Major Mike Mori addresses Queensland lawyers

Our roving reporter Barbara Flowers has filed this extremely informative report of Major Mori's update on David Hicks, organised by the Australian Lawyers Alliance and held at the Brisbane Convention Centre on Friday 3rd November:

Major Mike Mori attracted quite a crowd at the Convention Centre, in spite of the Friday lunch time slot, slightly less than enough time to scramble across the Victoria Bridge and then be back at work for Friday arvo's surprises. One interesting fact about Major Mori is that he was a Criminal Lawyer. This became evident from his persuasive presentation of the David Hicks facts, summarised with a flourish and delivered with the theatre and passion of the good barrister that he clearly is. Another interesting fact is that he volunteered for the role of David Hicks' lawyer, and was not appointed by the Department of Defense, in spite of the assertion otherwise in his Wikipedia entry. This sheds some light on the curious contrast between his haircut and his legal stance. The other things I discovered about him is that his nickname is Dan and he has served in the US Marine Corps since 1983.

He took us through a timeline of Hicks' incarceration, the bouts of solitary confinement, the history and legality of the Military Commissions and the various slowly grinding wheels of justice which culminated in two important US Supreme Court cases which affect the GITMO detainees:
In Hamdi v. Rumsfeld 542 U.S. 507 (2004) the Court ruled that detainees who are U.S. citizens must have the ability to challenge their detention before an impartial judge.

In Rasul v. Bush 542 U.S. 466 (2004) the Court ruled that U.S. courts have jurisdiction to consider challenges to the legality of the detention of foreign nationals captured abroad in connection with hostilities and incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay.

The result of these two decisions has been the drafting and enactment of the Military Commissions Act 2006. Interestingly the Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, wrote the rules of trial procedure for this new Act and it has clearly been drafted to overcome the legal issues raised by the Supreme Court in the two cases above. Under the MCA the normal rules of evidence are changed. The burden of proof is now on the defence to prove the prosecution’s evidence unreliable while at the same time not allowing knowledge of the way in which this evidence was obtained, or at times, even access to it. Another outcome has been the stripping of habeas, from the Commission’s trial process. (A habeas corpus petition is a petition filed with a court by someone objecting to his own or another's detention, and showing that the court ordering detention made a legal or factual error.) It creates a new crime of ‘conspiracy’, something the higher English courts have already rejected as a criminal offence. And it allows for retrospectivity, something the Australian Attorney-General has specifically stated as inappropriate to our own legal system, while accepting that it can apply to David Hicks within the US legal system.

There have also been amendments to the War Crimes Act (US Code Title 18, para 2441) an Act which covers combat offenses committed by people who are not active military personnel. The changes remove the offence of degrading a prisoner (is this a back door tolerance of torture?) and no longer requires the provision of a fair trial.
Mori then outlined the different levels of law which might apply to Hicks. Under Australian law there is no statute which Hicks has violated, according to the Australian government. Under US law as an Australian citizen he cannot be charged with aiding the enemy although he was picked up fighting against the US in Afghanistan. The US Congress itself has found that attacking soldiers is not an unlawful war offence, it’s what each side does to the other. Under International Law there are prohibitions regarding the means of attack, and prohibitions on particular conduct towards protected persons or objects, but was Hicks guilty of any of these things. Major Mori thinks not.

The future in some ways is going to be déjà vu all over again as much of the progress achieved in Rasul and Hamdan in testing the legality of the Guantanamo incarcerations will have to be re-litigated subsequent to the MCA. At the moment Mori sees another argument over jurisdiction, something that had been resolved in Rasul.

Of course there was a lot more legal discussion but it wouldn’t be possible to fit all of that into a short overview like this one. I’ve tried to pinpoint the important sign posts in Major Mori’s presentation. It was good to get a better insight into the nexus between politics, the media and the legal system, something we obviously see at close quarters in Queensland and Australia from time to time.

And here is one last interesting fact, this time about David Hicks. The famous photograph where he’s holding what looks like a rocket launcher on his shoulder, was actually taken in Albania, long before he went to Afghanistan. In the full picture he’s posing with a couple of grinning friends. It gives quite a different impression from the cropped version we’ve been shown, the one where it seems he’s firing a few rounds at the US Army right that minute.

