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Issue 4, Semester 2 DeMinimis team Dear MLM students, Some of you may have seen copies of De Minimis lying around the law school, or heard whispers of the controversies that emerge from our pages. But how much do you actually know about De Minimis? 
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Issue 4, Semester 2 By Valerie Ng Paul Dano’s debut feature Wildlife, which opened the Melbourne International Film Festival on 2 August, is a simmering, disquieting drama of suburban isolation and economic anxiety in 1960s Montana. A slow, crawling piece, it dawdles on the irrepressible disintegration of the Brinson family for 104 minutes, following Joe Brinson (Ed Oxenbould), and his parents, Jerry and Jeanette (Jake Gyllenhaal and Carey Mulligan respectively), who have recently relocated to Montana. Joe goes to school, Jeanette makes dinner, and Jerry works at a nearby golf club. When Jerry gets fired from his job, the strains of financial insecurity start to widen the marital fractures between Jerry and Jeanette, catalysing their slow, inevitable separation. When Jerry leaves to fight wildfires in the mountains, any remaining cohesion snaps.  Issue 4, Semester 2 By Divyansh Sharma For many JD students, the existence of the Masters cohort is largely a mystery. Aside from the occasional voyage up to level 6 to make use of their free tea bags and fresh milk, the two cohorts don’t seem to mix. Recently De Minimis sat down with Divyansh Sharma, the President of the Melbourne Law Masters Student Association (MLMSA), to learn a little bit more about the Masters course and the people who make up the cohort.  By Jack Stanovsek Issue 4, Semester 2 Over the past couple of weeks, the pressure of clerkship applications has reared its ugly head, consuming the classrooms and study spaces of 185 Pelham Street. It began with a few innocent commiserations with fellow students about the agonising process of cover letter writing. Last week, I noticed other students inserting themselves into random conversations to gauge the opinion of their fellow colleagues. All of this is acceptable enough behaviour, given the inescapable clerkship fever that swept through the second year cohort as soon as the clock struck 11:45 am on the day of the Admin Law exam and semester one had officially finished.  Issue 4, Semester 2 By Daniel Gregoric Over the winter break, I undertook an Aurora internship at Nyamba Buru Yawuru - The Place of the Yawuru - in Broome, Western Australia. It was an unforgettable four week learning experience, and I am most grateful to Nyamba Buru Yawuru and the Aurora Project for the opportunity to be involved.  Issue 4, Semester 2 By Ying Wong Though it's only been a semester and a bit since I ensconced myself in the hallowed halls of this institution, this question has plagued me for some time. Over the past few months I have found my ability to navigate social interaction and engage in quality #banter grind to a halt. I’m seeking reassurance as to whether anyone else feels the same way.  Issue 3, Semester 2 By Geordie Wilson Content warning: Domestic Violence I recently had the chance to meet with an interstate friend who’d flown to Melbourne in order to attend a hearing with Senator Louise Pratt. Senator Pratt is on the ‘Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee’, sitting on behalf of the lower house shadow A-G. I headed to the committee’s setup in a hotel on little collins street, and whispered hello to my mate, who was in deep concentration transcribing the hearing for their boss. Listening in, the hearing was more interesting than i’d expected.  Issue 3, Semester 2 By Duncan Willis Last week it was announced that Fairfax Media, owner of The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and the The Financial Review, would merge with the Channel 9 entertainment group. It was hardly a surprise that somebody would seek to take over Fairfax.; Multiple bidders had made plays for Fairfax last year, attracted mainly to the property listing platform Domain, one of the few Fairfax ventures that still turns a profit.  Issue 3, Semester 2 By Tilly Houghton You may have noticed that when I am punching darts on the curbside, I have headphones on. Here is a snapshot of what I've been listening to since February 2016. It is: I) Not exhaustive, these are just the songs / albums / artists that had high rotation that semester; II) Super fucking gay; III) Indicative that while I definitely listen to new music, it very much centres around what was big from 2009 – 2014.  Issue 3, Semester 2 By Katie Lau Asian cinema has been embedded in Hollywood for a while now – most of us just haven’t noticed it. We often (unknowingly) see Hollywood’s biggest names bring originally Asian plots to our screens here in the West in the form of remakes. Remember Martin Scorsese’s The Departed, starring Leonardo DiCaprio? Or the 2002 horror classic The Ring, directed by Gore Verbinski? These films and many others have let loose intriguing storylines that were once caged in Asian cinema into the international realm for further appreciation. However, this is where the problem lies: only the plots garner international recognition. The culture and history of the original remake, and the ingenuity of Asian cinema generally, remains hidden in the shadow of the newly westernised versions.  Issue 3, Semester 2 By Anon In Xinjiang, the westernmost province of China, the largest mass incarceration of a minority population in the world is taking place. Xinjiang is the largest province in China, and contains China’s largest reserves of fossil fuels and natural gas, and more than half the country’s cotton. Bordering Mongolia, Russia, and Central Asia, the region formed part of the historical Silk Road trade route linking China to the Eastern Mediterranean. Today, it is a lynchpin of the Chinese government’s trillion dollar Belt and Road Initiative. While little of the province is habitable, it is the historical homeland of the Uyghurs, a Turkic people who are almost entirely Muslim. They are the descendants of the Turks who remained in Xinjiang while other tribes moved further westward into Asia and Eastern Europe.  Week 2, Semester 2 By Tyson Holloway-Clarke I don’t get the chance to head to the Top End that often. I barely make it back to Tasmania most university breaks, so heading up to the Northern Territory is normally not on my radar. But last year in the last stretch of my thesis research I flew north to stay with family. I was hopping between different places pretty frequently. I went from Darwin, to Groote Eylandt, to Nhulunbuy, back to Darwin, down to Alice Springs, and finally back to Melbourne. I managed to spend good quality time with my aunties and uncles and my dad, and visit a lot of places from my childhood. It was all very familiar and comfortable, but something was missing. (Most notably my mum and my sisters, but something else too.)  Week 2, Semester 2 By Ian Khor This article is a follow up on the one I penned a couple of months ago. In that article (which you should read by the way because it’s like the best thing on De Min), there was an encouragement for all those who failed a subject last year and are thinking twice about whether they should continue the Juris Doctor program, or even whether they could become a lawyer at all.  Week 2, Semester 2 By Tilly Houghton The dreamer: an environmentally conscious MLS second year. The dream:
