Legal columnist HUGH SELBY highlights aspects of the 40,000-word reasoning in a recent High Court of Australia case. He says it wasn't an easy read, but there are important lessons from this exercise, lessons likely to fall upon deaf ears.
Hugh Selby
Hugh Selby is the "CityNews" legal affairs commentator. His free podcasts on "Witness Essentials" and "Advocacy in court: preparation and performance" can be heard on the best known podcast sites.
Imagine you went to court with your partner and your mum, and a judge estimated your compensation claim at $3 million but you won't see a cent of it. Legal columnist HUGH SELBY exposes an arcane reality of the ACT Crimes Act.
In this column HUGH SELBY sets a warring scene of history, with a focus on the Middle East, then follows with a sobering generic warning that looks at the seeds of ethnic and religious hatred and what mankind may harvest in the future.
Columnist HUGH SELBY ponders the political and legal downsides of life in the court of Emperor Donnie I.
"He had learned from his judge, so long ago, that so much could be achieved over a cup of tea with just the parties and the judge present... Serve the tea hot so that it and tempers could cool together," writes legal columnist HUGH SELBY.
Legal columnist HUGH SELBY responds to a reader concerned there are matters coming before ACT magistrates relating to alleged law breaches that happened more than one year ago. Too late to be heard? Maybe, says Selby, and here's why…
"The allegations against Drumgold were easy enough. They came directly from the findings of the Sofronoff Inquiry. The problem was that significant evidence before the inquiry could not be used in disciplinary action." writes HUGH SELBY.
Elections cost money. How much, and who pays? Politicians receive gifts. From whom and in what amounts, asks HUGH SELBY.
“Therapeutic jurisprudence is a familiar concept to judicial officers because of the traditional objectives of sentencing include punishment, deterrence, community protection and rehabilitation," but there's more to it, says HUGH SELBY.
"With their collective heads in a fog of denial, day by day the three parties regale us with promises to do this, to do that, and do the other. What they don’t tell us is how any of it will be funded," writes columnist HUGH SELBY.
"Any indigenous Australian defending a criminal charge might well believe that with an all-white jury, the odds are tilted against them," writes legal columnist HUGH SELBY.
"It’s silly season. The beauty of the tulips in the park is spoiled by the clusters of noxious corflute weeds along our roadside verges. The three big parties are hard at muggery and we mugs are their targets," bemoans HUGH SELBY.
