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

2. Law Reform
MECHANISMS of
reform
We need to look at:
1. What they are; and
2. HOW THEY WORK (“operate”)
Examine the operation
of the different Courts
mechanisms of reform Parliaments
Law Reform United Nations
MECHANISMS of Intergovernmental
reform 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. 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. 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. 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. NOTICE: You don’t put an ‘s’ at the end of ‘legislation’.
Law Reform The plural is the same as the singular.
There’s NO SUCH WORD AS ‘LEGISLATIONS’
MECHANISMS of
reform It sometimes helps to say “A piece of legislation” or “Pieces of
Parliaments legislation”, so you can tell when you’re using the plural.
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. 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
+

10. Law Reform
MECHANISMS of
reform
Parliaments
=

11. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Law Reform
MECHANISMS of
reform
Parliaments
EXAMPLE: Dealing with “gangs”… (HSC ‘Crime’ topic)
His conviction was eventually
overturned, but the law itself is
STILL IN PLACE!

17. 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.

18. 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

19. Law Reform
MECHANISMS of
reform
Intergovernmental Pronounce it: INTER-GOVERN-MENTAL
organisations
(IGOs)
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.

20. 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