 Week 2 Semester 2 By Charlie McMillan Bad v Boujee [2016] CLR 4 is landmark judgment. It has proven to be the most cited from the 2016 Culture Law Reports and bears many thematic similarities with the much-lauded judgment Gin v Juice. It was even extrajudicially praised by Donald Glover at the 2017 Golden Globes.  Week 1, Semester 2 Last semester, I took part in The Legal Forecast’s (TLF) inaugural Race to the Future. TLF’s Victorian President, Sophie Tversky, describes TLF as a not-for-profit organisation that ‘aims to advance legal practice through technology and innovation...run by early–career professionals who are passionate about disruptive thinking and access to justice.’ Race to the Future involved the completion of a series of challenges around the Melbourne CBD, based upon technological disruption of the legal industry.  Issue 1, Semester 2 By Elif Sekercioglu We know it’s the 1970s in this novel because a plate of spaghetti costs $6 on Lygon Street and all the ladies drink brandy alexanders (a cocktail that belongs to the 20th century and should never again see the light of day). Based on her personal diaries, Helen Garner’s Monkey Grip is a delicious story where nothing much happens except the motions of everyday life in a bohemian community in Melbourne. All the characters can afford to rent groovy northside share houses, despite their employment being a mere diversion from their primary occupation of hanging out in each other’s kitchens to gossip. The novel captures a lifestyle that’s been rooted out of the inner-north by rising property prices. With gentrification and rising population come death knells such as this: ‘A Fitzroy North house that has links to Helen Garner’s late 1970s novel Monkey Grip sold at weekend auction for $3,185,000.’  Issue 1, Semester 2 By Tyson Holloway-Clarke I remember getting my first campus tour around Parkville. There were a lot of construction sites and it was all very confusing. I was 16 and wasn’t a huge fan of brutalism. In time I have grown fond of it. Back then I thought the St Lucia University of Queensland campus was much nicer. It had a ridiculous amount of sandstone, lots of sporting fields and plenty of space.  Artwork from Murrup Barak Issue 1, Semester 2 By Tricia Ong Over the last study break I went to Lorne for a day with two friends. We planned on going to Live Wire Park, Australia’s first ‘completely off-grid elevated adventure park’. It was meant to be a fun, destressing day. A day to forget all my problems and relax. A day of healing.  Issue 13, Semester 1
By Brigette Mercaldi Ahhhh, SWOTVAC! No-one knows what it stands for, but we all know what it involves: spending countless hours in your study cave; limited hours of sunlight; and a whole lot of stress. During this time you will, of course, need a number of supplies to survive. This is a guide for your SWOTVAC survival. No doubt you’ll need to sustain your energy levels throughout this time, and I have some quick, cheap and easy solutions. The best thing about these study snacks is that they are easy to make, and you can study and eat them at the same time. #efficiency. Issue 12, Semester 1
As the end of Semester 1 draws near, the date for the legal profession’s equivalent of The Hunger Games approaches. In this article De Minimis interviews several veterans of the bruising and occasionally brilliant process to deliver an authentic, unsponsored account of the clerkship period. Issue 12, Semester 1
By Kevin Cui If you’ve been keeping track of discussions over content warnings on De Minimis and the Facebook JD page, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the matter has been settled, and the entire cohort is unreservedly on board with the LSS’s proposal to introduce content warning requirements for upsetting or distressing content. Perhaps the absence of vigorous debate or productive counter-arguments is understandable given the fear of being labelled a bigot if one were to express a dissenting opinion. What I don’t believe, though, is that nobody questions the implications of our current approach to handling distressing or objectionable dialogue, or no longer believes in the value of a healthy dose of skepticism. Issue 12, Semester 1
By Ayu Maylinda From personal experiences, I gather that the main contention against trigger warnings is that they potentially stifle freedom of speech in academia. The notion of trigger warnings seems to signal an unwelcome encroachment of freedom of speech, a prized ideal within Western democracies and the tradition of Western liberal thought. There is an unspoken understanding that the University, as the intellectual epicentre of a “free” society, must be a place where opinions can be expressed without censorship or restraint; trigger warnings are seen to prevent freedom of speech from taking place and thus stifling intellectual growth and stimulation. Issue 12, Semester 1
By Ian Khor I still remember the very first conversation I had with an Australian about Malaysia during an ice breaker activity asked during my first undergraduate tutorial. “Where you from, mate?” “Malaysia.” “Malaysia? Where’s that?” “The country above Singapore.” “You mean Thailand?” “No, below Thailand.” “You mean Bali?” Issue 12, Semester 1
By Bill Pilla I was so ready for a shitfight in the comments from last week’s edition of De Minimis. At this stage in semester, I need a bloodbath with a flute of schadenfreude on the side. Not only did we have Politically-Correct-Cultural-Hysteria around content warnings, but also an article about cultural appropriation. Where were you, concerned citizen, to advocate for the rights of the level-headed? The rational and objective thinkers who are entitled to their opinions because free speech or some shit? |
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