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Issue 4, Semester 1, 2019 ANONYMOUS Content warning: This article contains material referring to the recent Christchurch attacks. I have been putting off writing anything about the attack on the mosques in Christchurch. Solely because it takes me back to some excruciatingly painful memories. Memories I wish I never had to experience.  Image: Reuters/Jorge Silva Issue 4, Semester 1, 2019
XAVIER BOFFA Content warning: The following article contains material related to sexual assault. While it may have escaped the attention of most Australians, a fortnight ago Arizona Senator Martha McSally took the incredibly courageous step of sharing her experience of sexual violence with the World as part of a United States Senate armed services hearing on the prevention of sexual assault. There is a great deal of significance to be found in this revelation’s coinciding with the week of International Women’s Day (March 8). And yet, we must not confine our concern for the substantial inequalities women still face, both in our own society and across the globe, to just one day a year. Issue 4, Semester 1, 2019 YING WONG Read Russian literature, they said. It’ll reveal all manner of truths about the depth and depravity of the human soul; you’ll be a better person for it, they said. Naturally, I Googled “Best Russian Books,” and rather than picking up Dostoevsky or Tolstoy (as per instructions), I stumbled upon The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. Simultaneously one of the most entertaining, ridiculous, and introspective books I’ve ever read, it is one I highly recommend.  Issue 4, Semester 1, 2019 ANONYMOUS You are a law student. That’s all you are, because law consumes your life. Explaining what it is like to be dating someone in law school is as hard as describing the colour orange to a blind person. It’s difficult to articulate how much it pains me to see you, my significant other, torture yourself over readings and revision and it’s just as hard to find a way to help you when all you want is peace and time to study.  Issue 3, Semester 1, 2019 ANONYMOUS “Our largest commencing class”. Not exactly the words one wishes to hear on the orientation day of a degree oft ridiculed for producing an oversupply of graduates. Alas, words to this effect were uttered to the nearly 400 commencing students in the Derham Theatre just last month. Now, at the end of my first week at MLS, I realise that these words must have been true, because the law school was unable to find sufficient seats to accommodate first year students in their Torts, Obligations, and PPL seminars.  Issue 3, Semester 1, 2019 CAM DOIG It’s that time of year – re-litigating the Lecture Recordings DebateTM! New students, strap in: this has been going for some time. At present, recordings of MLS classes are only made available to students who:
The University of Melbourne Student Union (UMSU), the peak representative body for all Melbourne Uni students, is campaigning for unconditional access to recordings for students. Why? Five reasons.  Issue 3, Semester 1, 2019 JANELLE KOH “Let’s get this party started,” said Brenton Tarrant. That is all I know about the Christchurch mosque shootings, and about as much as I could take. (Many have died. I know that too.) Feelings of grief, anger, horror and hopelessness crackle through the static of social media. Even the news outlets are trying to be decent about the loss – everyone is, it seems, except for Senator Fraser Anning. In a media statement released on Friday, the man suggested that the shootings were indicative of a “growing fear within our community…of the increasing Muslim presence”, and that Islam is a “savage belief” which is the “religious equivalent of fascism”. These comments compounded upon the fractures left by the shootings, in a way that feels almost unbearable. First there were shots, and then blood; and now these words, these untruths that fill us with outrage. In the face of such unspeakable pain, it is outrage that emboldens us, makes us articulate again. We know to label such comments ‘hate speech’, and ‘bigotry’. We meet Anning’s words with our own, holding him accountable. But to meet them is to assume that behind those words, there is a man who we can reach. Yet sometimes all that is behind such words is a spectre of a man, one who cannot take responsibility for his words, or for his office. The real man may be elsewhere; I do not know.  Issue 3, Semester 1, 2019 SAM O'CONNOR A Wild Sheep Chase, like several of Murakami’s other novels, defies any attempts to place it in a particular genre or category of fiction. The book deftly weaves from detective mystery to political thriller to magical realism to postmodernism, all without skipping a beat or sidelining its main tale. The novel follows our unnamed protagonist, a divorce advertising executive, as he tries to uncover the mystery surrounding a supposedly magical sheep, and its connections to the power wielded by Japan’s post-war political and corporate elite. In its allusions to historical and political events placed alongside the fantastical and bizarre, it is most reminiscent of the genre of magical realism.  Issue 3, Semester 1, 2019 MICHAEL FRANZ In the past I’ve gone on the record (such as it is) as being, if not quite a defender of MLS’s revolving doors, then at the least a snide critic of their detractors. Notwithstanding all of the fashionable arguments – the environmental benefits, the equalisation of air pressure, the cynically appropriate symbolism for the revolving door model of education – I mostly just never had any sympathy for people who took genuine umbrage at the triviality of whatever perceived inconvenience the doors imposed on their daily routines.  Issue 2, Semester 1, 2019 JARED MINTZ Walking. A simple and straightforward activity, right? Not so. The Melbourne populace has a serious problem with walking. Today I turn my attention to this long-aching thorn in my side. Careful research has yielded the following list of seminal, peer-reviewed, footpath-walking skills:  While I could write a thesis on the walking-related issues listed above, my focus will be on step #2: ‘stick to one side of the sidewalk’. As an aside, I note that the visual representations of these advices are riveting, should anyone be interested in further research of their own.
