The civil and family law needs of Indigenous people in Victoria

This report identifies the most pressing legal needs of Indigenous Victorians, which involve housing, discrimination and debt.The report presents key findings and recommendations of research conducted in 2012- 2013 by the Indigenous Legal Needs Project (ILNP) in Victoria. The ILNP is a national project. Its aims are to:identify and analyse the legal needs of Indigenous communities in non-criminal areas of law (including discrimination, housing and tenancy, child protection, employment, credit and debt, wills and estates, and consumer-related matters); and provide an understanding of how legal service delivery might work more effectively to address identified civil and family law needs of Indigenous communities. ILNP research is intended to benefit Indigenous people by improving access to civil and family law justice

The Civil and Family Law Needs of Indigenous People in Queensland

Background: This report presents key findings and recommendations of research conducted in 2011 - 2014 by the Indigenous Legal Needs Project (ILNP) in Queensland. 1 The ILNP is a national project, which aims to: • identify and analyse the legal needs of Indigenous communities in non - criminal areas of law (including discrimination, housing and tenancy, child protection, employment, credit and debt, wills and estates, and consumer - related matters); and • provide an understanding of how legal service delivery might work more effectively to address identified civil and family law needs of Indigenous communities. ILNP research is intended to benefit Indigenous people by improving access to civil and family law justice. Methodology: The Queensland research is based on focus groups held with Indigenous participants and interviews with legal and related stakeholders in eight communities. The communities selected were Brisbane, Cairns, Charleville, Mount Isa, Pormpuraaw, Rockhampton, Roma and Thursday Island. These reflect urban, regional and rural communities. Sixteen focus groups were held with a total of 152 Indigenous community members in the se eight communities. Separate women and men's focus groups were conducted in each community. Female participants comprised 53.9% of the total and males 46.1%. Focus group participants completed a questionnaire (see Appendix A), which covered issues including housing and tenancy, neighbourhood disputes, wills and intestacy, victims' compensation, stolen generations and Stolen Wages, employment, social security, family matters, discrimination, accident and injury, education, credit and debt, consumer issues and taxation. Some civil law issues not identified in the questionnaire also arose in focus group discussions and in stake holder interviews (see Section 4.14 of the Report). Over 60 stakeholder organisations servicing or working within the nominated Queensland communities were interviewed to explore the experiences, perspectives and understandings of those providing legal or related services. A full list of stakeholders interviewed in Queensland can be found in Appendix B of the Report

Justice reinvestment

[Extract] What is Justice Reinvestment? Justice Reinvestment is a strategy for reducing the number of people in the prison system by investing funds drawn from the corrections budget into communities that produce large numbers of prisoners. The term was coined in 2003 in the United States of America (Tucker & Cadora 2003) with the idea of redirecting a portion of the $54 billion the United States of America spent on prisons into addressing the underlying causes of crime in high-incarceration neighbourhoods

The Civil and Family Law Needs of Indigenous People in Queensland

Background: This report presents key findings and recommendations of research conducted in 2011 - 2014 by the Indigenous Legal Needs Project (ILNP) in Queensland. 1 The ILNP is a national project, which aims to: • identify and analyse the legal needs of Indigenous communities in non - criminal areas of law (including discrimination, housing and tenancy, child protection, employment, credit and debt, wills and estates, and consumer - related matters); and • provide an understanding of how legal service delivery might work more effectively to address identified civil and family law needs of Indigenous communities. ILNP research is intended to benefit Indigenous people by improving access to civil and family law justice. Methodology: The Queensland research is based on focus groups held with Indigenous participants and interviews with legal and related stakeholders in eight communities. The communities selected were Brisbane, Cairns, Charleville, Mount Isa, Pormpuraaw, Rockhampton, Roma and Thursday Island. These reflect urban, regional and rural communities. Sixteen focus groups were held with a total of 152 Indigenous community members in the se eight communities. Separate women and men's focus groups were conducted in each community. Female participants comprised 53.9% of the total and males 46.1%. Focus group participants completed a questionnaire (see Appendix A), which covered issues including housing and tenancy, neighbourhood disputes, wills and intestacy, victims' compensation, stolen generations and Stolen Wages, employment, social security, family matters, discrimination, accident and injury, education, credit and debt, consumer issues and taxation. Some civil law issues not identified in the questionnaire also arose in focus group discussions and in stake holder interviews (see Section 4.14 of the Report). Over 60 stakeholder organisations servicing or working within the nominated Queensland communities were interviewed to explore the experiences, perspectives and understandings of those providing legal or related services. A full list of stakeholders interviewed in Queensland can be found in Appendix B of the Report

