Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Australian law/Archive 2

Infobox court case
I've added a proposed Infobox at User:Thebainer/Infobox court case, which displays information about court cases. I created this with WikiProject Australian law in mind, but really this could be used for any court. I thought I'd throw it open for comments before I start adding it to articles. --bainer 08:57, 12 May 2005 (UTC)

Tasks list
Would anyone mind if I moved this to the project page as opposed to here? I didn't even know this was here until today! Ambi 13:09, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)


 * No, it'd probably fit better out there. When I copied the WikiProject template it had an old 'to do' style thing on the talk page, I just changed it yesterday to this 'open tasks' format instead. Now that it's in this form it probably would be better out there where everyone can see it. --bainer (talk) 22:04, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Hi guys. I'm new here, a law student and as a fresh face not yet cynical ;). In exams at the moment but over the next few weeks planning to do a bit of work on Australian contract law. If things need research/citation I'm happy to do that sort of thing because it's an intersting way to learn. Man, I sound naive don't I... wait until I'm in practice, I'll become stereotypical soon enough. --mjec 12:04, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Case citation
I have been adding case citations for other countries and I've added a section for australia. Since I'm not familiar with it, there's liable to be mistakes. If anyone with australian citation knowledge would like to contribute that would be great. -PullUpYourSocks 17:02, 25 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Revisiting the dot: an English dilemma
I've just been browsing some of the more general law articles, and I've just realised that all of the articles on English cases use the dot in their title. This creates the odd situation where half our articles are going to use it, and half are not. I'm really not fussed which way we go, but either way, both the English and Australian articles probably should be using the same format.

If you haven't already, you might also want to take a look at WikiProject Law, which seems to be doing some good work already - there might be some things we could take away from there to use here. Ambi 04:23, 11 July 2005 (UTC)

The dot is dead, long live the dot. The full stop in case citation abreviations (including the 'v') is no longer in use in contemporary legal publishing in Australia. It is archane. Lets not revive it on wiki. FedLawyer 15:21, 30 December 2005 (UTC)

Legislation
As usual, the US seems to be far ahead of us - take a look at List of United States federal legislation. Any interest in getting a similar list together here? Ambi 04:25, 11 July 2005 (UTC)


 * I've cobbled together a list of a few important Acts over at /Legislation, and there's a few I'd be happy to make a start on. Any ideas about how to organise article on legislation? --bainer (talk) 13:51, 11 July 2005 (UTC)


 * What sort of article were you thinking of? I've just created an Australian version of the American list, based on your list, at List of Australian federal legislation - feel free to make any changes you want. Ambi 03:11, 12 July 2005 (UTC)


 * I meant to type articles - I was wondering if anyone had any ideas about a standard way to structure articles on individual acts. Having a look at the American list, the USA PATRIOT Act is pretty comprehensive. Perhaps a section each on the history and context of the legislation, the purpose, the effect, and so on. --bainer (talk) 05:06, 12 July 2005 (UTC)

Infobox
In the meantime I made a quick infobox that could be used on pages about individual acts, it covers the basics like what the long title is, when it was given Royal Assent and who introduced it. There's an example below. Any suggestions about adding to it? --bainer (talk) 08:36, 13 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Looks fine to me - I can't think of anything more that could be added off the top of my head. Ambi 12:22, 13 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Ok, I've now added the infobox: Template:Infobox Legislation, with instructions and descriptions of the parameters at Template talk:Infobox Legislation. --bainer (talk) 08:45, 14 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Someone apparently didn't like the Aussie-centric naming of the template and moved it to Template:Infobox AU Legislation, in order to restore Americo-centricity. Please update your usage accordingly. --bainer (talk) 10:40, 30 July 2005 (UTC)


 * With respect to legislation - it is continuously being amended with new bills into parliament. Is the template and article going to be a complete incorporation of all the bills introduced that have subsequently amended it? For example the VSU legislation is coming through under the Higher Education Ammendment Act 2002 (or similar) but it is just one paragraph. The template so far looks really good. --Never29 15:26, 30 November 2005 (UTC)


 * Yeah, that's the idea, any amendments can be listed in the "Amendments" section in the template. The amendments can then be discussed in detail in the article. At the bottom of the template there's also the {status} parameter, which can be set to "current", "amended" (if there have been substantial amendments) or "repealed". See Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902 for an example. --bainer (talk) 21:39, 30 November 2005 (UTC)

Why repeat what is effectively already up on the free net at AustLII? If something is to be done on legislation lets value add to the AustLII material. FedLawyer 15:17, 30 December 2005 (UTC)

Ease of use
I was wondering if the Australian law infobox could be made easier to use or if it is already easy if it could be explained more simply. For example the general Infobox Legislation shows its fields thus
 * Name=
 * Parliament/Congress/Senate it was passed in=
 * Logo of that parliament or congress=
 * longtitle=
 * introducedby=
 * datepassed=
 * datesigned=
 * amendments=
 * relatedlegislation=
 * tablewidth=

A List of laws concerning Indigenous Australians will probably lead to some new articles. Thanks, Paul foord (talk) 02:11, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

