Below is a list of our recommended items from the catalogue.
50 human rights cases that changed Australia by Lucy Geddes & Hamish McLachlanThe first book of its kind, 50 Human Rights Cases that Changed Australia summarises Australia's 50 most significant and influential human rights cases. The cases include landmark human rights cases from all Australian states and territories. They range from the seminal freedom of expression and First Nations land rights cases of the 1990s, to lesser-known earlier cases on civil liberties and criminal procedure and more recent advances in LGBTIQA+ rights, environmental rights, and the rights of people with disabilities. Each case summary explains, in plain language, the facts, the issues and the outcome of the case. Each summary also contains key quotes from the judgment, commentary situating the case in its social and political context, and critical analysis of the case's impact. The first half of the book contains summaries of cases that have advanced the rights of particular groups in the Australian community: First Nations rights; women's rights; LGBTIQA+ rights; disability rights; children's rights; asylum seeker and refugee rights; prisoners' rights. The second half of the book contains summaries of cases dealing with particular human rights: the right against racial discrimination; the right to liberty; criminal justice rights; the right to freedom of expression; democratic rights; the right to a healthy environment; and the rule of law. The cases demonstrate the potential of the law to achieve justice, as well as its limitations. They also reveal Australia's human rights protections to be piecemeal and inadequate -- illustrating the urgent need for a constitutional bill of rights. Written by two practising human rights lawyers, this anthology is an essential resource for law students, lawyers and activists. It also provides an engaging overview to anyone who might be curious about how the law, and in particular litigation, has advanced human rights in Australia.
Call Number: KM 201 K1 GEDD
Publication Date: 2023
Critical perspectives on human rights law in Australia by Paula Gerber & Melissa Castan (eds)Critical Perspectives on Human Rights Law in Australia provides a comprehensive, accessible and scholarly examination of many of the key human rights issues facing Australia today. Written for human rights and legal scholars, legal practitioners and those readers who wish to increase their understanding of the field, this book provides a timely and intriguing discussion on the law and policy regarding the application of human rights standards in Australia today.
Call Number: KM 226 CRIT
ISBN: 9780455243566
Publication Date: 2021
Principles and practice of Australian law by Jennifer GreaneyThe fourth edition of Principles and Practice of Australian Law maintains the emphasis on context and skills as keys to understanding law in its practical operation. Within this framework, the new edition expands and updates existing material by reference to a range of important contemporary issues and cases.
Call Number: KL 26 GREA
Publication Date: 2020
International human rights Law by Rhona SmithThe only introductory, straightforward textbook on International Human Rights Law: Broad in scope, concise in approach.International Human Rights Law, ninth edition, provides a concise and wide-ranging introduction for students new to the subject. Written with newcomers in mind, the book's concise and direct approach enables students with no legal background to develop a good understanding of International Human Rights Law.Coverage includes regional systems of protection, the role of the UN, and a variety of substantive rights. The author skilfully guides students through the complexities of the subject, and then prepares them for further study and research. Key cases and areas of debate are highlighted throughout, and a wealth of references to cases and further readings are provided at the end of each chapter.NEW TO THIS EDITIONThe discussion topics and examples have been updated and a new overview of international law has been added to the introductionIncludes a new chapter on sustainable development and human rights, with particular focus on the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable DevelopmentExpanded coverage of freedom of expression in the digital age and of the challenges posed by non-state actors.This title is available as an eBook. Please contact your Learning Resource Consultant for more information.
Committees of influence: parliamentary rights scrutiny and counter-terrorism lawmaking in Australia by Sarah MouldsThis book includes original and ground breaking research into parliamentary law making and legislative responses to counter-terrorism in Australia. This book introduces new, holistic and evidenced-based methods of evaluating how parliaments deliberate on complex policy issues, and how they weigh up competing rights and interests. Although this book is focused on the Australian experience, it has relevance across all parliamentary democracies grappling with the challenges posed by ensuring robust rights protection whilst responding to the threat of terrorism. This book will be of relevance and interest to law makers, government administrators and public servants, law enforcement and intelligence agencies, political and legal scholars, law students and members of the legal profession.
