The post-legal society

Reinventing the Constitution ... New war crime propped up by discredited 1818 case ... Pentagon stacks military commission review court ... Rogue circuit court circumvents habeas for Guantanameros ... CIA homicides investigated by grand jury ... Our Man in Washington reports 

Click to read more ...

Dear Fink

Chris Judd, Nick Maxwell and Matthew Boyd get out their laptops and send Justice Finkelstein tributes on the eve of his retirement from the Federal Court ... Melbourne's AFL culture recognises no boundaries

Click to read more ...

Onwards and upwards for Pigs Arse

Spellbinding newspaper interview with the former lion of Melbourne, business, politics and football, John Elliott ... Barry Lane does his best to fill in some gaps in the story ... The prosecution over the Elders' bonds issue ... Water Wheel's insolvent trading ... The unhappy creditors ... A peep in the rear-view mirror 

Click to read more ...

Hong Kong's housing bubble

Percy Lo-Kit Chan bemoans that living space is at an absolute premium in Hong Kong and vastly expensive ... Now there is a clamp down on "illegal structures" that will create even more of a squeeze ... Percy has some housing and tax advice for young Australian lawyers coming to HK for a stint

Click to read more ...

There but for fortune

ACT Supremes still drowsy ... AG Smith singing at Silverwater ... Queen's gongs for lawyers ... Littlemore's new hero - "ugly, irascible, intolerant, clever" ... Clutz' document retention policy thriving ... Minimalist welcome from the bar for Ashley Black ... The Rudds turn up at Spigs last admission ceremony

Click to read more ...

The bias in favour of complexity

Legal complexity and reasonable fees: can they co-exist? ... Tulkinghorn examines the notion that in order for trials to be fair, they have to be complicated ... When you hear lawyers and legislators proclaiming the virtues of plain English and simplification - don't believe them

Click to read more ...

The vulture flies to Beijing

Rule of law in Hong Kong rudely shaken ... Sovereign debt case sent by Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal to National People's Congress for resolution ... Legal system on the mainland still an adjunct of the government ... Percy Lo-Kit Chan reports

Click to read more ...

Sinking of the Voyager survivors

Lawyer hollows out Voyager compo awards ... Receiver's costs balloon as Vic Supremes and LSB chew-up victims' proceeds ... Tom Westbrook reports on the latest twists in the David Forster case

Click to read more ...

Trilby in Misso soup

Saga of the struck-off Townsville solicitor ... Client sold to Trilby Misso, who smartly dumps and overcharges the hapless punter ... Press releases fly as law chain sent to the stipes for investigation ... "Because we care" ... Sir Terence O'Rort reports 

Click to read more ...

God botherers' picnic

A few bars of Danny Boy from the attorney general would be a treat for the Anglo lawyers brekka ... Sharp right turn for law and justice policies in NSW ... Greg Smith over-eggs his mandatory sentencing rhetoric ... Polly Peck reports

Click to read more ...

It's all a terrible misunderstanding

Star of TV documentary in disciplinary drama of her own ... Bar council's complaint against criminal defence barrister's "clumsy and ambiguous" email to colleagues dismissed by ADT ... Costs awarded for double jeopardy and oppression

Click to read more ...

Hart breaker

Barrister with innovative drink-driving practice struck from the jam roll after impressive list of priors ... Lapses going back to 2006 finally catch-up with forum shopper

Click to read more ...

Changing the guard

The Queens Square Lubyanka saw a beefy turnout and a smooth transition as the orb and sceptre were passed from Spigelman to Bathurst ... The lack of fine oratory was compensated for by lavish basting ... Picture gallery

Click to read more ...

Unvarnished pollies

Lord Chancellor's grief over rape law reform ... Boris Johnson on Aristotle, Marilyn Monroe, Scarlett Johansson and Mrs Johnson ... Leverhulme in London on a couple of pollies who tell it like it is

Click to read more ...

Pensioner notes

Updated on Tuesday, May 31, 2011 by Justinian

Path cleared should Nicholas Cowdery want to become a judge ... Chief Magistrate wins pension jackpot ... Tiny amendments with big consequences ... Judges' associate Ginger Snatch reports

Click to read more ...

Private prisons require quality inmates

What, not more selective reporting by The Australian ... This time the economics editor extols the virtues of private prison operator Serco ... Cherry picking prisoners can result in glowing outcomes ... Barry Lane in Melbourne asks, why should the state pay for a private operator to make a profit, when the taxpayer has to pick-up all the tab?

Click to read more ...

Bulletin from Abbottobad

Navy SEALs insensitive about court protocol ... Disney moves quickly ... Debate still raging about Osama and the rule of law ... "High Value Detainees ... Unprivileged Belligerents ... Enemy Combatants" and other odd creatures from the make-it-up-as-you-go-along Law of War ... Roger Fitch from the front line in Washington

Click to read more ...

Carr and Brandis talk constitutional talk

New constitutional reform unit at Uni of Sydney ... Indigenous recognition, the role of state governments, and local government all on the agenda ... Constitutional trogs Bob Carr and George Brandis part of the launch line-up ... Our man with a notebook was there for the ribbon-cutting

Click to read more ...

Some priors are more meaningful than others

Judicial blindfold firmly in place when Vic Appeals fiddled with the sentence of expelled Hells Angel ... When is a prior conviction not a prior conviction? ... Barry Lane investigates

Click to read more ...

Anyone for tennis?

Update ... Baffo bounds onto centre court ... Despite the plaudits, Tom Bathurst remains a mystery man ... An able barrister without much on the record ... The right noises about "access to justice", but who thinks anything interesting will happen? ... Some morsels about NSW's incoming chief justice

Click to read more ...