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Emeritus Professors Stephen Bottomley and Stephen Parker AO introduce law in a critical way to the general public, current students and those thinking of taking up the subject. They explain the Rule of Law, the Adversarial System of Justice, where law comes from, judges, juries, lawyers and many other topics, include problem areas such as access to justice.
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Send us a text message with feedback Everyone agrees that Crime and Punishment go together. But that's where the agreement ends. There are multiple aims of punishment: to inflict retribution (an eye for an eye); to deter others; to incapacitate the offender so the public is protected in the meantime; and to rehabilitate the offender so they do not …
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Episode 19 - It's a Crime! - Criminal Law in Context
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Send us a text message with feedback Most people are fascinated by crime, at least if they are at a safe distance from it. It is the stuff of popular culture and serious scholarship. Theories abound. Might a certain amount of it be good for society if it reminds everyone of how they should behave? Or is criminalising certain behaviour a way of oppr…
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Episode 18 - Federal/State - How It All Works
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Send us a text message with feedback Like many countries in the world, Australia is a federation; it has more than one tier of government. In this nail-biting episode, the Two Steves explain how our system came about, with the former colonies being given all legislative powers except to the extent that those powers were given and exercised by the C…
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Episode 17 - Native Title and the Case of Eddie Mabo
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Send us a text message with feedback All legal systems of previously colonised countries have grappled with the idea of land rights for the original peoples of those countries and the claims of settlers or conquerors. Australia was an unusual case. It wasn't exactly conquered. Nor did the Indigenous peoples cede the land to the English settlers. Th…
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Episode 16 - It's Mine, not Yours! Property Law in Context
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Send us a text message with feedback You might think the idea of property is straightforward. In a way, it is. Almost anything tangible and many things intangible are capable of being property, under the common law. Even one of our jokes is capable of being property, assuming we actually made it up. But "property" to a lawyer is not so much about t…
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Episode 15 - Prove It! How persuaded must we be in law?
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Send us a text message with feedback It's well known that for someone to be found guilty of a crime, the decision-maker must be persuaded "beyond a reasonable doubt". This is the standard of proof. In civil claims, the standard is "on the balance of probabilities". In criminal matters, the onus of proving to this standard is on the prosecution; and…
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Send us a text message with feedback Who should I trust? If your answer is no one, the world would be a more difficult and expensive place. Wherever someone does something on your behalf you might have to employ someone else to watch over them, and then someone else to watch over the someone else etc etc. Over the centuries, equity law has picked o…
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Episode 13 - Equity and the Sad Case of Mr Stubbings
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Send us a text message with feedback In this episode we look at the body of judge-made law called Equity, which emerged in England as a separate body of case law from "the common law". Whereas common law focuses on clear rules and rights, equity focuses on conscience and doing what is fair. These two conceptual systems were developed in separate co…
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Send us a text message with feedback We keep hearing about "the common law", but what exactly is it? In this episode, we look at three separate meanings. First, the common law describes a whole legal system, such as Australia, England, the United States and Canada. This contrasts those jurisdictions with civil law, religious law and customary law s…
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Episode 11 - At last, they ask "What is Law?"
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Send us a text message with feedback Any competent lawyer should be able to say what is the law on a given topic in their area of expertise. However, most lawyers find it surprisingly difficult to answer persuasively the general question "what is law?". In this episode we grapple with some debates that go back centuries. We look at the positivist a…
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Send us a text message with feedback In this episode, not daunted by their previous challenge to explain basic legal concepts clearly, the Two Steves take on the big one: What is Justice? Most lawyers instinctively take a procedural approach to justice. If the rules have been followed and the judge is impartial, then the outcome is just. And yet ev…
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Send us a text message with feedback Myths abound about crime rates and law-breaking. In fact, some kinds of crime are going down and others are probably going up. A more interesting question is why so many people obey the law most of the time. In this episode we look at the main theories about legal obedience. There is a legitimacy theory, that if…
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Send us a text message with feedback There is almost nothing we do in our everyday lives that does not involve corporations or companies. From small family companies to global corporations which are larger than the economies of some countries, corporations dominate our lives. In this episode we look at what a corporation is. We focus on a subset of…
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Send us a text message with feedback Lawyers have a very particular role in the adversarial system, and a corresponding set of ethical requirements. In the 2000s in Victoria, Nicola Gobbo, a criminal defence barrister became a secret, registered informer with the police. She arranged for some clients to give evidence against other clients, arguably…
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Send us a text message with feedback The Rule of Law may be a great ideal, but does it mean anything if in practical terms many people do not have access to legal advice and adjudication. In this episode we look at the barriers to access to justice and some of the ways in which these barriers are at least partially overcome, including Alternative D…
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Send us a text message with feedback Juries make for great books and movies, but what really is their role in the adversarial system? Do they lead to fair decisions? Are they too expensive, leading to court backlogs? Have they had their day? In this episode we look at the jury, its history, and why it is mainly a feature of common law systems. For …
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Send us a text message with feedback How can we ensure that those who judge between government, citizens, or businesses are impartial? All Rule of Law systems have protections for judicial independence, to promote impartiality. But there are weak spots, as we explore in this episode. For the transcript of this episode and further reading, visit htt…
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Send us a text message with feedback Parliaments make laws. But so do judges. International treaties may also be a source. And it gets even more complicated. For the transcript of this episode and further reading, visit https://lawincontext.com.au/where-does-law-come-from/ For more information about your hosts and the Law in Context podcast series …
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Send us a text message with feedback The Rule of Law is central to understanding legal systems in democracies. It all begins here. For the transcript of this episode and further reading, visit https://lawincontext.com.au/rule-of-law/ For more information about your hosts and the Law in Context podcast series visit our website at https://lawincontex…
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Send us a text message with feedback The adversarial system of justice came from the English common law and spread. It is contrasted with the inquisitorial system found in non-Anglo democracies. For the transcript of this episode and further reading, visit https://lawincontext.com.au/adversarial-system/ For more information about your hosts and the…
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