Speakers

• Professor Maxwell R Bennett AO
• Andrew Boe
• Julian Burnside AO QC
• Professor Roger Clark
• Judge David J Carruthers
• Dr Ian Curtis
• Dr Joao Goulao
• The Honourable Justice Martin Daubney
• Peter Davis SC
• The Honourable Paul de Jersey AC
• Honourable Cameron Dick MP
• Wayne Hall
• Justice Betty King QC
• Dr Michael King
• Professor Geraldine Mackenzie
• Chris Nyst
• Justice Philippides
• Professor Roland Sussex

Professor Maxwell R Bennett AO

Maxwell Bennett is Professor of Neuroscience and holds the first University Chair for 'research recognized internationally to be of exceptional distinction' He graduated in Electrical Engineering and did his doctoral research in Zoology at Melbourne University. He then turned to the brain sciences and was appointed to the second Personal Chair at Sydney University, after Lord May, at which time he was awarded the largest personal Centre of Research Excellence by the Australian Government. His over 300 papers are concerned with research on synaptic connections between nerve cells in the brain. This research led to the discovery that novel transmitters exist at synapses, the first to be identified in fifty years, for which he received the major award in biology and medicine in Australia, the Macfarlane Burnet Medal of the Academy of Sciences. His subsequent discovery that molecules exist at synapses which guide their reformation after nerve injury was recognized by an invitation to give the opening Plenary Lecture to the World Congress of Neuroscience in 1996. Bennett's research then showed that there are silent synapses, in which nerve terminals are physically present but do not release transmitters. This has had important implications for changes in the brain responsible for learning and memory and was followed by appointment in 2000 as an Officer in the Order of Australia (AO). Professor Bennett has written seven books concerned with the history and philosophy of the brain and mind, of which the most recent are, with his colleague Peter Hacker, Philosophical Foundations of Neuroscience, Neuroscience and Philosophy and History of Cognitive Neuroscience. These have created much interest as indicated, for example, by a recent invitation to give a talk on this subject at the United Nations in New York on the date of 9/11. Amongst the organizations he has initiated to promote science and brain research are the Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies, the main lobby group for science in Australia, the International Society for Autonomic Neuroscience, as well as Brain and Mind Research Asia/Pacific. Professor Bennett founded the Brain and Mind Research Institute seven years ago, and with the raising of over $80 million and four juxtaposed buildings, now has seventeen research professors concerned with the amelioration of diseases of the brain and mind.

Andrew Boe

Biography:
Andrew commenced practice as a barrister in 2009. Prior to that he operated his own solicitor's practice for 20 years. See www.boelawyers.com.au. He was a member of the inaugural Queensland Law Society's Criminal Law Specialist Accreditation Committee in 2005-2008 and its Criminal Law committee in 2009. His practice specialised in criminal and administrative law. He was involved in some notable cases including R v Kina CA 293 of 1993 (first recognition of the 'battered woman' defence and indigenous 'cross-cultural' communication issues); Boe v CJC, OS 319 of 1993 (review of funding of the criminal justice system); R v Milat; A-G (NSW) v Milat NSWCA 60453 of 1995; Regina v Milat 1998 NSWSC 795 (serial murders); Ettridge v DPP 2003 QCA 410; R v Hanson & Ettridge 2003 QCA 488 (political corruption, bail); KBT v The Queen (1997) 191 CLR 417 (High Court, sex offences, jury directions); Gribbin (Magistrate) v Fingleton (Chief Magistrate) [2003] 1 Qd R 698 & Cornack v Fingleton [2003] 1 Qd R 667 (judicial independence); M v State of Queensland 2003 QCA 249 (confiscation, constitutional invalidity) and the inquest and subsequent litigation that arose following a death in custody on Palm Island in 2004. In 2010, he appeared as counsel for the Doomadgee family in the re-convened inquest.

Abstract:

Palm Island - Something went wrong

On 19 November 2004 a man was found dead in a police holding cell on Palm Island in North Queensland. He had been arrested less than an hour earlier for being a 'public nuisance' by 'giving lip' to a police officer. An autopsy later revealed that he died as a result of a ruptured portal vein, and 'his spleen was almost cleaved in two' an injury more usually seen in high-speed motor vehicle collisions. The only person who could have inflicted this injury was the police officer who arrested him.

