News in 2007 & 2008

October 2008: Ben Saul debates the federal Attorney-General on the Rudd Government’s human rights record.

For access to Ben Saul's speech, please click here...

For access to Robert McClelland's speech, please click here...

October 2008: Ben Saul presents evidence at Senate Hearing into academic bias. For further details please click here...

Claims that there is a lack of diversity within academia were attacks on the professionalism of academics, argues Dr Ben Saul.

Dr Ben Saul lodged a submission to the Senate Committee hearing into academic bias and responded to the inclusion of two "blacklists" of Australian university lecturers accused of having a left-wing bias. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, several Sydney academics present at the hearing denounced the lists and denied the need for the inquiry, which was set up by the Victorian Liberal Senator Mitch Fifield in response to the Young Liberals' "make education fair" campaign.

"I think it's a kind of witch-hunt or McCarthyism by students who happen to disagree with a lecturer, who call that difference of opinion prejudice or bias," Dr Saul asserted. "The suggestion that universities may be prejudiced and lacking in diversity has the potential to undermine academic freedom and diversity, since it sends a message to academics that they are under suspicion and that their views require policing by politicians."

September 2008: Jane Mcadam cited by the European Court of Justice

Centre Associate and UNSW law academic Dr Jane McAdam was recently cited in the Legal Opinion of the Advocate General in the European Court of Justice yesterday (9 September 2008).  The case concerns the interpretation of aspects of the European Union’s ‘Qualification Directive’, which is the legal instrument that sets out the minimum standards for the qualification and status of refugees and others in need of international protection, including people fleeing from torture, inhuman or degrading treatment, and generalized violence.  Dr McAdam has written extensively on the Qualification Directive, including her book Complementary Protection in International Refugee Law, published last year by Oxford University Press.  Dr McAdam was the only scholar cited in the Advocate General’s opinion to the court.

September 2008: Ben Saul criticises Australia's anti-terrorism laws. For further details please click here...

September 2008: Ben Saul calls for action on East Timor war crimes suspect...

As a party to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, Australia has a duty to search for, investigate, prosecute and extradite any suspected war criminal found in the jurisdiction, believes Dr Ben Saul, in a Sydney Morning Herald article in relation to accusations against Mr Guy Campos, on holiday after coming to Australia on a World Youth Day visa and accused of being a War Criminal.

"If there is someone here with credible allegations it certainly triggers an obligation for Australia to investigate the allegations and decide whether to prosecute or extradite." Mr Campos has been identified by several individuals, including Jose Belo, who claims the East Timorese man was present when he was interrogated and tortured by the Indonesian Special Forces on the night of January 9, 1995.

Dr Saul stipulates that the UN Convention was open as to whether a country should prosecute or extradite someone accused of breaching the conventions. To view the entire article, click here- Timorese call for action on 'collaborator'

September 2008: Ben Saul speaks at the Public Forum of the Clarke Inquiry into the Haneef case. For further details please click here.

Ben Saul delivered a speech at the Public Forum of the Clarke Inquiry into the case of Indian doctor Mohamed Haneef, examining Australia’s anti-terrorism laws. Other speakers included Sir Gerard Brennan, former Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia, Mr David Bennett QC, former Commonwealth Solicitor General, Mr Ross Ray QC, and President of the Law Council of Australia.

September 2008: Centre Associate Ron McCallum nominated to UN Committee. Click here for access to Information on the Committee and the Convention.

Disability Discrimination Commissioner, Graeme Innes AM, today welcomed the Australian Government's nomination of Professor Ron McCallum AO for election to the international committee to monitor implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Australia, as one of the first countries to become a party to this important human rights treaty, is eligible to nominate a candidate for the committee election which will be held in New York on 3 November.

"Professor McCallum is an eminent Australian and I am fortunate to have had him as a friend and mentor,” said Commissioner Innes. “His achievements in the law, culminating in his term as Dean of the Law School at Sydney University, plus his lived experience of disability, provide him with excellent qualifications for this role." "All Australians - disability community representatives in particular - should applaud and support this nomination."

Commissioner Innes said that Australian government and non-government representatives had made outstanding contributions to the promotion of human rights for people with disability through the international system. Professor McCallum, if elected, would take that contribution to new levels.

August 2008: Ben Saul writes about academic freedom in the Age. For further details please click here.

July 2008: Ben Saul and Andrea Durbach write about racism in the Sydney Morning Herald. For further details please click here.

