Studies of lawyers and clients tend to be lawyer centric. How clients see lawyers-their own or those of other parties-is less emphasised. In this article we report the perspective of ten women who had been subject to a Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction process. The Convention was created to address removal of children from custodial mothers by non-custodial fathers and aims to ensure the safe return of children to their country of "habitual residence". However, the Hague Convention process, and the lawyers and courts that administer it, do not adequately respond to situations where mothers are fleeing domestic and family violence with their children. The women we spoke with had all fled domestic and family violence and sought safety by returning to their own country. They had been subject to a Hague Convention process for the return of their child(ren) to the country and custody of their perpetrator and experienced an accusatory, uncaring, hostile legal profession. The women felt that the lawyers were motivated by moral assessments of them and their behaviour. The lawyers were seen as participating and continuing the violence as an agent of the perpetrator and the state.

Blockchain’s language and terminology is confusing, contested, and rapidly changing. As a hype-driven technology, Blockchain is critical to an increasing number of projects that exist in a space of regulatory uncertainty. As communities of blockchain develop and evolve, the language they use to describe these functions changes. This causes concerns when attempting to have global regulatory certainty and clarity. Regulators and communities have different approaches to blockchain language, and this causes problems because of the translation between practical use in a community, and the legal effects created by regulators. Of particular concern is the lack of clear expression amongst the broader community regarding the concept of blockchain-related assets as these ‘tokens’, ‘coins’, and ‘assets’ form a key part of financial regulation. This project uses semiotics to study the diverse language associated with blockchain. This analyzes a series of self-proclaimed ‘dictionaries of blockchain’ to assess key definitions, themes, perceptions, and misconceptions present in these communities. The study involved a case analysis of the terminology used in Australia’s proposed response to blockchain in comparison with that of wider communities. When comparing this to regulatory definitions and approaches, it becomes clear that this is an area that requires further attention. This project highlights the need for regulators to understand and use common terms in blockchain regulation. It is argued that this approach facilitates a better understanding of poorly understood concepts and clearly connects the law with those it intends to target.

Journal of Law and SocietyVolume 50, Issue 1 p. 147-151 BOOK REVIEW Lawyers and the Rule of Law By Andrew Boon, Oxford: Hart, 2022, 576 pp., £90.00 JOHN FLOOD, Corresponding Author JOHN FLOOD [email protected] Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research, Griffith University, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia Email: [email protected]Search for more papers by this author JOHN FLOOD, Corresponding Author JOHN FLOOD [email protected] Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research, Griffith University, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia Email: [email protected]Search for more papers by this author First published: 02 March 2023 https://doi.org/10.1111/jols.12407Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Volume50, Issue1March 2023Pages 147-151 RelatedInformation

The English Bar sets great store by traditions and symbols. One of these, the cab rank rule, is considered above reproach. The author was commissioned to examine the working of the rule by the Legal Services Board. The resulting analysis caused much indignation among the Bar with a complete rejection of the research. This article discusses from sociological and economic perspectives how the rule functions and why the Bar was unable to engage positively. It also examines various issues in doing research on the legal profession by looking at other researchers' histories, how the legal profession is averse to change and modernisation and clings to a manufactured sense of tradition. Any challenge to the profession's symbolic order is perceived as a threat rather than a moment of reflection.

This paper examines the experiences of women who have been ‘Hagued’: forced, through a court-facilitated process enabled by the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, to return children taken unlawfully across international borders. It considers how the convention, which lacks specific mechanisms to account for family and domestic violence, is weaponised against women fleeing such violence. It identifies three types of harm: further intimidation and abuse by an ex-partner through contact necessitated by court proceedings; punishment through a court system that positions the woman as a ‘child abductor’ and may engender adverse custody arrangements; and homelessness caused by lack of support structures, income and financial independence. Finally, it suggests improvements to reduce or avoid this harm.

