Volume 24 Isssue 3

Melbourne Law School published Volume 24 Number 3 of the University of Melbourne Law School Legal Studies Research Paper Series on SSRN.

This issue includes the following articles:

Margaret A Young
Systenuc Integration of Obligations in an Era of Climate Change: Stability and Optimal Control (971)

Two systems might be said to govern the world: a system of public international law, and the climate system. Both systems endure in an epoch popularly described as the Anthropocene, during which drastic changes to the Earth's atmosphere, land and oceans have been wrought by human activities. Amidst the existential challenges to both systems posed by these conditions, judges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and other international tribunals are considering advisory requests about the obligations of States to protect the climate system. This review essay explores whether systemic integration, which comprises techniques of treaty interpretation and institutional practices belonging to the system of public international law, serves to protect the climate system.

Sunita Jogarajan
The Drafting of the 1925 League of Nations Resolutions in Tax Evasion (972)

In 1925, the League of Nations published the Technical Experts ' Report and Resolutions on Double Taxation and Tax Evasion. The measures relating to tax evasion proposed almost 90 years ago, such as automatic exchange of information, bear a remarkable similarity to recent proposals to address base erosion and profi t shifting. Surprisingly little is known about the League ' s 1925 Report and this chapter remedies the gap in the literature by providing a detailed account of the development of the League ' s Resolutions on tax evasion. The chapter demonstrates that many of the concerns and issues raised by the League ' s Experts in 1925 are still with us today and that much can be learned from history. The attitudes of various country representatives are telling and the drivers for reform are analogous.

Alysia Blackham
Extending Reasonable Adjustments: A Renewed Tool for Creating Inclusive Worplaqces? (973)

Extending employers’ duties to make reasonable adjustments to all protected grounds could be a transformative tool for advancing substantive equality, challenging workplace norms, and creating positive and proactive approaches to equality. However, despite legislative reform across jurisdictions, it appears unlikely that existing provisions are adequately framed to realise this transformative potential. This article argues that the individualised and reactive framing of duties to make reasonable adjustments will likely mean they fall short of their full transformative potential. As well as extending the duty to all protected grounds, a more proactive approach to the duty is required to meaningfully advance substantive equality.

Margaret A Young and Andrea Furger
Australia and International Environmental Law in 2024 (974)

This paper provides a country report on Australia's implementation of its international environmental law obligations in 2024. It covers Australia's climate commitments under the Paris Agreement, and associated domestic implementation including in industrial and trade policy. Novel or unusual legal developments are noted, such as the bilateral treaty between Australia and its Pacific neighbour Tuvalu, which recognises Tuvalu's statehood and sovereignty in the face of climate-change related sea-level rise, and sets out mutual obligations relating to migration and security. The paper describes Australia's participation in international negotiations relating to biodiversity (including its submission of a national biodiversity strategy and action plan (NBSAP) and its support for the meaningful contribution of indigenous peoples and local communities towards the implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework) and contrasts this with the stalling of reform to federal biodiversity protection laws. These and other issues, including Australia's efforts to develop a Sustainable Ocean Plan, deserve to be revisited after the re-election of the federal government in May 2025. The paper also points to developments in the courts at the international, federal and state and territory level, which related in 2024 to climate change, threats to biodiversity, cultural heritage and other issues.

Jacqueline Peel
Corporate Climate Litigation in Australasia: (re)Shaping the Private Law-Climate Interface (975)

This paper examines the interface between climate change and private law in Australasia through the lens of corporate climate litigation, given its prevalence in the region. Corporate climate litigation concerns lawsuits raising climate issues (whether mitigation, adaptation or loss and damage), which utilize private law causes of action such as those under corporate, financial, consumer protection or tort law. The focus is on developments in Australia, which is one of the most innovative sites globally for corporate climate litigation, inspiring similar cases (including the landmark Smith v Fonterra lawsuit) in New Zealand. The paper explores the private law avenues utilized in corporate climate litigation in these jurisdictions and the resulting doctrinal adaptations occurring to address the challenges climate change poses. Comparative analysis of the Australasian corporate climate litigation experience illustrates the role the litigation itself is playing in (re)shaping private law to make it more suitable for addressing climate impacts.

Jesse Hartery and Geoggrey Sigalet
Equally Sovereign: Alberta and the New Provincial Rights Movement (976)

This article examines the political and constitutional development of Alberta’s contemporary assertions of provincial sovereignty within the Canadian constitutional order, with a special focus on the 2022 Alberta Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act (“Sovereignty Act”). The article argues that Alberta has sought to exercise a conception of provincial jurisdiction as “equally sovereign” in alignment with Canadian constitutional federalism. In this chapter, we begin by reviewing the Canadian constitutional scheme and the development of the jurisprudence expounded by the Supreme Court of Canada to contextualize recent developments. The aim is to outline the relevant legal principles, while briefly highlighting the political forces that helped solidify their place in Canadian constitutional law.

Rosemary Teele Langford
Corporate Purpose: Meaningful Change or Marketing Tool? (977)

Recent times have seen an explosion of interest in, and focus on, the concept of corporate purpose in a number of disciplines partly in response to shifts in societal expectations of companies and their directors. However, as outlined in this paper, there are a number of challenges to meaningful outworking of corporate purpose in practical terms.