ACCOUNTABILITY AND THE ICAC*

Accountability is a vogue word. It has been around for a while now, but does not seem to be going out of fashion. Probably that is because the word reflects and reinforces a value system in relation to government and administration which is solid and good, not just a passing fad. If that is right, then the only difficulty with the notion of accountability is that it may be bandied round to such an extent as to become a mere slogan, a substitute for thought.     

In Search of a European Identity

Jacques Derridu, The Other Heading: Reflections on Today's Europe , translated by P-A Brault and M. Naas     

Telling the Refugee Story: The `Ordinary Australian', the State of Australia

By international standards, fewuninvited asylum-seekers arrive in Australia.However, in 2001, a conservative federalgovernment trailing in the opinion pollsreversed its fortunes and won the November 2001election largely, it seems because of its``tough' refugee policy, which the Oppositioncould only feebly endorse, deeming oppositionelectorally suicidal. Using some insights fromLacan and writers in the Lacanian tradition,this paper examines how the refugee story waswritten, and why it was that the intentions ofits authors so successfully shaped itsreception by the majority of the electorate.     

Legal Rights and Political Realities: Governmental Responses to Homelessness in Britain

This article presents a "contextual" study of Britain's Housing (Homeless Persons) Act 1977. The article addresses the ostensibly perplexing policy question of why Britain's homeless population has almost trebled in the H years since the homelessness legislation was introduced. The answer is found by subjecting the legislation to a very wide-ranging contextualization process. Rather than simply focusing on the administrative arena in which the act is implemented, the article seeks explanations for its apparent ineffkacy in ideological considerations preceding its enactment, in the legislative process itself, in the (im)precise wording of the emergent statute, and in subsequent government policies in various relevant constitutional and social policy areas. The article concludes that a thorough understanding of the impact of this particular law requires it to be located in a series of interrelated contexts, a conclusion that might plausibly be extended to all studies of "law in society."