ALLG (Q) Xmas Party

Get you're diaries out, and pencil in this important social event!

The ALLG(Q) Festive Christmas Cocktail Party has been booked for Thursday 7 December at the City Gardens Cafe, Brisbane City Botanical Gardens commencing at 5.30 pm.

Cost: $25 members, $40 non members. This includes:

• Pre-dinner savouries will be served at 6.00 pm
• Main course which is fork dish will be served buffet style at 7.30 pm
• Dessert will be then served at 8.20 pm

Champagne provided on arrival, courtesy of Softlink and there will be a cash bar available for drinks (more details to follow).

We need a minimum of 35 for this venue, so the more the merrier! More details on the venue are available from their website, www.citygardens.com.au

Please send an expression of interest in attending this Christmas party to Susan Stockwell by Friday 3 November 2006 if possible to make sure we will have sufficient numbers.

Meet Nancy Pearl

Nancy Pearl, America's rock star librarian is coming to Brisbane!

$10 is all it takes to spend the day with Nancy herself at the newly completed State Library od Queensland. Book online now through Qtix.

Nancy is the best selling author of "Booklust' and More Booklust' and even has her own action figure!

More details of Nancy's visit from the State Library, here.

Attending Southern Currents?

The following committee members will be at the ALLG/NZLLA Symposium in Melbourne next week:

Lise Aldridge,
Sue Macaulay,
Helen Gambley,
Sandy Liddle,
Susan Oag, and
Richard Vankoningsveld.

Sandy has arranged for us to be seated at a table together for the dinner on Thursday night, so if you fell like sitting with some familiar faces I believe there are still a few spare places.

It seems the majority of us are staying at the Mecure Welcome hotel too, so look out for Queenslanders in the hotel bar if you’re attending!

Revised rules of the Queensland division

Following changes agreed at the AGM on 6th September 2006, we have new rules for the Queensland division.

A PDF of the revised rules for the ALLG (Qld Division) Inc. have been uploaded to the website (www.allg.asn.au), and the link can be found in the 'Join Us' section.

AGM and our new committee!

A report on last night's AGM from outgoing Secretary, Claudia Davies

Our second AGM as an incorporated association was held last night at Allens Arthur Robinson on the 31st floor of the Riverside Centre. Thirty members came to listen to Lea Giles-Peters fascinating talk on the new State Library, elect the new committee, and watch the sun go down behind the mountains before sipping champagne until late.

Our new committee

Lise Aldridge (President)

Leanne Cummings (Immediate Past President)

Sue Macaulay (Vice President)

Susan Oag (Treasurer)

Sally Manser (Secretary)

Richard Vankoningsveld (Web Coordinator)

Susan Stockwell (CPD Coordinator)

Kirsten Harte (Newsletter Editor)

Barbara Flowers (Publisher's Liaison)

Sandy Liddle (Membership Coordinator)

Helen Gambley (Employment Coordinator)

Michelle Phillips and Melissa Smith (Committee Members)

Congratulations to everyone. Contact details will be available on the ALLG(Q) website soon. Please feel free to contact the committee with ideas for CPD
events and venues or feedback on other issues of concern to the ALLG.

At the AGM, Leanne's President's report and Susan's Treasurer's report
outlined the terrific activity and achievements of the outgoing
committee. Members got great value for money from the impressive list of heavily-subsidised CPD and social events, our new blog, sponsorship and other promotional opportunities.

The evening wasn't all business. I think that everyone in attendance will want to be at the public opening of the new State Library on 2
December this year. Lea kept us amused with tales of dealing with arty architects, decidedly non-arty boards, and staff flung far and wide over Brisbane. We can't wait to hear the musical piece commissioned for the new State Library, see the kuril dhagun Indigenous Knowledge Centre, and sit in the "red box" overlooking the Brisbane River.

A special thank you to our sponsors for the night - One Umbrella and CCH - and to Allens for providing such a spectacular venue for the evening.

Feez Ruthning Opinions Collection

Barbara Flowers attended the launch of the Feez Ruthning Opinions Collection:

It was good to be at the Supreme Court Library on Wednesday night and be witness to an occasion that gladdened this old librarian heart. Peter Allen, partner of Allens Arthur Robinson, or Feez Ruthning in its earlier manifestation, presided over a wonderful iniative of his own - the firm's handover of its Opinions collection to the Supreme Court Library for digitisation and deposit.