May 2008: Centre exchanges law journals with the Centre for International Legal Studies, University of Indonesia. The Sydney Centre is pleased to announce that it has reached agreement with the Centre for International Legal Studies at the Faculty of Law, University of Indonesia, to exchange the international law journals produced by each Centre – the Australian International Law Journal, and the Indonesian Journal of International Law. The Faculty of Law at the University of Indonesia is Indonesia’s leading and most prestigious law school, and its journal is the flagship international law journal in Indonesia. Most articles in the journal are published in Bahasa Indonesian language, and provides a vital resource for Australian, Indonesian and international scholars studying Indonesian approaches international law. A number of members of the Indonesian Centre are graduates of Sydney Law School’s international law degree programs, and we look forward to further strengthening cooperation in the future.

April 2008: Five Centre members to attend 2020 Summit. Five members of the Sydney Centre were selected to attend the Australian Government’s 2020 Summit on 19-20 April in Canberra. Ben Saul and Katherine Fallah are among the 100 people on the panel considering Australia’s future and security in the region and the world; Helen Irving and Anne Twomey will be among the 100 discussing the future of Australian Governance; and Mary Crock will join the panel on Population, Sustainability, Climate Change and Water. "This is an outstanding opportunity for the Sydney Law School to provide some policy guidance to the 2020 Summit," said the Dean, Professor Gillian Triggs.

March 2008: Philippine NGO Leaders Training. As part of an AusAID program in collaboration with the Queensland University of Technology, the Centre provided a training workshop to a visiting delegation of Philippine NGO Leaders on the reintegration of displaced persons, with a focus on the situation in the conflict-affected area of Mindanao.

March 2008: Red Cross Humanitarian Law Training. Dr Ben Saul delivered a training session for participants in the Australian Red Cross's International Humanitarian Law Instructors' Course at Red Cross House in Sydney. Dr Saul provided an overview of the humanitarian law issues raised by contemporary "terrorism".

March 2008: Iraqi Human Rights Ministry Training. The Centre met with a third delegation of senior officials from the Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights and again provided international legal training as part of the AusAID program, the Rehabilitation Assistance Facility for Iraq (RAFI). Centre Associates Ben Saul, Tim Stephens, Jacqui Mowbray and Katherine Fallah delivered two training workshops, the first providing an introduction to basic principles of international humanitarian law (including the controversial issue of the accountability of private security contractors in Iraq), international criminal law, and internally displaced persons; and the second focusing on Australian and international human rights education.

December 2007: Human Rights Violations in Sri Lanka. Professor Ivan Shearer, a member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee, has been a member of the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP) observing, since February 2007, the work of the Sri Lankan Commission of Inquiry into certain alleged breaches of human rights and international humanitarian law. The Group met in plenary in Colombo four times during 2007, in addition to which individual members have spent additional time in-country on a staggered basis to observe the sessions of the Commission. There are 11 members of the Group, one each from Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, Cyprus, France, Indonesia, Japan, the Netherlands, USA, and the UK. It is headed by the former Chief Justice of India. The Group will be terminating its mission at the end of March 2008, although the Commission is expected to continue. Sydney Centre members Ivan Shearer, Ben Saul, David Kinley and John Pace have recently been shortlisted for major funding from the European Commission for projects to investigate, document and monitor violations of humanitarian and human rights law in Sri Lanka, in conjunction with Sri Lankan partners the Centre for Policy Alternatives and the Weeramantry International Centre for Peace Education and Research.

December 2007: Lightning strikes twice: USydney students win again in Tokyo Moot. Wan Sang Lung and Showhey Matsui, 3rd and 4th year Sydney LLB students, were on the winning "Team Australia" that successfully defended its trophy in the 6th Intercollegiate Negotiation and Arbitration Moot Competition held in Tokyo over 1-2 December 2007. They joined students from UNSW to compete in the English-language division, and collaborated closely with students from ANU who competed in the Japanese-language division, for a combined performance that fended off Japanese and international students particularly from the University of Tokyo, as well as 15 other top law schools in Japan. One day involved negotiating a complex commercial contract, and the second day involved arbitrating disputes under the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts. The winning Team was supported by the Australian Network for Japanese Law (ANJeL) and many generous sponsors. For further information please click here or contact co-coach Dr Luke Nottage at L.Nottage@usyd.edu.au.

December 2007: Dr Ben Saul was a Visiting Professor at the National University of Juridical Sciences in Kolkata (Calcutta), India.

November 2007: Award for Tax Reform in Developing Countries. Professor Lee Burns was awarded the Graham Hill Annual Revenue Law prize in 2007 by Justice Edmunds of the Federal Court of Australia. The award is given to a person who has made a significant contribution to improving the administration, policy, practice, teaching or understanding of revenue law in Australia. In addition to his expertise in Australian taxation law, Lee is recognised as an authority on comparative tax law. He advised the Board of Taxation and the Australian Treasury on the reform of Control Foreign Company and Foreign Investment Fund rules, and on the reform of international tax rules generally. Lee also works closely with the International Monetary Fund, providing technical assistance to over twenty developing and transitional countries on the design of their tax rules, including Timor-Leste, Philippines, Pakistan, Ghana and Uganda.  Lee’s development work has recently focused on many of the Pacific Island countries such as Tonga, Micronesia, Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Niue. Centre Associate Rebecca Millar is also involved in tax reform initiatives in developing countries.