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2020
The legal protection of rights in Australia by Matthew Groves, Janina Boughey & Dan Meagher (eds)How do you protect rights without a Bill of Rights? Australia does not have a national bill or charter of rights and looks further away than ever from adopting one. But it does have a range of individual elements sourced from common law, statute and the Constitution which, though unsystematic, do provide Australians with some meaningful rights protection. This book outlines and explains the unique human rights journey of Australia. It moves beyond the criticisms long made of the Australian position that its 'formalism', 'legalism' and 'exceptionalism' compromise its capacity for rights protection to consider how the many elements of its novel legal structure operate. This book analyses the interlocking legal framework for the protection of rights in Australia. A key theme of the book is that the many different elements of a fragmented scheme can add up to something significant, albeit with significant gaps and flaws like any other legal rights protection framework. It shows how the jumbled influences of a common law heritage, a written constitution, differing paths taken by jurisdictions within a single federal state, statutory and common law innovations and a strong dose of comparative legal influences have led to the unique patchwork of rights protection in Australia. It will provide valuable reading for all those researching in human rights, constitutional and comparative law.
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2019
Annotated Victorian Charter of Rights by Alistair Pound & Kylie EvansThe Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (Victoria) is the means by which the civil and political rights of all people in Victoria are brought to bear on the interpretation of Victorian legislation and the policies and practices of the state government and public authorities.
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2019
Annotated Victorian Charter of Rights by Alistair Pound & Kylie EvansThe Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (Victoria) is the means by which the civil and political rights of all people in Victoria are brought to bear on the interpretation of Victorian legislation and the policies and practices of the state government and public authorities.
Call Number: KM 201.2 K2 V32 POUN
Publication Date: 2019
Human Rights in Twentieth-Century Australia by Jon PicciniThis groundbreaking study understands the 'long history' of human rights in Australia from the moment of their supposed invention in the 1940s to official incorporation into the Australian government bureaucracy in the 1980s. To do so, a wide cast of individuals, institutions and publics from across the political spectrum are surveyed, who translated global ideas into local settings and made meaning of a foreign discourse to suit local concerns and predilections. These individuals created new organisations to spread the message of human rights or found older institutions amenable to their newfound concerns, adopting rights language with a mixture of enthusiasm and opportunism. Governments, on the other hand, engaged with or ignored human rights as its shifting meanings, international currency and domestic reception ebbed and flowed. Finally, individuals understood and (re)translated human rights ideas throughout this period: writing letters, books or poems and sympathising in new, global ways.
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2019
Australia's human rights scrutiny regime : democratic masterstroke or mere window dressing? by Adam FletcherIn 2010 the Australian Government decided that it would not propose a Human Rights Act, despite the relevant recommendation of the 2008-09 National Human Rights Consultation. Instead, it introduced a Human Rights Framework comprising several measures to enhance human rights protection, including theHuman Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011. The scrutiny regime under that Act was designed to ensure rights would be given due consideration before Commonwealth legislation was passed.
The Act created a unique 'bipartite dialogue' system, involving a formal interchange on rights compatibility between the executive and Parliament, while excluding the courts. This set the Commonwealth apart from jurisdictions such as the ACT, Victoria, New Zealand and the UK, which have statutory rights instruments administered by their courts.
