1. Intergovernmental organisations (IGOs)
Law Reform
MECHANISMS of reform
A ‘mechanism’ is the part that physically makes it happen.
HOW
does the law end up changing?
Courts
Parliaments
United Nations
Intergovernmental organisations (IGOs)
THEME: The relationship between different legal institutions and jurisdictions

2. HOW THEY WORK (“operate”)
Law Reform
MECHANISMS of reform
We need to look at:
What they are; and
HOW THEY WORK (“operate”)
Examine the operation of the different mechanisms of reform
Courts
Parliaments
United Nations
Law Reform
MECHANISMS of reform
Intergovernmental organisations (IGOs)
THEME: The relationship between different legal institutions and jurisdictions

3. Law Reform
MECHANISMS of reform
Courts
The main role of the courts is to interpret and apply law provided by parliament
Judges can change laws by precedents set in court cases, but they generally TRY NOT TO INTERFERE with the parliament’s laws (they just try to apply the law as it was intended.
But even when the courts DO make “new” common law, parliament CAN come along the next day and pass a law that makes the court ruling irrelevant!
Unless the court was ruling that a statute law is unconstitutional, in which case the parliament can’t do anything about it but try to pass a NEW law that ISN’T unconstitutional.

4. Important High Court cases have included: The Work Choices Case
Law Reform
MECHANISMS of reform
Courts
Important High Court cases have included:
The Work Choices Case
Gave more power to the federal government on workplace relations
Roach v Electoral Commissioner
Interpreted the Constitution to mean that there is a right to vote (even for some prisoners)
Australian Capital Television v Commonwealth
Freedom of political communication allowed by the media
Mabo v Queensland (No. 2)
Native title

5. Important High Court cases have included: The Work Choices Case
Law Reform
MECHANISMS of reform
Courts
Important High Court cases have included:
The Work Choices Case
Gave more power to the federal government on workplace relations
Roach v Electoral Commissioner
Interpreted the Constitution to mean that there is a right to vote (even for some prisoners)
Australian Capital Television v Commonwealth
Freedom of political communication allowed by the media
Mabo v Queensland (No. 2)
Native title
In the case of Mabo v Queensland (No. 2), the parliament passed the Native Title Act 1993 the next year to create the Native Title Tribunal and make the test for native title clearer (it’s pretty difficult to read the Mabo case).

6. Important High Court cases have included: The Work Choices Case
Law Reform
MECHANISMS of reform
Courts
Important High Court cases have included:
The Work Choices Case
Gave more power to the federal government on workplace relations
Roach v Electoral Commissioner
Interpreted the Constitution to mean that there is a right to vote (even for some prisoners)
Australian Capital Television v Commonwealth
Freedom of political communication allowed by the media
Mabo v Queensland (No. 2)
Native title
In the case of Mabo v Queensland (No. 2), the parliament passed the Native Title Act 1993 the next year to create the Native Title Tribunal and make the test for native title clearer (it’s pretty difficult to read the Mabo case).

7. A parliament reforms the law by passing legislation (statute laws).
NOTICE: You don’t put an ‘s’ at the end of ‘legislation’.
The plural is the same as the singular.
There’s NO SUCH WORD AS ‘LEGISLATIONS’
It sometimes helps to say “A piece of legislation” or “Pieces of legislation”, so you can tell when you’re using the plural.
Law Reform
MECHANISMS of reform
Parliaments
These are our MAIN law makers (which makes sense, because we vote for them, and can remove them if we haven’t approved of the laws they’ve passed).
A parliament reforms the law by passing legislation (statute laws).
PROBLEM: Politicians want to get elected/re-elected, so a lot of the changes recommended by other groups may not be a good idea for the government to bring in.
e.g. The proposed poker machines changes (which would have caused Labor to lose an election)
Most of the reforms made by the government reflect their political policies. These policies can change as the Party decides though.
e.g. the Labor government lifting the Australian ban on exports of uranium to India in 2011

8. Parliament often only needs to pass an amendment to the current law.
Law Reform
MECHANISMS of reform
Parliaments
Parliament usually doesn’t make a BRAND NEW law if there’s already one there that just needs fixing.
Parliament often only needs to pass an amendment to the current law.
e.g.
We have an Act that covers crimes in NSW.
It’s called the Crimes Act (NSW).
But it was passed in 1900 (the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW)).
Now parliament wants to add some sections.
So it passes the Crimes Amendment (Criminal Organisations Control) Act 2012.
An amendment might only be a page or two long, it just says things like
“In s.171, the penalty should change from 20 years to 25 years imprisonment”

9. Law Reform
MECHANISMS of reform
Parliaments
ORIGINAL
AMENDMENT +

10. = CONSOLIDATED (the current version) Law Reform MECHANISMS of reform
Parliaments =
CONSOLIDATED
(the current version)

11. EXAMPLE: Dealing with “bikie gangs”… (HSC ‘Crime’ topic)
Law Reform
MECHANISMS of reform
Parliaments
EXAMPLE: Dealing with “bikie gangs”… (HSC ‘Crime’ topic)
Anthony Zervas was murdered at Sydney Airport in 2009.
It freaked people out.
The media pushed the government to make drastic changes to the law (despite the fact that murdering people at the airport was already illegal)

12. EXAMPLE: Dealing with “bikie gangs”… (HSC ‘Crime’ topic)
Law Reform
MECHANISMS of reform
Parliaments
EXAMPLE: Dealing with “bikie gangs”… (HSC ‘Crime’ topic)
Because the murder had something to do with bikie gangs (the guy who was convicted was a bikie, as well as the victim’s brother), the NSW government focused on bikie gangs when it came to reforming the law.
So parliament passed the
Crimes (Criminal Organisations Control) Act 2009 (NSW)
This law allowed ANY group (not just bikie gangs, or gangs in general) to be banned and its members put in jail for seeing each other after the ban. It only took 3 people to ban an entire organisation – the Police Commissioner, A-G, and ONE SINGLE JUDGE, who didn’t even have to give REASONS for WHY they were banned!!!

