Australian Women's Private Law Network

We are up to our penultimate post for 2019!

Publications:

We have become aware of the following publications in private law:

• Renae Barker and Robyn Carroll, ‘How might an apology feature in the new religious freedom bill?’ The Conversation (10 September 2019);
• Katy Barnett, ‘Citation as a measure of ‘impact’: Female legal academics at a disadvantage?’ (2019) Alternative Law Journal https://doi.org/10.1177/1037969X19874847 (advance) (currently open access);
• Katy Barnett, ‘Gain-based damages’ in Roger Halson and David Campbell (eds), Research Handbook on Remedies in Private Law (2019, Edward Elgar) 311;
• Fiona Burns, ‘The Evolution of the Profit a Prendre and its Importance in Australia’ (2018) 44(3) Monash University Law Review 687;
• Jacob Flynn, Rebecca Giblin and François Petitjean, ‘What Happens When Books Enter the Public Domain? Testing Copyright’s Underuse Hypothesis across Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Canada’ (2019) 42(4) University of New South Wales Law Journal (advance);
• Kate Galloway, ‘The Role of Pateman’s Sexual Contract in Beneficial Interests in Property’ (2019) Feminist Legal Studies https://doi.org/10.1007/s10691-019-09413-2;
• Pauline Ridge, ‘When Is the Advancement of Religion Not a Charitable Purpose?’ (2020) Canadian Journal of Contemporary and Comparative Law (forthcoming); ANU College of Law Research Paper No. 19.24 . Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3475218
• Ellen Rock, ‘Misfeasance in the Public Office’ (2019) 42(3) Melbourne University Law Review (advance);
• Prue Vines, ‘Re Estate Wilson, Deceased (2017): The Last Frontier for Aboriginal Intestacy in Australia?’ in Brian Sloan (ed),Landmark Cases in Succession Law (Hart Publishing 2019);
• Prue Vines, ‘Book Review: The Statutory Foundations of Negligence’ (2019) 41(3) Sydney Law Review 411; and
• Carolyn Sappideen, ‘Medical Professionals and the Erosion of the Ordinary Practitioner Standard’ (2019) 27 Tort Law Review 37.

Grants awarded:

We have been told of the following grants:

• Elise Bant, ‘Unravelling Corporate Fraud: re-purposing ancient laws for modern times’ (ARC Future Fellowship Award);
• Kirsty Gover, ‘Understanding and Recognising Indigenous Law and Legal Systems’ (ARC Future Fellowship Award);
• Vicki Huang and Sue Finch, ‘Gender and Australian Patent Application Outcomes’. Deakin Science & Society Interdisciplinary Project Incubator Award (Commencing 2020).

News:

Professor Elise Bant will be moving from Melbourne Law School to the Law School at University of Western Australia on 1 January 2020, but will retain a position as a Professorial Fellow at MLS.

The usual caveat:

As always, if we’ve left anything out, please let us know and we’ll update the list and tweet updates. Our aim with this blog is to be as inclusive as possible. Please contact us (by commenting, by using the “Contact us” mechanism on this post, emailing us at austwomenprivlawnet[at]gmail.com or other social media means) and we will add your publications or news to the post.

Publications

We have become aware of the following publications:

