Richard Ackland
Richard Ackland publishes the law journals Justinian and the Gazette of Law & Journalism. He writes a regular column on legal affairs, law and society and the media. He has been a journalist with The Australian Financial Review and a presenter of ABC TV's Media Watch and Radio National's Late Night Live and Breakfast programs.
Messy affair a blow to court's sanctity
Richard Ackland The solemn edifice of justice depends on the public having some sort of respect for and confidence in judges.
Cut the big parties down to size and reform can blossom
Richard Ackland Relax. We've been here before - plenty of times. The history of hung parliaments with independents doing a lot of tail wagging is hardly a novelty.
Waiter, there's some fluff in my soup - at least I'll get meat with the Greens
Richard Ackland The shadow attorney-general, George Brandis, was tucking in at Beppi's in East Sydney last week at a quiet dinner with a clutch of barristers.
Fuss on gay marriage can't last
Richard Ackland This week the gay marriage issue had a brief, but exciting, moment in the sun. The Queensland Family First candidate Wendy Francis drew fire and support for her finely calibrated observation that...
Cheques and free speech get bounced
Richard Ackland There's a well-held view that once a case of ticklish legality gets into the hands of the wisest judges at the top of the appeal tree, the ultimate outcome can be decided with equal gravity either...
Lawyers make a feast of reform
Richard Ackland Australians are familiar with the Magic Pudding, a fantastic creation in that no matter how much of it is eaten by Bill Barnacle, Bunyip Bluegum and friends, it always returns to its original size...
How Black rode the slipstream to freedom
Richard Ackland Many journalists remember Conrad Black as a fair and decent proprietor of this paper in the early 1990s.
Refugees' rights left stranded in sea of fear
Richard Ackland In clumsy attempts to pander to reservoirs of resentment and fear, the two main parties have made a stupendous hash of their refugee policies.
The facts and furphies about Australia's most unwanted
Richard Ackland Over the aeons there have been any number of ingenious tricks played by Australian officialdom to stem the tide of human traffic.
Rules don't matter in the Wild West - nor does a life
Richard Ackland This week the Western Australian director of public prosecutions, Joe McGrath, held a media briefing.
Ask around enough and ye shall receive the advice ye want
Richard Ackland If you run around a street full of barristers' chambers, eventually you'll get the opinion you want. To a large extent it depends on what information you provide as the basis for the advice.
Hey hey, it's a very sad day for justice
Richard Ackland The documentary on SBS, Every Family's Nightmare, showed just how police and prosecutors can be dedicated to to the cause of getting it thoroughly wrong.
Warnings may be old but we haven't learnt the lessons
Richard Ackland Three guesses. Who said this? ''Our institutions - Parliament, all liberal thought, free speech and free criticism must go on.
A law unto themselves? How legal eagles like their independence
Richard Ackland Independence means no one can tell you what to do. For example, last December the Senate's legal and constitutional affairs references committee came up with a report called Australia's Judicial...
Time to revive the cultural warriors - things need livening up
Richard Ackland Where are the culture warriors? After making such a din a few years ago now there is an awkward silence, at least on these distant shores.
A matter of two ex-judges, honour versus arrogance
Richard Ackland As if by some cosmic orchestration two ex-judges of incontestable notoriety stumbled back into the headlines, a week apart.
The ordinary reasonable person is so last century
Richard Ackland It was World Press Freedom Day on Monday. It came and went with appropriate speeches and feasting by journalists at a banquet hosted by their trade union.
There are lessons for Rudd in our forgotten election
Richard Ackland Is there a medical condition leading governments to develop a contagion brought on by dealing with an obstructionist Senate? It's a kind of Senatophobia, closely related to the stagnation or clotting...
Scales of justice wobble a bit as sentencing judges differ
Richard Ackland A young lad aged 15, called for these purposes ''JW'', is of low IQ and unhappy domestic circumstances (violence and sexual abuse).
Leaks pour forth from the Wiki well of information
Richard Ackland Wiki is one of those curious little words appropriated by the digital age. Wikiwiki means ''quick'' or ''fast'' in the lingo of Hawaiians. On the internet it means open collaboration.
