Shutterstock
A change in South African law promises to protect defaulting home owners from abuse by unscrupulous operators who snap up people’s homes for a song.
The offence of controlling or coercive behaviour is distinctive because it protects victims from psychological abuse.
shutterstock
Psychological abuse of intimate partners is a public health problem, and is not well-regulated by the law.
Shutterstock
Rowe’s was a particularly harrowing case. But it raises important questions about broader attitudes to the virus.
tomertu
With levels of political discourse reaching new lows, some might say the country could use a dose of shame and humility. At the same time, social media have unleashed a torrent of online shaming.
Under UK law, children’s anonimity is not entirely guaranteed.
271 EAK MOTO/Shutterstock
A loophole robs children of their right to privacy, exposing them to long-term consequences.
cristapper/Shutterstock
The UK’s FGM Act is discriminatory and inconsistent.
If the government expanded the new $73 million Student Work-Integrated Learning program to all students it could help tackle Canada’s most intractable social problems — such as homelessness, reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, affordable housing, social cohesion and intercultural understanding.
A new government program will create 10,000 work placements for undergraduates in only business and STEM subjects. Why not fund students to innovate in the social sector too?
At the moment, Australia has a patchwork of processes and regulations relating to diblings.
Shutterstock
It is time for the states and territories to develop a uniform legal framework that enables donor-conceived people to connect with their genetic kin.
Should we be afraid of robo-justice?
Maksim Kabakou/Shutterstock
Automated tools could help encourage access to justice in areas such as divorce, owners corporation disputes and small value contracts.
Paddy Hill, one of the Birmingham Six who were wrongly convicted of the Birmingham pub bombings.
PA
The long-term effects are much worse for exonerees than for guilty prisoners.
For all offences in the higher courts, the proportion of Victorians sent to prison is actually higher than the national average.
AAP/Paul Miller
An overriding focus on increasing sentences may not necessarily be the best means of redressing the harm caused by sex offences.
Bob Brown was arrested under an anti-protest law after refusing to obey police directions to leave a forestry coup at Lapoinya State Forest.
AAP
Bob Brown’s successful High Court challenge to an anti-protest law in Tasmania will cause many states to review their own protest laws.
A court sketch of Brady from 2013.
PA/Elizabeth Cook
The High Court ruled that Brady won’t be buried in the way he wanted because of his crimes in life.
An unsent text message can be a will, an Australian court has decided.
Dragon Images/Shutterstock
Modern courts may be flexible in working out what your will is after you die, but that doesn’t mean you should be complacent.
A woman from a Rohingya family, in the makeshift provided by a NGO Zakat Foundation of India near Madanpur Khadar, New Delhi.
EPA
What effect does India’s legal precariousness and lack of institutionalised support have on the ground? Most refugee groups have to rely on themselves.
The key messages from Thursday’s COAG meeting were about co-operation and a nationally consistent approach to counter-terrorism.
AAP/Lukas Coch
National discussions about counter-terrorism strategy are welcome, but require robust follow-up if they are to improve responses to terrorism.
One person, one vote.
David Goldman/AP Photo
In an upcoming case about Wisconsin’s voting districts, the Supreme Court will tackle legal questions that have long gone unanswered.
In sentencing, judges usually consider and balance four main purposes of punishment.
AAP/Darren England
In historic cases the potential for a sentence to rehabilitate, incapacitate or deter the offender is largely insignificant – leaving the focus solely on retribution.
What may be deemed in the public interest today may not be so in a decade’s time.
shutterstock
Despite arguments that it is too loose, ambiguous and easy to hide behind, the ‘public interest’ is an integral part of the discourse, law, regulation and governance of modern democracies.
Women activists from Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan and Muslims for Secular Democracy protest against the All India Muslim Personal Law Board and their clerics, October 2016.
EPA/DIVYAKANT SOLANKI
The abolition of ‘instant divorce’ practice in India highlights how Muslim women are successfully and progressively changing gender rights.