This major accumulation of important legal material, drawn from the firm's colonial beginnings, to 1994, is of great value not only to the legal profession but also to present and future historians of Queesland and to us and our 'descendant' librarians. The Feez Ruthning collection includes Opinions written by many of the firm's illustrious alumni, including three Chief Justices of the High Court, several Chief Justices of the Queensland Supreme Court, and many eminent Queensland lawyers including Tony Fitzgerald. By association the collection provides a documentary history of much of Queensland's economic and legal history, and the sentiments of all guest speakers, the Attorney-General, the Chief Justice, Senator George Brandis and Peter Allen himself were drawn from the same expressed hope, that this important bequest will be the beginning of many similar bestowals from other of Queensland's law firms which have their origins in Queensland's colonial beginnings.

As law librarians we are all too familiar with the difficulties in obtaining decisions and opinions which pre-date the Court's use of electronic record keeping. Having been in unrequited pursuit of an Opinion of Sir Arnold Bennett for more than two months, I can point at first hand to the frustrating nature of our work when we encounter an absence of proper house-keeping in the documentary resources which make up our history. The Opinion in question is a much-cited resource on the duties of bailiffs, but appears to be no longer discoverable. So the publications resulting from the Supreme Court's history program, and the future fruit of this latest initiative from Allens are welcome changes for us as custodians of the state's legal resources. The Supreme Court Library fulfills an important role for all Queenslanders, and for the democratic process itself, by retaining and making its legal resources readily accessible. It is inspiring to see the Library Committee at the forefront of such a ground-breaking recruitment to the Court's collection. And as an erstwhile FLIER Librarian during the last years of my time at Feez Ruthning it was also interesting to see so many familiar faces at the Banco Court.

Senator Brandis alluded rather endearingly to the care with which lawyers like to preserve their words, often on carefully selected papers and more often than not bound in half calf, to produce a quality of printed work not much seen elsewhere these days. I thought this an interesting reversal of the barrister's or actor's love for words, where attention is focussed on the expression of them, with not so much regard for their preserved appearance. Of course as librarians we are also preoccupied with the preservation of words, but our preoccupation is to satisfy their need for retrievability and for the continued availability of their content. Peter Allen's initiative is a wonderful testimony to the importance of libraries and it was an inspiring evening altogether. I was very happy that enough space had been found in the Banco Court to accommodate us all.

Online Currents returns!

As a keen reader of Online Currents, I'm pleased to hear that Thomson are going to re-launch it. Online Currents provided critical reviews, news and analysis of the online industry from an Australian perspective, with a high standard of editorial independence.

Take a look at some old issues in the Pandora Archive

Become an ALLG committee member

Have you ever thought about joining the ALLG committee? Be at the centre of the action and help set the direction for the group for the next 12 months.

Committee members meet every month or two to discuss what's happening in law librarianship and publishing, plan professional development opportunities to benefit all members and set the direction for the association.

Being on the committee is a great networking opportunity, and can be fun. No experience is necessary, just a desire to give something back and get things done.

Look out for the call for nominations coming soon. If you have any questions, contact me at cdavies@legalaid.qld.gov.au or call 3238 3931.

Comlaw session at QUT

Well attended - 40 people. Feedback that it was a very worthwhile session.

Here are some of the key points raised in the session:

• Still best way to use it is to Browse as Cathy found that identical searches give different results on different days.
  
• Comlaw have introduced an Advanced Search option now- click on the Tools Menu and it gives a list of various searches available - choose Advanced Search. This seems to be quite good. Guided search not available yet


• An Advanced Seach in Title field gives a list of results that is quite useful. However an Advanced Search fulltext search eg Antartica gives a result list with all the results as "Act Compilations" ie you don't get the name of the legislation.
  
• Some strange terminology used on Comlaw - apparently it is so the 'lay' person can find things. Bit like not studying Shakespeare at school as it is too hard for the 'lay' person to understand a new terminology. For example "Current Law" means all compilations and reprints and unamended principal titles. "Principal Act" is the Act enacted.


