Legal: Media Library!

[elysepopplewell]

Perhaps this "mega lot" for sale might be interesting to Shelter Law students? It might not directly relate to the syllabus, but I think it's really interesting!

http://www.domain.com.au/news/mega-lot-of-90-castle-hill-homes-is-so-big-its-almost-unsellable-20160803-gqjn1k/

[Essej]

Perhaps this "mega lot" for sale might be interesting to Shelter Law students? It might not directly relate to the syllabus, but I think it's really interesting!

http://www.domain.com.au/news/mega-lot-of-90-castle-hill-homes-is-so-big-its-almost-unsellable-20160803-gqjn1k/

It actually ties in really well with the contemporary issue of Affordability! Rental prices have already been increasing 2x inflation and the selling of these 'mega lots' and already prevalent property investment (and presence of negative gearing) just further prevent 'justice' and 'equality' for those low income earners - as the high cost of developers purchasing lots gets passed on to home buyers.

I found this quote particularly useful:

“The larger the site gets the smaller the developer pool gets … when you’re looking at a site that has 90 homes and will potentially cost a few hundred million, you are reducing the potential amount of buyers,” - managing director of CBRE Western Sydney Frank Oliveri

Thanks for finding this!

[elysepopplewell]

It actually ties in really well with the contemporary issue of Affordability! Rental prices have already been increasing 2x inflation and the selling of these 'mega lots' and already prevalent property investment (and presence of negative gearing) just further prevent 'justice' and 'equality' for those low income earners - as the high cost of developers purchasing lots gets passed on to home buyers.

I found this quote particularly useful:

“The larger the site gets the smaller the developer pool gets … when you’re looking at a site that has 90 homes and will potentially cost a few hundred million, you are reducing the potential amount of buyers,” - managing director of CBRE Western Sydney Frank Oliveri

Thanks for finding this!

Super glad this helped! I'll keep my eyes peeled for more on property laws and issues. I tend to not read them when I read the news because that stuff goes waaaay over my head (negative gearing, anyone?). But I'll take a closer look now! If I see enough stuff, I'll create a new thread for shelter developments

[elysepopplewell]

Hi all! A lot of people expressed to me at the lectures that they don't like reading the news, they find it difficult to read the news, etc. I think I have found the answer to your problems. I recommended downloading the BuzzFeed news app. It sends you a push notification for the most breaking news, so you don't have to go into the app, but it just comes up on your screen. Then you can click into it if you want more! I've been updating the recent legal development threads on ATAR Notes regularly too. But I think that nothing compares to the app: Quartz. Quartz is an app where you text a robot (who is highly responsive and sends cute animal gifs), and they deliver you the news headlines and you have the choice to pass through the headlines, or click into something to read. So in a matter of ten seconds, you can have the top ten headlines sent through to you, and you can click "pass" or look into it more. When you wake up in the morning, you roll over and check facebook. Now you roll over, check facebook, then text Quartz through their app and get the overnight headlines sent to you. And THAT is how you stay on top of the news. (The app is free!)

[elysepopplewell]

Attached is an example of the thrilling chat I had with Quartz

[pughg16]

These articles are awesome thanks!!!
Do you know of any media articles for consumers?? Also workplace....these are two really rarely done options I know!!! 

[elysepopplewell]

These articles are awesome thanks!!!
Do you know of any media articles for consumers?? Also workplace....these are two really rarely done options I know!!! 

I'm not super certain of where these would fit with the syllabus, but I've found these:
Majority of supermarket suppliers signed up to code: ACCC
Ashley Madison in breach of Australian privacy laws at time of hack, watchdogs say (This was actually interesting to read!)
The personal details Facebook uses to target ads to you (also interesting, I've looked at this kind of thing at Uni (not from a consumer perspective) and its super interesting - but I can't guarantee it suits the consumer law syllabus. Possibly good for the "technology" contemporary issue)
EasyMeals admits it misled consumers with diabetes and free meal claims

Here's the tab for the consumer affairs section of the Sydney Morning Herald: http://www.smh.com.au/business/consumer-affairs

Here's the tab for workplace: http://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace-relations
I just went through the workplace tab but everything seems pretty interesting to me (I have a bit of a workplace fascination lately) but I can't guarantee what's relevant to the syllabus. So have a quick look over it

[Lauradf36]

Recently read this article - an interesting perspective on lockout laws!
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/majority-back-broader-lockout-laws-across-the-state-20160828-gr31t9.html

[elysepopplewell]

Recently read this article - an interesting perspective on lockout laws!
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/majority-back-broader-lockout-laws-across-the-state-20160828-gr31t9.html

Good find! I think it is surprising that 60% of voters are in support of the lock out laws, yet two/three years since their introduction, there are still protests 10,000+ people strong! The little interactive graph thing on there is a great tool too. Substantially more men oppose lock out laws to women. Good find Laura!

