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Daily wrap
Judgment summaries for the decisions handed down by the HCA yesterday are below:
Edelman J [198] “…These are civil appeals. But the principles concerned have far-reaching consequences through both civil and criminal law in these two areas.”
Edelman J [239] “…Just as a team playing a game "cannot be reduced to the personal acts of the players"[230]—a behind can be scored by the Fremantle Dockers if the ball was rushed through the goal by the opposition rather than being kicked by any of the Dockers' great players—so too legal rules can provide that a corporation acted even if the action cannot be attributed to the corporation from a single individual.”
ASIC needs ‘eat-what-you-kill’ resources [The Australian paywall]
The corporate regulator should be able to bank any winnings it gets from its successful litigation, according to experts.
High Court threat over ‘outrageous’ move to block Lawyer X compensation [The Age paywall]
Lawyers warn an “outrageous” state government move to protect itself from compensation claims connected with Nicola Gobbo, the barrister turned police informer, is undemocratic and unjust, and could face a High Court challenge.
Melbourne barrister charged with trafficking and possessing drugs [The Age paywall]
Lawyer Anthony Grant is facing a significant amount of time behind bars for allegedly trafficking a commercial quantity of illicit drugs in Melbourne.
Former DPP seeks rethink on drug laws [The Australian paywall]
Former head prosecutor Nicholas Cowdery has called for an expansion of the drug courts and an overhaul of possession laws as NSW lags behind the country.
Editor’s picks
This video explains how legislative power is distributed between the Commonwealth and State Parliaments by the Commonwealth Constitution. It discusses why the power to make laws about certain types of subjects was conferred on the Commonwealth Parliament. It addresses the different categories of heads of legislative power and where they are to be found in the Constitution. It briefly discusses how expansive judicial interpretation has affected the scope of heads of legislative power and how Commonwealth laws frequently rely upon a patchwork of different heads of power, potentially leaving gaps in the law.
[10] Some of the charges in this proceeding also concern undoubtedly inappropriate communications Mr O’Brien sent to State Trustees Limited (STL) between 2017 and 2018, and to the Commissioner between 2017 and 2021.
[11] Several of them are disgraceful. They included: an email to STL describing the VCAT member who presided over a guardianship hearing as a ‘bitch’ who he was going to ‘destroy’; and an email to the [Victorian Legal Services] Commissioner in which he wrote:
the gatekeepers controlling entry to my profession have failed to keep out the trash and they should, each and every one, be shot, ideally with a small calibre pistol to the back of the head. If this should become legal, you might let me know, because I will happily cooperate with and perform the necessaries. This was the preferred method adopted by Josif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili (don’t “google” it – he’s better known as Stalin), and it was very effective.
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