This death has had a dramatic impact upon the administration of justice. There was a riot following the initial release of information by the coroner as to the possible cause of this death - the police station and courthouse were razed to the ground - and a 'State of Emergency' was declared by the Police Commissioner. A dozen or so locals were arrested and banished from the island.
There has since been three coronial inquiries, two reviews to the Supreme Court, a Court of Appeal decision setting aside one set of coronial findings, several sentences, criminal trials in which some of the rioters were acquitted and one was convicted and another resulting in an acquittal of the police officer. A CMC examination of the police response is still pending and fresh but unrelated charges are being considered against the police officer for insurance fraud.
This session will examine some of the issues that arise in these proceedings.

Julian Burnside AO QC

Biography:

Julian Burnside is a barrister based in Melbourne. He specialises in commercial litigation. He joined the Bar in 1976 and took silk in 1989.

He acted for the Ok Tedi natives against BHP, for Alan Bond in fraud trials, for Rose Porteous in numerous actions against Gina Rinehart, and for the Maritime Union of Australia in the 1998 waterfront dispute against Patrick Stevedores. He was Senior Counsel assisting the Australian Broadcasting Authority in the "Cash for Comment" inquiry and was senior counsel for Liberty Victoria in the Tampa litigation.

He is immediate past President of Liberty Victoria, and has acted pro bono in many human rights cases, in particular concerning the treatment of refugees.
He is passionately involved in the arts. He collects contemporary paintings and sculptures and regularly commissions music. He is Chair of Fortyfive Downstairs and Chair of the Mietta Foundation.

He is the author of a book of essays on language and etymology, Wordwatching (Scribe, 2004) and Watching Brief, (Scribe, 2007) a collection of his essays and speeches about the justice system and human rights. He compiled a book of letters written by asylum seekers held in Australia's detention camps. The book, From Nothing to Zero was published in 2003 by Lonely Planet. He also wrote Matilda and the Dragon a children's book published by Allen & Unwin in 1991.
In 2004 he was elected as a Living National Treasure. In 2009 he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia.

Abstract:

Modern legislation: Taking liberties with language

Modern drafting styles present a good example of language misused. Statutes are given names which are so euphemistic as to disguise the full extent to which they intrude into th lives of citizens and the patience of judges. The use of definitions now runs riot. It used to be the case that a section headed "Interpretation" or "definitions" contained explanatory statements about a few expressions. Now we are treated to a section labelled "dictionary" which defines words in ways no self-respecting dictionary would, attributing to ordinary words meanings which vastly extend the territory covered by the legislation, giving it a scope never suspected by the subjects who will feel its sting.

Julian Burnside AO QC

Professor Roger Clark

Biography:
Roger Clark, who is a graduate of Victoria University in New Zealand and of Columbia Law School in New York, has written widely on international law, human rights and criminal law. He was a member of the United Nations Committee on Crime Prevention and Control between 1986 and 1990. In 1995 and 1996 he represented the Government of Samoa in arguing the illegality of nuclear weapons before the International Court of Justice in The Hague. Since 1995, he has represented Samoa in the negotiations to create a permanent International Criminal Court, in subsequent meetings of the Court's Special Working Group on the Crime of Aggression, and at the 2010 Review Conference on the Court in Kampala, Uganda.

Professor Clark teaches Criminal Law, International Law, Human Rights, Foreign Relations and National Security Law, and International Criminal Law.

Abstracts:

International Criminal Court Update

The International Criminal Court, created in 1998, has been up and running since 2002 and is hearing its first cases. Australia and new Zealand have been strong supporters of the Court. In May-June of this year, parties to the Rome Statute, the treaty setting up the Court, (and a number of non-parties) met in Kampala, Uganda, for the first Review Conference on the Court. The Review Conference engaged in a stocktaking of the successes and failures of the Court under the headings complementarity, cooperation, victims and affected communities, and peace and justice. There was a rich discussion of these issues. More significantly, though, the Conference was called to consider potential amendments to the Statute. Professor Clark, who represented the Government of Samoa in both Rome and Kampala, will talk about Kampala. He will address the amendments considered, notably the conclusion of the negotiations to bring into force the Court's notional jurisdiction over the crime of aggression. He will also address issues that were considered relating to forbidden weapons in non-international armed conflict.