This article reports on interviews with ten women who had experienced the legal process of the 1980 Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (the 'Hague Convention' or the 'Convention'). We refer to that experience as being 'Hagued'. All the women were subjected to a Hague return order after fleeing family and domestic violence perpetrated by their previous partner, because they fled with their children across international borders. Subsequently, all women were ordered to return their children to the country where their abusive previous partner lived. Nine out of the ten women also returned with their children. On return the women experienced further harms: they were vulnerable to, further intimidation and controlling behaviour from previous partners; they became homeless; and they felt punished in ordered from returning country's courts through reduced contact and custody arrangements. The article concludes by suggesting if the Convention, the domestic implementation laws and ultimately the courts assessing return applications, placed greater emphasis and understanding on family and domestic violence, then the women interviewed probably would not have been ordered to return their children and they would not have experienced further post-Hague harm.

The COVID pandemic has overwhelmed many countries in their attempts at tracking and tracing people infected with the disease. Our paper examines how tracking and tracing is done looking at manual and technological means. It raises the issues around efficiency and privacy, etc. The paper investigates more closely the approaches taken by two countries, namely Taiwan and the UK. It shows how tracking and tracing can be handled sensitively and openly compared to the bungled attempts of the UK that have led to the greatest number of dead in Europe. The key messages are that all communications around tracking and tracing need to open, clear, without confusion and delivered by those closest to the communities receiving the messages.This occurred in Taiwan but in the UK the central government chose to close out local government and other local resources. The highly centralised dirigiste approach of the government alienated much of the population who came to distrust government. As local government was later brought into the COVID fold the messaging improved. Taiwan always remained open in its communications, even allowing citizens to participate in improving the technology around COVID. Taiwan learnt from its earlier experiences with SARS, whereas the UK ignored its pandemic planning exercises from earlier years and even experimented with crude ideas of herd immunity by letting the disease rip through the population--an idea soon abandoned. We also derive a new type of citizen from the pandemic, namely the R citizen. This unfortunate archetype is both a blessing and a curse. If the citizen scores over 1 the disease accelerates and the R citizen is chastised, whereas if the citizen declines to zero it disappears but receives no plaudits for their behaviour. The R citizen can neither exist or die, rather like Schrödinger's cat. R citizens are of course datafied individuals who are assemblages of data and are treated as distinct from humans. We argue they cannot be so distinguished without rendering them inhuman. This is as much a moral category as it is a scientific one.We suggest one approach to the handling of data through blockchain as a means of ensuring the integrity and transparency of the data.

Background Medicinal cannabis has been legalised for use for a range of specified medical conditions in Australia since 2016. However, the nature of the government regulations and the subsequent complexity of prescribing, as well as doctors’ safety uncertainties and the stigma of the plant, remain contributing barriers to patient access. Media representations can offer insights into the nature of the discourse about new medical products and therapies and how ideas and understandings about social phenomena become constructed. Focusing on professional medical publications, this study sought to investigate how medicinal cannabis is being represented in professional medical publications. Methods Using a content analysis approach, we investigated articles about medicinal cannabis from 2000 to the end of 2019 in the Medical Journal of Australia, Australian Doctor , Medical Observer , Australian Journal of General Practice , Australian Family Physicia n , and Australian Medicine. Articles were coded according to article type, framings of cannabis, headline and article tone, and key sources used in the article. We also used manifest textual analysis to search for word frequencies, and specific conditions referred to in the articles retrieved. Results A total of 117 articles were retrieved for analysis, the majority of which were news stories for a physician audience. Across the longitudinal period, we found that most reports carried a positive tone towards medicinal cannabis. Cannabis is most frequently framed as a legitimate therapeutic option that is complex to prescribe and access, does not have a strong evidence base to support its use, and also carries safety concerns. At the same time, the outlook on cannabis research data is largely positive. Primary sources most frequently used in these reports are peer-reviewed journals or government reports, voices from medical associations or foundations, as well as government and university researchers. Chronic pain or pain were the conditions most frequently mentioned in articles about cannabis, followed by epilepsy, cancer or cancer pain, and nausea and chemotherapy. Conclusions This analysis offers evidence that medicinal cannabis is being framed as a valid medicine advocated by the community, with potential for addressing a range of conditions despite the lack of evidence, and a medicine that is not free of risk.

