Rights and Responsibilities of Conscientious Objectors under the Abortion Law Reform Act 2008 (Vic)

The landmark Abortion Law Reform Act 2008 (Vic), which came into force on 23 October 2008, has decriminalised abortion in Victoria. A woman’s informed consent is now the only requirement for a termination of pregnancy up to 24 weeks gestation. After 24 weeks, two medical practitioners must determine that a termination is appropriate in all the circumstances. While this provides health practitioners who perform abortions through either medical or surgical means with the clarity and security they have long sought, health practitioners who object to abortion on grounds of conscience are now in unchartered legal territory. When requested by a patient or client to provide advice on or perform an abortion, s8 of the new Act imposes certain obligations on registered health practitioners who object to abortion on grounds of conscience. The provision has sparked considerable disquiet among Catholic health practitioners and other ‘doctors of conscience’. Critics of the clause claim that, far from protecting the right to freedom of conscience, the clause in effect violates that right. This paper analyses the relevant clause – s8 of the Abortion Law Reform Act – and tests the claim that it infringes the human rights of health practitioners who object to abortion by compelling them to act against their conscience. It argues that the obligations created do not unduly infringe on freedom of conscience because practitioners are able to take simple steps to prevent the obligations arising.This conference has been generously sponsored by the School of Social and Political Sciences and the Sydney Law School, University of Sydney, in collaboration with the School of Law, University of Western Sydne

Making good law: research and law reform

Research plays an integral role in law-making processes. But could academic research be applied more strategically to improve the processes and outcomes of law reform

Postgraduate essentials: an online transition program for commencing PhD students

Postgraduate Essentials is the first online interactive course in Australia designed to build an inclusive postgraduate learning community while delivering integrated candidature information, transition advice and academic skills support to students in their first year of PhD candidature. In content and focus, Postgraduate Essentials aims to complement and enhance traditional research supervision to ensure that an increasingly diverse student population has access to information, skills support and an active peer-network. It does this by facilitating new PhD students' transition to a research environment and their membership of the postgraduate student community, and by providing support to develop the academic and professional skills that underpin successful completion of common first year PhD requirements. This paper reflects on the experiences of the Language and Academic Skills (LAS) advisers on the Postgraduate Essentials project team, and on students' participation in and evaluations of the program in 2004. We focus on the unexpectedly high enrolment of on-campus students who already have access to face-to-face academic skills programs. We observe that student expectations regarding levels and modes of academic skills support, coupled with the resource-intensive nature of multimedia development, create additional demands on LAS advisers' time, skills and resources. For projects such as Postgraduate Essentials to be sustainable, we recommend a collaborative approach that utilises the skills and expertise of key staff in different areas of teaching and support

Supporting education PhD and DEd students to become confident academic writers: an evaluation of thesis writers' circles

This paper critically evaluates the pilot of a Thesis Writers' Circles program offered to Education PhD and DEd students at the University of Melbourne in semester 2, 2005. The analysis focuses on the needs of those students that were felt to be well-met by this model of support. Broadly, the paper identifies two distinct but inter-related themes: firstly, the challenge of developing writing skills to a level sufficient to meet the demands of preparing a research thesis; secondly, the importance for research higher degree students of building confidence as apprentice academic writers. In relation to the latter theme, the paper identifies the benefits of community participation and peer-collaboration in working towards the aim of consolidating a thesis-writing identity. It is in this capacity, we argue, that thesis writers' circles have distinct advantages compared with other forms of candidature support, making them a valuable supplement to both conventional supervision practices and generic English language and thesis writing programs. The paper affirms the importance not only of equipping international and non-English speaking background (NESB) students with writing tools and strategies, but also of creating opportunities for all postgraduate research students to receive (and offer) non-judgmental feedback on work-in-progress within a discipline-specific learning and discourse community

\u27I think it\u27s rape and I think he would be found not guilty\u27: Focus group perceptions of (un)reasonable belief in consent in rape law

A legal definition of rape that exonerates an accused who \u27reasonably believes in consent\u27 is currently in force in a number of jurisdictions in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. Limited empirical research has investigated community and professional perceptions of the adequacy and scope of this definition of rape. The present study contributes to qualitative research on \u27reasonable belief in consent\u27 by analysing key themes from 11 focus group discussions with professionals working in the sexual assault sector (counsellors, health professionals, victim/survivor advocates and police officers), legally trained professionals and community members interested in rape law reform. Across these backgrounds, participants expressed dissatisfaction with this definition of rape because the scope for reasonable belief in consent was seen as overly broad. In particular, participants expected that jurors would draw on a presumption of \u27implied\u27 or \u27continuing\u27 consent between former sexual partners to find that belief in consent was \u27reasonable\u27 when the victim did not protest or resist the assault. As a result, many of our participants were critical that the rape definition effectively maintains the onus on a rape victim/survivor to unequivocally demonstrate non-consent. Participants advocated further law reform to give effect to a more \u27affirmative\u27 or communicative concept of consent