction practice will – and, more importantly, should – interact in the future.

Sessions will cover the contracting landscape, key developments in the law and dispute avoidance and resolution.

A reception will follow with a keynote speech by the Honourable Justice David Byrne.

For further details and registration information, download the invitation in PDF format below:

10th Anniversary of Melbourne Law School’s Construction Law Program (.pdf)

Date	Tuesday 10 November 2009
Time	Seminar: 2 - 5.30 pm Reception: 5.30 - 7.30 pm
Venue	Melbourne Law School
Address	185 Pelham Street Carlton
Contact Person	Genevieve Allen
Contact Details	g.allen@unimelb.edu.au or phone +61 3 8344 1246
RSVP	19 October 2009

Please note that places are limited and registrations will not be accepted on the day.

Tue 10-Nov-09, 2:00PM.

Chancellor's Human Rights Lecture: Victorian Charter of Human Rights and the Criminal Law - Perspectives from the European Convention on Human Rights.

This lecture will address the potential effects of the Victorian Charter of Human Rights on criminal law and procedure from the perspective of the European Convention of Human Rights. Tue 10-Nov-09, 6:00PM.

The James Hardie Case - A Timely Reminder to Consider Your D&O Cover and Deeds of Indemnity, Insurance and Access.

The Supreme Court decision that James Hardie directors and officers were in breach of their duties resulting in the imposition of substantial banning orders and financial penalties, coupled with the Court's decision not to exonerate them, is a timely reminder that directors and officers should periodically review their D&O Insurance and Deeds of Indemnity, Insurance & Access.

· Does your D&O Insurance comply with the requirements of your Deeds of Indemnity, Insurance and Access? If not, which of them has to change?

· Does your D&O insurance provide cover for legal representation at investigations and inquiries and criminal prosecution defence costs, involving ASIC, ASX, APRA or other commissions, tribunals and regulatory agencies?

· Will you be able to retain solicitors and Counsel of your choice?

· If ASIC launches proceedings for breach of duty - as it did against all James Hardie directors, the company secretary/general counsel and CFO, or if shareholders or others bring claims to recover losses - who will pay your civil defence costs?

· Does the insurance cover pecuniary penalties, compensation orders, and the regulatory agency's legal costs?

· Indemnity, Insurance & Access Deeds:
- what protection is it reasonable to expect?
- what are your rights and obligations?
- is your deed up to date and compliant with your Constitution and the Corporations Act?

Wed 11-Nov-09, 5:30PM.

The Supreme Court of Victoria Inaugural Commercial Law Conference - Current Issues in Commercial Law.

Some of the topic that will be discussed are: . "Current Issues in Shareholder Remedies under the Corporations Act" . "Insolvent Managed Investment Schemes - issues arising out of Timbercorp and Great Southern" . "Company Director's and Officer's Conflicts of Interest" . "The Role of the Modern Commercial Court" Thu 12-Nov-09, 2:00PM.