The book presents a detailed study of all aspects of the scrutiny regime, and compares the regime with its closest counterparts overseas. In assessing the regime's impact, it argues that a system in which the executive and Parliament are responsible both for protecting rights and for remedying rights breaches is neither more legitimate nor more effective than one involving all three branches of government. Accordingly, it calls for strengthening reforms
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2018
Human rights in Australia by Justin Healey (ed)Human rights recognise the inherent value of every person, regardless of our respective backgrounds, where we live, what we look like, what we think or what we believe. These rights are based on universal principles of dignity, equality and mutual respect, and are shared across cultures, religions and philosophies. Human rights are about being treated fairly, treating others fairly and being able to make choices about our own lives. Australia was recently elected to a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council, however its own human rights record is not without controversy, attracting international and domestic scrutiny. What are Australia's international and domestic human rights obligations and how are they being addressed in relation to a number of issues such as asylum seeker detention, racial discrimination, free speech, indigenous advancement, juvenile incarceration, disability rights, gender equality and same-sex marriage? Does Australia need to lift its game on human rights if it is to be taken seriously on the international stage?
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2018
Remote Freedoms : politics, personhood, and human rights in Aboriginal central Australia by Sarah E. HolcombeWhat does it mean to be a "rights-holder" and how does it come about? Remote Freedoms explores the contradictions and tensions of localized human rights work in very remote Indigenous communities. Based on field research with Anangu of Central Australia, this book investigates how universal human rights are understood, practiced, negotiated, and challenged in concert and in conflict with Indigenous rights. Moving between communities, government, regional NGOs, and international UN forums, Sarah E. Holcombe addresses how the notion of rights plays out within the distinctive and ambivalent sociopolitical context of Australia, and focusing specifically on Indigenous women and their experiences of violence. Can the secular modern rights-bearer accommodate the ideals of the relational, spiritual Anangu person? Engaging in a translation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights into the local Pintupi-Luritja vernacular and observing various Indigenous interactions with law enforcement and domestic violence outreach programs, Holcombe offers new insights into our understanding of how the global rights discourse is circulated and understood within Indigenous cultures. She reveals how, in the postcolonial Australian context, human rights are double-edged: they enforce assimilation to a neoliberal social order at the same time that they empower and enfranchise the Indigenous citizen as a political actor. Remote Freedoms writes Australia's Indigenous peoples into the international debate on localizing rights in multicultural terms.
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2018
Remote freedoms : politics, personhood, and human rights in Aboriginal central Australia by Sarah E. HolcombeWhat does it mean to be a "rights-holder" and how does it come about? Remote Freedoms explores the contradictions and tensions of localized human rights work in very remote Indigenous communities. Based on field research with Anangu of Central Australia, this book investigates how universal human rights are understood, practiced, negotiated, and challenged in concert and in conflict with Indigenous rights. Moving between communities, government, regional NGOs, and international UN forums, Sarah E. Holcombe addresses how the notion of rights plays out within the distinctive and ambivalent sociopolitical context of Australia, and focusing specifically on Indigenous women and their experiences of violence. Can the secular modern rights-bearer accommodate the ideals of the relational, spiritual Anangu person? Engaging in a translation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights into the local Pintupi-Luritja vernacular and observing various Indigenous interactions with law enforcement and domestic violence outreach programs, Holcombe offers new insights into our understanding of how the global rights discourse is circulated and understood within Indigenous cultures. She reveals how, in the postcolonial Australian context, human rights are double-edged: they enforce assimilation to a neoliberal social order at the same time that they empower and enfranchise the Indigenous citizen as a political actor. Remote Freedoms writes Australia's Indigenous peoples into the international debate on localizing rights in multicultural terms.
Call Number: 323.119915 HOLC (Held in Baillieu library)
Publication Date: 2018
A Charter of Rights for Australia by George Williams & Daniel ReynoldsAustralia does not have a bill or charter of rights, which means there is no comprehensive law that enshrines human rights in Australia - even though these laws are standard in the rest of the developed world. So what does this mean for the rights of Australian citizens? In this fully revised fourth edition of A Charter of Rights for Australia, George Williams and Daniel Reynolds show that human rights are not adequately protected in Australia, contrary to what many of us think. Using some pressing examples, they demonstrate how the rights of people at the margins of our society are violated in often shocking ways.