Volume 2, Issue 4 (Originally Published 13 August 2012)
In his first address to Melbourne students, Justice Dyson Heydon of the High Court will speak at lunchtime on 21 August in G 08 on the subject ‘Are Bills of Rights Necessary in Common Law Systems?’ Justice Heydon was appointed to the High Court in 2003, after three years on the bench of the Supreme Court of NSW. Before that, he was an Equity barrister, taking silk in 1987 after only seven years at the Bar. He was Counsel in many leading cases, including Hospital Products and the Super League case. Justice Heydon is the author of many books, with a focus on Company Law, Evidence, Equity and Trusts; his personal library features more than 20,000 volumes and betrays his other passion, military history. Master of Arts degrees at the University of Sydney, and a Rhodes Scholarship to study law at Oxford University, where he read for the Bachelor of Common Law and subsequently became a Fellow and Tutor in law at Oxford. He was a professor of law at the University of Sydney Law School from 1973 to 1981 – the youngest ever professor of law in the English speaking world. From 1978 to 1979 he was the Dean at the Faculty of Law and head of the Department of Law at the University. Dyson Heydon completed his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees at the University of Sydney, and a Rhodes Scholarship to study law at Oxford University, where he read for the Bachelor of Common Law and subsequently became a Fellow and Tutor in law at Oxford. He was a professor of law at the University of Sydney Law School from 1973 to 1981 - the youngest ever professor of law in the English speaking world. From 1978 to 1979 he was the Dean at the Faculty of Law and head of the Department of Law at the University. Justice Heydon is known to many students for his dissent in last spring’s M 70 case. His prose style is characterised by lucidity and vividness. Now, for the first time, Melbourne students have the opportunity to hear him speak in person.
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ANNIE ZHENG
Volume 2, Issue 4 (Originally Published 13 August 2012) 13 August, 1814 – Convention of London signed; stops Dutch slave trade On this day in 1814, the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814 (also known as the Convention of London) entered into force between the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. The treaty declared the return of all colonial possessions of the Dutch as before the Napoleonic wars between 1803 and 1815. Great Britain ceded the Bangka Island, Indonesia in exchange for the Dutch settlement in Cochin, India. Notably, the treaty contained a provision noting a declaration made by the Dutch that ships for slave trade were to be stopped in British ports. The treaty reflected an agreement by both parties that this was necessary to comply with the Netherlands’ ban on all forms of slave trading by Dutch citizens. This decision signaled the closing of a major chapter in the history of the Atlantic slave trade, following the footsteps of Britain, France and Portugal in abolishing slave trade because if its ‘repugnance to the principles of natural justice’. Annie Zheng CHARLES HOPKINS
Volume 2, Issue 4 (Originally Published 13 August 2012) Even though this is not meant in a literal sense, I could spend 500 words telling you about why I hate ladders; they remind me of the time I subscribed to a top secret CIA initiative and was coerced into becoming an assassin. That’s right; Jason Bourne was just the beginning. Every August the students of Melbourne Law School are confronted with destiny-making moments, and they must make a decision which severs alternate potential life paths – it’s not easy deciding whether to go the Stereosonic, Falls or Meredith. Hilarious and somewhat distracting detours aside, each aspiring corporate in the JD is currently faced with the next rung of their corporate ladder. For second years, this is clerkship applications. The only way up the ladder is to quantify your awesomeness in the form of an application and hope it amounts to more than other people’s. It’s like applying for the Big Brother house, except instead of awesomeness you try to demonstrate your obnoxiousness, and instead of a CV you submit a webcam video, and instead of other people you’re competing against douchebags, and instead- okay it was a terrible comparison. Do CVs even represent me like they’re supposed to? Do a series of questions about cases and deals give an insight into my true identity? And should I write ‘Dear [first name of HR person]’ or Dear [surname of HR person]’? I JUST DON’T KNOW. By the way, if any HR people stumble across this after reading my CV, I’m not as neurotic or sarcastic or distracted as my ‘L is for’ persona may suggest; in fact this is actually a ghost writer writing all these, Charles Hopkins doesn’t even do it! I’m really a small Chinese girl from