Just Cases

Just Cases

The biggest court cases you've never heard of. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episodes

October 17, 2024 1 min
Introducing CASE IN POINT, a new podcast from the hosts of JUST CASES: Melissa Castan (Professor of Law at Monash University) and James Pattison (the guy who's not a Professor of Law at Monash University).

CASE IN POINT tells the stories behind some of the most amazing court cases you need to know about. 

Grave robbers, AI law enforcement, international diplomatic beefs! Aaaaah!

Each episode a specia...

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Outrage over a federal government decision to put religious chaplains in government schools made headlines at the time for being a fight over the separation of church and state. But the real High Court case was about much more - and it has the potential to upend the way the entire federal government functions.

Court cases: 
- Williams v Commonwealth of Australia [2012] HCA 23 (20 June 2012) http://www6.austlii.edu.au/c...

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1968 seems a lifetime ago. It was a defining year of the 20th century. 1968 is also the year that a Japanese professional boxer was sentenced to death for murder. Remarkably, he remains on death row to this day. The case of Iwao Hakamada has exposed questionable police practices, a forced confession and a bombshell claim from one of the judges who sentenced him.

Hosted on Acast. See acas...

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October 30, 2020 24 mins
A newly-elected Australian government is concerned about a growing Communist influence in Australia. The scene is set for a major High Court case. 

Court case: 
Australian Communist Party v Commonwealth ("Communist Party case") [1951] HCA 5; (1951) 83 CLR 1 (9 March 1951)

Read judgment: 
http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/cth/HCA/1951/5.html

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October 29, 2020 56 secs
What is the rule of law?  What is executive power? How do we hold power to account? Are our legal institutions and protections still relevant these days? 

The pandemic has upended a lot of things we take for granted. Is it time we rethink how our society organises itself?

We’re bringing you some of the best court cases that have shaped society - and that could provide a way forward for the future.

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How does Australian law protect the beliefs and religious practices of witches, conjurers and fortune-tellers? A High Court case from the 1930s could provide the answers. 

There’s a big debate about religious freedom in Australia after the federal government announced plans to introduce new federal religious discrimination laws. Most of the coverage of the religious freedom debate focuses on protecting the major religions,...

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August 22, 2019 33 mins
“There’s a saying in law that hard cases make bad law,” says Dr Colin Campbell. “Judges will sometimes do what they think is right in a particular case, but in doing that they will muck up the law." 

Numerous inquiries have uncovered widespread discrimination and exclusion against children at government schools around Australia. While state-run education departments are tasked with the responsibility of fixing this pr...

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This is the most-downloaded episode of JUST CASES and one of the most controversial. June 1996. Late at night, two young men cross paths on a Sydney street. When the sun rises the following morning, one of them will be found dead. 

The events of that evening are murky, but the resulting court case sent shockwaves through the community - and we still feel its effects today. 

Melissa & James: "While we&apos...

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Earlier this year the UK's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) announced it had shut down a long-running investigation into corruption at Rolls-Royce. What did the UK authorities have to trade in exchange for Rolls-Royce’s money and cooperation? 

Between 1999 to 2013, the SFO and a joint BBC/The Guardian investigation revealed that Rolls-Royce - which manufactures aircraft engines and defence systems, as well as their famed lu...

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The name Rolls-Royce is synonymous with luxury. But in recent years, whistleblowers have revealed the prestige brand has been exporting corruption worldwide. How does the criminal justice system respond? (RELEASE DATE: Wednesday 24 July 2019)LEARN MORE www.justcasespodcast.com/episode/episode-15-rolls-royces-worldwide-network-of-corruptionMUSICLee Rosevere - 'Snakes'

Hosted on ...

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How does the law balance the rights of women to access safe and legal abortions with the right to free speech and protest? 

For over twenty years anti-abortion protesters have picketed abortion clinics around Australia. To combat this targeted harassment of women seeking safe and legal abortions, state governments have passed ‘safe access zone’ laws which create an exclusion zone around abortion clinics which protestors ca...

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A fight over a new toilet block at a Catholic school in 1962 turns into a major constitutional and ideological war, the effects of which last until today.  

Australians traditionally sees themselves as pretty secular compared to the rest of the world. But how Australians choose to fund their children’s education paints a very different picture. 

For every dollar the Federal Government spends per student in a priva...

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Issues affecting transgender people are much more prominent in the public consciousness than they’ve ever been. This episode of JUST CASES explores one important legal issue: can children access hormone therapy or surgery in Australia? 

We speak to the judge who decided this important case and learn what it’s like to make such life-changing decisions. 

WARNING: This episode contains some difficult subject matter. ...

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The corruption case against former South African president Jacob Zuma has begun. Zuma’s case lifts the lid on the influence of weapons companies on governments worldwide. 

“It’s not a story of a corrupt guy, Jacob Zuma,” says Hennie van Vuuren, the director of Open Secrets, a South African organisation that investigates economic crimes and abuses of power. 

“[Instead] it’s a story of a network of players around th...

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May 28, 2019 49 secs
The corruption trial of former President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, exposes the influence of weapons companies on governments worldwide. (UPCOMING EPISODE)

Music: 'Alum Drum Solo' by Blue Dot Sessions

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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May 10, 2019 59 secs
JUST CASES is back for another season. This season we’re looking ahead to some major court cases you need to know about, which will have an impact on our lives in the future. 

Can you create a valid will using emojis? 

Is the game over for the big end of town? Can the banks and financial sector finally be hit with some hardcore criminal law? 

In the age of political fracturing worldwide, how far does your...

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November 23, 2018 36 mins

It's just before midnight on 10 July 1985. The Port of Auckland, New Zealand. The Rainbow Warrior, a Greenpeace anti-nuclear protest ship, is sitting at its dock when two massive explosions tear through its hull. 


A man is killed onboard. 


What follows is one of the most bizarre and sinister of diplomatic incidents. 


The hunt for his killers uncovers an international network of spies, and exposes a highly-co...

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November 2, 2018 34 mins

A series of factory fires in Sydney in 1916 leads to a full-blown treason trial. 


The case of the ‘IWW Twelve’ sees a dozen local members of a radical worldwide movement caught in a perfect political storm.


Storyteller: Dr Stephen Gray, Monash Law School


Hosts: Dr Melissa Castan & James Pattison


Further reading:

- ‘Death Cults, Murdering a Police Officer, and the First World War' by Dr Stephen Gray (Alternative ...

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October 19, 2018 22 mins

It’s the night of 2 August 1926. Five nautical miles off the coast of Lesbos. A French ship, the SS Lotus, is cruising towards its destination of Constantinople. The ship’s first officer is keeping watch, but he doesn’t know that there’s a Turkish ship dead ahead. 


What lies ahead is not only a naval disaster, but a diplomatic dispute that throws a massive colonial power on a collision course with a young nation on the rise...

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In 1886 a sensational banking scandal hit the headlines in Great Britain. It involved the world's richest man, John Patrick Crichton-Stuart, the 3rd Marquess of Bute, and it led to an absurd decision. 


More than a century later, the current Banking Royal Commission in Australia continues to expose stories of banks behaving badly. 


But it remains rare for the people at the helm of banks and other major corporations -...

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