Offices of the Southern Jurist-Diplomat

This project engages with the problem of how jurists, and international lawyers in particular, might conduct themselves (ourselves), ethically in our times, sometimes thought of as a moment of ‘global crisis’. To do this we take up the ‘conduct of life’ tradition emerging out of sustained engagements between Indigenous jurists, feminist historians and common law jurists in Melbourne, and puts them into relation with scholarship on connected histories and new diplomatic histories.

Meaning of Home

Melbourne Law School, along with Flinders University and Australian National University have been funded by the Australian Research Council to undertake a qualitative research project examining the meaning of home for children and young people after parental separation. Parental separation is likely to result in big changes in home arrangements for children and young people, yet so far, how children and young people think about ‘home’ after parental separation remains unexplored in research.

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The potential of s100A ITAA36 to address tax avoidance using trusts

On 17 August 2023, Sonali Walpola, Senior Lecturer in the College of Business and Economics at the Australian National University, presented a hybrid seminar on the potential of s100A ITAA36 to address tax avoidance using trusts and why the Full Federal Court’s approach in Guardian should be treated with caution.Seminar abstractSection 100A of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (ITAA36), enacted in 1979, is an important integrity measure in the trusts arena.The provision applies where a beneficiary is made presently entitled to trust income where the economic benefits relating to the present entitlement are enjoyed by another party. Currently, Section 100A ITAA36 is in the spotlight. The Commissioner relied on s100A in two cases which were the subject of Federal Court appeals in 2023—Commissioner of Taxation v Guardian AIT Pty Ltd [2023] FCAFC 3 (Guardian), where the Commissioner was unsuccessful (at least on s100A) and the ‘BBlood’ litigation (B&F Investments (as trustee for the Illuka Park Trust) v Commissioner of Taxation [2023] FCAFC 89), where the Commissioner was successful. It is centrally argued that the Full Court’s approach to s100A in Guardian is overly narrow, and the decision should be treated with caution due to its failure to consider the most authoritative and salient s100A precedents. While the general anti-avoidance rule in Part IVA ITAA36 was successfully used in Guardian, prior case law shows that s100A is the more robust anti-avoidance mechanism in the trusts arena because it is not hindered by problems that have beset Part IVA, including establishing a dominant tax avoidant purpose. This paper highlights that a broad, non-technical approach to s100A was authoritatively laid down in the only High Court decision on s100A, Raftland Pty Ltd v Commissioner of Taxation [2008] HCA 21 (Raftland), but extraordinarily, the Full Court in Guardian does not once discuss or cite Raftland.

Dr Yousef Kowsar joined Amazon Research Team

We farewelled Dr Yousef Kowsar, our doctoral fellow based at the Computing and Information Systems last month. Yousef has accepted a position at an Amazon Research team based in Melbourne. He will still be an Honorary at the University of Melbourne.Congratulations to Yousef and wishing him all the best in his new role.Postdoctoral fellow, Dr Anjalee de Silva has been awarded WLIA fellowship 2022

Taking Electoral Integrity Forward

Jointly held by the WA and ACT chapters of the ERRN, the idea for this webinar was prompted by the introduction by Kate Chaney MP of a Private Member’s Bill entitled Electoral Legislation Amendment (Restoring Trust) Bill 2023. The Bill is quite unusual in that it deals with a wide range of issues relating to the electoral process including limits on government-funded “political” advertising in the runup to a federal election. It contains much that is thought-provoking. A number of the issues go beyond what have typically been seen as within the ambit of electoral regulation; for example, it proposes limits on government-funded “political” advertising in the runup to a federal election.The webinar will cover the following topics:truth in advertising;bans on donations from government contractors;limiting government advertising before elections;removing parties’ exemptions from the Privacy Act;the distribution of postal voting applications, andthe role of political staffers.PresentersKate Chaney MP is Western Australia’s first female Independent Member of the House of Representatives. She represents the federal electorate of Curtin.Mr Phil Green, former Electoral Commissioner for the ACT. Phillip served as the ACT Electoral Commissioner from 1994 to 2017. Phil was instrumental in the drafting and development of the ACT’s electoral legislation throughout this period.Chair: Mr Michael Maley, former Director of International Services at the Australian Electoral Commission. Michael had a thirty-year career at the AEC, retiring in 2012 as Special Adviser, Electoral Reform and International Services.