Law in Context

Sep 20 2024 15 ep. 10 mins 2
Law in Context Podcast artwork

Emeritus Professors Stephen Bottomley and Stephen Parker AO introduce law in a critical way to the general public, current students and those thinking of taking up the subject. They explain the Rule of Law, the Adversarial System of Justice, where law comes from, judges, juries, lawyers and many other topics, include problem areas such as access to justice.

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Episode 15 - Prove It! How persuaded must we be in law?

Sep 20 2024 10 mins  
Send us a text message with feedbackIt's well known that for someone to be found guilty of a crime, the decision-maker must be persuaded "beyond a reasonable doubt". This is the standard of proof. In civil claims, the standard is "on the balance of probabilities".In criminal matters, the onus of proving to this standard is on the prosecution; and in civil claims it is on the plaint

Episode 14 - Who Ya Gonna Trust?

Sep 11 2024 10 mins  
Send us a text message with feedbackWho should I trust? If your answer is no one, the world would be a more difficult and expensive place. Wherever someone does something on your behalf you might have to employ someone else to watch over them, and then someone else to watch over the someone else etc etc.Over the centuries, equity law has picked out certain kinds of relationships wh

Episode 13 - Equity and the Sad Case of Mr Stubbings

Aug 28 2024 10 mins  
Send us a text message with feedbackIn this episode we look at the body of judge-made law called Equity, which emerged in England as a separate body of case law from "the common law". Whereas common law focuses on clear rules and rights, equity focuses on conscience and doing what is fair. These two conceptual systems were developed in separate courts but are now applied concurrent

Episode 12 - What is "The Common Law"?

Aug 10 2024 11 mins  
Send us a text message with feedbackWe keep hearing about "the common law", but what exactly is it? In this episode, we look at three separate meanings. First, the common law describes a whole legal system, such as Australia, England, the United States and Canada. This contrasts those jurisdictions with civil law, religious law and customary law systems. In practice, there are many

Episode 11 - At last, they ask "What is Law?"

Jul 29 2024 8 mins  
Send us a text message with feedbackAny competent lawyer should be able to say what is the law on a given topic in their area of expertise. However, most lawyers find it surprisingly difficult to answer persuasively the general question "what is law?".In this episode we grapple with some debates that go back centuries. We look at the positivist approach: that law is simply whatever

10. What is Justice?

Jul 12 2024 10 mins  
Send us a text message with feedbackIn this episode, not daunted by their previous challenge to explain basic legal concepts clearly, the Two Steves take on the big one: What is Justice?Most lawyers instinctively take a procedural approach to justice. If the rules have been followed and the judge is impartial, then the outcome is just. And yet every day we hear people say that a pa

9. Why Do People Obey The Law?

Jun 30 2024 8 mins  
Send us a text message with feedbackMyths abound about crime rates and law-breaking. In fact, some kinds of crime are going down and others are probably going up. A more interesting question is why so many people obey the law most of the time. In this episode we look at the main theories about legal obedience. There is a legitimacy theory, that if people think their society is fair

8. Corporations

Jun 14 2024 10 mins  
Send us a text message with feedbackThere is almost nothing we do in our everyday lives that does not involve corporations or companies. From small family companies to global corporations which are larger than the economies of some countries, corporations dominate our lives. In this episode we look at what a corporation is. We focus on a subset of corporations; companies with a sha

7. Lawyers

May 29 2024 12 mins  
Send us a text message with feedbackLawyers have a very particular role in the adversarial system, and a corresponding set of ethical requirements. In the 2000s in Victoria, Nicola Gobbo, a criminal defence barrister became a secret, registered informer with the police. She arranged for some clients to give evidence against other clients, arguably framing them. In one case, Faruk O

6. Access to Justice

May 19 2024 10 mins  
Send us a text message with feedbackThe Rule of Law may be a great ideal, but does it mean anything if in practical terms many people do not have access to legal advice and adjudication. In this episode we look at the barriers to access to justice and some of the ways in which these barriers are at least partially overcome, including Alternative Dispute Resolution and the emerging