This chapter (prepared initially for a workshop on intellectual property law and innovation held at Bond University in 2007) mounts an argument for why the law on restrictive covenants in employment contracts in Australia should be reviewed, to re-enliven the ancient common law doctrine making...

Our laws - particularly the doctrines developed in the equitable jurisdiction - which privilege property owners have created expectations that employers of workers become the owners of the intellectual capital produced by labour. Presumptions in our intellectual property laws, and the...

The federal government finally secured passage of some of its workplace relations amendments in 2004 - the transmission of business provisions for certified agreements, introduction of interim section 127 orders and some increased penalties for bad behaviour - and it dealt promptly with the...

Despite the promise of cataclysmic change, 2003 saw very few, and very moderate reforms to industrial laws. The great debates about a unitary industrial relations system, greater legal discipline for the building and construction industry, paid maternity leave, compulsory individual contracts in...

From 1959 till 2006, all workers in New South Wales had recourse to review of contracts and arrangements under which work is performed on the grounds of unfairness . This jurisdiction-initially instigated to capture schemes and subterfuges by which employers escaped industrial awards by...

On 1 March 2007, the new federal Independent Contractors Act 2006 (Cth) (IC Act) came into force. The principal significance of this legislation is that engagers of labour will be able to take on staff on independent contracts, without concern that any State laws will affect the wages or general...