TianJin! My name is MeiLin! The most disheartening thing about clerkship applications, is that even if you’re successful, and even if you rock the clerkship process, and even if you get offered a job, you’re still only one more rung up a ladder that keeps on stretching upward. Is there a destination at the end? Achievements are like the rungs of this never-ending ladder; each hurdle is followed by another hurdle. And then you encounter a snake during your climb up the hurdles and you slide down a row of squares on the board and sorry I lost my metaphor. It’s at times like these that I think of something my dad once told me; ‘there’s always going to be another mountain, and you may or may not want to make it move, but it’s not about that, you’ve got to enjoy the climb.’ He’s a huge Myley Cyrus fan. So to all us JDers who aspire to corporate success, I say this: sometimes twee aphorisms are the best form of self-assurance, so keep on movin’, keep climbin’, keep the faith baby, it’s all about, it’s all about, the climb, keep the faith, keep your faith, woah. After interning at the Herald Sun, Charles Hopkins wrote an article to be published in Farrago about their lack of water coolers. The editors declined to publish it however, stating “if hydration is that important, take it up with Herald Sun Management”. BRONWEN EWENS
Volume 2, Issue 4 (Originally Published 13 August 2012) On 26 April, Charles Taylor, the former President of Liberia, was convicted on all counts of an 11-count indictment that alleged that he was responsible for crimes committed by rebel forces during Sierra Leone’s civil war. He was sentenced in May to 50 years in prison. Taylor is the first head of state to be indicted, tried and convicted by an international tribunal – the Special Court for Sierra Leone. The verdict also sets a precedent in terms of recognizing, and punishing, crimes of sexual violence and terror. In December 1989 Taylor invaded his own country, Liberia, with the intention of ousting its government. He then presided over a civil war that lasted seven years, in which as many as 200,000 civilians were killed, many by his army of child soldiers. Taylor plundered every resource he could lay his hands on, from gold mines to hardwood timber, while his adolescent fighters raped and murdered at will. A couple of years into his butchery, Taylor instigated a civil war in neighbouring Sierra Leone, providing arms in return for diamonds. In that country’s civil war, lasting from 1991 to 2002, an estimated 50,000 people died. Among the 11 counts on which Taylor was convicted was the charge of enabling ‘outrages upon personal dignity’, arising from incidents in which women and girls were forced to undress in public and then raped and sexually abused. In the conviction for terrorism too, the judges found that the raping of women and girls in public was part of the campaign aimed at terrorising the civilian population. The judgment represents the first time that an international court has convicted a former head of state of responsibility for various forms of sexual violence. The trial judges recognised that rape, sexual slavery, and other forms of sexual violence were used as a strategic weapon of warfare, intended to harm not only the direct victims, but their families and whole communities. The crimes were widespread and systematic, committed as part of a strategic campaign to impact the conflict by terrorising, demoralising, and destroying the affected civilian populations through sexual violence. There have now been many judgments in international war crimes tribunals where the accused were found guilty of rape, sexual slavery, and other forms of sexual violence. But virtually all prior cases incolved the accused perpetrating the rape, or was present, encouraging, ordering, or ignoring the crimes. While leaders have frequently been held accountable for murder, pillage, torture, and countless other crimes committed by others, courts have been reluctant to hold them responsible for sex crimes, treating these as a mere inevitable by-product of armed conflict, not a powerful weapon of war. Two of the three trial chamber judges were women with experience of presiding over trials involving gender justice crimes. Bronwen Ewens Volume 2, Issue 4 (Originally Published 13 August 2012)
The Melbourne Law Revue concluded its 2012 season last week after a five show run. With a troupe of exceptionally talented performers, a few celebrity cameos and just a touch of nonsense, the 2012 Revue lived up to its esteemed as a staple of comedy calendar. Sold out crowds packed into the Lithuanian Club to see the revue performed, with ticket sales raising $12,000 for the charity Second Bite. Heartiest congratulations to the cast, Georgia Flood, Will Stoltz, Jason Perri, Sam Garlepp, Lachie McKenzie, Brigette Wise, Tim McDonald and Sarina Murray, director Charles Hopkins and to the rest of the production crew. |