Amendments to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court Considered at the first Review Conference on the Court, Kampala, 31 May-11 June 2010

The first Review Conference on the International Criminal Court had three items on its agenda proposing amendments to the Rome Statute. The proposal to delete Article 124 of the Statute (which permits States to opt out of the war crimes provisions of the Statute for seven years) failed. Proposals for a comprehensive set of provisions facilitating the Court's exercise of its jurisdiction over the crime of aggression were adopted. The existing provisions on weapons that are banned in international armed conflict were incorporated also into the part of the Statute dealing with non-international armed conflicts.

Judge David J Carruthers

Born and raised in Pahiatua, David Carruthers graduated in 1962 from Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, with an LLB and completed his LLM (Hons) in 1964.

Judge Carruthers practised in Wellington before returning to practice law in his home town of Pahiatua. A move to Palmerston North and his own practice preceded this by being appointed a Family Court Judge and Youth Court Judge in Wellington in 1985. In 1995 Judge Carruthers was appointed Principal Youth Court Judge and in 2001 he was appointed as Chief District Court Judge, a position he held until his retirement in 2005. Presently Judge Carruthers is the Chairman of the New Zealand Parole Board.

Judge Carruthers has long been an advocate for alternative dispute resolution and an outspoken supporter of restorative and therapeutic justice initiatives. Judge Carruthers holds that it is better to involve communities directly in the criminal justice system in order to obtain better outcomes which reduce crime and acknowledge victims' concerns.

The Judge has spoken at a large number of international and national conferences and has been an author of a number of papers presented in overseas seminars. In 2002, he chaired the Ministerial Taskforce on Youth Offending.

Judge Carruthers was made a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2005 and knighted by the Governor-General in 2009 for his services to the District Courts.

Dr Ian Curtis

Abstract

A Correction of Course

We already have a 10% time-frame sample of the probable course of sentencing and incarceration into the 21^st century. For a clinical psychiatrist travelling in time forty years from the 1960's, the future appears to be a bleak unenlightened repeating of history. Once again we have Bedlams, now called prisons and detention centres in which vulnerable mentally ill people are "chained" next to hardened criminals. Despite western developed world statistics indicating a lessening need, the politics of criminology and migration dictate more prisons and more detention centres. Does this mean, you may ask, a return even to over-flow accommodation of prisoners in anchored hulks on English and other rivers? It is already happening in England. Here in Queensland, a robust-resilient 34 year old psychopath complained to me recently that the prison experience is "deteriorating" badly. "We can barely manage 20% good hard men in a prison unit. The rest are soft, (mentally) sick or illiterate," he moaned. At the end of the 20^th century, medical policy divested psychiatry of long-stay beds. This cost-shifted and criminalized a large group of psychiatric patients into prisons which are Australia's new Asylums.

The Honourable Justice Martin Daubney

The Honourable Justice Martin Daubney was appointed to the Supreme Court of Queensland on 13 July 2007, becoming the 101^st appointee to the Supreme Court. At the time of his appointment, Justice Daubney was the President of the Bar Association of Queensland.

Justice Daubney was educated at Downlands College, Toowoomba. He graduated from the University of Queensland with degrees in Arts and Law. After 18 months practising as a solicitor, he was admitted to the Bar in 1988. In 2000 he was appointed Senior Counsel.

Justice Daubney practised as a barrister in Australia and Fiji, in both litigation and mediation.

In 2005, he chaired a Commission of Inquiry into the Queensland thoroughbred racing industry.

Justice Daubney served on the Council of the Bar Association of Queensland for more than 10 years, including as President from July 2006. Other appointments included membership of the Legal Practitioners Admissions Board of Queensland for three years from its inception in 2004, membership of the Management Committee of the Queensland Bar Practice Course (2000-2008), membership of the Council of the Australian Bar Association, and directorship of the Law Council of Australia in 2006-2007.

He was the inaugural Chair of the University of Southern Queensland Law Faculty Advisory Board, and is a member of the Advisory Board of the Institute of Legal Studies within the Australian Catholic University and of the Queensland Law Society's Commercial Litigation Specialist Accreditation Committee.

Justice Daubney is an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Catholic University, is a Fellow of King's College within the University of Queensland, and is the President of the King's College Council.

In November 2009, he was appointed to the Senate of the University of Queensland.

Peter Davis SC

Peter Davis SC graduated in law with honours in 1984 after having served six years as an articled clerk with a Brisbane city law firm. He was admitted as a solicitor in December 1984 and commenced practice in his own right as a solicitor in early 1985 specialising in litigation, both criminal and commercial.

