Law Reform In Australia

A current emerging issue in Australian society is the rising representation of Indigenous Australians in prisons across the country. According to the Australian National Council on Drugs, the Aboriginal population is 13 times more likely to end up in jail than the rest of the population (Donovan, 2010). This is despite the Aboriginal population representing only three percent of the total Australian population. In order to combat this problem, a range of legal solutions such as circle sentencing, Indigenous courts and Justice Reinvestment have been implemented. However, the current trend of incarceration rates for the future of Aboriginals suggest that the effectiveness of these solutions need to be put

Various aspects of law reform prove to be ineffective whilst certain aspects prove to be effective. Law reform in relation to Bail and Native title has proven to be somewhat effective in engaging in the protection of individual rights and meeting society’s needs, amending and creating new legislation to maintain with new concepts of justice and changing social values. This is evident in the Bail Act 2013 NSW, the Bail Act 2014 amendment NSW, The Native Title Act 1993, The Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976. Showing evidence of effectiveness through their enforceability and to some degree, their responsiveness.

They tend to concentrate on areas considered to have immediate political importance. Many reforms are complex and specialised, requiring long deliberation. Government looks for consultation with interested individuals, although their mode of operation is kept confidential. The particular units of government departments mostly concerned with law reform do not have a high public profile. The Law Society and Bar Association have a long tradition of involvement in attempts to improve the legal system.

Law reform is the process of changing and updating laws, so that they reflect the current values and demands of contemporary society. Those with sovereign power must identify the change in social values, behaviours and expectations; through this they must consider whether new or amended laws are required; and they must develop and implement these changes. Society is never completely satisfied with the reforms made to law, reforms are made to satisfy the general public.

The Australian legal system follows a formal structure, strict rules of evidence and conduct and utilizes the adversarial system of trial for both criminal and civil proceedings. The procedure relies on the skills of representatives of each party and evidence concerning the case presented to an impartial judge or magistrate (and sometimes a jury). Courts apply fairness to a profound extent through adopting the doctrine of natural justice, parties involved have the right to know accusations made so they are able to collect evidence for defence and cross examination. Fairness was practiced in the case Southan v Costa (2017) NSWLEC 1230 that cited the Trees (Disputes between Neighbours) Act 2006 which instructed the Land and Environment Court NSW on only making an order if the tree concerned had caused harm or posed future threat. Fairness was also demonstrated through the referral to precedents including the Freeman v Dillon (2012) NSWLEC 1057 to assess the degree of damage, necessary action and consistent orders. The previous cases assisted in concluding the orders of the Court ‘requiring periodic removal of dead wood’ to reduce the risk of injury and annoyance of natural shedding past the respondent’s property. Court jurisdiction and high enforceability aid in achieving justice for individuals when ruling sentences and court orders. Enforceability is exemplified when the actor Steve Bisley was ordered to perform 300 hours of community service by the magistrate of Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court for charges of actual bodily harm relating to domestic violence towards his former wife Sally Burleigh in September 2009. This case additionally reflected equality in application regardless political, social and religious standing, gender and racial identity. The effectiveness of courts achieving justice in

The Oxford Learner’s Dictionary defines fairness to be ‘the quality of treating people equally or in a way that is reasonable’ and justice as ‘the quality of being fair or reasonable’ (Oald8.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com, 2014). Investigation of the characteristics of the Australian Legal System (ALS) including its adoption, structure and operational rules, reveal that for the most part the system is based on these two attributes. This inference is further evidenced by the legally binding operational framework assigned to the financial services industry and reflected in the codes of practice that also guide it.

EDE 325 Assignment 1 Case study (30%). Due 20th June, 2016, 1500 words (10% leeway +/-) Includes intext references.

Based on the 2012 survey conducted by the New South Whales Law and Justice Foundation, it showed that around 1.7 million Australians can expect to encounter a legal problem each year and 490,000 of those people will not receive legal advice due to financial reasons or lack of knowledge. The prices for legal services have increase by 49% in the last 6 years alone. This dramatic inflation of costs within the justice system leads to increased difficulty within society to be able to afford anything but the most basic of legal representation. When people who can’t afford a lawyer turn to government funded legal assistance, they find that due to chronic funding shortages, ongoing help is often restricted to those on only the lowest incomes and even further, is only for a narrow collection of family and criminal legal

Legal policy reform focuses on the interest of the community that could affect them internally and externally. The process of legal policies varies from community to community so each community may have different policies. There is no clear, specific direction on how legal policy reform should be handled. Legal policy reform consists of written or unwritten guidelines and gives power to the local government to decide on how to implement policies. My stance is with researchers rather than practitioners because researchers are constantly expanding knowledge through empirical studies. They rely on probabilities and experimentation to help them understand people’s behavior and how likely it may occur. Researchers can generally study the topic of

Law reform activities can include preparation and presentation of cases in court in order to change the common law;

Evaluate the role of law reform in achieving just outcomes for family members and society

Consequently, for most people, a meaningful relationship with the law, and thus an unhindered access to justice, can only occur by proxy through the utilisation of someone well versed in law and its specificity, which is to say a lawyer. Thus, while all can technically access the modern legal system, achieving justice within it proves seemingly insurmountable to do independently. Therefore, the ability for the ‘common man’ to independently commence legal proceedings is severely limited, as the legal system has formed a pathway to justice only those involved within can easily access. If a meaningful relationship with the law in such a way to meaningfully access justice proves difficult for the common man, with all the privilege and opportunity he is bestowed, than surely it must prove impossible for the more disadvantaged among the population, particularly Aboriginal Australians. Indeed, there is a sense of disconnect between those that can be considered the modern equivalent of the ‘noble class’ when it comes to the law, and those that cannot. Famed author and philosopher Franz Kafka was particularly interested with this concept, famously outlining the use of law as a separation of class within his short essay The Problem of Our Laws. In it, he describes the inherent disadvantage of the ‘common man’ in achieving justice within a society ruled by laws they do not know the details of or even understand, but instead are “kept secret by the small group of nobles who rule us” (Kafka 1971, 482). This is a particularly apt interpretation of the system of laws that govern modern society, and the divide within said society between those privileged enough to have access to this ‘secret’ and those that do not. Indeed,

This essay will explain what the formal process on how an Act of Parliament is created. I will discuss the key concepts and procedures which are relevant to law making which will be supported with relevant statutes and case law. Furthermore I will also discuss the different stages which are involved in creating a law. I will also assess the controls and systems that are in place which are used to regulate the source of law. Finally, I will analyse and evaluate the effectiveness of the literal rule.

The concept of law as we consider it in the western liberal tradition has far reaching roots and these roots are ancient in origin. This concept has shaped the path that law has taken in our modern society and it has directly influenced Anglo-American law. From the actual concept of law and how it is to be enforced to how citizens should obey and make more laws, this modern marvel of human ingenuity wouldn’t have been possible without the predecessors that came before.

Article 26 of the International Covenant On Civil And Political Rights states that all persons are equal before the law . However, the Australian legal system, and specifically the judicial system, are systems based on the idea of justice. While at first thought, this may not seem like an issue, it is important to distinguish that equality is not always synonymous with justice . With this distinction in mind, it is not hard to imagine that there are aspects of the system that although may fall in line with the idea of justice, as a result of doing such, cannot or does not do the same for equality .