Desmond A. Butler

Employer liability for workplace trauma

This book offers an intriguing examination of the law concerning liability for psychiatric injury suffered by employees in the workplace. Included among these are employees confronting the risk of death or injury in the course of their normal employment, such as police or fire-fighters, those confronting death or injury out of their ordinary course of employment, such as accidents at work, and those possibly exposed to health-threatening circumstances, such as dust in the workplace. Also considered are employees who suffer mental health problems resulting from environmental factors, such as bullying, overwork and disciplinary measures. The amount of damages recovered in such actions can be substantial and this book examines the extent of the employer’s liability, as well as providing a psychiatric medicine perspective and a detailed analysis of the current state of the law in England, Wales and Australia.

School policies on bullying and cyberbullying: perspectives across three Australian states

Abstract Background: Despite decades of research, bullying in all its forms is still a significant problem within schools in Australia, as it is internationally. Anti-bullying policies and guidelines are thought to be one strategy as part of a whole school approach to reduce bullying. However, although Australian schools are required to have these policies, their effectiveness is not clear. As policies and guidelines about bullying and cyberbullying are developed within education departments, this paper explores the perspectives of those who are involved in their construction. Purpose: This study examined the perspectives of professionals involved in policy construction, across three different Australian states. The aim was to determine how their relative jurisdictions define bullying and cyberbullying, the processes for developing policy, the bullying prevention and intervention recommendations given to schools and the content considered essential in current policies. Sample: Eleven key stakeholders from three Australian states with similar education systems were invited to participate. The sample selection criteria included professionals with experience and training in education, cyber-safety and the responsibility to contribute to or make decisions which inform policy in this area for schools in their state. Design and methods: Participants were interviewed about the definitions of bullying they used in their state policy frameworks; the extent to which cyberbullying was included; and the content they considered essential for schools to include in anti-bullying policies. Data were collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews and analysed thematically. Findings: Seven themes were identified in the data: (1) Definition of bullying and cyberbullying; (2) Existence of a policy template; (3) Policy location; (4) Adding cyberbullying; (5) Distinguishing between bullying and cyberbullying; (6) Effective policy; and (7) Policy as a prevention or intervention tool. The results were similar both across state boundaries and also across different disciplines. Conclusion: Analysis of the data suggested that, across the themes, there was some lack of information about bullying and cyberbullying. This limitation could affect the subsequent development, dissemination and sustainability of school anti-bullying policies, which have implications for the translation of research to inform better student outcomes.

Utilising Second Life Machinima-Facilitated Narratives to Support Cognitive and Imaginative Engagement Across an Undergraduate Curriculum

This chapter provides a case study of a unique learning experience developing in the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Law School. It outlines initiatives across the undergraduate law curriculum which successfully utilise Second Life machinima in different modes to enhance student engagement and promote authentic learning. They use blended learning environments involving narratives, facilitated by machinima and linked by threads of common storyline and recurring characters running through all of the programs, in diverse areas of laws and skills. The chapter discusses the pedagogical basis for the use of machinima as a component of a learning and teaching approach, discusses student responses and identifies important lessons concerning the use of connected narratives as a means of engaging students and enhancing their learning across multiple subjects in a curriculum, whether in law or some other discipline. It thereby showcases a successful use of Second Life which does not involve students actually entering the virtual world.

Cyberbullying and the law: Parameters for effective interventions?

Cyberbullying, like traditional forms of bullying, is widely regarded as involving a repeated exploitation of a real or perceived power imbalance with an intention to cause harm. Faced with that imbalance of power, some targets may seek the assistance of others, such as schools and the law, to redress that imbalance. The law can be powerful driver for behaviour when it is understood that acting or failing to act in a certain way may result in a liability to pay monetary compensation. This chapter examines the expectations that the law places on school authorities when it comes to responding to cyberbullying in three countries (Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States) and the parameters that may thereby be set for school interventions. The responses of the law in these countries is not uniform, and while some guidance may be drawn in some the position is less clear elsewhere.

Engaging sex: Promoting the statutory interpretation experience in legal education

Given the ever increasing importance of legislation to the resolution of legal disputes, there is a concomitant need for law students to be well trained in the anatomy, identification, interpretation and application of laws made by or under parliament. This article discusses a blended learning project called Indigo’s Folly, implemented at the Queensland University of Technology Law School in 2014. Indigo’s Folly was created to increase law student competency with respect to statutory interpretation. Just as importantly, it was designed to make the teaching of statutory interpretation more interesting – to “bring the sexy” to the student statutory interpretation experience. Quantitative and qualitative empirical data will be presented as evidence to show that statutory interpretation can be taught in a way that law students find engaging.