Issue 2, Semester 1, 2019 SAMANTHA DOOLEY The first day of classes for the semester will have me feeling that my sartorial elegance is not only achievable every day, but mandatory. Hair is washed and straightened, make-up fresh, red lips perfectly applied with none on my teeth even, my outfit clean and ironed and I'm in matching underwear top it off. However, week four and five sneak up, and so do hoodies instead of blazers or cute jumpers, and ballet flats instead of wedges.  Issue 2, Semester 1, 2019 XAVIER BOFFA I actually wrote the bulk of this piece some months ago, never necessarily intending for it to be shared or published. This was long before the controversy that resulted from the deletion of a comment in response to an article I wrote for the LMR edition of De Minimis, but those events seem to suggest that this may be a subject that may follow me until the end of time, no matter where I go or what I do. As I’ve written in the past, I genuinely believe that many of our problems can be remediated with understanding and compassion. This is why I so enjoy reading and writing about identity and self-esteem. It’s not that I feel sorry for myself, or even that I feel particularly aggrieved. Instead, I believe that talking about who we are as people is how we connect on a human level.  Issue 2, Semester 1, 2019 VARIOUS AUTHORS For anybody considering a career on the editorial board of this illustrious publication, you should be warned of one of our more secretive and sinister traditions. Upon retiring, it is customary for the outgoing Editorial Board to depart on an expedition into the depths of the De Minimis Archives, located deep in the bowels of our level 5 office, in the hopes of recovering some treasure or manuscript lost to history. Some months ago, after provisioning themselves with victuals and fortified rum, and sharing one last tear-laden goodbye with family and sweethearts, last year’s team turned their backs on the sun and marched bravely into those mephitic caverns. This morning, a single survivor returned, malnourished and delirious, before expiring some hours later from an exotic malady. Clutched in their rictus grip, a handful of pages torn from past issues. In the interest of history, we present them here, a fleeting glimpse into the De Minimis of decades ago.  Life of a Law Student, circa 1949 Issue 1, Semester 1, 2019 LARRY IPSUM In response to today's events in the comments section, we've already been receiving a number of pieces from concerned students about censorship. De Minimis reserves the right to exercise editorial oversight over any and all submissions. We present the below piece, in line with our editorial policy.  Larry is a Twelfth Year JD Student.
Larry has disappeared into a black site. For re-education. He has won the victory over himself. He loves Big Minimis. Issue 1, Semester 1, 2019 ANISHA THOMAS Welcome back to all, whether to those who have stayed clear of this echo chamber for the good part of the last four months, those with a week’s respite between LMR and today, those who, in a spiritual sense, never really left, and of course to those who actually just didn’t go (I worked from Level 3 too, I know who you are). De Minimis has been a stalwart companion to law students since its first run in 1948. It has variously been conceived of as the Law School’s laziest fourth estate, ‘a rag’, a publication that ‘will print anything you send in that is not obscene and libellous’, and that thing that someone once called it in the comments section somewhere. Granted, most of these indictments are self-labelled (please don’t question whatever complex its various editors have had), but even we’ll admit that De Minimis is the Law School's best friend. I mean, when your only other choice is the weekly Careers Online email which you only read for the job opportunities… no wait who am I kidding, that email is serious gold. Alright, perhaps ‘good friend’ might have to suffice.  Issue 1, Semester 1, 2019 ANONYMOUS It sounds cliché, but now that I’m a second year my wisdom is all the more important and worthy of being read-heard. This piece is primarily directed towards first years (not the only piece pointing that way amirite ladies), however if you feel like you can benefit from my pearls then by all means subscribe to my Self-Help Podcast entitled ‘You’re Not Doing Great Sweetie’. I have five fantastic points that will guarantee your success at MLS. [1]  Image: Creative Commons. Issue 1, Semester 1, 2019 SARAH ABELL Over the summer holidays I was very fortunate to complete an Aurora Internship with Just Reinvest NSW, a non-for-profit organisation that advocates for the adoption of justice reinvestment in NSW. Justice reinvestment (JR) is a concept that originated in the USA to combat high incarceration rates. In Australia, it has been adapted in an attempt to reduce the disproportionate rates of incarceration of Indigenous Australians. JR involves community-led initiatives that better target the causes of crime in Indigenous communities, with a view to keeping Indigenous people out of contact with the criminal justice system in the long term. It also entails policy and advocacy reform to reduce the overall prison population and redirect savings towards community led initiatives.  Image: Supplied. Semester 1, Issue 1, 2019 JACOB KAIROUZ Those who know me will be aware of my annual escape attempts, but this time I was truly determined to take agency in my life decisions and not to let the thoughts win. (New year, new me.) Perhaps unsurprisingly, I spent most of the past summer unsure of where I would end up. When January came, two of my housemates turned very sour and my fate became even less certain.  Image: Creative Commons |
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