Australian democracy and priveleged parliamentary speech

The definitive version is available at www.blackwell-synergy.comThis article responds to recent cases of parliamentary speech which reflect the ascendancy of a totalising ‘mainstream’ approach to public discourse and a political leadership that may, at times, be overly attentive to the majority-rule dimension of democracy. These developments spark a more general discussion of the phenomenology of privileged parliamentary speech, the role of speech freedoms in liberal democratic orders and the duties of parliamentary representatives within them. I make two general conclusions. First, the ways in which we normally argue and think about free speech will not generally apply to the speech of parliamentarians because their speech rights cannot be universalised. Secondly, even if parliamentary speech could be treated as standard speech there would be no legitimate defence (from a liberal democratic point of view) for a strictly populist approach to its use since this could undermine the deliberative function of parliament and lead to the violation of other important liberal democratic principles.Lisa Hil

Why Naturalisation?

This article focuses on the linkage between institutional and normative dimensions of 'Europeanisation' and examines the UK Government White Paper, entitled 'Secure Borders, Safe Haven' (Home Office, 2002). The article reviews the migration policy under the Blair government. It argues that all existing forms of definitions derived from naturalisation remain too national-statist orientated and therefore are limited in addressing the new challenges which are needed to transcend the nationality model of citizenship. The author suggests, based on the examination of naturalisation laws throughout the EU generally and particularly in Britain, an automatic civic registration, conditioned on domicile and the absence of criminal convictions only. The article illustrates how naturalisation laws, however evolutionary, place too much emphasis on social cohesion which they equate with belonging and citizenship - thus overlooking the fact that sense of belonging develops with inclusion in society rather than by declarations or language proficiency tests