TC Beirne School of Law e-Newsletter

Our law programs have recently undergone a major review and following a series of in-depth discussions held with members of the Brisbane legal profession, major changes to the School's postgraduate offerings, particularly the Master of Laws (LLM), are planned within the next two years. One of the operational priorities in the School's new strategic plan is to continually up-date and develop a suite of educational opportunities that meet the specific and varied needs of law graduates in the workforce. Recent research has indicated that changes to our LLM, such as increased flexibility in modes of delivery and a greater range of subjects attuned to the needs of the legal professional, will ensure that this program continues to remain relevant to today's professional demands.

We are delighted to welcome prominent British legal academic Nick Gaskell to the TC Beirne School of Law as Professor of Maritime and Commercial Law. With more than 30 years experience as an active research academic, Professor Gaskell brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise in the areas of commercial, contract, international trade, and maritime law not only to the School but also to Australia. Professor Gaskell is internationally recognised as a leading authority on maritime law and has lectured widely to the maritime professions and academic community throughout Europe and in countries such as China, India, Pakistan, Japan, South Africa, Singapore, Korea and New Zealand. We look forward to his contribution to the research and teaching and learning endeavours of the School. Professor Gaskell will be presenting the Annual Richard Cooper Memorial Lecture on Wednesday 28 October as his inaugural professorial lecture.

The 2009 Fulbright Symposium, held in Canberra at the end of August, was a great success. Hosted by the TC Beirne School of Law and supported by the Australian-American Fulbright Commission, this year's Symposium focussed on the US–Australia Free Trade Agreement: the last 5 years, the next 5 years. A diverse range of internationally recognised experts from both sides of the Atlantic, including the original negotiator of the US–Australia agreement, Mark Vaile, took part in the Symposium to investigate what we've learned from the Agreement, its impact to date, what problems remain, and how we can apply these lessons in our future trade negotiations with other countries.

Ross Grantham
Dean of Law

Research News

Funding for Research to Secure Baby Boomers' Investments
Congratulations to Dr David Morrison, who won one of nine $70,000 UQ Foundation Research Excellence Awards to study baby boomers and the state of their investments amid the global financial crisis. Dr Morrison's research aims to make recommendations for legal reform to improve means of dealing with financial distress that are consistent and fair for all investors and avoid the kind of investor fallout experienced in the recent Storm Financial collapse. Dr Morrison's interest in this area was sparked as an undergraduate at UQ, and later honed during work as an analyst, chartered accountant and lawyer. As baby boomers hold the largest share of wealth in Australia, Dr Morrison said it was essential that they received sound financial advice and that adequate measures were put into place for their retirement. More...

Happy Birthday Brothels – 10th Anniversary of Prostitution Regulation
New research by the School of Law's Human Trafficking Working Group has found that after 10 years of brothel licensing in Queensland, 90% of the state's prostitution industry remains unregulated or illegal. Associate Professor Andreas Schloenhardt, together with a team of students, undertook a review of patterns in contemporary prostitution in Queensland, 10 years after the application of the Prostitution Act 1999. As well as attracting enormous media interest, the report also generated a number of questions being put to the Government in Parliament, resulting in the introduction of legislation to address some of the issues raised by Dr Schloenhardt and his team. The research report was also the subject of a public seminar held as part of UQ's Research Week in September. The seminar was well attended not only by UQ staff and students by also by members of the Queensland Prostitution Licensing Authority, Queensland Police Force Prostitution Enforcement Team, Premiers Department, Australian Federal Police, Queensland Adult Business Association, brothel owners and members of parliament. More...

Political Donations and Corruption
Research undertaken in the UK investigating political donations and corruption was the subject of a student lecture presented by Professor Keith Ewing from King's College London as part of his recent Distinguished Visiting Fellowship to the School of Law. Professor Ewing's research indicates that the answer to the question of political donations and corruption is to impose tight controls on the amount of money spent, not only by candidates and political parties but also by various interest groups. Professor Ewing has worked closely as an adviser to the British Labour Party on these issues for the past 10 years, preparing submissions on political party funding for high profile inquiries in the UK in 1998 and 2006. More...

Student Success

PNG Human Rights Lawyer Awarded Law Scholarship
A prominent female PNG human rights lawyer and advocate has been awarded the Peter Goodenough and Wantoks Scholarship in Law. Ms Freda Talao was awarded the scholarship during the 2009 Peter Goodenough Memorial Lecture at the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) at UQ in August. Ms Talao will use her scholarship to initially complete a Master of Philosophy research project on human rights in PNG at the TC Beirne School of Law, then move on to PhD studies. Ms Talao said it was often difficult for PNG students to secure financial support for their studies abroad and she was very happy to be completing her studies at one of the best law schools in the world. More...

Moot Victory
TC Beirne School of Law students celebrated another mooting success in August by winning the 2009 Shine Lawyers National Torts Moot Competition. The UQ team - Elizabeth Mathews, Nicholas Derrington, Danielle Tay and Matthew Floro – claimed victory over Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in an all-Queensland final. UQ was ranked first following the preliminary round and went on to beat the University of New South Wales in the semi-finals. The final took place in the Banco Court of the Supreme Court before Justice Fryberg of the Supreme Court, Judge Richard Jones of the Land Court and Judge David Searles of the District Court. The judges commented that the final was of a very high standard and UQ team member Danielle Tay was awarded the 'Best Speaker in the Grand Final'. More...

Alumni Achievement

Caitlin Goss
Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Laws graduate Caitlin Goss, daughter of former Queensland Premier Wayne Goss, left for the UK in September to take up her 2009 Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford University. Caitlin graduated in 2006 with a University medal and will be undertaking a Bachelor of Civil Laws at Oxford to expand her knowledge of post-conflict law reform. Since the scheme began more than 500 Australian Rhodes Scholars have been selected and Caitlin is UQ's eighth Queensland Rhodes Scholar in a row. More...

Charlotte McMillan
Congratulations to School of Law graduate Charlotte McMillan, who has joined UK–based Virgin Media Inc. as its new assistant general counsel. After graduating from the TC Beirne School of Law, Charlotte specialised in IP and media law because of her interest in fine arts, film and theatre. More...

Visitors

Parliament to the People
Students were treated to a formidable double act when both the Speaker and the Deputy Clerk of the House of Representatives presented guest lectures at St Lucia campus in September. The Speaker, Mr Harry Jenkins, and the Deputy Clerk, Mr Bernard Wright, shared decades of practical parliamentary experience with students as part of a new School of Law elective course, the Law of Political Institutions. The visit was organised under the federal Parliament's 'House Calls' scheme, by Associate Professor Nicholas Aroney and course convenor Associate Professor Graeme Orr. More...

Distinguished Visiting Fellow
Professor Celia Wells, OBE, Professor of Criminal Law, Bristol University will be visiting the School during November as our second Distinguished Visiting Fellow for 2009. Professor Wells is currently engaged in research into the criminal liability of corporations and her research seeks to analyse the models for corporate liability on which states can draw in complying with international and regional treaties and to explore the different monitoring and enforcement methods available. The field of anti-bribery provides a number of examples of current instruments including those from the Council of Europe, the European Union and the OECD. In addition there is a broad movement arguing that corporations should be liable for complicity in human rights abuses, most recently evidenced in the International Commission of Jurists' Report on that topic (2008). Her work aims to provide a clear account of the foundation principles that can be applied across a number of international fora. More...

This newsletter is produced by the TC Beirne School of Law marketing office. We welcome comments and feedback and also ideas and suggestions for future issues. Please email us at marketing@law.uq.edu.au.