by Chris Merritt | Sep 6, 2024 | Chris Merritt, Commentary, Media Article, Rule of Law Issue
After each election, new members of federal parliament are given a briefing about the workings of the nation’s peak law making body. Recent events have made it clear that these briefings need to spend more time spelling out the difference between arbitrary rule and...
by Chris Merritt | Aug 29, 2024 | Chris Merritt, Commentary, Media Article, Rule of Law Issue, The Voice: Uluru Statement
Denying reality never ends well. Sooner or later someone comes along who punctures fashionable delusions. Hans Christian Anderson made this clear in his fairytale about The Emperor’s new Clothes. And almost two centuries later, exactly the same point has been made by...
by Chris Merritt | Aug 22, 2024 | Chris Merritt, Commentary, Media Article, Rule of Law Issue
Amul Thapar, who is on a speaking tour of Australia, is already one of America’s most senior judges. But if Donald Trump wins November’s presidential election, this son of Indian immigrants might he heading for the US Supreme Court.Thapar currently serves as a judge...
by Chris Merritt | Aug 9, 2024 | Attorney General, Chris Merritt, Commentary, Media Article, Rule of Law Issue
As the peak national body of the legal profession, the Law Council faces a mighty challenge: distilling the views of 104,000 lawyers, sixteeen constituent bodies and the nation’s largest law firms. On some issues this must be difficult. But when it comes to the core...
by Chris Merritt | Aug 1, 2024 | Chris Merritt, Commentary, ICAC, Media Article
Every now and then, a dissenting judgement in an important court case is so persuasive it makes injustice impossible to ignore. Mark Weinberg’s dissent over the flawed criminal conviction of the late Cardinal George Pell on child sex abuse charges is the prime...
by Chris Merritt | Jul 25, 2024 | Chris Merritt, Freedom of Speech, Media Article, Rule of Law Issue
Back in March, when the federal government established an inquiry into civics education, it tweaked the terms of reference in a way some might consider to be just a little too clever. Four months earlier, a wave of concern about censorship of the internet caused the...
