Paul Babie

Idea, Sovereignty, Eco-colonialism and the Future: Four reflections on private property and climate change

This article argues that human-caused climate change reveals previously unrecognised or overlooked aspects of the liberal concept of private property. It suggests that the concept of private property facilitates the ‘climate-change relationship’, a connection between human activities, the natural world and the human consequences of climate change. Based upon this link, the article offers four reflections on private property and its role in global phenomena like climate change: first, that the ‘idea’ of private property (the popularly held belief about what it is) is a primary culprit; second, that private property is ‘sovereignty’, power over others, which gives its holders global reach; third, that because the idea informs the exercise of sovereignty, private property makes eco-colonialists of individuals; and finally, that the future of private property may require us to give greater attention both to a shift in the idea and a global focus regarding the concept. While these ruminations are preliminary and programmatic, what they necessitate is further research and a willingness to rethink and reconceive the liberal foundations of the way we live with and relate to others.

Three tales of property, or one?

ABSTRACT This article examines three tales of property which emerged from a recent planning law saga in Queensland from late 2014 to June 2015. Although each tale appears to offer a different interpretation of private property, this article suggests that the three tales are really one, but told with differing emphases on the issue of regulation. It reimagines the concept of private property and its relationship to regulation and explores the state’s role in using planning law as a tool to constrain the power of property to affect the lives of others.

The Place of Religion in Australian Sociolegal Interaction

Iwas in Honolulu with my family on June 28, 2013. As we strolled along Kalakaua Avenue that evening, I noticed a person carrying a sign announcing simply that “Jesus Saves Your Lives,” who had found herself inches from another person wearing sandwich board signs inviting people to fire real semiautomatic rifles and handguns at a local firing range. For me, the juxtaposition could not have been starker. The two issues that seem most to typify the United States to the rest of the world, and that also seem to fascinate the rest of us—religion and guns—squared off, as represented by two adherents to those positions. And of course, this raised the question of how law deals with religion in a liberal democracy. On that day in Honolulu, and across the United States, it was no academic question; you may have noted the date on which this occurred: June 28, 2013.

Freedom of Religion under Bills of Rights

Chapter 1 Paul Babie and Neville Rochow, Protecting Religious Freedom under Bills of Rights: Australia as Microcosm Chapter 2 Ngaire Naffine, How Religion Constrains Law and the Idea of Choice Chapter 3 Bruce Kaye, Is the Emperor Wearing the Wrong Clothes? Human Rights and Social Good in the Context of Australian Secularity: Theological Perspectives Chapter 4 Alan Cadwallader, Anniversary overlap: or what happens when St Paul meets the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Chapter 5 Neil Foster, Defamation and Vilification: Rights to Reputation, Free Speech and Freedom of Religion at Common Law and under Human Rights Laws Chapter 6 Robert C Blitt, Should an Australian Bill of Rights Address Emerging International Human Rights Norms? The Challenge of ‘Defamation of Religion’ Chapter 7, Patrick Parkinson, Christian Concerns About an Australian Charter of Rights Chapter 8 Asmi Wood, Apostasy in Islam and the Freedom of Religion in International Law Chapter 9 David M Kirkham, Political Culture and Freedom of Conscience: A Case Study of Austria Chapter 10, Cornelia Koch, The Sky is Falling if Judges Decide Religious Controversies! – Or is it? The German Experience of Religious Freedom Under a Bill of Rights Chapter 11 Nicky Jones, Religious Freedom in a Secular Society: The Case of the Islamic Headscarf in France Chapter 12 Ian Leigh, Religious Freedom in the UK After the Human Rights Act 1998 Chapter 13 Frank S Ravitch, Judicial Interpretation, Neutrality and the US Bill of Rights Chapter 14 Brett G Scharffs, Protecting Religious Freedom: Two Counterintuitive Dialectics In US Free Exercise Jurisprudence Chapter 15 Barbara Billingsley, Walking the Tightrope: The Struggle of Canadian Courts to Define Freedom of Religion Under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Chapter 16 Charles J Russo, Quo Vadis The Free Exercise of Religion? The Diminishment of Student Religious Expression in US Public Schools Chapter 17 Kris Hanna, Freedom From Discrimination on the Basis of Religion Chapter 18 Rex Tauati Ahdar, Ruminations from the Shaky Isles on Religious Freedom in the Bill of Rights Era Chapter 19 Paul Rishworth, Indigenous Peoples and Bills of Rights Order or download directly from our website

Feeling safe and comfortable in the urban environment

Safety is recognised as an important goal of urban regeneration projects and implementing the principles of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) has been proposed as one way of enhancing community safety. Yet there are few critiques of how effective CPTED is in achieving this. This paper reports on a pilot study that explores the link between CPTED principles and people’s feelings of safety and comfort in an urban precinct of Adelaide, South Australia. The research combines a micro-scale analysis of the built environment and a series of interviews with people who live and/or work in the area. The research highlights the importance of some of the CPTED principles including activity, maintenance, sight lines but also reveals the importance of familiarity and personal safety strategies.

National Security and the Free Exercise Guarantee of Section 116: Time for a Judicial Interpretive Update

This article, in three parts, suggests both why and how the courts ought to reconsider, and thereby update, the approach to the free exercise guarantee of s 116. First, having briefly outlined the current interpretation of the free exercise guarantee, it suggests the necessity for an update based upon the need for liberal constitutional democracies to provide what has been referred to as ‘“constitutional space” for investigation and pursuit of truth.’ Second, it proposes a ‘judicial interpretive update’ to the interpretation of s 116, outlining a two-stage approach which, in the first stage, sets the ambit of the right and, in the second, provides for a limitations standard by which to assess infringements of the right. Finally, the article concludes that the proposed update to s 116 ensures a robust protection for free exercise in its application to Commonwealth legislation and executive action.

Introduction: Seeing Further over the Horizon — A World of Limitless Possibilities

The Life and times of Prof Judith Gardam and the role of international law and regarding the use of force.

Ukraine's Transition from Soviet to Post-Soviet Law: Property as a Lesson in Failed Regulation

This article traces the parallel developments of the Ukrainian transition from Soviet to post-Soviet law and from state to private property. To do this, the article is divided into four parts. The first examines the transition of the Ukrainian legal system from pre-Soviet to post-Soviet law. The second traces the microcosm of that transition as it occurred through the failed adoption of private property introduced in the law of post-Soviet Ukraine. The third demonstrates that the flawed approach by which private property has been adopted, with little if any real and effective regulation in post-independence Ukraine, has produced negative consequences for the Ukrainian people. The final part concludes.

Stanislav Markus. Property, Predation, and Protection: Piranha Capitalism in Russia and Ukraine

Stanislav Markus. Property, Predation, and Protection: Piranha Capitalism in Russia and Ukraine. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2015. xii, 244 pp. Illustrations. Tables. Bibliography. Index.

Property, Negligence, and the Intergenerational Inequity of Climate Change

95.00, cloth.