[elysepopplewell]

This case is hardly relevant to the course because it is an American case, but I think it's always good to compare the system here to overseas in order to make an informed judgement on the effectiveness of our system. This is a distressing case - and the sentencing is most peculiar.

What are your thoughts?

http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/news-and-views/news-features/two-fathers-raped-their-daughters-one-was-sentenced-for-life-the-other-for-60-days-20161024-gs9osu.html

[elysepopplewell]

I think this SMH article is great for talking about evidence and juries - This article has links to a few great case studies as well as other good resources. Definitely worth a read!

[caninesandy]

Extended Joint Criminal Enterprise - doesn’t require the same level of proof and is therefore controversial [Common law]
“two or more people agree to commit a crime such as an assault and one member of that group commits a more serious crime such as murder, the other parties to the original agreement can be guilty of murder if they foresaw the possibility that the more serious crime would occur.”
FOR → “allows for a prosecution to achieve a conviction”, to DETER participation of group crime activities (“hoped” such as “assaults”).
AGAINST → prosecution need only to “make an argument for the conviction of individuals for a particular crime, in this case murder, even without having to establish against them that they had been responsible for the acts causing death, or indeed they had the mens rea for the crime of murder.”
Secondary participants has less mens rea than Primary
Prove “foresight” not intent
“Foresight is not the same as intent”

I'm not sure where you could use this but maybe in Crime somewhere (?)

[jamonwindeyer]

Extended Joint Criminal Enterprise - doesn’t require the same level of proof and is therefore controversial [Common law]
...
I'm not sure where you could use this but maybe in Crime somewhere (?)

Awesome find caninesandy!! Thanks for sharing! Not long till the exam now 

[isaacdelatorre]

Hey guys, hope all you legal eagles are ready to get back into study
Here is an article titled 'Sniffer Dogs: False Positive and Limits to Police Power' by Sydney Criminal Lawyers (give a bit of variety as opposed to everything being from SMH, the guardian etc) outlining the issues with sniffer dogs.

This could be particularly useful for the dot point gathering evidence in the investigation process of Crime and especially to help reinforce Darby v DPP 2004.

This article also references the NSW Ombudsman “Review of the Police Powers (Drug Detection Dogs) Act 2001” which you can also use in an essay to show criticism of the current evidence gathering procedures.

Interesting points that you can quote in an essay include:
These dogs were introduced ... to catch drug suppliers, but have failed dismally to meet their stated objective ... led to tens of thousands of innocent people being subjected to invasive searches, while failing to deter drug dealers or users.

Government statistics suggest that more than two out of every three searches are ‘false positives’ – where the dog indicates the presence of drugs but none are found.

2007 – 2013
Searches: 103,476
Drugs found: 33,105
Accuracy: 32%

Hope this helps

[rodero]

Hi,

For police powers, i'm not sure if this has been said yet as I was just skimming over responses, but I think the Roberto Curti Case is good looking into rising tension within society
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/police-used-excessive-unnecessary-unlawful-force-on-brazilian-student-roberto-curti-court-hears-20141117-11o3tr.html

For bail, the Steven Fesus case links well with balancing rights of offenders, victims and society as the media article (http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/steve-fesus-bail-reasons-revealed-by-judge-following-outcry-20140618-zsd6d.html) shows a lot of conflicting perspectives. In particular, Ken Marslew states "Imagine having lost a loved one and then seeing the person accused of their murder out on bail, walking freely. It's a slap in the face to anyone who has lost a loved one in those circumstances.''

For partial defences such as provocation, Insight's episode 'Provoked' features Phil Cleary, who says "If you're gonna argue that provocation is based on a woman allegedly having an affair, women are dead women walking". This episode was in response to the case R v Singh.

I hope these help