Bill of Rights in Victoria

[costargh]

Very interesting. Related to Units 3/4 Legal Studies

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22982756-661,00.html

"VICTORIANS will be the first in Australia to be covered by a US-style Bill of Rights when a new Charter of Human Rights is introduced on January 1..."

[Collin Li]

Maybe Victoria can become the New Hampshire of Australia.

"Live free or die!" is their motto

[Pencil]

Hm interesting, and about time really.
Really good to include something like this for unit 3 if you get a question about comparing the protection of rights in different countries (although I doubt you will, as there has been a similar question on this topic for the last 2 years now) For example if you're comparing with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms you could compare how the Charter allows the courts to award a remedy where rights are infringed, whereas it seems with this new vic one, people won't be able to seek damages (then make a value judgment on which is better etc.)
Have they actually released a copy of the bill yet? Would be interesting to read

[costargh]

I'm guessing when the Bill is introduced into parliament the full details should be available.
This was one section of the course that really caught my attention, mainly because it seems as though we are one of very few developed nations that has not yet adopted a national bill of rights.

Although this is only for Victoria it will be a major step in a full scale bill of rights for all Australians.

[Pencil]

Yeah I liked this area of the course. We spent a fair bit of class time debating whether a bill of rights should be implemented, which at the time i thought was a waste of time cos it wasn't specifically on the study design, but then realised later that you need to have an opinion on it in order to compare the effectiveness of the approaches taken by aust and a country that does have a bill of rights (we did canada). At first i was like meh our current system works why change it... but by the end of the year changed my mind haha.

[brendan]

i had a look at this. it's not very effective. its more symbolic.

[Collin Li]

i had a look at this. it's not very effective. its more symbolic.

If we embrace the symbolism, there's hope that our state will stand out as the bulwark against government oppression of the individual!

Live free or die! LOL  :2funny:

[Pencil]

Hm how can you know it's more symbolic if it hasn't been released yet? (or has it??)
Doesn't surprise me though

[brendan]

Hm how can you know it's more symbolic if it hasn't been released yet? (or has it??)
Doesn't surprise me though

it has - i studied it. it comes into legal effect on Jan 1

[Pencil]

if anyone is interested in reading it-
http://acthra.anu.edu.au/articles/Victorian%20Charter.pdf

[lishan515]

Not entirely relevant to this section...

but do you think this would be a valid topic for the english oral?

[costargh]

Whats the general jist of the charter Brendan?

[Pencil]

Not entirely relevant to this section...

but do you think this would be a valid topic for the english oral?

Yep you could defs do it, maybe you could discuss whether australia should implement an entrenched bill of rights rather than just a symbolic statutory one. and if you're doing legal it would be good cos you'll already have some opinions when you study it later (also you will find some good for and against arguments in your text, i think)