https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/publicspace <p><strong>This journal has ceased publication and is now a UTS ePRESS Archived Title. </strong></p> <p>Public Space: The Journal of Law and Social Justice is a peer reviewed, multi media, online, law journal which draws on cross disciplinary research and scholarship to address social justice issues of immediate and wide ranging concern. Public Space also includes an Open Space for non-refereed contributions, including reviews, links to other journals or conferences, and discussion. Public Space is published twice a year in open access form by the Faculty of Law of the University of Technology, Sydney and UTSepress.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> en-US Copyright in the manuscript remains with the author(s). The author(s) grants the University of Technology, Sydney a licence to exercise any exclsuive rights of the copyright owner required to publish, distribute and advertise PublIc Space: the Journal of Law and Social Justice. rocque.reynolds@uts.edu.au (Associate Professor Rocque Reynolds) peter.alexander@uts.edu.au (Peter Alexander) Fri, 24 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +1100 OJS 3.1.2.4 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 60 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/publicspace/article/view/1903 In Donoghue v Stevenson,1 the House of Lords established negligence as an independent tort and reformulated the responsibility owed by one person to another in civil society. The accident of Mabel Hannah finding a snail in her ginger beer became the occasion for the law to disrupt the (then) normal practices of manufacture specifically, and socioeconomic conditions more generally, by introducing attentiveness to vulnerability as a civil ethic. This essay looks back at the case and reads it in its cultural and material contexts—with the intention of illuminating Lord Atkin’s neighbour principle within its specific historical framework, and to look again at the justice Mabel Hannah received through the decision. This reading will examine the gap between law and social justice, and re-contextualise the potential of tort law to operate as a kind of civil ethics or system of moral value. In this reading I consider the inflections of the neighbour figure, reading the case’s Biblical ‘Golden Rule’ alongside the anti-ethics of Nietzsche and Freud. I also consider the ongoing paradox of the neighbour as a figure for the recognition of suffering. Honni van Rijswijk Copyright (c) https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/publicspace/article/view/1903 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/publicspace/article/view/1876 A range of political and social developments in the Netherlands suggest that ethnic profiling in political and social discourse is no longer seen as a taboo. Increasingly ethnic profiling is perceived as part of the solution to ‘the problem’ of terrorism, radicalisation, integration, violent crime, serious public nuisance or public safety. Although Dutch legislation and regulations do not explicitly prohibit ethnic or racial profiling, for law enforcement officials to use generalisations based on ethnicity, race, national origin or religion is at odds with national and international law. Nonetheless, there is a risk that police, security, immigration and customs officials exercise their general and special powers on the basis of generalisations or stereotypes to tackle pressing social needs. Quirine Eijkman Copyright (c) https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/publicspace/article/view/1876 Wed, 22 Dec 2010 23:56:34 +1100 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/publicspace/article/view/1874 This article examines the use of the phrase ‘balancing the interests’ in political debate relating to copyright law. I argue that this phrase no longer leads to broad debate on the proper balance to be struck between private, public and social interests in copyright law. Rather, today the phrase has come to represent a type of police logic which reflects the private interests of copyright owners and users as they already exist. Drawing on the work of Jacques Rancière I suggest that this balance of private interests may be upset by a strategy of ‘subjectivisation’ which challenges the existing distribution of social bodies by making new subjects appear. I conclude that the recent cases of Telstra Corporation v Phone Directories Company Pty Ltd1 and IceTV Pty Ltd v Nine Network Australia Pty Ltd2 represent a surprising and effective use of this strategy by reintroducing the ‘artist’ and the ‘maker’ into copyright law in such a way as to upset and displace the prior claims of copyright owners and users. Rocque Reynolds Copyright (c) https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/publicspace/article/view/1874 Thu, 09 Dec 2010 20:28:13 +1100 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/publicspace/article/view/1904 Illegal waste disposal is an increasingly significant and costly problem. This paper considers a specific hot-spot for illegal dumping in Sydney, Australia from criminological perspectives. We contribute to the developing criminological literature that considers environmental harms as a crime. This draws upon the symbolic aspect of criminal law, contributing to the notion of environmental harms as wrongs worthy of sanction, and facilitates analysis through the prism of criminological literature. We apply theories of crime prevention to the site and argue that these techniques of crime prevention would be cheaper and more effective long-term than current council responses of simply reacting to dumping after it has occurred. Penny Crofts, Tara Morris, Kim Wells, Alicia Powell Copyright (c) https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/publicspace/article/view/1904 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/publicspace/article/view/1493 Social networking sites are highly popular and have profoundly changed the way people, including educators, communicate and interact. For many teachers the use of Facebook and MySpace is seen as a valuable educational tool and an integral part of their private social interaction. However, the exponential growth in the use of social networking sites by students and teachers alike has presented new legal, ethical and professional challenges for teachers and school administrators. Teachers might argue that their social networking sites are personal websites but they are ultimately very public spaces that leave an electronic trail that can have serious, albeit unintended, consequences for teachers who breach professional codes of conduct and education laws. Teachers face the risk of censured speech, professional misconduct and possible dismissal for posting inappropriate information including comments and pictures on these websites. The purpose of this article is to examine the legal and professional risks for teachers using social networking sites and it offers suggestions that school administrators might incorporate in their policies with regard to teachers’ use of social networking sites. The first part of the article reviews relevant US cases and the second part focuses on the following legal issues – free speech, privacy and security of information, professional conduct, and the implications for teachers and school administrators in the US, Australia and New Zealand. Included in the second part are some practical recommendations for teachers and their lawyers as they develop policies addressing the use of social networking websites in the educational workplace. Charles Russo, Joan Squelch, Sally Elizabeth Anne Varnham Copyright (c) https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/publicspace/article/view/1493 Thu, 09 Dec 2010 19:52:36 +1100 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/publicspace/article/view/1856 This paper considers a number of emerging technologies and how they challenge the underpinnings of copyright law in Australia. It draws upon the idea that copyright law must ‘balance’ the rights of stakeholders (creators of works, inventors of technology and users of works) in order to provide the most effective environment for the protection and use of works. This paper further suggests that existing copyright legislation can be divided into provisions that offer rights to creators of works (‘front end’ provisions), and other provisions that restrict the rights of users and inventors of technology (the ‘back end’ provisions). It analyses the use of ‘media neutral’ language in copyright legislation in both the front and back end provisions and argues that the creators of works have far broader rights and protections than those offered in the back end to users and inventors. Further, through an analysis of emerging technologies it is argued that this imbalance offers an environment that restricts the uptake of new technologies and fails to properly foster the protection of the rights of users of these new works and technologies. Kieran G Donovan Copyright (c) https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/publicspace/article/view/1856 Sun, 28 Nov 2010 22:05:14 +1100 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/publicspace/article/view/1905 This article is based on observations of the educational facilities provided for asylum seeking children detained on Christmas Island. The article concludes that these facilities fail to meet Australia’s international obligations and political pledges which aim to protect the right to education of asylum seeking children. Melanie Stern Copyright (c) https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/publicspace/article/view/1905 Mon, 17 Jan 2011 18:25:33 +1100