Featured article workup?
Over the last few months, we've been having enormous success in the Canberra WikiProject with the concept of a featured article workup - similar to the common collaborations, but not limited by time; it stays there until it gets featured. It's so far managed to produce Canberra (which was accepted on FAC virtually unanimously) and History of the Australian Capital Territory (which is very close to being nominated), and I think there could be a lot of potential to do that here - so many of these articles are ordinary, but if a few people were interested, we could produce some real gems. Supreme Court of the United States is already featured, so perhaps we could take heed from this and make High Court of Australia even better. Ambi 07:57, 1 December 2005 (UTC)


 * Good idea, and the HCA is a good first candidate. At first glance it's missing a "History" section, which seems pretty glaring. WP:SCOTUS has their collaboration over at WikiProject U.S. Supreme Court Cases/PCA, although it's been stuck on Miranda v. Arizona for about a year now. --bainer (talk) 08:23, 1 December 2005 (UTC)


 * It'd be nice to see HCA worked up to feature standard. Australian constitutional law is pretty comprehensive as is.--cj | talk 08:28, 1 December 2005 (UTC)

Kick Starting Australian Property Law
Hey Guys, I would like to write the article on Australian Property Law but thought before I just leaped straight in to ask for some guidance as to style, sub-categorisation, etc given it is such an ecompassing and almost limitless topic.

For example

 * There is Real Property Law (Land) - mortgages, easements, covenants, leases
 * Intellectual Property and its associates; copyright, trademark
 * Chattels and the intermingling with torts
 * Different state schemes of bureaucratisation
 * A long Australian history; and English history indeed - beginning with Feudalism
 * Of course Native Title
 * Body Corporate & Community Law
 * Many theories of property law

I will use the Property law page as a guide/model however there are some major distinctions as Australian property law is unique to the extent that in the federal system it his highly bureaucratised through legislation, being such a broad topic it could be a nightmare!

I Propose
The best way to begin would be to start off with some theory explaining what property is (in terms of a legal right) in the Australian context, then begin by explaining the different state regimes of land title (e.g the Qld Torrens System of Land) but then do you go into history? Quality should be emphasised over quantity, making the focus on land as property then expanding when I've got that one right?

How far does wiki law go? Should it be one big article, or a project encompassing dozens of articles that spring off Property Law? Any pointers? Cheers --Never29 16:36, 2 December 2005 (UTC)


 * I'm very new here, but I would suggest that the property law article should be a launching point for the three main areas of property law in Australia with a brief overview
 * - Real Property (torrens title and native title)
 * - Goods & Chattels (like the english, Denning and such)
 * - Intellectual Property (like the English again, automatic copyright and patents)
 * I do not think that Australian property law theory and history deserves it own section on the property law page. It would be worth mentioning the two areas of property law where Australia has really innovated - torrens title and native title. If I learn to edit better I will start working on some of this. IP is more my forte than anything else. VeryRusty (talk) 12:36, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

Note - I have created a modification of the template for law articles - , which puts articles into Category:Law-related articles lacking sources. I have substituted this for the regular unref template on some law articles in Category:Articles lacking sources. Please use this as a resource to note law-related articles that require references. Cheers! BD2412 T 15:25, 7 December 2005 (UTC)

Categories for Statutes
Some articles about federal and state laws are starting to appear. I suggest that categories/stubs are created for statues of each of the state parliaments and for the federal parliament. jmd 03:46, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

There are thousands of pages of the stuff each year - it is like holding back the tide. Categories as suggested are great, but I don't think wiki will ever keep up with the output (or cover what is there) and that is best left for the subject articles anyway. (eg Australian migration law). FedLawyer 15:15, 30 December 2005 (UTC)

Judges
We now have articles on all of the High Court Justices. It would be nice to get some articles started on some of the Federal Court or state Supreme Court justices. Anyone know of some good sources for bios on these people? --bainer (talk) 02:04, 26 December 2005 (UTC)
 * It'd be nice to get a list on each court article first. Once we've got that, I think we should be able to construct at least some decent biographies between Google and Factiva. Ambi 02:16, 26 December 2005 (UTC)
 * a bit hard... NSWSC website only has list (and bio) of the chief justices. there isn't even a list of the other justices. --Sumple 13:20, 14 January 2006 (UTC)
 * Eh, we'll find it in time. If one of us can't find it in a law library or state library, then we could always write to them and ask them to point us in the right direction. Ambi 13:34, 14 January 2006 (UTC)

VICSC has a list all every single judge who has ever served on it. Xtra 13:50, 14 January 2006 (UTC)
 * Anyone fancy turning that into a list, ala List of Judges of the High Court of Australia? There's some people there who'd make for fascinating topics. Ambi 13:54, 14 January 2006 (UTC)
 * Done for Vic for current ones. Xtra 14:14, 14 January 2006 (UTC)
 * Lovely. I've formatted all the names according to convention, and I think I'll have to start writing soon. It'd be great if someone could do the full list, although the main article might need a bit of expansion to warrant it. Ambi 14:39, 14 January 2006 (UTC)

Done the complete list. Took a couple of hours. Going to sleep. Xtra 05:08, 15 January 2006 (UTC)
 * I've disambiguated the list, and added at least the current justices for Supreme Court of the Northern Territory as an aside. It'd be nice if someone with the appropriate know-how could create a table like that at List of Judges of the High Court of Australia. Ambi 06:27, 15 January 2006 (UTC)

Organising articles
I have done some re-organizing along accepted categories for legal writing. Hope you like it ;)!? Maybe with a more normalised structure people might add smaller articles. I haven't added much article stuff as the big ticket topic items are a bit daunting, so maybe this will help with making some smaller topic items fell like they have somewhere to live.