• Elise Bant and Jeannie Marie Paterson, ‘Exploring the Boundaries of Compensation for Misleading Conduct: The Role of Restitution under the Australian Consumer Law’ (2019) 41(2) Sydney Law Review 155;
• Katy Barnett, ‘Case summary: Carter Holt Harvey Woodproducts Australia Pty Ltd v Commonwealth’ on Opinions on High (27 August 2019) <https://blogs.unimelb.edu.au/opinionsonhigh/2019/08/27/carter-holt-harvey-woodproducts-australia-pty-ltd-v-commonwealth/&gt;;
• Simone Degeling and Jessica Hudson, ‘Credit Advisers, Consumer Credit and Equitable Fiduciary Obligations’ (2019) 47(1) Federal Law Review 64;
• Eugenia Georgiadis, ‘Ignoring the Call for Law Reform: Is It Time to Expand the Scope of Protection for Personal Images Uploaded on Social Networks’ (2019) 26 Tort Law Review 166;
• Vicki Huang, ‘Empirical Analysis of Australian Trademark Infringement Decisions — Implications for the U.S. Trademark Use Debate’ (2019) 35(3) Santa Clara High Technology Journal 1;
• Vicki Huang, ‘An Empirical Investigation of 20 Years of Trade Mark Infringement Litigation in Australian Courts’ (2019) 41(1) Sydney Law Review 105;
• Jessica Hudson, ‘One Thicket in Fraud on a Power’ (2019) 39 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies (forthcoming);
• Chief Justice Susan Kiefel, ‘Judicial Advice to Trustees: its origins, purposes and nature’ (2019) 42(3) Melbourne University Law Review (forthcoming);
• Rita Matulionyte, ‘Empowering Authors Via Fairer Copyright Contract Law’ (2019) 42(2) UNSW Law Journal 681;
• Barbara McDonald, ‘Byrne v Deane (1937)’ in David Rolph (ed), Landmark Cases in Defamation Law, (2019, Hart Publishing);
• Jeannie Marie Paterson, Corones’ Australian Consumer Law (4th edn, 2019, Thomson Reuters);
• Jeannie Marie Paterson, Elise Bant and Matthew Clare, ‘Doctrine, policy, culture and choice in assessing unconscionable conduct under statute: ASIC v Kobelt’ (2019) 13 Journal of Equity 81;
• Gail Pearson, Elisabeth Peden, GJ Tolhurst, Sheelagh McCracken, Jeannie Paterson, Anne McNaughton, Ryan Catterwell and Allison Sillink,
  Commercial Law: Commentary and Materials (4th edn, 2019, Thomson Reuters);
• Elisabeth Peden, ‘Penalties after Paciocco – the Enigma of ‘Legitimate Interests’?’ (2019) 25 Journal of Contract Law 263;
• Pauline Ridge, ‘Accounting for gains from knowing participation in breach of fiduciary duty’ (2019) 13 Journal of Equity 69; and
• Gabrielle Wolf and Danuta Mendelsohn, ‘The My Health Record System: Potential To Undermine The Paradigm Of Patient Confidentiality?’ (2019) 42(2) UNSW Law Journal 619.

As always, if we’ve left anything out, please let us know and we’ll update the list and tweet updates. Our aim with this blog is to be as inclusive as possible. Please contact us (by commenting, by using the “Contact us” mechanism on this post, emailing us at austwomenprivlawnet[at]gmail.com or other social media means) and we will add your publications or news to the post.

Conferences

We have been informed about the ANZ Law and History Society Conference to be held at Victoria University Law School, Melbourne on 11th to 14th December.  The theme is ‘Does Law’s History Matter? The Politics of our Disciplinary Practices’ which is very appropriate and relevant to private law people.

Updated to add:

For those of us who are interested in apologies, there is a conference on ‘Apologies in the Legal Arena: A Comparative Law Perspective’ on 27 September 2019 at Salle del Edicole in Padova in Italy, with scholars from the US, Italy and Australia presenting (including several members of the Network).

Publications

We have been informed of the following relevant publications over the last two months (with a book by Michelle Sharpe that I missed last year):

