Current affairs, news, Practice Directions, CPD Seminars, conferences and more …
Supreme Court Notification – Summer 2007/2008 Arrangements in Applications and Crime
To download a copy of the Supreme Court Notification regarding the Summer 2007/2008 Arrangements in Applications and Crime, CLICK HERE.
Supreme Court Notification – Commercial List and Supervised Case List Manager
The Senior Judge Administrator, Justice Byrne, has issued a notice advising of the contact details for the Commercial List and Supervised Case List Manager at Brisbane. To download a copy of the notice, CLICK HERE.
Ecole Nationale de la Magistrature – 26 September 2007
His Honour Judge Forde delivered a paper – Indigenous Justice Alternatives – to the Ecole Nationale de la Magistrature at Bordeaux on 26 September 2007. To download a copy of His Honour’s paper, CLICK HERE.
17th Pacific Judicial Conference – 7-9 November 2007
The Honourable Chief Justice delivered an address – Beijing Statement of Principles of the Independence of the Judiciary, at the 17th Pacific Judicial Conference which took place at Tonga between 7 and 9 November 2007. To download a copy of His Honour’s address, CLICK HERE.
Beach Safety and the Law National Summit – 8-9 November 2007
The Honourable President of the Court of Appeal delivered a speech – Legal Considerations for Beach Safety – In Defence of the Reasonableness of the Law, at the recent Beach Safety and the Law National Summit. To download a copy of Her Honour’s address, CLICK HERE.
Vision Australia AGM – 23 November 2007
The Honourable Justice Atkinson delivered a speech at the Annual General Meeting of Vision Australia which took place at Brisbane on 23 November 2007. To download a copy of Her Honour’s speech, CLICK HERE.
Australian Bar Association – Residential Advocacy Course – 21-25 January 2008
Registrations are now open for the Australian Bar Association’s Residential Advocacy Course which will be held at the Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Sydney from 21 to 25 January 2008. This, the second course, promises to be more advanced than the inaugural course which was held in January 2007 and places are limited to people with seniority of at least two years at the private bar. For more information, CLICK HERE.
8th Annual Insolvency Practice Symposium – 11-12 February 2008
Tonkin Corporation will host the 8th Annual Insolvency Practice Symposium which will take place in Brisbane between 11 and 12 February 2008. Members will accrue 3 CPD points per hour of presentation and 1 point per hour of attendance. For more information and a registration form, CLICK HERE.
BAQ Annual Conference – 15-17 February 2008
The Bar Association of Queensland’s Annual Conference will take place at the Sheraton Mirage Gold Coast from 15 to 17 February 2008. Members will earn 10 CPD points in all mandatory strands for attending the conference. For more information, CLICK HERE.
QLS Vincents’ Symposium 2008 – Law Firms of the Future – 6-7 March 2008
Queensland Law Society and Vincents’ annual Symposium – Law Firms of the Future – will take place at the Brisbane Convention Centre between 6 and 7 March 2008. Members will accrue 3 CPD points per hour of presentation and 1 point per hour of attendance. For more information and a registration form, CLICK HERE.
No Frolicking
The following item appeared in the Shanghai Daily on 10-11 November 2007.
On-duty judges were banned from wearing heavy makeup and “frolicking” with colleagues in an exhaustive list of 55 regulations to improve judicial etiquette, a court in Henan has ruled.
A notice issued by the high court of Henan, the top judicial authority in the province, also banned judges using certain phrases in the courtroom including: “Are you the judge or am I?” and “You will certainly lose this case.”
Judge Jails 46 over mobile
The following item was first published by the Associated Press on 28 November 2007.
A US judge has been removed from the bench for jailing 46 people after none would admit to having a mobile phone rang in his court session.
Judge Robert Restaino “snapped” and “engaged in what can only be described as two hours of inexplicable madness” during the 2005 session, Raoul Felder, chairman of the New York state Commission on Judicial Conduct, wrote in the decision to remove the judge today.
Restaino, who became a judge in 2002, was hearing domestic violence cases in Niagara Falls, New York when a phone rang.
“Everyone is going to jail,” the judge said. “Every single person is gong to jail in this courtroom unless I get that instrument now. If anybody believes I’m kidding, ask some of the folks that have been here for a while. You are all going.”
When no one came forward, the judge ordered the group into custody and they were taken by police to the city jail, where they were searched and packed into crowded cells.
Fourteen people who could not post bail were shackled and bused to the county Jail, a 30-minute drive away.
Later in the afternoon, after being told reporters were calling, the judge ordered the defendants released.
The judge told the state panel he was under stress in his personal life.
World’s Most Ludicrous Laws
The following item was first published by the Associated Press on 7 November 2007.
A law prohibiting anyone from dying in the Houses of Parliament has topped a survey of Britain’s most absurd legislation.
The poll of 3,931 people, commissioned by UKTV Gold, asked the public to pick the most ludicrous British and foreign laws still in existence from a shortlist.
Some 27 per cent of those questioned thought the law against dying in parliament was the most ridiculous.
In second place, with 7 per cent of the vote, was a law stating it is treason to place a postage stamp upside down.
The rule that only a clerk in a tropical fish shop is allowed to be publicly topless in Liverpool came third, with a 6 per cent share.
Other eccentric laws in the top 10 include one banning the consumption of mince pies on Christmas Day, and another ruling that it is illegal to enter the Houses of Parliament wearing a suit of armour.
The poll also quizzed people on unusual international laws, including legislation against getting a fish drunk in Ohio, naming a pig Napoleon in France, and driving while wearing a blindfold in Alabama.
Most ridiculous British laws:
1. It is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament
2. It is an act of treason to place a postage stamp bearing the British monarch upside-down
3. In Liverpool, it is illegal for a woman to be topless except as a clerk in a tropical fish store
4. Mince pies cannot be eaten on Christmas Day
5. In Scotland, if someone knocks on your door and requires the use of your toilet, you must let them enter
6. In the UK, a pregnant woman can legally relieve herself anywhere she wants, including in a policeman’s helmet
7. The head of any dead whale found on the British coast automatically becomes the property of the King, and the tail of the Queen
8. It is illegal not to tell the tax man anything you do not want him to know, but legal not to tell him information you do not mind him knowing
9. It is illegal to enter the Houses of Parliament in a suit of armour
10. In the city of York it is legal to murder a Scotsman within the ancient city walls, but only if he is carrying a bow and arrow
Most ridiculous foreign laws:
1. In Ohio, it is illegal to get a fish drunk
2. In Indonesia, the penalty for masturbation is decapitation
3. In Bahrain, a male doctor can only examine the genitals of a woman in the reflection of a mirror
4. In Switzerland, a man may not relieve himself standing up after 10pm
5. In Alabama, it is illegal to be blindfolded while driving a vehicle
6. In Florida, unmarried women who parachute on a Sunday could be jailed
7. In Vermont, women must obtain written permission from their husbands to wear false teeth
8. In Milan, it is a legal requirement to smile at all times, except funerals or hospital visits
9. In Japan, there is no age of consent
10. In France, it is illegal to name a pig Napoleon
