It just doesn't ADD Up: ADHD/ADD, the Workplace and Discrimination

Standard workplace conditions that are commonly perceived as neutral and reasonable can discriminate against people who find conforming to them difficult or impossible because of innate differences in neuronal and cognitive functioning. We use the example of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder to show that, for people with cognitive differences, it is necessary to seek legal protection from discrimination within a disability framework. This approach can be problematic because of the stigma that attaches to disability and because of the way that provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (Cth) are interpreted. An alternative approach is to treat cognitive and behavioural attributes within a framework that recognises different abilities, rather than starting from a presumptive position of disability, in much the same way that gender or religious beliefs are treated

MEDIA REPORTAGE OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT: THE (IN)CREDIBLE COMPLAINANT

Studies of court and conciliation decisions about credible complainants and legitimate sexual harassment. In determining what is reasonable and indeed in assessing whether behavior was sexual and unwelcome and resulted in humiliation, it is often the complainant’s identity, history and behaviour that are scrutinised and evaluated by conciliators and judicial officers. Youth can enhance credibility if the alleged harasser is older. Also, credible victims fight back, report immediately, are consistent in their evidence, are able to particularise and testify either in a non- aggressive and not too ‘smart’ manner or make an argumentative presentation coupled with confidence. Judicial commentary about the complainant’s relationships, dress and attitudes to sexuality is a chilling echo of Catharine MacKinnon’s 1979 observation that sexual harassment was often dismissed as “trivial, isolated, and ‘personal,’ or as universal ‘natural’ or ‘biological’ behaviours…

Australia’s National Anti-Bullying Jurisdiction: Paper Tiger or Velvet Glove

Australia’s innovative national anti-bullying legislation came into effect on 1 January 2014, against a backdrop of fear and resistance on the part of some conservative politicians and other stakeholder opponents. This paper contributes to an understanding of the efficacy and value of this fledgling jurisdiction or its lack thereof. In it, we describe the beginnings of the anti-bullying regime, outline the new legislative provisions, explore whether the inaction of the first six months has continued, examine the statistics arising from the jurisdiction’s first 15 months of operation, and review the case law development over its first 18 months. We ask whether the anti-bullying jurisdiction is proving to be a paper tiger in an empty suit or iron fist in a velvet glove

Equal Consideration and Informed Imagining: Recognising and Responding to the Lived Experiences of Abused Women Who Kill

Equality is a fundamental concern of human existence. Expressed in the principle of equality before the law it requires that those who come before the law are entitled to be treated as being of equal value and to be given ‘equal consideration’. In circumstances where those who come before the law are marked by their differences, giving of equal consideration requires that difference be understood and taken into account. The identification of difference does not of itself determine the question of whether different treatment is warranted in the interests of equality. However, this article argues that understanding difference is a precondition for the promotion of true equality and that, in pursuit of understanding difference, it is necessary for us to acknowledge the limitations of our capacity to understand the lived experience of ‘others’ and to actively work to engage with these experiences. In the context of the criminal justice system, we offer abused women who kill as illustrative of this need, focusing upon the availability and operation of self-defence in England/Wales, Queensland and Victoria. In doing so, we consider the capacity of the law, legal process and legal actors to engage with the lived experiences of these women, highlighting the importance of ‘informed imagining’

Mother, Monster, Mrs, I:A critical evaluation of gendered naming strategies in English sentencing remarks of women who kill

In this article, we take a novel approach to analysing English sentencing remarks in cases of women who kill. We apply computational, quantitative, and qualitative methods from corpus linguistics to analyse recurrent patterns in a collection of English Crown Court sentencing remarks from 2012 to 2015, where a female defendant was convicted of a homicide offence. We detail the ways in which women who kill are referred to by judges in the sentencing remarks, providing frequency information on pronominal, nominative, and categorising naming strategies. In discussion of the various patterns of preference both across and within these categories (e.g. pronoun vs. nomination, title + surname vs. forename + surname), we remark upon the identities constructed through the references provided. In so doing, we: (1) quantify the extent to which members of the judiciary invoke patriarchal values and gender stereotypes within their sentencing remarks to construct female defendants, and (2) identify particular identities and narratives that emerge within sentencing remarks for women who kill. We find that judges refer to women who kill in a number of ways that systematically create dichotomous narratives of degraded victims or dehumanised monsters. We also identify marked absences in naming strategies, notably: physical identification normally associated with narrativization of women’s experiences; and the first person pronoun, reflecting omissions of women’s own voices and narratives of their lived experiences in the courtroom

Spouse Sponsorship Policies: Focus on Serial Sponsors

Australian citizens or permanent residents can sponsor a spouse or prospective spouse for immigration, and concerns have been raised particularly in regards to serial or repeat sponsorship and the rights to safety for sponsored partners who are victims of domestic violence. There has been little research to date though on this type of family migration. By bringing together immigration statistics and policies from current national and international literature, this paper provides a more nuanced portrayal of patterns of spouse sponsorship and the potential problems of serial sponsorship and protection of those sponsored from intimate partner violence (IPV). We identify the limitation of the existing immigration policy and law for protecting the right of sponsored spouses who are mainly women. Some recommendations to better support these sponsored people are also explored