FedLawyer 15:11, 30 December 2005 (UTC)

Royal Commissions and this project
Will this project pick up Royal Commissions, a list of national RCs has been created. Paul foord 11:15, 31 December 2005 (UTC)

Interstate Commission
Added article on inter-state Commission. I need some references (will add soon) and see-alos's. Suggestions? --Sumple 13:18, 14 January 2006 (UTC)

Position of State courts within the court hierarchy - comments sought
Various articles about state courts make mention of the court's position within the Australian court hierarchy. State Supreme Courts are said to me in the middle and District Courts and the County Court of Victoria for example are said to be low. Could some of the participants in the Aust law project could take a look at some of these as they don't seem right to me. I would have thought it fair to say that the Supreme Courts were near the top, and the district courts (together with the Federal Court) were somewhere near the middle, and the various local courts and Magistrates Courts were at the bottom. See for example: District Court of New South Wales, Supreme Court of Tasmania, District Court of Western Australia. Thanks -- Adz|talk 10:00, 15 January 2006 (UTC)

The current hierarchy:
 * High Court is at the Top
 * Full federal court is equal to Courts of Appeal
 * Federal Court is equal to Supreme Court
 * County / Distric Court is a State only thing
 * Federal Magistrates is equal to Magistrates/ local

the Supreme courts are right in the middle and the county/district courts are towards the bottom. Xtra 10:13, 15 January 2006 (UTC)


 * It's hard to say whether a court is in the "middle". If you just write them down as a list, then yeah Supreme Court is in the middle. But in terms of how things are perceived for people, then local court is on the bottom, district/county court is in the middle, and all the appeals courts are up at the top. The High Court is not really a rung on the stepladder because there is no automatic appeal to the High Court. The way I see it:


 * High Court at the "apex"
 * Courts of Appeal (& Full fed court) at the top
 * Supreme Court (fed court) near the top
 * District Court (county court) near the bottom
 * Magistrate's/Local Court at the bottom


 * --Sumple 23:11, 15 January 2006 (UTC)


 * Thanks for clarifying that Xtra. I had thought of it much as Sumple has explained it. This perception is probably emphasised by the fact that the majority of cases would be dealt with by local courts and magistrates courts, and only more serious cases would go to a Supreme Court or a Court of appeal - or at least that's my impression as a lay person. Perhaps A disagram of a court hierarchy pyramid in the court hierarchy article would help.
 * I'm begining to think that because the various articles about the courts explain (or should explain) the role of the court and the variuos courts that sit above and below the court in question, adding a sentence about the court hierarchy only confuses things. I think its confusing to say that a particular court is the higest court in the state, and then place it in the middle of the hierarchy. Perhaps it would be suficient to provide a "see also" link to the Australian Courts Hierarchy article. -- Adz|talk 23:36, 15 January 2006 (UTC)

My aim in adding the position in the court hierarchy was really just to get the link to the article which I thought was important. Xtra 23:49, 15 January 2006 (UTC)


 * I'd just like to point out that a decision of a single High Court judge is not binding on a state Court of Appeal. Neither is a decision of a District/County Court binding on a local/Magistrates Court. Similarly for the Federal Court/Federal Magistrates Court. - Richardcavell 08:56, 17 April 2006 (UTC)

Argument going on at Gillick competence
Can anyone who knows what they're talking about answer whether or not a parent and a child can have concurrent ability to consent to medical therapy at common law? In South Australia and NSW, there's legislation to provide for it. But my argument is that there is no concurrent ability to consent, based on Marion's case at page 316 (McHugh J) and the majority verdict that appears to construe parental rights more narrowly than Gillick IMHO. Also, if there's anyone around here who's interested in medical law like me, would you like to get together and referee each other's work? :D - Richardcavell 09:01, 17 April 2006 (UTC)

State Supreme Court justices
A while ago, we added lists of state supreme court justices to those respective court articles, and I've been thinking about starting to write articles on these. I've just been looking for a list of the ACT Supreme Court judges, however, and though I managed to find it (here), the list is thoroughly confusing. Is there any chance someone could upload this to Wikipedia in a way that makes some sense? Rebecca 04:48, 14 May 2006 (UTC)


 * I nearly want to kill myself, but it's done: List of Judges of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory. --bainer (talk) 07:26, 14 May 2006 (UTC)


 * You are a legend, bainer. :) Rebecca 06:36, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

Queensland Supreme Court judges are added! Sambo 06:06, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Constitution template
I was checking out US Constitution, which looks sorta nice, so I thought I'd do up one for the Australian Constitution:

Feel free to edit it before I move it into the template namespace and start adding it to articles. --bainer (talk) 11:42, 20 May 2006 (UTC)


 * Good but a lot of the sections are not interesting and wil never elicit an article. Also, s51 may need to be divided into the various subsections. Xtra 13:24, 20 May 2006 (UTC)


 * Section numbers are pretty user-unfriendly. What about adding some meaningful nomenclature - eg Corporations power - s 51(xx)?


