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Archive for the ‘Journals’ Category

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Australian Legal Footnotes: a quick and dirty guide

In Journals, law students, legal education, Procrastination on March 22, 2012 at 12:04 pm

Don't fall into plagiarism.

Have you ever wanted a quick and dirty guide to the main principles underlying the methods and motives for correct use of footnotes and citations in Australian law?

Legal citation has been referred to as a ‘peculiar human custom’.1 It allows a writer to refer to legal and non-legal authorities clearly and consistently, so as to support the arguments made, as well as to enable a reader locate the references. The purpose of providing references is to acknowledge sources of your writing, and demonstrate the breadth and depth of your research. We set out for you here* the shortest possible instructions on Australian legal footnotes style. Read the rest of this entry »

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Law is funny, innit?

In Journals, Procrastination, women on May 27, 2011 at 6:13 pm


The law is serious business. Mostly. But when a kind soul (known to me only as @ReplevinforaCow) pointed me to the case below, I had a chuckle, and I thought you should chuckle with me:

The entire unabridged report of Denny v Radar Industries 1970 per J.H. GILLIS, Judge:

The appellant has attempted to distinguish the factual situation in this case from that in Renfroe v Higgins (citation omitted). He didn’t. We couldn’t. Affirmed. Costs to appellee.

Have you found a shorter, blunter judgment? If you are a journal nerd (like me) you may enjoy the World’s Greatest Law Review Article found here. Or the World’s Shortest Law Review Article here [shortest_law_review]. Keep reading by clicking the little red button below…

Like what you see? You can subscribe to this blog by scrolling to the bottom of the page, or

Read the rest of this entry »

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Missing by Increments

In Education, higher education, Journals, law students, legal education, women on March 30, 2011 at 10:32 am

I have been talking to a friend about the ‘incremental disadvantage’ faced by under-represented groups in legal practice. Lots of little lost opportunities eventually add up to a big disadvantage. Interesting in this light is a study by Nancy Leong and Jennifer Mullins which finds that fewer female than male students publish case notes in US law Journals. It might not seem like an issue but scholarly publications are relevant to later employment and promotion opportunities.  The authors also include some practical suggestions for addressing this issue.

See  Leong, Nancy and Mullins, Jennifer, An Empirical Examination of Gender and Student Note Publication 1999-2009 (March 8, 2011). Available at SSRN:

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1781149

A related link is this one from Freakenomics: “Why Don’t Female Economists Blog?” Matthew Kahn explores the disparity. http://t.co/9F2UMY9

Is the same true for Female Lawyers/Academics? What do you think?

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thinking about making flexible work practices work

In Balance, Career, Journals, papers, women on March 28, 2011 at 12:04 pm

Last year Victorian women lawyers released another installment in their series of practical reports on flexible work practices, “Do you Manage”. This report looks at support for flexible work practices by partners and managers. Click here.

Considerable focus on this issue is warranted given the somewhat sobering assessment of such practices in the study by Margaret Thornton and Joanne Bagust, reported in ‘The Gender Trap: Flexible Work in Corporate Legal Practice.” Osgoode Hall Law Journal, Vol. 45, No. 4, pp. 773-811, 2007; ANU College of Law Research Paper No. 08-15.

The concern is that flexible work practices should be a real career pathway not a dead end.

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