Australia’s highest court has ruled a gene mutation linked to cancer cannot be patented, ending a long battle over whether companies can own the rights to genetic material.
Three of the seven seats in the High Court of Australia will soon be filled by women judges.
Lukas Coch/AAP
Now that women will make up 40% of High Court judges come June 2015, is gender now irrelevant? Hardly. Women have made up slightly less than 10% of all High Court judges in the court’s history.
Challenges to the patents for BRCA mutation tests in Australia and the United States resulted in opposing conclusions.
Christiana Care/Flickr
Recent cases in Australia and the United States and a new case in Canada show how controversial the subject of gene patents is. But technological advances and the cost of patenting may soon mean gene patents…
Australian federalism has moved away from the intent of its founders.
Stephen Bain/Wikimedia Commons
The reform of Australia’s federation is under review. In this special series, we ask leading Australian academics to begin a debate on renewing federalism, from tax reform to the broader issues of democracy…
Services can now be expanded to include drug and relationship counselling, sports coaching, as well as stress reduction and meditation.
Flickr/US Department of Education
The High Court of Australia has declared federal funding of the school chaplains program unconstitutional, largely because it doesn’t meet the legal criteria for authorising such payments. But this lack…
We need to look beyond bikies for a solution to tackle organised crime in Australia.
AAP/NSW Police
Last week, the High Court upheld Queensland’s controversial criminal association laws, which had been challenged by the Gold Coast Chapter of the Finks Motor Cycle Club and Pompano Pty Ltd. The challenge…
Google has scored a legal victory over the ACCC – but what was it all about?
EPA/Joechen Luebke
Google has won its long-running legal battle with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), after the High Court today overturned a ruling that the company had engaged in “misleading and…
The High Court decision is not a quirk of Antipodean constitutional law, as alleged by British American Tobacco.
AAP
The High Court of Australia’s ruling on the plain packaging of tobacco products is one of the great constitutional cases of our age. The ruling will resonate throughout the world - as other countries will…