 * Yes, I'm picky, but isn't the plural of referendum referenda? Sambo 13:21, 28 May 2006 (UTC)


 * I used to think so too, but apparently not, see Referendum. Further, "referendums" has always been used in this context (see this, for example). --bainer (talk) 13:37, 28 May 2006 (UTC)


 * Maybee its time to move it into the the template namespace. And addiing it to relevant pages might encourage users to create articles that are needed. Also maybee a section under SCPOE in this WikiProject, as this seems to be quiet a large selection of articles that will need work. Jarryd Moore

New member
Hi all - I've joined this project, and my first contribution is the List of Judges of the Supreme Court of Queensland. I'm with Rebecca - I nearly want to kill myself! Sambo 06:03, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Admin law, and more HCA cases
There's a notable absence of substantive legal commentary in Wikipedia on Australian immigration law. Given the recent controversies, and that there has been heated division on the High Court (eg in Plaintiff S157) (Gleeson CJ, McHugh J and Kirby J arguably the protagonists) I'm keen to start putting something together. Any volunteers to write some case summaries?

As far as I can see, the notable absences from HC case summaries are: Sambo 08:56, 28 May 2006 (UTC)
 * Re Judiciary Act 1903 and Naviation Act 1912 (1921) 29 CLR 257
 * Australian Communist Party v Commonwealth (1951) 83 CLR 1
 * AG(Vic); Ex rel Black v Cth (1981) 146 CLR 559
 * Adelaide Company of Jehovah's Witnesses Inc v Cth (1943) 67 CLR 116
 * Church of the New Faith v Cmr Payroll (Vic) (1982) 154 CLR 120
 * AG(UK) v Heinemann Publishers Australia (1987) 8 NSWLR 341
 * Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs v Teoh (1995) 128 ALR 353
 * R v Trade Practices Tribunal; Ex parte Tasmanian Breweries (1970) 123 CLR 361
 * AG(NSW) v Trethowan (1931) 44 CLR 394
 * Fardon v AG(Qld) &#091;2004&#093; HCA 46
 * Behrooz v Secretary of DIMIA &#091;2004&#093; HCA 36
 * Al-Kateb v Godwin &#091;2004&#093; HCA 37
 * Singh v Commonwealth of Australia &#091;2004&#093; HCA 43
 * Re Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs; Ex parte Applicant S154/2002 &#091;2003&#093; HCA 60
 * Plaintiff S157 v Cth &#091;2003&#093; HCA 2
 * Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs v Singh &#091;2002&#093; HCA 7
 * Re Wakim &#091;1999&#093; HCA 27
 * Perre v Apand
 * Garcia v National Australia Bank


 * I'll be happy to help with some of those, Al-Kateb particularly, and also the Jehovah's Witnesses case. Unfortunately it's exams at the moment for me, and for several other members of the project so I may not be able to help straight away! Dietrich v The Queen seems to be fairly well accepted as our model case law article, so check that out when you start working on these cases. --bainer (talk) 12:27, 28 May 2006 (UTC)


 * S220/2002 is another important high court immigration case (for admin law anyway)... (JROBBO 07:26, 30 May 2006 (UTC))

Australian tort law
This article is badly in need of editing and meaningful commentary. I've started by adding some references and editing/adding to (in part) the sections on legislative reform and recognised torts. Sambo 12:06, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

High Court Judges
Can we put the birth (and death if relevant) dates of the High Court judges on the list? I think it would make a useful addition to that list? If I recall they were on there for some time but were later removed. (JROBBO 07:28, 30 May 2006 (UTC))


 * What for? Rebecca 10:15, 30 May 2006 (UTC)


 * I'm with JROBBO - this would be a useful addition. Sambo 12:24, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

Spycatcher Case
Can we add a page for the Spycatcher case (http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/HCA/1988/25.html Attorney-General (United Kingdom) v Heinemann Publishers Australia Pty Ltd [1988] HCA 25] - the case about the publication of alleged MI6 secrets in Australia and the UK Government's attempt to restrain publication of the book in Austalia - rejected on the grounds of the assertion of sovereign authority by a foreign state in Australia. This is an important High Court case in Australia. (JROBBO 03:32, 19 June 2006 (UTC))


 * That certainly looks interesting! I'll do some research. --bainer (talk) 05:00, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

New citation template
I've done up a new single citation template which can link to more than two dozen different case report and transcript sources at AustLII. The template is currently here, tests seem to work fine so far, so I'll move it into the template namespace and start deprecating the old citation templates if people think it's useful. --bainer (talk) 12:11, 19 June 2006 (UTC)


 * Absolutely - that's a great idea. Sambo 16:23, 21 June 2006 (UTC)


 * Finally got around to doing this, Cite Case AU is now available to use, it replaces the old citation templates, which I've deprecated from main space. It can also easily link to about two dozen more sources on the AustLII site, including various federal courts, the state and territory Supreme Courts and even some tribunals. --bainer (talk) 13:36, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

Thomas McCosker
Thomas McCosker is currently at AfD. The person is not really notable but the Fijian court case is. Would somebody like to have a go at turning it into an article about the court case? There is some support for a rename. I have now found the Fijian law report at http://www.paclii.org/fj/cases/FJHC/2005/500.html. There are some articles on the Fijian judicial system and the constitution but there could be more.--A Y Arktos\talk 21:44, 20 June 2006 (UTC)

Allens Arthur Robinson
We don't currently have an article on this firm who by my reckoning is one of Australia's leading law firms. How do you add an article to a requested articles list. This is in relation to Norman Lethbridge Cowper who is currently nominated in Articles for deletion and who was senior partner in the firm when it was Allen, Allen & Helmsley. Capitalistroadster 10:57, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

Constitution of Australia
Hey guys, I am attempting a re-write of the Constitution of Australia article. Basically, the reasons that I feel this article needs work is because: What I've done so far is at User:Sumple/Constitution of Australia. The #Articles section is based on the United States Constitution article.
 * The current article is too much like Australian constitutional law.
 * I think the Constitution of Australia should be a short, descriptive outline about the document, and less so about doctrines or cases; more descriptive and less discursive.
 * When someone reads the Constitution of Australia article as it stands, they're likely to be left without very clear ideas about the nature/history/structure/contents of the documents.