• Katy Barnett, ‘Lord Cairns’ Act and Statutory Interpretation: Give the Court an Inch, They’ll Take a Mile’ in Prue Vines and M Scott Donald (eds), Statutory Interpretation in Private Law (2019, Federation Press);
• Katy Barnett, ‘Australian Securities and Investments Commission v Kobelt‘ on Opinions on High (20 June 2019) <http://blogs.unimelb.edu.au/opinionsonhigh/2019/06/20/australian-securities-and-investments-commission-v-kobelt/&gt;;
• Lyria Bennett Moses and Brendan Edgeworth, ‘Statutes in a Web of Law’ in Prue Vines and M Scott Donald (eds), Statutory Interpretation in Private Law (2019, Federation Press);
• May Fong Cheong, ‘Contractual Fairness: Statutory Innovation and Statutory Interpretation’ in Prue Vines and M Scott Donald (eds), Statutory Interpretation in Private Law (2019, Federation Press);
• Simone Degeling, ‘Statutes and a Fiduciary Course of Dealing’ in Prue Vines and M Scott Donald (eds), Statutory Interpretation in Private Law (2019, Federation Press);
• Rosemary Teele Langford, ‘An Integrated Approach to Statutory Interpretation: Directors’ Duties in the UK’ in Prue Vines and M Scott Donald (eds), Statutory Interpretation in Private Law (2019, Federation Press);
• Rosemary Teele Langford and Ian Ramsay, ‘Removal of Directors of Public Companies by Shareholders: When Do Companies Contract Out of the Corporations Act?’ (2019) 37 Companies and Securities Law Journal 54;
• Kayleen Manwaring and Pamela Hanrahan, ‘BEARing Responsibility for Cyber Security in Australian Financial Institutions: The Rising Tide of Directors’ Personal Liability’, (2019) 30 Journal of Banking and Finance Law and Practice 20;
• Jeannie Marie Paterson and Elise Bant, ‘Intuitive Synthesis and Fidelity to Purpose? Judicial Interpretation of the Discretionary Power to Award Civil Penalties under the Australian Consumer Law’ in Prue Vines and M Scott Donald (eds), Statutory Interpretation in Private Law (2019, Federation Press);
• Michelle Sharpe, Unconscionable Conduct in Australian Commercial and Consumer Contracts (2018, Lexis Nexis);
• Michelle Sharpe, ‘“More Than a Feeling”: Finding Statutory Unconscionable Conduct’ (2019) 27(2) Australian Journal of Competition and Consumer Law 108;
• Prue Vines and M Scott Donald, ‘Introduction: Is Statutory Interpretation in Private Law Distinctive?’ in Prue Vines and M Scott Donald (eds), Statutory Interpretation in Private Law (2019, Federation Press);
• Prue Vines, ‘Taking Common Law Concepts Seriously: Extending the Principle of Legality in Private Law’ in Prue Vines and M Scott Donald (eds), Statutory Interpretation in Private Law (2019, Federation Press).

As always, if we’ve left anything out, please let us know and we’ll update the list and tweet updates. Our aim with this blog is to be as inclusive as possible. Please contact us (by commenting, by using the “Contact us” mechanism on this post, emailing us at austwomenprivlawnet[at]gmail.com or other social media means) and we will add your publications or news to the post.

Publications

We have been informed of the following relevant publications over the last few months:

• Elise Bant and Jeannie M Paterson, ‘Fines that’ll hurt. ASIC’s powerful, if ill-fitting teeth’ The Conversation, 27 February 2019;
• Sarah Hook, ‘Dealing Fairly with Parody: How literary theory can inform legal definitions’ (2019) 29(2) Australian Intellectual Property Journal 91;
• Luke Nottage and Jeannie Marie Paterson ‘Consumer Contracts and Product Safety in South East Asia: Partly Trading Up’ in P. Hsieh & B. Mercurio (Eds.), ASEAN Law in the New Regional Economic Order: Global Trends and Shifting Paradigms (2019, Cambridge University Press);
• Gail Pearson, Elisabeth Peden, GJ Tolhurst, Sheelagh McCracken, Jeannie Paterson, Anne McNaughton, Ryan Catterwell and Allison Silink, Commercial Law: Commentary and Materials, 4th ed (Thomson Reuters, 2019);
• Pauline Ridge and Joachim Dietrich, ‘Challenging Conceptions of Accessory Liability in Private Law’, Cambridge Law Journal, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008197319000345. (Published online: 22 April 2019); and
• Philippa Ryan, Trust and Distrust in Digital Economies (Routledge, 2019, forthcoming).

If we’ve left anything out, please let us know and we’ll update the list and tweet updates. Our aim with this blog is to be as inclusive as possible. Please contact us (by commenting, by using the “Contact us” mechanism on this post, emailing us at austwomenprivlawnet[at]gmail.com or other social media means) and we will add your publications or news to the post.

News

Dr Philippa Ryan will be taking up a position as Senior Lecturer with the ANU College of Law in July 2019. Congratulations, Pip!

Rosemary Teele Langford’s new book Company Directors’ Duties and Conflicts of Interest (Oxford University Press, 2019) is being launched on 2 May 2019 at Melbourne Law School by Justice Michelle Gordon AC of the High Court of Australia.

