Coercive control is a form of domestic abuse. Perpetrators aim to take away their partner's autonomy and freedom. This inquiry looked at ways to better respond to the phenomenon of coercive control.

This document identifies issues with the current New Zealand succession law and presents detailed proposals for reform.

The purpose of this project was to examine the role that interveners have played in human rights cases in New Zealand, and whether the quality of decision making could be said to have improved as a result.

This report addresses access to case law in New Zealand, why it is important, and how it can be improved, particularly for use in digital services. In particular, it calls for written decisions of courts and tribunals in New Zealand to be prepared and published...

This paper focuses on the parliamentary and legal implications of governments using a form of AI: automated-decision making (ADM), which is deployed in automated decision-making systems (ADMS). It discusses the implications, presents key parliamentary case studies, and sets out recommendations from the literature on how...

This report discusses amendments to the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1999 (Tas) and other matters relating to the legal recognition of sex and gender in Tasmania.

This document discusses the Judicial Review Act 2000 (Tas) (JRA) and examines whether there is a need to reform the ACT. This report also identifies the limitations which the courts have placed on the scope of judicial review, considers whether those limitations are justified and...

This research is a focused project on one aspect of the parliamentary process. It provides a contextualised account of select committees and their scrutiny of human rights with a particular emphasis on New Zealand’s 52nd Parliament in the 2017-2019 period.

This paper reviews issues relating to the legal recognition of sex and gender, in light of amendments to the Justice and Related Legislation (Marriage and Gender Amendments) Act 2019. The Institute is calling for community feedback on the issues raised in this paper.

There has been a rapid global rise in both bike and car share offerings. Yet many of these have only current low adoption levels, highlighting a pressing need to understand the consumer behaviour that surrounds their adoption. This research maps how future mobility and demand...

This publication compiles data on laws that affect people on the basis of their sexual orientation - a fundamental resource for researchers, civil society organisations, governments and the general public.

This paper evaluates Tasmania’s current laws governing the review of administrative decisions, and seeks community input on this topic.

The Whitlam Oration has become a respected platform for prominent Australians to provide serious commentary on the contemporary relevance of the Whitlam Legacy and to contribute to public debate. This Oration continues this great tradition.

This issues paper considers a new approach to the problem of repeat drink driving through the introduction of a specialist, problem-solving court.

Native title involves an interface between the Australian legal system and Indigenous legal, cultural and political systems. The assertion and management of native title rights involves collective action by sometimes large and disparate groups of Indigenous people. Contentious politics makes such collective action difficult and...

Abstract Religious liberty is central to the Australian way of life. It is enshrined in the Australian Constitution. But it is not the only freedom that matters. There is a rising tension between accommodating differing freedoms in 21st century Australia. The changing face of Australia...

George Brandis’s backdown is only the first step in clarifying and protecting the role of this key legal officer LATE last week, six months after George Brandis quietly issued his Legal Services Direction tightening control over the work of the Commonwealth solicitor-general, the attorney-general abandoned...

On Wednesday, a Senate committee took evidence in an inquiry investigating the issue of a direction from Attorney-General, George Brandis, to the solicitor-general, Justin Gleeson. By the end of the day, the shadow attorney-general, Mark Dreyfus, was calling on Brandis to resign for misleading parliament...

Local Goverment New Zealand (LGNZ) commissioned this paper which takes a high-level look at the interrelationships between the Local Government Act 2002 (LGA), the Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) and the Land Transport Management Act 2003 (LTMA). It comments on the coherence of the statutory...

Talk of reforming the Family Court and family law system is back in the headlines, but agitation about the family law system has a long history. Since the introduction of the Family Law Act and the establishment of the Family Court of Australia in 1976...

This book argues that we should adopt an instrumentalist approach to intellectual property and reject a proprietarian approach – an approach which emphasises the connection between labour and property rights. Overview

This Bill seeks to ensure that Australian entities will be able to comply with new international margin requirements for non-centrally cleared over-the-counter (OTC) derivative transactions, which are due to come into force from September 2016. The purpose of the Financial System Legislation Amendment (Resilience and...

The proud claim that Australia may have “solved the gun problem” might only be a temporary illusion. In recent years, arms dealers have imported more guns than ever before. And last year we crossed a symbolic threshold: for the first time in 20 years, Australia’s...

This guide aims to help older people of any age increase their understanding of their rights, especially at different times in their lives, and to recognise the laws that provide safeguards and protection.

The paper provides compelling new evidence from the Legal Australia-Wide (LAW) Survey demonstrating the lower legal capability of multiply disadvantaged people. The most disadvantaged respondents were found to be significantly more likely to take no action in response to their legal problems. In addition, when...