Regulatory Takings in Canada

Canadian law lacks a robust “regulatory takings” doctrine, a phenomenon partially explained by Canada’s unique constitutional backdrop. Some Canadian provinces have statutes that provide greater protection for certain property rights. Canada also has international trade obligations that require it to protect foreign investors’ property rights. The only indirect recognition and remuneration of regulatory takings is encompassed in a longstanding interpretive presumption in favor of compensation in situations involving expropriation. Yet, despite all of these safeguards to protect property rights from regulatory takings and despite recent developments in regulatory takings jurisprudence, property rights receive minimal protection under Canadian law

Justice Reinvestment: winding back imprisonment

Justice reinvestment was introduced as a response to mass incarceration and racial disparity in the United States in 2003. This book examines justice reinvestment from its origins, its potential as a mechanism for winding back imprisonment rates, and its portability to Australia, the United Kingdom and beyond. The authors analyze the principles and processes of justice reinvestment, including the early neighborhood focus on 'million dollar blocks'. They further scrutinize the claims of evidence-based and data-driven policy, which have been used in the practical implementation strategies featured in bipartisan legislative criminal justice system reforms. This book takes a comparative approach to justice reinvestment by examining the differences in political, legal and cultural contexts between the United States and Australia in particular. It argues for a community-driven approach, originating in vulnerable Indigenous communities with high imprisonment rates, as part of a more general movement for Indigenous democracy. While supporting a social justice approach, the book confronts significantly the problematic features of the politics of locality and community, the process of criminal justice policy transfer, and rationalist conceptions of policy. It will be essential reading for scholars, students and practitioners of criminal justice and criminal law

Judicial Impartiality and Independence in Divided Societies: An Empirical Analysis of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina

©2016 Law and Society Association The role of constitutional courts in deeply divided societies is complicated by the danger that the salient societal cleavages may influence judicial decision-making and, consequently, undermine judicial impartiality and independence. With reference to the decisions of the Constitutional Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina, this article investigates the influence of ethno-national affiliation on judicial behaviour and the extent to which variation in judicial tenure amplifies or dampens that influence. Based on a statistical analysis of an original dataset of the Court's decisions, we find that the judges do in fact divide predictably along ethno-national lines, at least in certain types of cases, and that these divisions cannot be reduced to a residual loyalty to their appointing political parties. Contrary to some theoretical expectations, however, we find that long-term tenure does little to dampen the influence of ethno-national affiliation on judicial behaviour. Moreover, our findings suggest that this influence may actually increase as a judge acclimates to the dynamics of a divided court. We conclude by considering how alternative arrangements for the selection and tenure of judges might help to ameliorate this problem.postprin

On The Systematic Development and Evaluation Of Password Security Awareness-Raising Materials

Text passwords play an important role in protecting the assets of organisations. Thus, it is of the essence, that employees are well aware of possible attacks and defences. To that end, we developed a password security awareness-raising material in a systematic iterative process: The material is based on the literature on password security, feedback of independent experts, and feedback of lay-users. It was evaluated in the field with employees of three organisations. Our results show that the participating employees improved their abilities to (1) discern secure from insecure password-related behaviour in a variety of scenarios relating to different attacks and (2) assess passwords as secure or insecure. These improved abilities of the participants were still present in a retention after six months. Thus, the developed awareness-raising material contributes to improving the password-related security in organisations

Treatment of Craniofacial Problems With Stem Cells in Dentistry

To focus on regenerative capabilities and self-renewal abilities of stem cells on bone and tissue regeneratio