Conferences

As noted in a previous post, the University of Sydney Law School has put out a call for papers for its colloquium on Intersections in Private Law in August 2019. Please see that post for details.

And as also noted in an earlier post, Obligations X has issued its call for papers for its conference in Harvard (co-hosted by Harvard Law School and Melbourne Law School) from July 14 to 17, 2020. The theme is ‘Private Law Inside and Out’.

The AWPLN has been informed of the following event and encourages members and supporters to attend or submit a paper:

A second biennial colloquium at the University of Sydney Law School on Friday 16 August 2019 on Intersections in Private Law.

There is much to be explored and discussed in how different fields of private law interact with each other – contract law with tort or equitable principles, tort with un just enrichment, – and with other fields of law, such as public law, property law, company law or regulation.

Within just one field of private law, there are still overlaps and distinctions to be drawn (or, more controversially, eradicated)- for example, in tort law, trespass and nuisance, intentional wrongdoing and negligence, defamation and negligence, non-delegable duties and vicarious liability; non-delegable duties and strict liability; liability for physical damage compared with pure economic loss.  In looking at a broader interaction of remedies and obligations, how do causation and remoteness principles operate in different fields? How does vicarious liability interact with corporate law structures and principles?  What is the role of private law in an age of increasing public regulation? How do emerging technologies challenge the application of legal concepts in these fields?  These are just a few questions among many that could be explored.

The aim of this second biennial colloquium is to explore the boundaries, overlaps and complementary operation of fields of private law with each other and externally.  Speakers are free to propose papers on a wide range of topics related to this broad theme.  Papers may be completed or work-in-progress. Papers from early career researchers are warmly encouraged.

It is proposed that the colloquium will take place on Friday 16 August 2019, with a colloquium dinner that night and either a possible extension for papers the next day and /or a follow up teaching workshop the next morning, Saturday 17 August, for those interested in how the modern law curriculum should approach the interaction of obligations and remedies.

Confirmed speakers include:

• James Goudkamp, Oxford University
• Luke Rostill, Oxford University
• Nicole Moreham, Victoria University, NZ
• Jason Varuhas, Melbourne University
• Jason Harris, Sydney University
• Lee Aitken, Queensland University
• Natalie Silver, Sydney University
• Gemma Turton, Sydney University
• Ben Chen, Sydney University
• David Rolph, Sydney University
• John Eldridge, Sydney University
• Barbara McDonald, Sydney University

Please contact Barbara McDonald for more information: barbara.mcdonald@sydney.edu.au

We hope you all had a great start to 2019.

Publications

We’ve been informed of the following publications by Australian female scholars in the area of private law from the end of December 2018 to the end of February 2019:

• Elise Bant, ‘Unravelling Fraud in the Wake of Hayward v Zurich Insurance’ (2019) Lloyd’s Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly 91;
• Elise Bant, and Jeannie M Paterson, ‘Should specifically deterrent or punitive remedies be made available to victims of misleading conduct under the Australian Consumer Law?’ (2019) Torts Law Journal 1;
• Elise Bant, ‘The Buck Stops Here: Holding Banks Responsible for Misleading Conduct’ Pursuit 5 February 2019;
• Elise Bant and Jeannie M Paterson, ‘Understanding Hayne: Why Less is More’ The Conversation, 11 February 2019
• Katy Barnett, ‘Chasing will-o’-the-wisp: the English courts’ impossible quest for certainty in constructive trusts over bribes’ (2019) 25(2) Trusts & Trustees DOI: 10.1093/tandt/ttz007 (forthcoming);
• Simone Degeling, ‘Certainty in calculating money remedies for breach of fiduciary duty’ in Kit Barker and Ross Grantham (eds), Apportionment in Private Law (Hart Publishing, 2018) Ch 9
• Kate Falconer, ‘An Illogical Distinction Continued: Re Creswell and Property Rights in Human Biological Material’ [2019] 1 University of New South Wales Law Journal Forum
• Rosemary Teele Langford, Company Directors’ Duties and Conflicts of Interest (Oxford University Press, 2019);
• Barbara McDonald, ‘Reforming a reform: why has it been so hard to reform proportionate liability reforms?’ in Kit Barker and Ross Grantham (eds), Apportionment in Private Law (Hart Publishing, 2018) Ch 11
• Natalie Skead and Jani McCutcheon, ‘The art of crime: The application of literary proceeds of crime confiscation legislation to visual art’ (2018) 22(3) Media and Arts Law Review
• Prue Vines and Robyn Carroll, ‘The Apology Ordinance: Bold Steps into Some Uncharted Areas of Apology-Protecting Legislation’ (2018) 48 Hong Kong Law Journal 925;
• Sally Wheeler, ‘Modelling the contracts of the future’ (2018) 27 Griffith Law Review DOI: 10.1080/1038441.2017.1552547

