2021 has well and truly commenced both with new ways of teaching and a markedly more diverse student cohort. Juris Doctor (JD) students commenced their first-year studies with Legal Method and Reasoning this month with a mix of on-campus socially distanced and virtual teaching. The seminars ran on campus in the first week and were nimbly moved online in the second week because of the snap-lockdown in Victoria.
In semester one, compulsory JD subjects will be taught adopting a hybrid model of instruction. Teachers have flipped the classroom, preparing a common set of video materials that operate as mini-lectures, enabling teachers to meet with students in smaller tutorial groups, approximately 70 per cent of which are on campus and the remainder virtual, to accommodate those staff and students who cannot be here in person. In each case, this teaching enables students to study in small groups of between 15 to 30 students. In contrast, the first semester will see almost all JD elective courses run virtually as in each class we have students scattered across the globe and the nation.
As a result of COVID-19, MLS adapted its selection procedures for 2021 and we have closely monitored the impact of these changes. The preliminary insight is that we welcome markedly more Indigenous students across the Melbourne Law Masters (MLM) and JD programs and also more students with humanitarian visas. While I admit the limitations of rankings, MLS is ranked 11 in the world and first in Australia by the Times Higher Education World Rankings. These student admissions go to the heart of ensuring that while excellent, your alma mater is not elitist. With your assistance, I hope to continue to attract further scholarship support as our need for stipends to assist students escalates.
This month the Melbourne School of Government launched A Fair Day's Work: Detecting Wage Theft with Data, a project led by Professor John Howe and Timothy Kariotis. Connecting business, government, academia, unions and NGOs, the project will utilise data science to help address the issue of wage theft, with a particular focus on young workers. The project will also draw on cross-disciplinary expertise in labour law and regulation, digital design, information science and data ethics to develop a suite of tools to help regulators predict and report wage theft and create more targeted data-informed policies on youth unemployment. To find out more about these important initiatives, subscribe to the Melbourne School of Government newsletter.
A Fair Day's Work: Detecting Wage Theft with Data was awarded a prestigious prize by the Paul Ramsay Foundation in the USA-based ‘data.org Global Inclusive Growth and Recovery Challenge’ giving the project half a million dollars in funding. Alongside his work on this project, Professor Howe is exploring these and other issues in his role as Director of the Centre for Employment and Labour Relations Law. If you are interested in finding out more about the work of the Centre, please join the mailing list.
In February we were honoured to host former Prime Minister the Hon Julia Gillard AC for a discussion on gender bias, treatment of leaders and pathways to equality, and in March we will host another MLS alumna, the Hon Jill Hennessy MP, for our 2021 International Women’s Day Webinar. Ms Hennessy will discuss leadership and challenges she faced as Attorney-General and a Member of Parliament in a frank discussion with me, and I welcome you to join me and MLS students in that conversation.
Stay well, stay safe, and keep in touch.
Professor Pip Nicholson
Dean, Melbourne Law School
Would you like to mentor a Juris Doctor or Melbourne Law Masters student?
We are recruiting law mentors based locally and internationally
The MLS Mentor Program connects Juris Doctor and international students in the Melbourne Law Masters with law professionals from our community. This is an opportunity for students to make industry connections and learn about career pathways and planning.
This year, we particularly seek to connect international students, who are unable to be in Australia, with mentors who share common time-zones and geography, with both online and face-to-face meetings where possible.
If you are interested in mentoring a student, please complete an online application. If you have previously participated in the program and would like to do so again in 2021, please email us.
Professor Elise Bant says the different failures at Crown and Collingwood shows that the law needs to go beyond individuals when holding corporations to account.
Professor Beth Gaze, Co-Director of studies for employment and labour relations law, says that when it comes to protecting the people who work there, we should expect Australia’s Parliament to comply with their own workplace health, safety and anti-discrimination laws.
Professor Jeannie Paterson and other members of the Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Ethics write that while Facebook’s move to block Australian users and publishers from viewing or sharing news may look like it’s about content, it all comes back to advertising revenue.
In celebration of International Women’s Day 2021, join Professor Pip Nicholson, Dean of Melbourne Law School in conversation with the Hon Jill Hennessy MP, former Victorian Attorney General and Minister for Workplace Safety.
Women and leadership: In conversation with Julia Gillard AC
The Hon Julia Gillard AC was joined by Lynne Haultain, Executive Director, Victoria Law Foundation in a conversation on her recent book, Women and Leadership: Real Lives, Real Lessons.
O Brave New Brain? Regulating “Neurointerventions”
In this webinar, Professor Bernadette McSherry considers some of the legal and ethical issues raised by the burgeoning industry of “neurointerventions”, with a focus on brain-computer interfaces and brain stimulation and modification techniques.
Senior fellow Eddie Cubillo has been appointed to an expert group on anti-racism that the Collingwood Football Club has established to help it implement recommendations contained in the 'Do Better' report that found the club was guilty of systemic racism.
Speaking to ABC Radio about electric vehicle company Tesla’s decision to purchase $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin, Professor Miranda Stewart compares the investment to purchasing gold or a similar valuable commodity.
An independent expert panel has rejected a proposal to expand the operations of the Dendrobium coal mine under Sydney’s drinking water catchment. MLS Associate Professor Rebecca Nelson and UTS PhD candidate Pete Dupen explore the environmental laws that enabled this coal mine expansion proposal to get so far.
MLS water law and policy expert Dr Erin O’Donnell speaks to Boise State Public Radio about changing trends in Australia’s water market, which she says are leading to widespread “angst and unhappiness” among farmers.
In the wake of Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny being sentenced to almost three years in a prison colony, Associate Professor William Partlett says that by jailing him, the Kremlin may turn him into an even more potent opposition symbol.