Friday December 26, 2008
Lapsed judgment: thieves among Their Honours
Judges, supposedly, are a cut above politicians. Judicial duties require learning, wisdom, fairness, balance and restraint. Almost the exact opposite to what we expect from pollies, writes Richard Ackland.
Friday December 19, 2008
Law, theatre and shrewd judgment
On her 50th birthday Virginia Bell, the most recent appointment to the High Court of Australia, was carried aloft on a sedan chair by four Nubian slaves, writes Richard Ackland.
Friday December 12, 2008
Kirby really is a radical: he made court courteous
From now till his departure from the High Court, six weeks earlier than his constitutional senility dictates, there is going to be a raft of encomiums, tributes and sprays offered to Justice Michael Kirby, writes Richard Ackland.
Friday December 5, 2008
Charter foes tilting at scary straw monsters
Human rights are about to have a great big birthday party next Wednesday. It's the 60th anniversary of the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights, writes Richard Ackland.
Friday November 28, 2008
Satisfaction of saviours from queue jumpers
During The Howard Years on ABC1 Monday nights, those "mean and tricky" faces (Shane Stone's words) from the former world march back into our living rooms. And it's enjoyable to have them back, so we can see the marvellous displays of tribal treachery and knifing, writes Richard Ackland.
Friday November 21, 2008
The answer's Semple - cull federal magistrates
It's a reflex condition of the human spirit that once a person is elevated to rung No.1 on the greasy ladder of life, immediately rung No.2 is the place they really want to be, writes Richard Ackland.
Friday November 14, 2008
A little of what you fancy may not be what you want
Thump. Down plops another report from Australia's Right to Know, a coalition of media companies and organ-isations (including Fairfax Media) lobbying under the acronym ARK, writes Richard Ackland.
Friday November 7, 2008
The legal minefield awaiting Team Obama
It's "just a piece of paper" is the way George Bush famously described the US constitution. Bush has scant respect for the piece of paper and surrounded himself with lawyers who systematically worked out ways to shred it, writes Richard Ackland.
Friday October 31, 2008
Sober as a judge, after five Brobdingnagian years
Stand by your dictionaries. The 20-volume Oxford English will do for reading Justice Neville Owen's reasons in the gigantic Bell Group litigation, writes Richard Ackland.
Friday October 24, 2008
Media are tough on crime and rough on justice
On June 16 the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research issued a report that showed there was no link between the shortage of heroin and the rise in the use of amphetamines, writes Richard Ackland.
Friday October 17, 2008
A little closer to Einfeld truth? You be the judge
The Marcus Einfeld case speeds on, with bits of it falling off on to the roadway as it zooms into the blue beyond, writes Richard Ackland.
Friday October 10, 2008
When the law provides no justice, call a reporter
Every blue moon a journalist does some real good in the world. My pin-up girl right now is Colleen Egan, a Perth journalist for the local organ The Sunday Times, writes Richard Ackland.
Friday October 3, 2008
Buckley's chance of buffing Ruddock legacy
Have you noticed that in his quiet, dogged way Philip Ruddock has embarked on a mission to reshape his legacy?, writes Richard Ackland.
Friday September 26, 2008
We can no longer bank on the free market
There were boys of my acquaintance who, having scraped four Bs in the leaving certificate, were presented by their fathers with a red MG and a seat on the Sydney Stock Exchange, as it then was, writes Richard Ackland.
Friday September 19, 2008
Turnbull one minute jovial, the next lethal
Who wrote this memorable ditty: "Fifty-four cents for peas and beans. And only a dollar for best whipping cream. Where do ya get it?", writes Richard Ackland.
Friday September 12, 2008
Pubs and clubs have lost the battle, but not the war
Frankly, I miss the enchanting John Thorpe, former head hotelier of NSW. "We aren't barbarians but we don't want to sit in a hole and drink chardonnay and read a book," the chief beer puller said just over a year ago, writes Richard Ackland.
Friday August 29, 2008
Torture enthusiasts are in the line of British fire
Remember that clutch of outspoken and confident lawyers who in last year's torture debates bravely came out for the freedom to torture?
Friday August 22, 2008
How the Haneef affair became carry on coppers
More than a year ago, there was strong evidence that the terror case against Mohamed Haneef was a farce. Yet grimly the federal police and the top copper Mick Keelty held firm to the belief that this Indian doctor posed a threat.
Friday August 15, 2008
How will we catch scoundrels?
The most interesting stories in the newspaper invariably are those someone doesn't want published. Philandering, state secrets, incompetence, venality, greed, hubris, double standards. You name it, writes Richard Ackland.
Friday August 8, 2008
Jury lost is a system found wanting, again
One can only admire the restraint exercised by Jason Morrison, a 2GB radio announcer who is filling in on the airwaves for the absent and terribly missed Alan Jones. Morrison is the man whose unfortunate fate it was to trigger the discharge of the jury in the Gordon Wood murder trial, writes Richard Ackland.
Thursday July 31, 2008
The rise of a judicial orchid
Who is this Justice French and where the hell does he come from? Which is another way of asking how come a Federal Court judge from the boondocks of Western Australia caught the eye of the selectors in Canberra, asks Richard Ackland.
Friday July 25, 2008
Here comes the judge - but which one will it be?
Walk three steps down the Boulevard of Broken Dreams (aka Phillip Street) and your ear will be bent with 10 different speculations about the next chief justice of the High Court, writes Richard Ackland.
Friday July 18, 2008
Meanwhile, down south one slips past the keeper
On the very day this week that the full Federal Court was ever so gently reading up our rights by doing away with the World Youth Day regulation that clumsily sought to protect "pilgrims" from annoyance, a different bench of the court in Melbourne was reading down our rights, with much more serious and fundamental implications, writes Richard Ackland.
Friday July 11, 2008
Quick runaround in legal circles to stay on the spot
What must life be like for poor Morris Iemma? Does he want to stay put in bed in the morning for fear of some fresh horror unfolding, asks Richard Ackland.
Friday July 4, 2008
Charge like wounded bull, sting like bee
In ancient Hindu mythology there existed an infinite number of universes, each one having its own set of gods, rules and ideals, writes Richard Ackland.
