Brendon Murphy

Confessions to Mr Big A new rule of evidence

In Queen v Hart, the Supreme Court of Canada recognised what was described as a ‘new rule of evidence’ concerning confessions obtained during ‘Mr Big’ operations. This undercover policing technique is known to be a time-intensive but effective strategy in the investigation of cases in which suspects are highly secretive. In Hart, the Canadian Supreme Court recognised the value of this form of investigation, but emphasised that such strategies require careful scrutiny by the judiciary because of the potential for unethical policing and the unreliability of confessions in cases where this evidence is obtained in association with ‘entrapment’ strategies. This article examines the ‘novel’ jurisprudence in Hart, and considers its utility in the context of other common law countries, particularly Australia where uniform evidence legislation applies in the majority of jurisdictions. Ultimately it is contended that the ‘new rule of evidence’ in Hart is effectively a specific adaptation of well-known rules of evidence in the extant common law and legislation of Australia, England and New Zealand and, therefore, of limited utility outside Canada.

Soft law, responsibility and the biopolitics of front-of-pack food labels

ABSTRACT Front-of-pack (FOP) food labels are increasingly used by government and industry to provide nutrition information to consumers for the promotion of healthier eating habits. However, quantitative and qualitative research into the effectiveness of FOP food labelling schemes is in its infancy and, at this stage at least, is largely unconvincing. Using Australia’s health star rating system as an exemplar, in this article we provide a novel perspective on FOP food labels and in so doing make two (related) arguments about FOP food labels and in many ways about food label schemes more broadly. The first argument is that FOP food labels enliven a combination of hard and soft law. The second argument, informed by Foucault’s notion of governmentality, is that FOP food labelling functions as a technology of the self. Drawing these two arguments together, we conclude that FOP food labels rely on a distorted rationality, because (i) the main actors in the process – food companies – are placed in a position of self-regulatory actors, fundamentally oriented to an economic rather than biopolitical agenda; and (ii) the biopolitics of population health through FOP food labels assumes particular kinds of rational consumers, when the reality of social life is far more complex.

Assemblage, Counter-Law and the Legal Architecture of Australian Covert Surveillance

Surveillance practices are typically divisible between the activities of private and state actors. A complex system of regulated and unregulated activity is interfaced with legal architectures deployed to authorise, prohibit, regulate and often legitimate those activities. In this chapter we explore the Australian legal architecture of surveillance. A brief history of Australian surveillance legislation, a discussion of the current regulatory framework at the State and Federal level, and consideration of issues of privacy, accessible technology and the justifications for strategic targeted surveillance operations in the context of a risk society comprise this chapter. By framing the legal architectures, we illustrate how developed legal systems organise and articulate surveillance practices, and consider several uses and effects of these articulations.

Deceptive apparatus: Foucauldian perspectives on law, authorised crime and the rationalities of undercover investigation

ABSTRACT Investigation of crime is central to the function and purpose of law enforcement. Contemporary investigation depends on a sophisticated arsenal of theories and techniques interacting with law and its institutions in a variety of ways, including authorised unlawful activity. Drawing on Foucault, this article re-imagines the investigation and associated legal architectures as apparatus; a rationality and strategy of governance shaped by intersecting knowledge formations. The paper considers the key characteristics of investigation and its relationship with law, concluding that investigations practices are a form of apparatus, and that aspects of these practices are grounded in a theological dynamic based on surveillance.

Phronetic legal inquiry An effective design for law and society research

Legal research has traditionally involved a technique commonly known as doctrinal method. This practice evolved over centuries of judicial and legal practice. It is directed at the identification, interpretation and application of relevant legal rules to practical human experience, and is broadly characterised by an exhaustive literature review and close reading of case law and legislation. As a practice, doctrinal method has largely not been expressly articulated by those who employ it. Consequently, legal research is often viewed as something lawyers do, rather than explain. Over time, legal scholars have expanded their research designs to incorporate methods and theories drawn from outside law – especially the social sciences – to augment doctrinal work. However, when lawyers engage in such ‘socio-legal research’ they are often criticised for failing to properly articulate the doctrinal component of their research design. We argue that Flyvbjerg’s ‘phronetic social inquiry’ can offer a useful conceptual link between doctrinal method and social science methodology. Phronetic social inquiry involves a case-based, in-depth analytic applied to specific problems, which is sensitive to value choices and power relationships, and directed to finding pragmatic solutions. We argue Phronetic social inquiry has important parallels with legal scholarship and offers a useful way of conceptualising links between doctrinal and qualitative social research. In this way, legal research may be articulated as a phronetic, transdisciplinary process directed at pragmatic problem solving.