Things which still need to be done are: Any comments, suggestions, and criticisms are most welcome. --Sumple (Talk) 01:12, 18 July 2006 (UTC)
 * A "History" section.
 * Work out a good way of explaining the relationship between the Constitution text, vs the "Constitution" including letters patent or other things.
 * I would also like to restructure the "See Also" section in such a way as to bring together all the Constitution-related articles on Wikipedia (cases excluded - they can be linked from Australian constitutional law).
 * There is some material from the original page down the bottom, under "Old Stuff". They're there just for reference.


 * I agree completely with your approach: the article should focus on describing the constitution itself, not constitutional law. Your rewrite so far is brilliant, and, insofar as I can see, covers everything it need do. The only thing it really requires is a bit more meat :). Great job, --cj | talk 05:00, 19 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Yes, it looks good, and I agree that it should focus mainly on the document (with summary sections for the history and law articles, which you have). I was working on a template (User:Thebainer/Constitution of Australia) a while ago with links to various articles on the subject, I was planning to do articles on each of the chapters and on some of the more significant sections, I imagined those as being the main articles on smaller sections on this article. That would tie in nicely with this structure. --bainer (talk) 05:11, 19 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Thanks cj and bainer for the encouragement. That template looks great. It would link all the Constitutional law articles together in a logical and coherent way. Great idea. --Sumple (Talk) 10:10, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

How's this coming along?--cj | talk 05:42, 14 August 2006 (UTC)


 * I've (finally) got the History section written - see User:Sumple/Constitution of Australia. I'm sure it has much room to improve, but I propose to replace the old version soon (which will make it easier to edit by all interested parties). If there are no objections, I will do it in a week. Please post any objections, comments, or suggestions at Talk:Constitution of Australia. --Sumple (Talk) 06:24, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

Tort Law cleanup
Hey, just did a cleanup of the Australian tort law article - need feedback. MojoTas 03:15, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Lex Lasry
I was surprised to discover that there wasn't an article about Lex Lasry, so I created one. It didn't seem to fit within the scope of the list of tasks for this project so I haven't added it, but I thought that participants of this project might be interested to know that it has been created and may want to add content and/or clean it up a bit. Cheers. -- Adz|talk 12:45, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

How do i sign up?
do i just add my name to the list?

p.s wait till spring semester is over, i'll go crazy on these articles. (Truth 06 14:48, 14 September 2006 (UTC))

Just add your name to the list. It's that simple! Great to have you on board, motivated for the challenges ahead! Cheers and happy editing! Jpe|ob 14:58, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

Project directory
Hello. The WikiProject Council has recently updated the WikiProject Council/Directory. This new directory includes a variety of categories and subcategories which will, with luck, potentially draw new members to the projects who are interested in those specific subjects. Please review the directory and make any changes to the entries for your project that you see fit. There is also a directory of portals, at User:B2T2/Portal, listing all the existing portals. Feel free to add any of them to the portals or comments section of your entries in the directory. The three columns regarding assessment, peer review, and collaboration are included in the directory for both the use of the projects themselves and for that of others. Having such departments will allow a project to more quickly and easily identify its most important articles and its articles in greatest need of improvement. If you have not already done so, please consider whether your project would benefit from having departments which deal in these matters. It is my hope that all the changes to the directory can be finished by the first of next month. Please feel free to make any changes you see fit to the entries for your project before then. If you should have any questions regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you. B2T2 22:12, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

Family Trusts
Could some people interested in Australian law come and help out at this discussion: Talk:Trust law?

Nulyarimma v Thompson
I just created this article Nulyarimma v Thompson. I'm a wikipedia n00b so it probably has some faults, fix it if you can :). Cheers {Truth 06 12:26, 12 November 2006 (UTC)}

case significance
how significant does a case have to be before we can create an article about it? {Truth 06 11:18, 13 November 2006 (UTC)}


 * It is a bit like asking how long is a piece of string! But I would have thought significant HCA or state Court of Appeal cases should get priority unless there is some really novel point raised in a lower court's decision. Sambo 12:04, 13 November 2006 (UTC)


 * Most of the existing case articles are about High Court cases, since they are usually the ones which are most important. But that's just been a trend in our work - there are no rules about what sort of case you can write about. I myself have written mostly about High Court cases, with the occasional Federal Court case or state supreme court case.
 * Essentially, it's up to you, and we're happy to have whatever articles you want to write. Take a look at Al-Kateb v Godwin and Dietrich v The Queen, both featured articles, for some pointers on style and structure, if you haven't seen them already. --bainer (talk) 13:18, 13 November 2006 (UTC)


 * Cheers {Truth 06 03:48, 14 November 2006 (UTC)}

Stablepedia
Beginning cross-post.
 * See Wikipedia talk:Version 1.0 Editorial Team. If you wish to comment, please comment there. ★ MESSED  ROCKER ★  03:26, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

''End cross-post. Please do not comment more in this section.''

