Law & Justice

Publication Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 24
  • (2007) Chan, Janet; Dixon, David
    Journal Article
    In 1997, the Wood Royal Commission into the New South Wales Police Service concluded that a state of `systemic and entrenched corruption' existed in the police organization. Major reforms were introduced in the wake of the Commission, including the appointment of a new Police Commissioner, organizational restructuring, a complete revamp of recruit education, as well as increased monitoring and accountability. The magnitude and scope of the Commission's reform programme was bold and ambitious by international standards. This article takes stock of the impact of the Commission 10 years after the publication of its Final Report. Drawing on interviews with key informants, official reports and other documentary sources, the article analyses the activities of the Commission, the intentions of its recommendations and the implementation and consequences of reform. The lessons of the NSW experience are salutary not only for understanding the vagaries of police reform, they also demonstrate the complex relationship between police organizations and the volatile political environments in which they increasingly need to operate.

  • (2008) Cunneen, Chris
    Journal Article
    Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (ATSILS) play a crucial role in the representation of Indigenous defendants. Given the fraught relationship of Aboriginal people with the criminal justice system and the legal systme in general, and the ever-deepening criss of over-representation, adequate resourcing of these services is an extremely important administration of justice issue. This article looks at the nature of the demands and extent of the workload of ATSILS, especially in comparison to Legal Aid Commissions. It argues that the static funding environment that ATSILS operate in results in compromised capacity to provide adequate services to the sector of the population that arguably needs the best possible legal services.

  • (2006) Huang, Hui
    Journal Article
    The object of this article is to examine the recent legal reforms to the Company Law and the Securities Law of the People’s Republic of China. These reforms have made a number of substantial changes to these two laws, bringing them more closely into line with their counterparts in more developed economies. Despite many commendable achievements, these law reforms are however not without some problems. Nevertheless, it is argued here that the impact of these reforms on China’s economic development will be profound and that they will provide an excellent basis for further reforms in this area.

  • (2006) Huang, Hui
    Journal Article
    Determining the proper class of plaintiffs that might be allowed to sue an insider trader for damages has been a very difficult task. The article will first discuss the development of three main approaches to the issue, namely the privity approach, the contemporaneous trader approach and the nondisclosure-period trader approach. This is followed by a detailed discussion of who are the individual investors specifically harmed by insider trading, since the scope of potential plaintiffs is inherently related to the issues of causation and harm. It is recommended that the nondisclosure-period trader approach properly reflects the nature of harm caused by insider trading and eliminates the uncertainty of determining who qualifies as a plaintiff. Moreover, in order to avoid potential excessive damages due to the large number of plaintiffs under this approach, caps must be provided to limit the damages to some multiple of defendant’s illicit gains, depending on how far private suits are intended to serve a deterrent purpose.

  • (2005) Huang, Hui
    Journal Article
    The purpose of this article is to critically examine Chinas insider trading regulation, and based upon the results of such examination, set out reform proposals for China. With the benefit of overseas experience, in a relatively short period of time, China has made a remarkable achievement in setting up its insider trading regulatory regime. There are, however, some serious problems with the Chinese law, due to the uncritical implantation of the ideas from foreign sources. This is strikingly illustrated by the loopholes in the definition of insiders which are inherently related to the confusion around the underlying theory of insider trading liability. The article first broadly describes the background of the regulation of insider trading in China, and then offers a detailed discussion of its content. Based on this, a critique of Chinas insider trading regulation is carried out. It appears that China has hastily imported two conflicting insider trading theories, namely the equality of access theory and the fiduciary-duty-based theories which include the classical theory and the misappropriation theory. A careful analysis suggests that the equality of access theory is preferable to the fiduciary-duty-based theories, especially in the context of China. It is further submitted that the Australian information connection only approach to the definition of insiders is both theoretically justifiable and practically manageable, and thus should be introduced to reform Chinas insider trading regulation.

  • (2008) Huang, Hui
    Journal Article
    This article examines the recently promulgated takeover regulation by the China Securities Regulatory Commission. Along with other laws and regulations, this new regulation has greatly enhanced China’s takeover legal regime both in terms of form and substance. It came at time when the Chinese economy is undergoing a strategic restructuring process and China’s capital markets are at the birth of a new era thanks to the ongoing state share reform. The new regulation brings China’s takeover law more closely into line with its counterparts in more developed economies, but it remains to be seen whether it will function in practice as hoped due to some potential problems with the regime. The article investigates the implications of the new regulation for takeover activities in China, and conducts a critique of China’s takeover legal regime from a comparative perspective.

  • (2008) Cunneen, Chris
    Journal Article
    While there have been some progressive changes in Australia juvenile justice in recent years including developments in youth justice conferencing, more consistent and widely available diversionary options, and a longer term decline in juvenile incarceration rates, these changes have not tended to affect the contact of Indigenous young people with the justice system. The paper analyses why more punitive approaches to law and order (such as a greater reliance on custodial remand) and a greater bifurcation between less serious offenders and repeat offenders is having a particularly negative impact on Indigenous youth. It concludes with a consideration of some of the more promising developments concerning Indigenous young people in youth justice.

  • (2008) Cunneen, Chris
    Journal Article
    This paper provides a brief overview of the last decade in relation to juvenile justice and Indigenous youth. It argues that while there have been some progressive changes these have been generally outweighed by a lack of thoroughgoing commitments to the fundamental reform envisaged by the Bringing Them Home Report. In addition, more punitive approaches to public order and to bail have had particularly negative impacts on Indigenous young people.

  • (2007) Deutsch, Robert; Snowden, Richard; Biancardi, Alexis
    Journal Article