• As the Legislative Instruments on Comlaw are now the official version, their pdf symbol has a green tick to acknowledge this.
  


• Act Compilation

Shakespeare Night at the Supreme Court

Barbara Flowers reports on last night's ALLG(Q) social outing: Shakespeare’s briefs : or let’s kill all the lawyers

Last night the Supreme Court Library hosted an evening of Shakespeare performed by the Queensland Shakespeare Ensemble along with Judge Nase. It was a kind of short scrutiny of Shakespearean views of justice and the law. We were very taken with the opening sequence, a man engaged in some detailed housework involving a vacuum cleaner, while one of his colleagues wielded a bottle of spray’n’wipe among the balustrades. They were surprisingly thorough. The ‘Court functionary’ who disregarded us while displaying her legs along the bench was more disturbing. Some of us couldn’t help but comment on the poor showing it made, but in the end we did cotton on. It was all part of the show, and an interesting lead-in by the Actors to a trial scene from The Winter’s Tale, the trial of Hermione, accused of adultery by her husband.

Curiously, the last evening at the Supreme Court I attended, when QUT Law Library formally transferred its Pacific collection to the Court Library, the ABC journalist Sean Dorney also discussed the topic of adultery. He made the observation that under customary law in the Pacific Islands, adultery is viewed as of far greater criminal importance than murder, because of the problems it introduces into a tribal society. Plus ca change, and all that. But I digress.

The great Shakespearian set piece for lawyers (and actors) is of course the trial scene from The Merchant of Venice, which was the second of the two segments performed last night. As a nod to the fact that we were sitting in an actual Court room, some part of the play was screened as video evidence and was convincingly hard to see and understand. I thought this a clever idea not executed with a proper sense of the audience, as so much of the crucial language was hastily and inaudibly spoken. There are certain protocols required of Shakespearian actors and intelligibility must surely be among them. But Portia did her stuff and came up trumps, and it was all very satisfying.

It was an evening which combined an interweaving of the real work of a Court, as we ‘rose’ for each of Judge Nase’s entrances, alongside the other work of theatre and good drama. I enjoyed it a lot.

Renew Your ALLG Membership

It's that time again... it's time to renew your ALLG membership!

And the good news is that you won't have to dig too deep! 2006-07 membership fees are as follows:

Ordinary Membership $45.00

Honorary Membership $35.00

Student Membership $20.00

Take full advantage of the fabulous CPD and networking events on offer to ALLG(Q) members and renew your membership for the coming year. To find out more information, the new 2006-07 Membership Renewal Forms are now available to download from the ALLG website.

http://www.allg.asn.au/default_qld.htm

Go to 'Join Us' on the left hand menu and select the Membership Renewal Form.

Blogg/RSS powerpoint slides

As requested here are the slides from today's session on Blogg/RSS basics, this contains all the sites we looked at today.

It's quite a large 1mb PPT file, so it may take some time to download

Blogs and RSS.ppt

CPD dates for the next few months.

Please mark these dates in your diary:

• Friday 16th June 12.30-2pm RSSSs and Blogs Talkfest presented by Jeannine Goasdoue from/at Blake Dawson Waldron.



• Wednesday 12th July 12.30-2pm Comlaw presented by Cathy Crawford from/at QUT.



• Wednesday evening 19th July 5.30-8pm Shakespeare and the Law at the Supreme Court



• Friday 11th August 12.30-2pm Negotiation skills presented by Michael Klug from/at Clayton Utz.



• Tuesday 5th September 1/2 day morning seminar on Company Searching presented by Elizabeth Swan at CP2



• Wednesday evening 6th September AGM with Leah Giles-Peters giving an update on the State Library - venue TBA.

QUT South Pacific law collection moves to Sup Ct Library

Australian Library News reports that QUT has moved the location of their South Pacific law collection to the Qld Supreme Court Library. The collection consists of over 400 books and journals.

Austlii update

Graham Greenleaf made a couple of announcements about improvements to Austlii

• 4 new databases (Murdoch University Electronic Journal of Law 1993-; Australian Privacy Case Summaries 2004 ; Commonwealth Numbered Regulations Explanatory Statements 2005-; Victorian Legal Profession Tribunal 2004-2005
• Search results display - new features include ability to sort by date, title and database
• search engine speeds improved

For more information see http://www.austlii.edu.au/austlii/help/results_interface.html

OQPC Client Focus Group Report

Barbara Flowers recently posted the OQPC Client Focus Group report to the ALLGQ list. Some highlights are:

• The search box available from the OQPC Home page is set to search the Current Reprints only.