This chapter examines the changing structure and increasing commercialization of corporate legal practice. Lawyers compete with accountants; they face competition from American and continental lawyers. Some scholars have argued that what is taking place is the Americanization of professional practice and of lawyering in particular. The American law firm is composed essentially of two elements, namely, partners and associates. Perhaps the most sophisticated methodology yet developed for analyzing the successful law firms is that used by the American Lawyer. English law firms are smaller than their American counterparts. The work of corporate lawyers is based on the demands of their clients. Law is different from other occupations, e.g. medicine, where practitioners select a specialty for its intrinsic interest. In law the field is picked because the biggest and most powerful clients want those services. It is the client not the speciality per se that gives status to lawyers.

My thesis is that lawyers regularly fall into two categories in various media — either saints or sinners; heroes or villains; conventional or maverick, representing the sacred and the profane. The classic saint is Perry Mason who was rather dull but a dependably good lawyer. Over the last twenty years or so, television has emphasised the sinner and the maverick. TV shows such as L.A. Law and Ally McBeal have played up the quirky aspects of lawyering, edgy, serendipitous, even whacky. And while US shows identify individual lawyers, they mostly operate in the context of a firm with partners who can function as a brake when needed. In the Anglo-Australian context the barrister tradition thrives. Here the individual lawyer is pitted against bigger opponents such as business or the state. There is considerably more space for outre personality traits and idiosyncrasies to flourish. The British series Rumpole of the Bailey and the Australian Rake illustrate two variants of a similar theme — the maverick against the powerful. The Bar as a profession represents a clubbable environment where class, status and education signify one’s position in the hierarchy. Horace Rumpole and Cleaver Greene, even though well educated, are portrayed as archetypes of Groucho Marx’s maxim, “I don’t want to belong to any club that will have me as a member.” They are barristers in spite of themselves, fiercely independent, clever, and ethically fluid. They seek a form of ethics bound to justice rather than ideas of discipline and governmentality. These two television series are not contemporaneous: Rumpole was filmed in the late 20th century and Rake in the early 21st. Nevertheless, they speak to each other over the years in small but detectable ways. Both the protagonists are Australian. Leo McKern (Rumpole) and Richard Roxburgh (Rake) are acclaimed actors of their generations with a range of roles, but both have been captured by these particular characters. Rumpole appears in both television and book form with the result that McKern’s physical representation became that of Rumpole. And although Rumpole has been performed in radio by other actors, no visual depiction has yet replaced the original. There is one connection that occurs in early episode. Cleaver Greene is a witness in a bungled robbery and his former lover, Scarlet, a Crown prosecutor, decides to cross-examine him instead of letting her junior do it. This breaches ethical conduct. As her questions cause Cleaver to squirm, he bursts with frustration and shouts at his somnolent counsel, “Oi, Rumpole”, in order to get him to object. It is the only time when the two shows acknowledge each other.There are stark differences between the two shows despite the time differences. English lawyer shows tend to concentrate on the courtroom with the outside world only barely registering (Robson 2017). Rumpole of the Bailey is an exemplar of this. We see him at home with Hilda and we see him in chambers and Pommeroy’s Wine Bar drinking Chateau Thames Embankment, reciting Keats, but the majority of each episode is in court. Rumpole is also more genteel; on the whole people are decent to each other as befitting stereotypes of British society at this time. Rake, however, spends possibly more time outside the court than in and is far less genteel: many bad things happen to Cleaver as befitting the narratives of a more rough and tumble society in Australia. This is certainly so as the series progresses. Much of Rake revolves around Cleaver’s relationships, dysfunctional and functional. One other distinguishing aspect is how much of Rake is taken up with Cleaver’s own legal problems. The first few episodes show him in a tax tribunal because of his own non-payment. Cleaver is desperate to delay the proceedings as long as possible using all sorts of wiles — dodgy witnesses, half-destroyed evidence, and eventually succeeding when, as the judge is about to find against him, the judge conveniently has a heart attack and dies. As this chapter is taken up with comparison I dip in and out of the characters; for a sustained analysis of Rake as a larrikan see Lili Pâquet’s chapter in this volume.

