Sue Chrysanthou SC on cancel culture

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• Use constitutional power to raise age of criminal responsibility nationwide, lawyers tell PM - ABC News
   

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• 2025 James Merralls Fellowship in Law lecture - The Case for Cancelling Cancel Culture - Sue Chrysanthou SC - YouTube

  The Case for Cancelling Cancel Culture, presented by Sue Chrysanthou SC.

  Cancel culture is the antithesis of reasoned, structured persuasion, she argues.

  Unlike legal argument, and unlike traditional academic discourse, it seeks to traduce rather than to debate. It is a substantially modern phenomenon which infiltrates and undermines public and academic discussion and learning.

  Cancel culture is not merely immature but infantile; it eschews rationality in favour of the mentality of the mob, using modern technology to do so. In contrast to historical punishments like ostracism and exile, it proceeds in an uncontrolled way, and often mistakes mere allegation for proved guilt. It is fundamentally corrosive and ought to have no place in academic or public life. This lecture series is named in honour of the late James Merralls AM QC, an alumnus of Melbourne Law School, who graduated LLB (Hons) in 1958. In addition to an illustrious practice at the Victorian Bar, Mr. Merralls was a reporter for the Commonwealth Law Reports between 1960 and 1969 and was the editor from 1969 to 2016.
   

• Using Generative AI | Queensland Courts

  Queensland courts and tribunals have prepared detailed information about Generative AI to assist:
   

  • judicial officers: The use of Generative AI: Guidelines for judicial officers; and
     

  • non-lawyers (including self-represented litigants, McKenzie friends and lay advocates) who represent themselves or others: The use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI): Guidelines for responsible use by non-lawyers
     

• In Memoriam: Emeritus Professor Tony Blackshield AO FASSA (1937-2025)
   

• Aristocrat Technologies Australia Pty Ltd v Commissioner of Patents [2025] FCAFC 131

  [1] The fundamental issue in these proceedings is whether the claims in four patents concerning electronic gaming machines (EGMs) satisfy the requirement that they be a manner of manufacture within s 6 of the Statute of Monopolies 1623 (UK) 21 Jac 1, c 3 (Statute of Monopolies) as required by s 18(1A)(a) of the Patents Act 1990 (Cth) (Patents Act). In the particular circumstances of this lengthy and complex litigation, however, the manner in which that issue is to be addressed depends on a series of questions concerning the doctrine of precedent which arise when a matter has been remitted to the Federal Court after the High Court was equally divided.
   

• How a former junior lawyer created a $7b AI legal start-up [AFR paywall]

  Winston Weinberg’s company is making lawyers ‘a lot more productive’, but critics say it offers little more than ChatGPT.
   

• Rosemary Lyster: Justice in Climate and Disaster Law – Just Cause – Apple Podcasts

  What is climate justice? How do we compensate those affected by climate disasters, particularly in the developing world? How are states failing to properly respond to the climate crisis, and how can we change this? In this episode of Just Cause, JD student Debadrita Guha and LLB student Amelia (Mae) Milne speak with Professor Rosemary Lyster about what justice means in the context of the climate catastrophe, and how climate and disaster law can address this crisis. Rosemary provides a brief overview of the national and international policy infrastructure of climate law and the current challenges we face in climate and disaster management, before giving advice on what we, as individuals, can and need to do in the face of climate change. Rosemary Lyster is the Professor of Climate and Environmental Law in the University of Sydney Law School and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law. Rosemary's special area of research expertise is Climate Justice and Disaster Law.
   

• New guidance released ahead of social media minimum age laws - Law Society Journal
   

• Fifty years of PNG's independence constitution - Law Report - Apple Podcasts

  Papua New Guinea is celebrating 50 years of independence from Australia. Among the country's historic achievements is the national constitution, created in the 1970s using a groundbreaking process of public consultations across PNG. Five decades on, how well has PNG's constitution served its people?
   

• Donald Trump files defamation and libel lawsuit against The New York Times, claiming 'massive economic damage to his brand value' - ABC News
   

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