On 6 August 1990, he was admitted as a barrister of the Supreme Court of Queensland and was appointed Senior Counsel in 2005.

Over the period 1990 to present, he has practised at the Queensland private bar appearing in most courts and tribunals which sit in Queensland mainly in the areas of crime, quasi crime, disciplinary proceedings, administrative and commercial matters. He has advised and appeared for the Attorney-General and various government instrumentalities. He has also advised the Speaker of the Queensland Parliament.

Notable cases and matters include R v Fletcher [1998] 2 QdR 437 (the first significant DNA based case in Queensland); R v Carroll (2002) 213 CLR 635 (the murder of Deidre Kennedy and the leading High Court case on double jeopardy); R v Hurley (the prosecution arising from an Aboriginal death in custody, 2007), Senior Counsel to the Fuel Subsidy Commission 2007, author of the Government Report into Sentencing in Cape York 2008 and appearances on behalf of the State in constitutional cases in the High Court of Australia including Coleman v Power (2004) 220 CLR 1; Elliott and Bressington v The Queen (2007) 234 CLR 38; Gypsy Jokers Motorcycle Club Inc v Commissioner of Police (2008) 234 CLR 532; Wong & Selim v Commonwealth of Australia (2009) 236 CLR 573.

He has been a member of the Council of the Queensland Bar Association since 2007.

Honourable Cameron Dick MP

Cameron Dick was elected as State MP for the electorate of Greenslopes on March 21, 2009.

He was further honoured to be asked to serve as the Queensland Attorney-General and Minister for Industrial Relations in the re-elected Bligh Government.

Mr Dick brings to the Parliament a range of experience in law and public service.

After finishing high school Mr Dick completed bachelor degrees in Law and Commerce, and later a Bachelor of Arts degree, at the University of Queensland.

After completing articles of clerkship and practising law as a solicitor in Brisbane, in the mid-1990s he worked for three years as an international development volunteer in the South Pacific island nation of Tuvalu. During his time in Tuvalu Mr Dick worked in the Office of the Attorney-General, initially as the Crown Counsel. At the age of 27, he was appointed the acting Attorney-General of Tuvalu.

Following his time in Tuvalu, Mr Dick read international law at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and was awarded a Master of Law degree from Cambridge University.

He has worked as a solicitor in both the private and public sectors. He has also been actively involved in a number of community organisations on the southside of Brisbane.

Mr Dick worked as a barrister prior to his election to the Queensland Parliament.

Mr Dick has always held a strong interest in both politics and the law, and the role these aspects of society play in shaping the community we live in.

In his new role as Attorney-General and Minister for Industrial Relations, Mr Dick is committed to building on previous legislative reforms to ensure a fair, safe and just Queensland.

Mr Dick lives on the southside of Brisbane with his wife and two children.

Dr Joao Goulao

Portuguese National Drugs Coordinator, Chairman of the Institute on Drugs and Drug Addiction and since January 2010 Chairman of the European Monitoring Centre on Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA). He is also Head of the national focal point in the EMCDDA’s REITOX network, member of the EMCDDA Board since 2005 and previously served on the European agency’s Scientific Committee (1997–2002).

A medical doctor by profession, Dr. Goulão has over 20 years’ experience regarding drug-related issues, working in this field since 1987 as general practitioner and since then all his professional life has been devoted to drugs and health. He was also a member of the Portuguese Committee which, in 1999, prepared the report on which the first Portuguese Drug Strategy, which included decriminalisation, was based. At international level, he has a long experience in this field, not only at the European level, but also in the United Nations context.

Wayne Hall

Wayne Hall is a Professorial Fellow as well as NHMRC Australia Fellow in addiction neuroethics at the University of Queensland Centre for Clinical Research. He was formerly: Professor of Public Health Policy in the School of Population Health (2005-2010) and Director of the Office of Public Policy and Ethics at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (2001-2005) at the University of Queensland; and Director of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at UNSW (1994-2001). He has advised the World Health Organization on: the health effects of cannabis use; the effectiveness of drug substitution treatment; the scientific quality of the Swiss heroin trials; the contribution of illicit drug use to the global burden of disease; and the ethical implications of genetic and neuroscience research on addiction.. In 2001 he was identified by the Institute for Scientific Analysis as one of the world's most highly cited social scientists in the past 20 years. He was awarded an NHMRC Australia Fellowship in 2009 to research the public health, social policy and ethical implications of genetic and neuroscience research on drug use and addiction.

