This paper reflects on aspects of the meaning of new social security as ‘conditional welfare' (such as welfare quarantining) and its implications for client rights, advocacy and public policy accountability. The paper considers the rising reliance on conditional welfare and related measures...

This chapter reviews the extent to which laws based on promotion of individual 'autonomy' (such as durable powers of attorney) conform with the lived lives and preferences of those for whom they are designed. It considers alternative conceptions of rights, including communitarian and social...

This paper examines the social security implications (and barriers to effective forward planning) posed by the means tests, gifting and private trusts/companies provisions governing payments made to people with cognitive or other severe disabilities, and their parental or other carers. It...

Australia is often identified as an immigration success story. The economic performance of immigrants to Australia in recent decades has been lauded by government and from within academia. The depiction of Australian immigration as highly skilled and economically self-reliant underplays the role...

This paper explores social equity, health planning, regulatory and ethical dilemmas in responding to a pandemic influenza (H5N1) outbreak, and the adequacy of protocols and standards such as the International Health Regulations (2005). The paper analyses the role of legal and ethical...

In this paper, we argue that during recent periods of welfare state retrenchment, new immigrants generally have experienced greater levels of restriction on their social rights when compared with long-term migrants and citizens. However, the extent of new immigrants’ social rights (here social...

This article draws on fieldwork data from a study of Australian mental health tribunals to critically assess property management legislation for people with mental illness in the Australian State of New South Wales ('NSW'). It is argued that the NSW law is anomalous in requiring that...

Anorexia nervosa is often chronic, with one of the highest death rates for psychological conditions. Law can compel treatment, but is rarely invoked, at least formally (though the strategic possibilities of orders confers internal authority within the clinical setting). Instead, 'control' (or...

Mental health jurisprudence traditionally was more concerned to protect negative or 'liberty' rights than to advance positive rights of access to needed mental health care and treatment. North American test case litigation contributed to advances in the quality of mental health and other...

OBJECTIVE: This paper addresses the question of the circumstances which lead clinicians to use legal coercion in the management of patients with severe anorexia nervosa, and explores similarities and differences between such formal coercion and other forms of 'strong persuasion' in patient...