Politics & Society

There is very little I love more than free things. I’m pretty sure the only pens I own are branded ones I’ve picked up from law firms at LSS events; I’m a sucker for merch, and they give it out liberally. It’s probably because it’s so rare to find free stuff that I like it. Mostly, things are expensive due to the cost of living, inflation, all those ugly economic words I don’t appreciate seeing in the news. Very, very few things are free, including The Law. There are the cost

Picture this: an AI system, running autonomously on servers somewhere in Sydney, makes a series of financial decisions that wipe out a small investor’s retirement savings. The investor wants to sue. But whom, exactly? The Silicon Valley company that wrote the base model? The Melbourne fintech startup that fine-tuned it? The cloud provider that hosted it? Or the algorithm itself? Image from Pinterest This is an emerging reality, and the law in Australia, like most legal system

“Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.” - Arundhati Roy Art by Hester Legge Australia’s hands were outstretched in support as cheers of “Aussie Aussie Aussie” echoed throughout the nation. Our country celebrated as we welcomed members of the Iranian Women’s Soccer team, who were offered refuge and protection in the wake of the recent conflict. At that moment, it seemed that Australia had finally started to step up in

On December 3rd 1854, as the sun started to rise over Ballarat, Victoria, 120 miners and their families awoke suddenly from their tents to find 276 British soldiers storming over their flimsily built stockade. Within 15 minutes, at least 6 soldiers and 22 rebels had been killed, with other estimates reaching as high as 60.[1] These miners and their supporters had been killed for protesting the exorbitantly high licence fee to mine, their lack of a right to vote, and continued

Art by Sarah Emam ‘Hands are for loving’ [1] She loved me with age spots and short nails. Her skin, cracked from years of hard work, is rough against my tender cheek. Her hands caress. Don’t worry. Hands are for loving. Not the paddle, though. ‘One quick sting.’ One quick sting across a face not an hour ago, gently held, one quick sting, leaves only a small mark. Does not ‘cause harm to the child that lasts for more than a short period’ [2], so it’s okay. I’m okay. ‘Hands a

PREAMBLE PLEASE READ THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS (“Terms”, “Agreement”, “The Conversation You Have Been Avoiding”) CAREFULLY BEFORE PROCEEDING. By sustaining eye contact for longer than three (3) seconds, exchanging numbers, or going on a second date, you (“User”, “Party of No Consequence”) agree to be bound by these Terms in their entirety. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THESE TERMS, please discontinue use of the other person immediately. Note that LifeServ Pty Ltd accepts no liabi

Read the influence problem to understand how exposure, repetition and suppression can be used to manufacture your consent and norms.

Image from The Sydney Morning Herald For a generation of constitutional republicans, 1999 marks a ‘sliding doors’ moment many of us weren’t even alive to see. Of course, I am referencing the Australian ‘republic referendum’, a blueprint forged from enduring, 19th-century ambition, yet nonetheless foiled at the hands of perceived obligation. As we approach nearly thirty years since the referendum’s failure on the grandest stage, surveying the recent coups calling to further un

Image from Pinterest I. The Chasm In 2024, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry went to the team behind AlphaFold—an AI system that predicts protein structures with near-experimental accuracy, solving a problem that had resisted fifty years of scientific effort.¹ What previously took years of laboratory work now takes seconds at negligible marginal cost. Drug candidates that once required billions of dollars and more than a decade of human research are being generated in months at a

Victoria occupies a unique position in Australian civil litigation. It is said to be the only Australian jurisdiction that retains regular civil jury trials.[1] This procedural distinction has assumed particular significance in the context of institutional abuse claims, where, in late 2023, two Victorian Supreme Court juries returned what were regarded as the largest awards in this area: $5.94 million[2] and $3.3 million,[3] respectively. While both awards were later reduced

Retrofuturism mourns the deprivation of an “enchanted world” with crystalline aims and conviction in human consciousness (Svetlana Boym). Algorithms have obscured the law into a “black box” that needs to be interpreted. Should algorithms assume a new life as an “invention” under patent protection today? Or, does this erode the fundamental principle of “manner of manufacture” from its chain novel? Do Algorithms Dream of Economic Endeavour? ‘The question is not, ‘Can they reas

Art by Oli Wiencke Anyone who's been strolling around campus recently will no doubt have seen the numerous posters for the upcoming edition of the Trotsky-ite drum circle. Our campus’ favourite vanguards of the revolution feel that ‘Liberalism can’t defeat the far right but the left can’. I read this poster as I sat on the slowly regrowing Kambri lawns before class, sipping my favourite brew, and got to pondering. I then had a thought, a thought that every man has every day:

In the 2019-2020 financial year, international tourists visiting Australia spent more than $78 million on Indigenous-style artwork [1]. A draft report on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Visual Arts and Crafts, developed in response to the 2018 Report on the Impact of Inauthentic Art and Craft in the Style of First Nations Peoples, found that up to 75% of Indigenous-style products sold in Australia are fake[2]. Inauthentic Indigenous-style arts, imagery and consumer prod