The Honourable Paul de Jersey AC

Chief Justice Paul de Jersey was appointed as Chief Justice of Queensland in 1998. He had served on the Supreme Court of Queensland from 1985, following a 13 year career at the Queensland Bar, in which he practised, most substantially, in the commercial and constitutional arenas, although his practice warranted the description, "broadly common law".

Justice Betty King QC

Biography:
Justice Betty King was appointed to the Victorian Supreme Court on June 21, 2005. Prior to then, she had been a County Court Judge since 2000. She was appointed to the Bench after a highly successful career at the Bar in which she practiced mainly in the criminal field representing both prosecution and defence at trial and appellate level. Soon after her appointment to the Supreme Court she was given supervision of the so called "Gangland Murder" trials and has subsequently presided over the trials of Carl Williams, his father and many others charged with murder and conspiracy to murder . She is a highly respected Judge who is not afraid to speak out particularly against the cult of celebrity erected by some in the media around some of the people associated with these trials. She said in a public speech : "Roberta Williams (ex wife of Carl Williams) has done nothing except be married to a criminal. Mick Gatto has become a celebrity for killing someone and being acquitted on the grounds of self-defence". She also incurred the wrath of some in the media when she prevented the "Underbelly" television series being played in Victoria on the grounds that it had the potential to prejudice a trial then pending in the Supreme Court. Her presentation is from a unique perspective and is certain to be challenging and thought provoking.

Dr Michael King

Abstract:

Therapeutic Jurisprudence Initiatives in Australia and New Zealand - and the Overseas Experience

One of the most significant contemporary developments in the law is the increased willingness of courts and lawyers to engage with parties and clients to address not only their legal problems but also their underlying issues. In the criminal law this development is most obvious in the increasing number of courts established specifically for this purpose - such as drug courts, family violence courts, community courts and mental health courts - in diverse jurisdictions such as the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Brazil. Indigenous sentencing courts and court diversion programs are other examples in this trend. Research shows promising results in the case of many of these programs. Therapeutic jurisprudence and restorative justice principles inform this development. Increasingly their principles are being applied in mainstream sentencing courts and have begun to be applied in other court processes. This development is changing the way the judicial and lawyers' roles are conceived and practised and is bringing about a shift in the approach to judicial and legal education.

Dr Michael S King, Magistrate

Chris Nyst

Chris Nyst is a lawyer, writer and film maker based on Queensland's Gold Coast. Admitted to practice in 1977 he is recognised as one of Queensland's most experienced criminal law practitioners. He is a former President of the Gold Coast Law Association, the co-founder of the Griffith University Innocence Project, and an adjunct professor of law at Griffith University on the Gold Coast.

In 1999, Chris turned his hand to fiction writing, producing a series of best selling legal thrillers for Harper Collins. His third novel "Crook as Rookwood" won the 2006 Ned Kelly Award, Australia's leading accolade for crime fiction.

He turned to film making in 2003, writing and co-producing the highly acclaimed Australian film "Gettin' Square", which was nominated for a record number of industry awards, and won Chris the 2003 Lexus IF Award for Best Screenplay. In 2008 he wrote and directed the feature film "Crooked Business," which was voted Best International Film at the 2009 New York Independent Film Festival.

Chris is a highly respected figure in the Australian Film Industry, a former member of the Gold Coast Film Advisory Board and Chair of the Film Fantastic Film Festival, and is a current Director of Screen Queensland.

He continues to practice as a principal of the boutique litigation firm Nyst Lawyers on the Gold Coast.

Justice Philippides

Justice Philippides was appointed to the Supreme Court in December 2000. Prior to her appointment, she practiced as a barrister in Queensland, New South Wales and the Solomon Islands. She has served as President of the Land Appeal Court of Queensland from January 2004 to May 2006. In May 2006 she was appointed to the Mental Health Court. She became President of the Mental Health Court in February 2008.

Professor Roland Sussex

Roland (Roly) Sussex has recently retired from the Chair of Applied Language Studies at the University of Queensland, where he has taught and researched since 1989. Before that he taught Linguistics and Russian at the University of Reading (UK) and Monash University in Melbourne, and was the foundation professor of Russian at the University of Melbourne from 1977 to 1989.