Use of succession boxes for High Court Justices
I am curious to get the opinion of those reading on the matter of using succession boxes for Justices of the High Court of Australia. If we were to follow the American model, a justice would have a succession box listing the person to have occupied his or her seat on the court right back to that seat’s establishment. I assume this can be done by following the chart that it laid out of the List of Justices of the High Court of Australia.

Assuming this is acceptable, a succession box might look something like this for Sir Frank Kitto:

Is this an appropriate method of listing the succession from one justice to another? Would adding such a succession box to each and every justice of the High Court add or detract from the page? Any feedback would be appreciated! - Kiwifruitboi 07:43, 4 December 2006 (UTC)


 * I think it certainly can't hurt - I for one would find it useful. Rebecca 04:32, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

Case of Mines aka R v Earl of Northumberland
Could somebody please look at a stub I created on Case of Mines. It is a 1568 case which was the legal precedent for the issuing of Miner's Licences (ie those things they were rebelling against at Eureka Stockade).

There is a citation (1568) 1 Plowd., 310, at pp. 336, 336a. given at http://www.brumbywatchaustralia.com/Principality18.htm "Mines Case4(1568) 1 Plowd., 310, at pp. 336, 336a. all the Justices and Barons agreed that, in the case of the baser metals, no prerogative is given to the Crown; whereas all mines of gold and silver within the realm, whether they be in the lands of the Queen, or of subjects, belong to the Queen by prerogative, with liberty to dig and carry away the ores thereof, and with other such incidents thereto as are necessary to be used for the getting of the ore."

I feel a case which is such an important precedent for how mining was managed in colonies across the British Empire (Aust, NZ and Canada) needs at the least a decent stub. I am really not sure how to usefully progress a case law article from the sixteenth century.--Golden Wattle talk 21:01, 20 December 2006 (UTC)


 * The case is cited as The Case of Mines (1568) 1 Plowd 310; 75 ER 472. in an article in the Indigenous Law Reporter; Asking The Minerals Question: Rights In Minerals As An Incident of Native Title --Golden Wattle talk 21:58, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia Day Awards
Hello, all. It was initially my hope to try to have this done as part of Esperanza's proposal for an appreciation week to end on Wikipedia Day, January 15. However, several people have once again proposed the entirety of Esperanza for deletion, so that might not work. It was the intention of the Appreciation Week proposal to set aside a given time when the various individuals who have made significant, valuable contributions to the encyclopedia would be recognized and honored. I believe that, with some effort, this could still be done. My proposal is to, with luck, try to organize the various WikiProjects and other entities of wikipedia to take part in a larger celebrartion of its contributors to take place in January, probably beginning January 15, 2007. I have created yet another new subpage for myself (a weakness of mine, I'm afraid) at User talk:Badbilltucker/Appreciation Week where I would greatly appreciate any indications from the members of this project as to whether and how they might be willing and/or able to assist in recognizing the contributions of our editors. Thank you for your attention. Badbilltucker 23:23, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

Palm Island ACOTF
Hi Wikipedians, as you might already know the Palm Island article has just become the Australian Collaboration of the Fortnight. To bring this article up to scratch we need your help in the following areas: "Manburra People v GBRMPA", "Zen Pearls Pty Ltd" and "Aboriginals Protection and Restrictions of the Sale of Opium Act 1897". Also the recently implemented Alcohol Management Plan for the Island may be of interest.

However of highest interest to members of this project I'm sure is the jurisprudence questions raised by recent events where the Coroner investigating a death in custody allocated the blame for the death to a police officer and then the Queensland Director of Public Prosecutions made an affirmative statement that the death was actually caused by an accidental fall and not the police officer. More recently the Queensland Government has asked (former NSW Justice) Sir Lawrence Street to provide a second opinion based on the DPP's own file. This will be an interesting project/article to get involved in I guarantee! WikiTownsvillian 08:55, 22 January 2007 (UTC)
 * In particular, there is a section /*Aboriginal Protection and restriction of the sale of opium act 1897 which is bigger than the main article to which it refers (Aboriginal Protection and restriction of the sale of opium act 1897). If a contributor could review that section, move relevant content to the main article, and place only a summary back on Palm Island, that would be a great assistance to the ACOTF.Garrie 04:35, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

High Court Judges List
I've done a bit of work on List of Justices of the High Court of Australia; I think this could easily be a featured list - besides references, which are quite easy to come by, and an opening that's a bit more detailed, I don't think much work needs to be done on it. If anyone can make any suggestions on the article and how it might be improved, please reply to this message. JRG 11:59, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

Anyone out there?
It's now almost a month since I posted the above. Any chance of a reply? Does anyone read this page any more? JRG 22:56, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

Floating charges
In Getzler & Payne, Company Charges - Spectrum & Beyond it is claimed in the foreword that the floating charge has been abolished in both Australia and New Zealand. One of the authors (Josh Getzler) is an Aussie, so I suppose he ought to know, but the claim is actually made in the foreword by Lord Millett. Can anyone confirm if this is right and point me in the direction of any relevant statute? If it is corrected, then the floating charge article should be updated to mention this. --Legis (talk - contributions) 16:26, 14 March 2007 (UTC)


