Since 1996 the Judicial Conference of Australia has held annual colloquiums.
Papers presented have considered a broad range of issues. AC KBEACAC CMGAC.
A selection of speeches, presentations and papers presented at past colloquia can be found by clicking on the years at the bottom of this page.
2009 Annual Colloquium
The 2009 Annual Colloquium was held at the Windsor Hotel in Melbourne from Friday 9th to Sunday 11th October 2009.
The following were abstracts of some of the papers presented at the Colloquium. The full text of the speeches are also available here to download. Please note, only PDF versions of the speeches will be available.
The opening remarks of the Victorian Attorney-General, can be viewed here.
The keynote address by Chief Justice Marilyn Warren, AC, in response to the speech of the Victorian Attorney-General, can be viewed by clicking here.
The other keynote address, The Duty Owed to the Court - Sometimes Forgotten, presented by the Chief Justice, can be accessed by clicking here
Friday 9th October
Solferino, Geneva and the Development of International Humanitarian Law
Professor Timothy McCormack
2009 marks both the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Solferino (and the beginnings of the World Red Cross Movement) as well as the 60th anniversary of the1949 Geneva Conventions. Both milestones provide an opportunity to reflect upon the historical development of international humanitarian law (IHL), the motivations behind this body of law and the extent to which the adoption of legal obligations has effectively constrained the conduct of armed hostilities. The recent proliferation of international courts and tribunals to try war crimes has arguably produced the most significant impetus to raising global awareness of IHL and yet, ironically, this watershed development has coincided with increasing scepticism about the ongoing relevance of the law.
The Geneva Conventions in an Age of Terrorism
Waleed Aly - lecturer, Global Terrorism Research Centre, Monash University
As the ongoing controversies emerging from the US Government's Guantanamo Bay detention facility illustrate, much political and legal debate in recent years has explored the extent to which international humanitarian law should properly be observed in counter-terrorism. The implicit question in such a debate is whether or not those laws face redundancy in the face of a non-conventional militant threat. Examining the terrorist threat through the lens of political science, this presentation will explore this vexed question, and through it the continuing relevance of the Geneva Conventions.
Saturday 10th October
The Global Financial Crisis and the Legal System
Professor Bruce Chapman, Crawford School of Economics, Australia National University
The Powerpoint of this speech is available here. The Global Financial Crisis and the Legal System
There is conflicting evidence concerning the relationship between unemployment and crime levels, at least as measured by break, enter and steal offences. One reason for this is that the unemployment rate is a poor measure only of the true costs for the unemployed of joblessness and thus the attractiveness of property crime. This issue has been investigated econometrically by Don Weatherburn, Bruce Chapman and others using measures of the proportion of NSW male youth experiencing long term unemployment (duration of more than 12 months) and the effect this had on break, enter and steal offences over a long period; the main finding is that there is a significant and large relationship between these variables. The results of this work can be used to forecast likely future levels of property crime of this type given that long term unemployment is set to increase importantly in the next few years. A critical point is that even if the Australian recession turns out to be more benign that expected, the likely future path of long term unemployment has already largely been set given the marked slowing of the economy. We find that break, enter and steal offences are now likely to increase very markedly over the next few years and that with respect to short term economic growth little can be done to avoid this outcome.
Dr Jonathan Spear
Director, Innovation & Strategy Unit, Department of Justice, Victoria
The collapse of the sub-prime housing market in the United States triggered a global credit crunch and dramatic change in global economic conditions, with Australia also experiencing falling asset prices, reduced household wealth and an erosion of consumer and business confidence. While Australia has thus far avoided a technical recession, it is not immune from the effects of the Global Financial Crisis. It is expected that Australia will be living with the impacts of the global recession for some time.
Justice agencies are by no means immune from the effects of the economic downturn. In this session Jonathan Spear will share some insights of the known, likely and possible impacts of the Global Financial Crisis on the community, with an emphasis on the administration of justice.
Professor Joshua Gans, Melbourne Business School
Professor Gans' address can be viewed here
There is a sense in which the old adage -- never waste a crisis -- really appears to apply in the area of competition policy. In the last half of last year, a parade of -- "if we don't merge we are doomed" -- bank merger applications went before the ACCC. With banks failing around the world, the opportunity for larger ones in Australia to snap up smaller ones loomed large. Two went through but I suspect that the ACCC became more cautious after that. Nonetheless, there has been considerable consolidation in that industry of late without the assistance of any significant failure. This demonstrates that the GFC did have an impact on the practice of competition policy.
The question is: what can we do about it? Behind every opportunity is a plausible theory. In this case, that crisis can precipitate failure and failure is worse than merger. Moreover, in the midst of crisis, we see pressure not to investigate whether the facts fit that theory. What we need in order to deal with this situation are more mechanisms that will allow re-evaluation and reversal. For instance, the ACCC could permit a large bank to acquire a small bank -- with full financial ownership and even to manage restructuring. However, this could be subject to a review -- say, one year later -- in which the ACCC -- should certain criteria about the external environment not be met -- could revoke the approval and seek divestiture. So long as it is ensured that divestiture remains easy (something that could be agreed upon upfront), this allows competition regulators to hedge their bets in the face of uncertainty.
Access to Justice and Other Shibboleths
The Honourable Justice Pat Keane
The copy of this speech is available here. Access to Justice and Other Shibboleths
Until relatively recently the law set its face against arrangements which involved trading in litigation or which involved lawyers enjoying a piece of their client's action. The high costs of litigation and consequent concerns about restrictions upon access to justice have trumped the concerns which underlay the law's disapproval of such arrangements. The tort of champerty has largely fallen into desuetude, even in those jurisdictions where it has not been statutorily abolished. And solicitors routinely enter into fee agreements with their clients fraught with conflict of interest.
This paper questions whether the traditional concerns of the common law with champertous arrangements were illusory, and offers, from the perspective of practical involvement in such litigation, the view that the traditional concerns deserve respect and a proposal that different means of improving access to justice which respect those concerns should be considered.
Sunday 11th October
Shakespeare and Madness
Paper by Justice P.D. Cummins, Supreme Court of Victoria
Commentary by Dr Margaret Lush, psychiatrist, Melbourne
O! that way madness lies;
let me shun that;
No more of that
(King Lear, III. 4.21-22)
The copy of this speech is available here Shakespeare and Madness
Was Hamlet inept or mad? Was Lady Macbeth evil or mad? Do Shakespeare's dream sequences presage by three centuries Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams (1900)? These issues of literature, psychiatry and humanity will be explored in this session by Justice Cummins and Dr Lush. The review will consider Shakespeare's four great tragedies' Hamlet (1600), Othello (1604), Macbeth (1606) and King Lear (1606) in the light of modern psychiatric knowledge.