His current research is located in the triangle between language, culture and society, and technology. He is co-chief investigator in the PainLang Research Group at the University of Queensland, which is investigating the use of language in the diagnosis, treatment and management of pain (http://www.uq.edu.au/painlang/).

His most recent major publication is The Slavic languages with Paul Cubberley, Cambridge University Press, 2006).

Roly Sussex writes a weekly column on language for the Brisbane Courier-Mail, and has been broadcasting to Queensland on ABC radio since 1997, and more recently to South Australia and the Northern Territory.

Abstract

Legal discourse - does it mean anything?

Most contemporary theories of language hold that language cannot be fully understood without reference its context. The "autonomous linguistics" of Chomsky's classic position, which famously referred to the competence of an "idealized speaker-hearer" divorced from any social or communicative context, was overwhelmingly a model of the forms of language and their mathematical analysis and modelling. This approach has now been largely superseded by models which try to capture the interaction of language forms, language functions, speakers, hearers, messages, contexts and cultural values. Linguistics has become a much more social science.

The use of language in the legal context offers a partly counterbalancing pattern. Here we have a set of norms for language use and interpretation which are distinct, and in some cases sharply distinct, from the more fluid, creative, unstable and dynamic patterns of everyday usage. In terms of vocabulary, syntax, discourse and semantics, as well as the rituals of legal language use, the language of the law constitutes a restricted context. More than everyday language, its emphasis on precedent links it with patterns of language and interpretations which have gone before. Again, more than everyday usage, it restricts the input of the external social context. The rigour and stability of the patterns of meaning which it achieves by these mechanisms help to ensure the continuity of legal expression and interpretation.

However, this set of values finds itself in tension, in a number of ways, with contemporary attempts to move legal language towards everyday usage. The Plain English movement has focused on legal language as one of its prime goals for reform, and there is a significant impetus from within the legal profession - the existence of the Bench Book is a central example - to bring the language of legal usage closer to everyday language.

This paper investigates a set of specific language usages which present problems between everyday usage and established legal language. The key issues include conventions of question putting and answering; silence and its interpretation; power asymmetries and their influence on communication and equity; aspects of forensic linguistic evidence; and the problems of multi-cultural interpretations of specific English utterances.

The argument stops at the demonstration of multiple modes of discourse in legal settings. From the linguistic point of view full and secure communication cannot be achieved without systematically taking these differences into account.

Professor Geraldine Mackenzie

Dean of the Faculty of Law and Pro Vice-Chancellor (Business and Community Engagement)

Professor Geraldine Mackenzie was appointed Pro Vice-Chancellor (Business and Community Engagement) and Dean, Faculty of Law, at Bond University in January 2009.

Prior to joining Bond, she was Foundation Head, School of Law, at the University of Southern Queensland. Also a practising barrister, she has close links to the legal profession, and is an Executive Member of the Council of Australian Law Deans (Chair, Legal Education Sub-Committee), Queensland Bar Association, Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management; and a member of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology, Australasian Law Teachers Association, Criminal Law Specialist Accreditation Committee, (Queensland Law Society) and the Gold Coast District Law Association.

She is the author or co-author of five books on criminal law and sentencing and has published numerous journal articles and conference papers.

A specialist in criminal law, Professor Mackenzie's research encompasses both the practical aspects of criminal law and the courts, and also theoretical and policy aspects, particularly in relation to sentencing. Her PhD was from the University of New South Wales in sentencing law.

An active researcher, in 2009 she was commissioned by the Queensland Attorney-General to investigate a new legislative defence for battered persons who kill their abusers. The team she led at Bond University produced a comprehensive report, with the research resulting in Australia's first groundbreaking legislation in this area. She is also the holder of an ARC Discovery-Projects Grant on Sentencing and Public Confidence, heading a team of senior academics from six leading Australian universities.

Abstract:
What the Public Really Thinks: Results of a Major National Study on Public Confidence in Sentencing and the Courts

Claims that the public lacks confidence in sentencing in Australia and demands punitive responses are a major hurdle to reform and have significant consequences for the justice system, but little research has been done to inform debate or public policy. This presentation provides some outcomes of an Australia wide public opinion survey on public confidence and sentencing, the results of which will enable policy makers to respond to periodic crises in public confidence in more constructive and informed ways.