 * I've no idea where he gets that from. Floating charges have definitely not been abolished in Australia - at least not in Victoria - unless there's something I missed in the last month or so. The position may have been modified by statute in other states (particularly the all-Torrens states) but even so, it wouldn't be correct to say that the floating charge has been abolished altogether. When was the book written? --bainer (talk) 01:03, 15 March 2007 (UTC)


 * It is copyrighted from 2006. I suspect it is an inaccurate throw-away comment. He also says that they have no concept of a floating charge in the U.S., which might be technically true, but they do have a concept of a floating lien, which is conceptually on all fours. I guess they let anyone sit in the House of Lords these day. --Legis (talk - contributions) 08:13, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

Interwiki Cooperation
I've asked for an "interwiki cooperation". Please read the discussion here. Thanks. Erasoft24 23:59, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

logo
I came across this from a stub notice without any kind of logo for Australian law, I dont know how to make it, but I think a good logo for Australian law stub notices (by stub notice I mean the things that say "This article relating to Australian Law is a stub..." would be the scales of justice over a map of Australia.Crd721 07:25, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

Wikinews item on Susan Kiefel
A stub news item Kiefel appointed to High Court of Australia is being developed at Wikinews for publication on the day of Kiefel's swearing in. Any contributions are welcome to get it to the standard required to be featured as a headline on the main page. Dbromage [Talk]  07:43, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

Help with AWA page
Hi, I've been trying to edit the page on Australian Workplace Agreement to get it to NPOV, at the moment nobody is interested in adding anything unless I remove the tag "the neutrality of this article is disputed" and then all of a sudden people have an opinion. If anyone here would like to have a quick look at the legal side of the it that would help heaps. Master z0b 00:05, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

re Court of Appeals
Please see my move proposal at Talk:Court of Appeals. --Mathew5000 19:56, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

Duplication of Categories
I found an anomaly. There may be more to discover, but any-way I found these two; Category:Australian_constitutional_law and also Category:Australian constitutional law, which appear to be two distinct categories, so I added the first to a couple of articles so they have both, which hopefully might elicit either someone who knows what's going on to edit all the pages in both categories to a common category with agreed syntax so that only one category is in use, or might elicit a debate over the proper syntax to be applied for categories within the scope of this and related projects. petedavo (talk) 23:40, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

County Court of Victoria
I've added a list of judges to this page, and will try and get a few pages for individual judges up. Suggestions are welcome. Donners (talk) 22:33, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

Anyone know about Blake Dawson?
It is missing an article (see redlink in Big Six law firms). --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 14:08, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

High Court judge photos— URGENT
I know some people who read here have fought against Australian politician photos being deleted before— I was wondering if you wouldn't mind commenting on for the photo of Justice Hayne on the High Court— deletion of this photo will mean that all photos of judges in Australia except those where the photo is in public domain (which means every judge since the 1950s/60s, essentially) will have to be deleted, except for Spigelman's picture which was provided by a family friend and Kirby (who is a major exception due to his other commitments). I don't think some users understand that it is practically impossible to get a photo of an Australian judge— we are not going to get free photos in a million years. Feel free to let others know and get them to comment too. JRG (talk) 05:46, 21 May 2008 (UTC)
 * I will respond. There's good reason for keeping these - I agree. Lonelygirl16 (talk) 14:02, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

Wikiproject Prisons
If anyone's interested, I've proposed a new wikiproject for the creation of articles regarding specific prisons here. --Cdogsimmons (talk) 20:48, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

Burger King legal issues
Burger King Corporation v. Hungry Jack's Pty Limited ([2001] NSWCA 187)

I need some help with this case over at Burger King legal issues. This article is currently is a Feature Article candidate and I would like some help insuring that the article is factually correct. Could any of the members of Australian Law project assist with this? I also need help making sure all case citations are properly noted per the standards of the Australian legal system.

Thank you very much, --Jeremy ( Blah blah... ) 07:03, 26 July 2008 (UTC)

Legislation citation template
To go with the case citation template I've created a legislation citation template, Cite Legislation AU. Like the case template, it produces links to the AustLII site. Of the resources available there, it currently supports consolidated acts and regulations (which are available for every Australian jurisdiction) and, where available, bills and explanatory memoranda, as well as repealed acts and regulations, which are available for only the ACT and NSW.

It's somewhat less useful than the case citation template, since you need to know the short name that AustLII gives to each piece of legislation that they use in the URL. However, it should still be useful for consistency (and for ease of updating in case MULR puts out a new edition of the AGLC) and for any possible template-data-mining tools that might be created. --bainer (talk) 11:41, 9 October 2008 (UTC)

High Court Judges
I recently saw this page (List_of_Justices_of_the_High_Court_of_Australia). Could this have references added? It could be a good article. Lonelygirl16 (talk) 07:23, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

Changes needed to Australian Monarchy articles
Does someone want to look at List of Australian monarchs? --Lawe (talk) 06:45, 3 January 2009 (UTC)

Coordinators' working group
Hi! I'd like to draw your attention to the new WikiProject coordinators' working group, an effort to bring both official and unofficial WikiProject coordinators together so that the projects can more easily develop consensus and collaborate. This group has been created after discussion regarding possible changes to the A-Class review system, and that may be one of the first things discussed by interested coordinators.