Nakamoto proposed a new solution to transact value via the internet. And since 2009, blockchain technology has expanded and diversified. It has, however, proven to be inefficient in the way it achieves its outcomes, especially through the proof of work protocol. Other developers are promoting alternative methods but, as yet, none has superseded proof of work. The competing protocols illuminate a key feature of the blockchain community, namely, its inability to create consensus in a decentralized community. Because of this lack of consensus, the formation of standards is particularly difficult to achieve. At best standards are contested sites, and we examine three such sites where some form of agreement over standards will be essential if blockchain is to evolve successfully. These three sites are blockchain governance, smart contracts, and interoperability of blockchains. We argue that because standards' formation is a contested and contingent process, the blockchain community will persist in creating difficulties and barriers for itself until it is able to resolve internal conflicts.

Law and legal education are being exposed to tough developments as globalization alters the configuration of world society. Although legal education is parochial and prescriptive, it has a residual power. The European Bank of Reconstruction and Development has carried out surveys on progress in legal reform in its constituency countries, both of which show reform is directly proportional to inward investment flows. Globalization, as a set of processes, economic, cultural and economic, has the potential to engender chaos. The new imperialism of the supranational bodies is deficient in the benign paternalism of the old-style colonialism which at least pretended to have the welfare of communities at heart. The relationship between globalization and the field of law is reflexive: as the economy expands and integrates, its need for regulation also grows; the economy demands particular kinds of law and law thereby shapes the economy.

Most start-ups find it difficult to raise finance. In the last few years a new form of funding has emerged—the initial coin offering (ICO). ICOs provide investors with cryptotokens that often have multiple roles as stored value token, pure utility token, security token, and hybrid token. ICOs attempt to create involvement in projects without giving away equity. However, as ICOs have risen in number regulators have become more interested and sought to provide rules for their proper functioning. In this paper we argue that the regulators often overlook the advantages of ICOs in order to focus on their faults. We propose ICOs ought to comprise a new asset class with their own rules.

The Australian Treasury has identified a number of challenges in FinTech, especially around Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). In this paper we examine four types of tokens within ICOs: pure utility tokens, security tokens, stored value tokens, and hybrid tokens. There is considerable confusion surrounding what each means and signifies, and how each should be treated by both consumers and regulators. We explore the differences, noting what promoters should do to avoid falling into regulatory traps, and the consequences for selecting particular types of token. Because of the confusion around ICO tokens, we suggest there should be a new asset class of token recognised in the Australian Corporations Act. It would have its own funding limits and regulatory framework. Finally, we outline a new code of conduct for ICOs.

This article argues that legal education is currently grappling with three narratives of technology’s role in either augmenting, disrupting or ending the current legal services environment. It identifies each of these narratives within features of curriculum design that respond to legal professional archetypes of how lawyers react to lawtech. In tracing how these influential narratives and associated archetypes feature in the law curriculum, the article maps the evolving intersection of lawtech, the legal profession and legal services delivery in legal education. It concludes by proffering the additional narrative of ‘adaptive professionalism’, which emphasises the complex and contextual nature of the legal profession, and therefore provides a more coherent direction for adaptation of the law curriculum. Through this more nuanced and grounded approach, it is suggested that law schools might equip law graduates to embrace technological developments while holding on to essential notions of ethical conduct, access to justice and the rule of law.