November 2007: Dr Ben Saul was a Visiting Professor at the City University of Hong Kong.

November 2007: Legal Action against Japanese Whaling. Centre members Ivan Shearer, Chris Ward, Tim Stephens and former Centre Director and founder Don Rothwell were members of the Sydney Panel of Independent International Legal Experts which provided an opinion on Japanese whaling to the International Fund for Animal Welfare. Natalie Klein, an Associate Editor and Case Notes Editor of the Australian International Law Journal, was also on the Panel. After its election in November 2007, the Rudd Government indicated its intention to take international legal action against Japan, partly on the basis of the views of the Sydney Panel. The government has asked Centre Advisory Board member James Crawford to be involved as counsel in potential proceedings. See also this report in the Sydney Morning Herald.

October 2007: Iraqi Human Rights Ministry Training. In August 2007 the Centre hosted a delegation of senior officials from the Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights who were visiting Australia on a scoping mission to identify technical assistance and training possibilities with Australian partners, as part of the AusAID program, the Rehabilitation Assistance Facility for Iraq (RAFI). Subsequently, Centre Associates Ben Saul, Tim Stephens and Katherine Fallah delivered two training workshops to a second delegation of senior officials from the Iraqi Ministry for Human Rights in October 2007. The workshops provided an introduction to basic principles of international humanitarian law (including the controversial issue of the accountability of private security contractors in Iraq), international criminal law, internally displaced persons, and international human rights education. Centre Associates David Kinley and John Pace were involved as human rights specialists accompanying the delegates on their visit to Australia.

October 2007: Dr Ben Saul became President of the Management Committee of the Refugee Advice and Casework Service in Sydney.

During 2007: Stolen Wages & Indigenous Stockworkers. Centre Associate Dr Thalia Anthony is involved in preparing a test case to recover over $50 million in ‘stolen wages’ owed to indigenous stockworkers who were never paid by Vestey Group Ltd more than 40 years ago, when indigenous workers went on strike on Lord Vestey’s property at Wave Hill in the Northern Territory. Dr Anthony has begun compiling evidence - oral testimony, correspondence from station owners, and detailed government records - to demonstrate that between 1930 and 1960 the Wave Hill workers were systematically denied their wages through illegal and underhanded practices, and that this was done with the permission and in some cases the assistance of the federal government. Although the Wave Hill strike led to the first successful Aboriginal land rights claim under Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in the 1970s, the wages have never been paid.

July 2007: Dr Luke Nottage contributed the National Report on Australia for the European Commission's comparative study on "An analysis and evaluation of alternative means of consumer redress other than individual redress through ordinary judicial proceedings". Report

July 2007: Dr Luke Nottage contributed the National Report on New Zealand the forthcoming OECD comparative study on "Reviewing Approaches for Improving Consumer Contracts" Project DTSI CP (2006) OECD

July 2007: Dr Luke Nottage contributed part of the National Report on Australia for the Kyoto Comparative Law Center's comparison of "Representative Actions for Monetary Remedies", forthcoming for the Japanese Cabinet Office (in Japanese)

June-July 2007: Professor David Kinley was a Visiting Professor at the University of the South Pacific Law School in Vanuatu.

June 2007: Dr Ben Saul writes in the Sydney Morning Herald about war crimes prosecutions for the Balibo killings,

May 2007: Dr Ben Saul talks on ABC Radio about possible war crimes prosecutions for the killings of journalists at Balibo

April 2007: Dr Ben Saul provides a legal opinion to the NSW Coronial Inquest into the Deaths of Five Journalists at Balibo, East Timor, in 1975, on the International Protection of Journalists

April 2007: Dr Ben Saul provides a legal opinion on the prospects for war crimes prosecutions in Australia concerning the Deaths of Five Journalists at Balibo

February 2007: Dr Ben Saul makes a submission to a Senate Committee inquiry into cluster bombs

February 2007: Dr Ben Saul makes a submission to a Joint Parliamentary Committee inquiry into the Australia-Indonesia Security Treaty

February 2007: Dr Ben Saul talks on ABC Radio about war crimes prosecutions concerning the “Balibo 5” in East Timor

January 2007: Dr Ben Saul was a Visiting Professor at the Royal University of Law and Economics in Cambodia.

June 2006: Dr Jane McAdam & Associate Professor Mary Crock quoted in a Senate Committee Report on proposal to process asylum seekers who arrive by boat on Nauru

November 2005: Submission to the Australian Senate Inquiry into the Anti-Terrorism Bill

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