Law and Democracy: Contemporary Questions

Law and Democracy: Contemporary Questions provides a fresh understanding of law’s regulation of Australian democracy

Happiness as an objective of labour Law

While the idea of happiness at work has been recognised in other fields, there has been relatively little research into the relationship between labour law and happiness in leading law reviews. Since the 1960s there has been a noticeable increase in the study of people\u27s enjoyment at work. Much of this study engages with job characteristics including working hours, job intensification, task discretion, as well as job constraints such as stress, lack of control and work schedules. Additionally, some researchers have investigated the interaction between work and non-work (such as recreational activities and family life), while others have investigated the potential social and economic advantages resulting from happiness at work (World Database of Happiness).   While the idea of happiness at work has been recognised in other fields, there has been relatively little research into the relationship between labour law and happiness in leading law reviews.  The purpose of this paper is to explore, in a preliminary way, how happiness at work might be fostered through labour law

Law and democracy: contemporary questions

The book raises and addresses a number of contemporary questions about legal institutions, principles and practices. Overview Law and Democracy: Contemporary Questions provides a fresh understanding of law’s regulation of Australian democracy. The book enriches public law scholarship, deepening and challenging the current conceptions of law’s regulation of popular participation and legal representation. The book raises and addresses a number of contemporary questions about legal institutions, principles and practices: How should the meaning of ‘the people’ in the Australian Constitution be defined by the High Court of Australia? How do developing judicial conceptions of democracy define citizenship? What is the legal right to participate in the political community? Should political advisors to Ministers be subject to legal accountability mechanisms? What challenges do applied law schemes pose to notions of responsible government and how can they be best addressed? How can the study of the ritual of electoral politics in Australia and other common law countries supplement the standard account of democracy? How might the ritual of the pledge of Australian citizenship limit or enhance democratic participation? What is the conflict between legal restrictions of freedom of expression and democracy, and the role of social media? Examining the regulation of democracy, this book scrutinises the assumptions and scope of constitutional democracy and enhances our understanding of the frontiers of accountability and responsible government. In addition, key issues of law, culture and democracy are revealed in their socio-legal context. The book brings together emerging and established scholars and practitioners with expertise in public law. It will be of interest to those studying law, politics, cultural studies and contemporary history

Fundamental Doctrines for the Protection of Civil Liberties in the United Kingdom: A V Dicey and the Human Rights Act 1998 (UK).

C1 - Journal Articles Referee

Perspectives of legal regulation and employment relations at the workplace: limits and challenges for employee voice

This article examines how employee voice is understood by both scholars of labour law and of industrial relations. While there is a sophisticated literature on employee participation and involvement in employment relations scholarship, there is an absence of consideration of legal perspectives. The article addresses this gap in the literature by first examining how employee voice is used to explain and critique workplace practices in the dominant and emerging employment relations scholarship, and then critically considering how dominant legal theories refer to and confine understandings of employee participation. The article examines each field through its discipline, method, approach, content and limits. It concludes that the scope of these disciplines is very different, and that they might be regarded as fraternal rather than identical twins. Finally, some questions are raised about the challenges for research in developing an interdisciplinary scholarship of employee voice

Law and Democracy: Contemporary Questions

Law and Democracy: Contemporary Questions provides a fresh understanding of law’s regulation of Australian democracy

Evaluating social partnership in the Australian context

Over the past two to three decades, many western countries have pursued an employment relations (ER) agenda involving labour-management cooperation or a form of ‘partnership’; for example, the USA, Britain, Ireland and New Zealand (Ackers and Payne 1998; Kelly 2004; Johnstone et al. 2010; Macneil and Bray 2013; Cathcart 2014). Attracted by the success of partnership practices in the UK, Australian academics and policy- makers have previously investigated the viability of partnership models in the Australian context, both conceptually (Lansbury 2000; Gollan and Patmore 2006; Townsend et al. 2013) and through empirical case studies (Mitchell and O’Donnell 2007; Jones et al. 2008). Yet little research has specifi cally examined the role of current industrial relations practices in promoting workplace partnerships within both union and non-union settings in Australia. Th is chapter will thus focus on exploring the current industrial relations and regulatory context for the support of workplace partnership practices within the political and socioeconomic environment in Australia