13. Crimes (Criminal Organisations Control) Act 2009 (NSW)
Law Reform
MECHANISMS of reform
Parliaments
EXAMPLE: Dealing with “bikie gangs”… (HSC ‘Crime’ topic)
Because the murder had something to do with bikie gangs (the guy who was convicted was a bikie, as well as the victim’s brother), the NSW government focused on bikie gangs when it came to reforming the law.
So parliament passed the
Crimes (Criminal Organisations Control) Act 2009 (NSW)
Some laws take months to debate and change (‘amend’) and fix and vote on.
This law was announced, written and passed through both Houses of the NSW Parliament in one week due to the public and media outrage.

14. Crimes Amendment (Consorting and Organised Crime) Act 2012 (NSW)
Law Reform
MECHANISMS of reform
Parliaments
EXAMPLE: Dealing with “bikie gangs”… (HSC ‘Crime’ topic)
BUT, a member of the Hells Angels challenged the law in the High Court and WON! (Wainohu v NSW (2011)).
After being overturned by the High Court, the NSW government tinkered with the law and came up with a new law that is basically the same (but won’t be overturned by the High Court).
Crimes Amendment (Consorting and Organised Crime) Act 2012 (NSW)
AKA: ‘The Consorting Law’

15. EXAMPLE: Dealing with “gangs”… (HSC ‘Crime’ topic)
Law Reform
MECHANISMS of reform
Parliaments
EXAMPLE: Dealing with “gangs”… (HSC ‘Crime’ topic)
“Inverell man Charlie Foster, 21, who was born with an intellectual disability and cannot read or write, was sentenced to between 9 and 12 months' jail a fortnight ago for a series of shopping trips and walks with three friends who have prior convictions”.
7:30 Report (2012)

16. EXAMPLE: Dealing with “gangs”… (HSC ‘Crime’ topic)
Law Reform
MECHANISMS of reform
Parliaments
EXAMPLE: Dealing with “gangs”… (HSC ‘Crime’ topic)
His conviction was eventually overturned, but the law wasn’t overturned at that time.

17. EXAMPLE: Dealing with “gangs”… (HSC ‘Crime’ topic)
Law Reform
MECHANISMS of reform
Parliaments
EXAMPLE: Dealing with “gangs”… (HSC ‘Crime’ topic)
The NSW Ombudsman (who investigates the use of government power) reported at the end of 2013 that:
“40% of all people subject to the consorting provisions in the first year of use are Aboriginal”
So even when we’re targeting BIKIE GANGS we STILL manage to go after Aboriginal people!
This was obviously not the original goal of the law, but it shows the consequences of rushing to give police more power without thinking of what MIGHT happen.

18. Law Reform
MECHANISMS of reform
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) has been able to encourage international support for treaties/conventions.
e.g. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights has 167 signatory countries.
As more countries agree to ratify these conventions, they will also look to reform their own DOMESTIC laws to follow the agreement they have signed.
e.g. Removing discriminatory sections of Acts to better protect the human rights of their people.

19. A lack of real commitment by some countries
Law Reform
MECHANISMS of reform
United Nations
The United Nations has had serious difficulty in reforming the law because of:
A lack of real commitment by some countries
e.g. The US refusing to sign the Rome Statute (to allow Americans to be tried by the International Criminal Court), AND encouraging other countries not to be part of it either.
The massive difficulty in getting countries to agree (a lack of ‘consensus’)
e.g. The United Nations still has NO DEFINITION OF ‘Terrorism’ because countries can’t agree on the difference between “terrorists” and “freedom fighters”. – One Man’s Freedom Fighter… can we ever define terrorism? (The Conversation (2013)
A history of failures
e.g. They did not prevent, or even stop, the Rwandan genocide in 1994

20. Intergovernmental organisations (IGOs)
Law Reform
MECHANISMS of reform
Intergovernmental organisations (IGOs)
Pronounce it: INTER-GOVERN-MENTAL
Intergovernmental Organisations (IGOs) are organisations that have sovereign states (individual countries) as members.
e.g. United Nations, the European Union and the World Trade Organisation.
The ‘member states’ have certain common goals.
e.g. Increasing trade between member nations
e.g. Resolving conflicts between member nations
Intergovernmental organisations have become increasingly important.

21. Intergovernmental organisations (IGOs)
Law Reform
MECHANISMS of reform
Intergovernmental organisations (IGOs)
They are able to:
- Encourage cooperation between states
- Provide a forum for countries to resolves disputes without violence
e.g. the European Court of Justice
- Create consistency across countries in law reform
e.g. The European Parliament
e.g. The European Court of Human Rights

22. Questions
What is a mechanism of law reform? Give an example of one. (slide 1)
How are courts a mechanism of law reform? (Slide 3)
Name one court case in which law reform occurred and find out what happened in that case. (slide 4&5 and your own research)
How is parliament a mechanism of law reform and what is a problem to do with this? (slide 7)
What does the word ‘amendment’ mean? (slide 8)
How did Parliament deal with the issue of Bikie gangs and was this effective in achieving justice? (slide 11-17) – you can also watch the youtubes on
How is the UN a mechanism for law reform and how effective is it in achieving justice. (slide 18-19)