Volunteer Immunity and the Public Sector

Every jurisdiction in Australia has now enacted legislation to protect volunteers of community organisations and all levels of government from incurring personal civil liability. In most jurisdictions these laws transfer liabilities incurred by volunteers to the public sector organisation that organises the work they undertake. This article provides a brief background to the reforms before undertaking an examination of the impact of the legislation upon public sector organisations and their volunteers.     

An Integrated Theoretical Model of Sibling Violence and Abuse

Drawing on three theoretical perspectives (feminist, conflict, and social learning), an integrated analytical model of adolescence sibling violence and abuse is proposed. The model suggests that certain characteristics of the parents' relationship, various aspects of parent–child relations, and characteristics of the sibling relationship are major components in explaining sibling violence and abuse. These are mediated by individual sibling characteristics and sibling verbal conflict. The model should enable researchers to systematically examine, in a more holistic way, the factors related to violence and abuse, and to assess their relative importance in accounting for these phenomena.     

Charting a course through difficult legislative waters: tribunal decisions on life-sustaining measures

Since the enactment in Queensland of the Powers of Attorney Act 1998 (Qld) and the Guardianship and Administration Act 2000 (Qld), a decision can be made to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining medical treatment from an adult who lacks capacity to make such decisions for herself or himself. The Guardianship and Administration Tribunal of Queensland has been asked to consider the law in relation to these decisions on a number of occasions since the legislation was passed. This article explores the relevant provisions of these statutes and some of the difficulties that arise from how they are currently drafted. It also examines how the Guardianship and Administration Tribunal has dealt with applications to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining measures, and suggests a course that might avoid some of the difficulties that are inherent in Queensland's legislative regime.     

A Web-based Decision Support System for Divorce Lawyers

This paper discusses the design and development of a prototype web based expert system for calculating financial provision awards when a couple divorce in Scotland. The function of the system is primarily to help trainee lawyers to understand the structure and content of the matrimonial property and divorce domain, and to access case law available on the web in a systematic fashion. The system currently focuses on evaluating what property belonging to the parties should be included in "matrimonial property". We felt that an expert systems approach was appropriate for the domain of financial provision on divorce, since the modelling and application of expertise by an expert system is thought to be helpful in promoting "active learning". An e-commerce style interface was used for gathering information, and the complete text of the Family Law (Scotland) 1985 is also available in the system, often with hyperlinks to the main narrative body of the system. The system is designed to support an advisory, negotiating or mediatory role, rather than an adversarial one, since Scottish solicitors have a preference for seeking consensual negotiated settlements. A practical and useful future extension to the system would be to permit the drafting of electronic documents resulting from negotiated settlements, such as minutes or joint minutes of agreement.