Justice Bromberg of the Federal Court today delivered a stunning decision that blows open the duty of care for climate change in Australia. The decision, Sharma v Minister for the Environment [2021] FCA 560, will reverberate for many years to come. The case was brought by a group of eight brave children led by Anjali...Read More

Facts/Background The High Court delivered orders in Palmer v Western Australia [2021] HCA 5 (‘Palmer’) on 6 November 2020. The highly anticipated reasons for that decision were published 24 February 2021. The court considered whether the Quarantine (Closing the Border) Directions (WA) and/or the authorising legislation were invalid because they impermissibly infringed s 92 of...Read More

ICJ Queensland is hosting a free webinar on 22 April 2021 at 5.30pm (AEST / GMT+10) on watershed UK decisions holding parent companies potentially liable for harm caused by their subsidiary companies under normal principles for establishing a duty of care. The UK approach contrasts with Australia where parent company liability has largely fallen off...Read More

Background The High Court’s recent decision in Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs v AAM17 [2021] HCA 6 concerned issues of procedural fairness in the delivery of reasons for judgment in Federal Circuit Court proceedings in the migration law context. The first respondent, a citizen of Pakistan, was refused a Protection (Class...Read More

The decision in Okpabi v Royal Dutch Shell [2021] UKSC 3 (Shell) reads like a bomb that has just exploded in the boardrooms of multinational companies globally. In it, the UK Supreme Court confirmed its watershed decision in Vedanta Resources PLC v Lungowe [2019] UKSC 20, (Vedanta) that: “‘the liability of parent companies in relation...Read More

In Oakley Coal Action Alliance Inc v New Acland Coal Pty Ltd & Ors [2021] HCA 2 the High Court allowed an appeal against a decision of the Queensland the Court of Appeal that had declined to set aside and remit for rehearing an administrative decision of the Land Court of Queensland found to be...Read More

The great thing about being a lawyer interested in climate change is that we never run out of things to read. Here is a short list of some recent useful documents, in case you missed them. The United Nations Environment Program has released two important documents comparing what we are doing/promising and what we need...Read More

Law Council of Australia media release – 7 December 2020 The Law Council of Australia’s 2020 President’s Award has been presented to Queensland barrister, Stephen Keim SC, a champion of human rights in Australia and around the world. The President’s Award is awarded to an individual who has been an “outstanding example to the Australian...Read More

Australia is the only Western democracy without some form of a charter of rights at the national level, whether legislated by parliament, or entrenched by constitution. On 18 November 2020, Law Council President Pauline Wright and Stephen Keim SC addressed the National Press Club in Canberra on the topic ‘No time like the present to...Read More

The enforceability of building covenants is quite cumbersome in Queensland. Generally, they need to be enforced contractually. This can be very time consuming and costly. I was recently involved in a series of cases enforcing building covenants on a housing estate. Given the limited authorities relating to the enforcement of covenants in Queensland, I thought...Read More