During the 1980s, Australia remade its 'adult guardianship' laws that governed people unable to manage their own affairs or property. The reforms embraced UN principles and took a common pattern with reformist North American and European countries - with one key exception. The rest of the world chose courts to administer the laws; Australia created specialist multi-disciplinary tribunals. This book compares the work of guardianship tribunals and courts and argues forcefully that Australia's adult guardianship experiment in popular justice is a success. Carney and Tait present work on the Australian tribunals in NSW and Victoria and compare them with overseas studies on courts (and the Family Court of Australia). On every measure tribunals outperform courts. They are more inclusive. They pay more attention to social context and functioning, and are better at incorporating the affected person into the hearing, striking an 'alliance' with them. Courts, by contrast, favour alliances with families and the medical profession. Even in areas where courts might be expected to perform better, they are less successful than the tribunals, collecting and testing evidence and avoiding unnecessary intervention.
Ask anyone what it means to fulfill life's destiny, and the answer they'll give will almost always be, "You choose to make your own destiny." I did mention the word almost. When you're a spirited four-year-old boy with high aspirations whose Christian namesake was that of a cold-hearted pimp, most would agree that your destiny was set on a predetermined course. Terry Christopher Carney was born into a legacy of male hustlers, gangbangers, and criminal masterminds, all of whom conveniently resided in the same household. When destiny's odds are stacked highly against you, one must ask oneself, "Is there really such a thing as the universe giving you a choice?" This book is a living reflection of one boy whose destiny took him down a harsh yet poignant path to manhood. Life can be a dream for some, but for Terry it was a challenge.
The past several decades have witnessed a growing recognition that environmental concerns are essentially property rights issues. Despite agreement that an absence of well-defined and consistently enforced property rights results in the exploitation of air, water, and other natural resources, there is still widespread disagreement about many aspects of America's property rights paradigm. The prominent contributors to Who Owns the Environment? explore numerous theoretical and empirical possibilities for remedying these problems. An important book for environmental economists and those interested in environmental policy.
This book explores the legal meaning of the radical new laws which have transformed the social security system in the last decade.It analyses legislation and case law and lays out the legal principles and concepts, which underpin the sweeping reforms, culminating in the 'welfare reform' package announced in the 2005 Budget. It also explores the policy foundations of these reforms and key administrative changes, such as the creation of a privatised 'job network' and of Centrelink as a 'payment agency' .This book also explores the tension between traditional 'protective' functions of social security and the contemporary focus on 'activation', reciprocity and 'capacity-building', and the extent to which social changes have altered the form of Australian welfare. It reviews the history and transformation of the welfare state, the ideas about the nature of poverty and need, and the policy choices to be made.Detailed case studies are made of the law and policy affecting key groups such as the unemployed, people with illness or disability, and sole parents, as well as the administration and review rights of welfare recipients, and the workings of income and means tests.
Contractualism and Citizenship is a special issue (Volume 18 No 2) of the journal Law in Context. The contents are listed below. You can read the abstract for each chapter by clicking on its title.You can purchase a single copy of this issue through this page, or subscribe to the journal from the journal page.
This book describes a life unlike most. It is the story of an innocent childhood full of hardship, stress, and challenges rarely experienced by a child or adolescent struggling with maturity, social acceptance, and trials all before puberty. That child overcame the odds and chose a career in law enforcement, which exposed him to dangerous experiences involving racial tension, murder, police attitudes, mistrust, anxiety, deception, death, the dangers that face law enforcement officers, and a variety of intriguing events. Those experiences resulted in the unveiling of surprising strengths and weaknesses. This account promotes a better understanding of the character of the men and women who enforce our laws, exposing imperfections and lawlessness at times, but honoring their commitment to fulfill the oath to protect and serve. Circumstances reveal true attitudes and inept political views with some black racist politicians stoking the fires of discontent, white politicians trying to be politically correct to favor minorities, and both races raising suspicions of biased authority. The nonconforming attitudes that often come out toward authority figures are made obvious by race baiters. Politicians are suspected of using their authority to cherry-pick powerful administrators who lack integrity. They are suspected of kowtowing to pressures from the administrations top political powers, and they fail miserably at honoring their oaths of office. Our justice department and those in power exacerbate racial unrest. They appear partisan, catering to the emotional whims of rioters and seeming at times to have antiwhite sentiment. They draw conclusions without engaging rational consideration or a review of evidence. Opinions based on emotional reactions or gathering votes, rather than facts, seems to be the position many politicians take. This leads to premature conclusions that provoke demonstrations and give rioters a feeling of justification for destruction and theft. Racists of the New Party of the Black Panthers demonstrate their hate by intimidating voters at the poles, aligning themselves with racist beliefs expressed by those in the media limelight, and spewing hatred to further divide citizens of all races and religious beliefs.
This monograph provides a comprehensive examination of mental health tribunal hearings in Australia. It deals with a wide and far-reaching landscape of theories and concepts and their practical application to the day-to-day operations of the tribunals in New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory.The study is extensive and broad in its approach, going beyond a critical assessment of the individual tribunals to an examination of the supporting mental health services, and of the complex area of human rights as they relate to the care and treatment of people with a mental illness.It documents the universal tensions between the 'pragmatic' (what is 'affordable' and 'politically acceptable'), the 'normative' (human rights and common law principles) and the 'evidence based' (what 'works best'). The entire discourse is framed within a concern to uphold the rights of those living with a mental illness and a desire to bring about paradigm-shifting changes to improve mental health processes for all stakeholders.It presents considered views on tribunals' future directions, commending existing 'good practices' and charting possible directions for reform of legislation and operations.
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