OQPC have also released some useful new tables

• Auto Expiry of SLs - Record of subordinate legislation that will automatically expire on the 1 September first occurring after the 10th anniversary of the day of its making.
• Changed citations and remade laws
• Changed names and titles in legislation
• Progress of Bills Table, for its comprehensive overview of the dates involved with the passage of a bill through Parliament. (this is hidden away under Annotations)

Thomsons online - missing Indexes - responses from ALLGQ list

I am certainly an avid browser, unlike the youngsters at QUT who more often than not ignore browsing options in their rush for the search box. One of our academics has voiced strong concern to the publisher about the loss of indexes on Lawbook online
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I would love Thomsons to come online with the indexes.
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Sometimes, they are the only way to locate information and often give clues to following other paths in the search. Had an example, only yesterday, where a senior associatehad tried a keyword search in an Encyclopaedia and couldn't make sense of theresults. The index to this encyclopaedia was online and led us straight to what she needed (in about 2 minutes). She was very impressed... Without the index the product becomes very unwieldy to search, almost useless.
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The indexes are useful online as well
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I agree with you about the indexes ... I was collecting a few of my gripes about Lawbook Online yesterday, with a view to maybe sending them off - so here they are : 1) When a search results in No Documents Found, the results from the previous search return to display on the screen. This is misleading and there doesn't seem to be any functional reason for it. It would make more sense if the results of the previous search were cleared and a 'return to previous search' link provided.2) Folder list issue: When selecting a new search form from the drop down menu, the previous search result 'hits' remain displayed in the folder list. This is confusing - it would be better if all the settings returned to 'start' position when selecting a new search form.3) The 'Edit Search' and 'Return to your Search' links need to be larger and easier to see, and the Edit button should be in a location where it will not be obscured by scrolling down through the hit list.4) While it is possible to select a group of databases to search in (e.g. Journals) by ticking a single tick box, this can only be done from the left hand folder list. This function is not obvious when first logging in or when New Search is selected, because the tick boxes do not display in the folder list until the Global or Easy search option has been selected. It would be better if a complete category of materials (e.g. journals) could be selected via a tick box within the search form itself. Currently the New Search form only provides tick boxes for selecting individual titles to search.5) Following from point 4 - When editing a search within a topic / category of materials which has been selected in the LH folder list, the selection resets itself so that you are searching the entire collection again, unless you remember to tick the relevant topic or category in the folder list again. This is not immediately obvious and can lead to confusing search results. 6) The search structure is not designed to search for multiple phrases within a certain proximity of each other - e.g.: 'representative proceedings' or 'representative actions' or 'class actions' near 'Trade Practices Act'; 'Order 25A' or 'freezing orders' near 'federal court rules'. The software does not really process this type of search adequately, yet we have a regular need for this level of searching functionality. 7) You can't (as far as I'm aware) restrict a search to within a range of dates.8) I find the three way screen display very unappealing and would prefer a simpler two part display - just the folder list and either the results list or fulltext document display.9) There are too many search screen options - three general searches (New Search - Global Search - Easy Search) and a huge drop down list of searches for every individual title.Further general comments - loading speed can be very slow; system malfunction messages are reasonably common - in the last two days I've had 'The gateway could not process the request because the server is too busy' and 'Server error'etc ... etc .
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I totally agree that indexes are an essential tool, whether print or online can be invaluable
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The search engine for Lawbook products is actually not very good, although I always laud the content. The interface is cluttered and confusing, proximity searching is not really available and the 3 frame structure limits the amount you can see when assessing results (although TLA doesn’t use this format any more). Search results can be mystifying and often inconsistent. An ability to browse indexes overcomes a lot of these problems. As it is also true that the print publications contain existing indexes why are they not placed online as a separate resource accompanying the publication, as Thomsons’ two commercial competitiors, LexisNexis AU and CCH do.
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I am also a very keen user of the indexes for most services that are on any of the online databases and was not happy to hear that Thomson's had taken away the Laws of the Australia index. This is the way we train some of our practitioners to use the services online, especially when we are explaining to them it is like a book and they can go to the index to find the subject/topic they are looking for.