If we’ve left anything out, please let us know and we’ll update the list and tweet updates. Our aim with this blog is to be as inclusive as possible. Please contact us (by commenting, by using the “Contact us” mechanism on this post, emailing us at austwomenprivlawnet[at]gmail.com or other social media means) and we will add your publications or news to the post.

Female experts in the media

ABC News is currently trying to build its database of experts to include more women. We encourage our members to self nominate as experts in private law by filling out the form accessed here.

Obligations X: Call for papers

Obligations X has issued its call for papers for its conference in Harvard (co-hosted by Harvard Law School and Melbourne Law School) from July 14 to 17, 2020. The theme is Private Law Inside and Out. The website explains:

The conference theme is intended to provoke discussion about the inside and outside of private law. The conference will focus on the contrast between ‘internalist’ and ‘externalist’ perspectives on the law in this field. It will also consider the boundaries and relationships between private law and morality, private law and economic efficiency, and private law and other policy goals. A central aspiration of this iteration of Obligations is to give private law scholars working in different intellectual traditions an opportunity to identify previously underappreciated overlaps and synergies, and thereby help to break down methodological barriers to an improved understanding of the field.

Both established and early-career legal scholars are invited to submit proposals to present papers addressing the conference theme, either at a general level or in relation to any aspect of the law of obligations broadly conceived – contract, property (including intellectual property), torts, unfair competition, and unjust enrichment, as well as equity and other topics within or closely related to private law.

We’re delighted to confirm that Dr Rosemary Langford‘s monograph, Director’s Duties: Principles and Application has been cited by the High Court of Australia in ASIC v Lewski [2018] HCA 63, at fn 69. Very well deserved. The case involved civil penalty proceedings by the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (“ASIC”) against five directors of a failed aged care and retirement trust, and concerned whether they breached their duties when they amended the trust’s constitution.

If you are interested in further details about the case, Katy Barnett at Opinions on High has written a summary here.

We have received the following details about a Private Law Junior Scholars Conference.

Title: Call for Papers – Autonomy in Private Law: Past, Present, Future

Organization: The Private Law Junior Scholars Conference

Event dates and location: June 19-20, 2019, Tel Aviv University Faculty of Law, Safra Center for Ethics.

CFP deadline: January 20, 2019, midnight EST

Website: pljsc.wordpress.com

The Private Law Junior Scholars Conference is a collaboration between the law faculties of the University of Toronto and Tel Aviv University. It aims to create a forum for junior researchers from around the world to exchange about private law and different aspects of private law scholarship. The conference provides a select number of doctoral candidates, post-doctoral researchers and junior faculty (pre-tenure) with a unique opportunity to present their work and receive meaningful feedback from senior faculty members and peers. Last year’s conference, themed ‘Public Aspects of Private Law’, received 70 submissions. A total of seven presentations were selected by the organizers and leading private law scholars from the universities of Tel Aviv, Toronto and Yale, which included Hanoch Dagan, Avihay Dorfman, Larissa Katz, Daniel Markovits, Ariel Porat, and Arthur Ripstein.

This Year’s Topic: Autonomy in Private Law: Past, Present, Future

Continue reading “The Private Law Junior Scholars Conference” →

We are a group of Australian scholars who write in private law. We have been discussing putting this group together for some years. Our mission is simple and inclusive: to collate the citations of work of Australian women working in private law and to post a list of such works every two months. We invite anyone who is interested in private law to follow our list.