All designated project coordinators are invited to join this working group. If your project hasn't formally designated any editors as coordinators, but you are someone who regularly deals with coordination tasks in the project, please feel free to join as well. &mdash; Delievered by §hepBot  ( Disable )  on behalf of the WikiProject coordinators' working group at 04:50, 28 February 2009 (UTC)

Article alerts
This is a notice to let you know about Article alerts, a fully-automated subscription-based news delivery system designed to notify WikiProjects and Taskforces when articles are entering Articles for deletion, Requests for comment, Peer review and other workflows (full list). The reports are updated on a daily basis, and provide brief summaries of what happened, with relevant links to discussion or results when possible. A certain degree of customization is available; WikiProjects and Taskforces can choose which workflows to include, have individual reports generated for each workflow, have deletion discussion transcluded on the reports, and so on. An example of a customized report can be found here.

If you are already subscribed to Article Alerts, it is now easier to report bugs and request new features. We are also in the process of implementing a "news system", which would let projects know about ongoing discussions on a wikipedia-wide level, and other things of interest. The developers also note that some subscribing WikiProjects and Taskforces use the  parameter, but forget to give a link to their alert page. Your alert page should be located at "Wikipedia:PROJECT-OR-TASKFORCE-HOMEPAGE/Article alerts". Questions and feedback should be left at Wikipedia talk:Article alerts.

Message sent by User:Addbot to all active wiki projects per request, Comments on the message and bot are welcome here.

Thanks. — Headbomb {{{sup|ταλκ}}κοντριβς – WP Physics} 08:49, 15 March, 2009 (UTC)

WP:NOT#PLOT
Apologies for the notice, but this is being posted to every WikiProject to avoid accusations of systemic bias. Hiding T 13:29, 27 April 2009 (UTC)

Law notability guideline
You are invited to comment on the preliminary law notability guideline. Criticism, comments, better ways of phrasing things - even suggestions of other things it should cover - are welcome. Thanks, Ironholds (talk) 02:12, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

Categorisation
Folks, assuming anyone is out there.

It seems like the categorisation of articles is a bit hit and miss at the moment. We seem to have a lot of subcategories, some of them very specific, as well as some which appear to be duplicates. I would like to suggest that we attempt to consolidate and structure the current pages in a slightly new way.

My suggestion is:
 * A subcategory for each of the major areas of law. For example, the subcategory property law would contain subcategories for real property, IP, and native title, at least.
 * A category for people and structures supporting the legal system. This is where all the judges, courts, firms, journals, etc. would reside.
 * A category for legislation.

I'm not even sure that we need a category for legislation. Individual cases would belong to the area of law(s) for which they are notable.

Any comments please.VeryRusty (talk) 11:17, 30 August 2009 (UTC)


 * We actually have quite a few of these already. Check out the subcategories under Category:Australian law. Category:Australian legislation already exists, as do quite a few categories on areas of law (such as Category:Australian property law and Category:Australian constitutional law). I see you've created the People in Australian law category which is a good addition! The judges category that's now under that is looking pretty good, but law firms are definitely an area in need of expansion.
 * Are there any other changes you've thought of? --bainer (talk) 08:06, 17 September 2009 (UTC)

Acts Interpretation Act 1901
I have expanded Acts Interpretation Act 1901 and added references. Perhaps someone could review? Otherthinker (talk) 21:01, 20 August 2011 (UTC)
 * I've had a look, and it looks good, has a lot of the basic info. It would be good to see some more info about its use in practice (such as for judicial interpretation) and any major amendments, and cases which turned on it's provisions. I've upgraded its class to start.VeryRusty (talk) 22:10, 20 August 2011 (UTC)

New article someone might want to look at
Hi all, I was doing new pages patrolling and came across this article: Latec Investments v Hotel Terrigal (in liq) (1965) 113 CLR 265, High Court of Australia. At present it's written essentially like someone's case brief rather than an encyclopedic discussion of the case itself (and has other problems, such as probably requiring a rename). That and I don't even know if we could call it notable (not familiar enough with Australian law myself). —/M endaliv /2¢/Δ's/ 17:13, 6 February 2014 (UTC)

error message
Does anyone know why the bottom of wp:WikiProject Australian law says: "Cite error: There are tags on this page, but the references will not show without a template (see the help page)"? XOttawahitech (talk) 16:15, 24 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Fixed Wikiain (talk) 22:31, 8 June 2014 (UTC)

clarification for Carmen Rupe
In Carmen Rupe it says:
 * She described how local police treated her: I was locked up in Long Bay prison about a dozen times. But it made me a stronger person today.[4] An arrest in New Zealand failed to produce a conviction, because drag was legal there, unlike Australia.

That's definitely supported by the sources given, but the sources are Rupe-specific. Does anyone know of a good legal source for whether drag was actually illegal in Australia (in the 1950s-60s-70s) and when it stopped being a crime? Stuartyeates (talk) 10:27, 8 June 2014 (UTC)

Expert attention
This is a notice about Category:Australian law articles needing expert attention, which might be of interest to your WikiProject. It will take a while before the category is populated. Iceblock (talk) 23:25, 18 October 2014 (UTC)