COMLAW - list of problems supplied by the ALLG(Q) list

I agree - Comlaw is extremely slow - something to do with the size of the files which take a long time to load, no matter whether they are in .pdf or html format. Again, it seems to be a problem with the architecture - by contrast, the Crimes Act on the NSW OPC web-site loads quickly, even though it is a very large Act. In fact, I would say all the State legislation web-sites are better than Comlaw.
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To get quickly to the Comlaw legislation, what I always suggest is to go through LAWLEX which is a free database.
http://research.lawlex.com.au/
Its Advanced Search is quick and easy and it links to the authorised versions of all jurisdictions in Australia.
So it links to the Comlaw version for any Commonwealth legislation.
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I'm fortunate that I don't need Cth legislation all that much in my firm, besides a few acts that I have annotated anyway (Corp's, TPA etc). So I cant really say much (digression: same for the Cth Hansard,) except that I never got to like using it. I used to find even browsing COMLAW a bit difficult - it is better now that they have improved it. I did not even try search it for over a year - results always used to look incomprehensive (as in "puzzlingly overcomprehensive"), and you end up not knowing where you are.
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I've just noticed a default setting in the ComLaw standard search page which, if I understand it correctly, is unsatisfactory and confusing. I was searching for a schedule in a commonwealth instrument from the standard search page. In box C. Do you want to find any law or related materials? I selected Current Law AND Instruments Compilations, and entered a phrase to search. This returned zero hits. Upon investigation, I realised that the separate box titled Search Options defaults to Items Only. If I understand this correctly, this means Acts Only. When I changed it to All Documents (includes related materials), I got the results I expected. Suggestions for improvement: 1. The fact that you can select Instrument Compilations in box C suggests that you will be searching Instrument Compilations. This is not the case as an externally set parameter overrides this choice. The relevant search options should be placed inside each of boxes A, B and C instead of being listed at the bottom of the form. In this case, Restrict to Type is not relevant, given the check boxes in C. 2. The labels for the choices in the drop down box Restrict to Type are meaningless - they should be relabelled as Acts, Acts and instruments and All legislative material, in keeping with standard labelling on the website.
3. The default setting should be all legislative material - users should be able to narrow the search if necessary but should not have it narrowed automatically.
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I was looking to get hold of the EM for the Family Law Amendment (Shared Parental Responsibility) Bill 2005 and so Comlaw was my natural first port of call. A quick browse and there it was, easy as that! But then I had a brainwave that there may have been supplementary/revised EM's for such a hefty bill, but they were nowhere to be found. I called Comlaw helpdesk and they said that in this case I should look on the parliament house site. They would not however give me a rock solid answer when I asked if it was policy to only put only the original EM to bills on the site. (I assume this is the case though). So then I checked out parliament house website (http://www.aph.gov.au/). Under bills I found some supplementary/revised EM's for current bills, but nothing from previous years. It was not until I made another call, this time to parliament house, that I discovered all the supplementary/revised EM's for the bill I wanted would probably be located in the old bills section (http://parlinfoweb.aph.gov.au/piweb/browse.aspx?path=legislation%3Eold+bills). This excellent resource also had the 2nd reading speeches, bill digest and text of the bill in one handy spot. The problem is that it was so hard to find. The person at parliament house said she thought that all bills post 1998ish are on that old bills page and will stay there, but I couldn't help but think this might not be the case. Even if it is, then a bit of content management wouldn't go a miss, as it is quite slow and unwieldy at present. All this has made me wonder whether Comlaw is the best place to go to get bills information, and whether a better solution could be arrived at.
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I was just trying to access Comlaw when your email arrived. I had to give up accessing the site as it not respond after a considerable length of time had passed (and I tried several times) and thus I had to use an alternative database.

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I think it is awful but I can't really give you anything specific. I find the site confusing and usually reference material via Lawlex. I had a go at the search engine the other day. The results I got back were confusing. These days I'll even use Austlii in preference but I always check the notes for the currency. I never refer people to ComLaw.
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