Search
This area does not yet contain any content.
Justinian News

Balkan intrigues ... Old coppers stagger into the Croatian Six inquiry ... 15-year jail terms in 1980 for alleged terrorism ... Miscarriage of justice under review ... Verballing ... Loading-up ... Old fashioned detective "work" ... Evidence so far ... Hamish McDonald reports ... Read more >> 

Politics Media Law Society


Cohn Man ... The ghost of Roy Cohn and the remaking of politics … Cancelling The Apprentice … Anticipatory obedience … NACC Major General’s partially apprehended … Stickler for rectitude … Meretricious sexual services ... Read on ... 

This area does not yet contain any content.
Free Newsletter
Justinian Columnists

Blue sky litigation ... Another costly Lehrmann decision ... One more spin on the never-never ... Arguable appeal discovered in the bowels of the Gazette of Law & Journalism ... Odious litigants ... Could Lee J have got it wrong on the meaning of rape? ... Calpurnia reports from the Defamatorium ... Read more >> 

Blow the whistle

 

News snips ...


Qld Bar 'n Grill announces eight new KCs for 2024 ... Details >>

Justinian's Bloggers

London Calling ... Vitamin D deficiency ... Anti-vax solicitor birched for "friendly warning" to schools ... Budget measures hit private school fee payers and their personal jets ... Robing room "humour" ... Equality and sensitivity training missing in action ... Floyd Alexander-Hunt reports from Blighty ... Read more >> 

"Calls to produce scalps publicly and promptly are unhelpful."  

Major Gen. Paul Brereton, Commissioner of the National Corruption Concealment Commission, defending his secretive and snail paced agenda ... Speaking in Adelaide at a Public Sector Governance Forum ... November 15, 2024  ... Read more flatulence ... 


Justinian Featurettes

Vale Percy Allan AM ... Obit for friend and fellow-traveller ... Prolific writer on economics and politics ... Public finance guru ... Technocrat with humanity and broad interests ... Theatre ... Animals ... Art ... Read more ... 


Justinian's archive

A triumph for Victorian morality ... Ashton v Pratt ... In the sack with Dick Pratt ... Meretricious sexual services renders contract void on public policy grounds ... Justice Paul Brereton applies curious moral standard ... A whiff of hypocrisy ... Doubtful finding ... Artemus Jones reporting ... From Justinian's Archive, January 24, 2012 ... Who knew the NACC commissioner had strong views on the sanctity of marriage ... Read more ... 


 

 

« Rewriting history | Main | Dot gets bored and has a facial »
Wednesday
Mar232011

PLN's (r)evolutionary possibilities

The revolution is here ... Monash Uni law students are laying the groundwork for unleashing fresh generations of lefty lawyers ... Last weekend saw the first networking opportunity sponsored by the Progressive Law Network ... Eager beavers munching on vegan food and talking the talk ... Peach Melba blogs from Yarraside

The People's Republic of Victoria hosted the inaugural Progressive Law Network conference last Saturday (March 19), with 120 students, academics and practitioners gathering at Monash Chambers in Melbourne.

The PLN is an initiative of students from the concrete jungle in Clayton.

It's no real surprise: Monash has regularly and effectively overcome its inferiority complex towards its sandstone colleague in Parkville by positioning itself as the more natural home of human rights thinking and legal dynamism in Melbourne.

The speakers' list was a kind of who's who of progressive lawyering in the country, including Julian Burnside QC, Professor Ian Lowe, Senator Elect Larissa Waters and Brian Walters SC.

With Adam Bandt MP giving the keynote address, it was probably only a couple short of a quorate meeting of the Greens National Executive.

Between chewing on vegan snacks in the breaks, the conference covered issues relating to asylum seekers, the environment, gender and legal issues facing  Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

Bandt: procedural rights are not sufficientBandt was in fine form, giving an eloquent history of the rule of law and, interestingly, a somewhat equivocal defence of it. 

He navigated the erosion of rights though the latter half of the 20th century, from something substantive to something procedural.

Examples included the right to adequate housing becoming the right to not be evicted improperly; or the right to a pension becoming the right to manage one's superannuation.

Procedural rights, according to Bandt, are insufficient to create a just and equal society.

Burnside generated the usual, and not wholly undeserved, adoration.

However, the standout speaker of the day was Dr Bronwyn Naylor from Monash uni, who explained her theories about alternative access to justice for victims of rape.

Dr Naylor found herself repeatedly awaiting the outcomes of criminal justice reforms and being unimpressed by the consistent failure of reform to assist victims to find justice.

Naylor: standoutConsequently, her approach is pragmatic, but creative and gutsy, proposing alternatives such as conferencing, which has been tried in other jurisdictions with some significant success.

The event was dominated by students, to say the least, and it may take time for the profession to properly engage with this network.

It represents a refreshing approach to the notion of using the law for social justice objectives, which has often focused on legal education, rather than practice.

It also gave your blogger a warm feeling about Generation Y and its robust determination to "keep at it" - a refrain repeated in a naïve and charming way. The speakers couldn't seem to help themselves as they looked into a crowd of eager, twenty-something smiles.

There's a bold declaration on PLN's website that "the Legal (r)Evolution is clearly underway".

From Peach Melba, Yarraside

References (1)

References allow you to track sources for this article, as well as articles that were written in response to this article.
  • Response
    PLN's (r)evolutionary possibilities - Bloggers - Justinian: Australian legal magazine. News on lawyers and the law

Reader Comments

There are no comments for this journal entry. To create a new comment, use the form below.
Member Account Required
You must have a member account on this website in order to post comments. Log in to your account to enable posting.