Fundamental Rights in the Age of Covid-19 Available Now!

Heath Harley-BellemoreNews

We are delighted to inform that the special edition of The Western Australian is now available for purchase through the website of Connor Court Publishing.

This special edition of our prestigious journal is dedicated to the important topic of ‘Protecting Fundamental Rights in the Age of Covid-19’.

We are proud to have gathered a very impressive list of contributors to address the dramatic impact of government measures on our fundamental rights and freedoms.

Edited by WALTA President, Dr Augusto Zimmermann, and Mr Joshua Forrester, this book is certainly destined to become a mandatory reference on the subject.

The contents list and the short bio of our distinguished contributors speak for themselves.

Special Issue of
The Western Australian Jurist, Volume 11
Available here

CONTENTS

  1. Introduction – Fundamental Rights in the Age of Covid-19 — Augusto Zimmermann & Joshua Forrester 
  2. Reflecting upon the Costs of Lockdown — Rex Ahdar 
  3. Politicians, the Press and “Skin in the Game” — James Allan 
  4. An Analysis of Victoria’s Public Health Emergency Laws — Morgan Begg
  5. Only the Australian People Can Clean up the Mess: A Call for People’s Constitutional Review — David Flint AM
  6. Covid-19, Border Restrictions and Section 92 of the Australian Constitution — Anthony Gray
  7. Blurred Lines Between Freedom of Religion and Protection of Public Health in Covid-19 Era – Italy and Poland in Comparative Perspective — Weronika Kudla & Grzegorz Jan Blicharz 
  8. The Dictatorship of the Health Bureaucracy: Governments Must Stop Telling Us What Is for Our Own Good — Rocco Loiacono 
  9. The Role of the State in the Protection of Public Health: The Covid-19 Pandemic — Gabriël A. Moens AM 
  10. Corona, Culture, Caesar and Christ — Bill Muehlenberg 
  11.  The Age of Covid-19: Protecting Rights Matter — Monika Nagel
  12. Molinism, Covid-19 and Human Responsibility — Johnny M. Sakr
  13. Interposition: Magistrates as Shields against Tyranny — Steven Alan Samson 
  14. Destroying Liberty: Government by Decree — William Wagner 
  15. The Virus of Governmental Oppression: How the Australian Ruling Elites are Jeopardising both Democracy and our Health — Augusto Zimmermann 

CONTRIBUTORS

Rex Ahdar  LLB (Hons), LLM (Canterbury); PhD (Otago) is a Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Otago, where he has taught since 1986, in subjects ranging from Competition Law and Contract Law to Law & Religion. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the School of Law, the University of Notre Dame Australia (Sydney), and in 2018 was a Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Law, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem. He is a former Fulbright Senior Research Scholar at the University of California at Berkeley (1991). His books include: Law and Religion (Ashgate 2000); Worlds Colliding: Conservative Christians and the Law (Ashgate 2001); Religious Freedom in the Liberal State (2nd ed, Oxford University Press, 2013)(with Ian Leigh); Research Handbook on Law and Religion (Edward Elgar, 2018); and The Evolution of Competition Law in New Zealand (Oxford University Press, 2020). He has published articles in journals such as the Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Cambridge Law Journal, Modern Law Review, Stanford Journal of Civil Rights & Civil Liberties, and the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion. He is on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Church and State, the Australian Business Law Review and the New Zealand Business Law Quarterly.

James Allan is the Garrick Professor of Law at the University of Queensland. He has degrees from Queen’s University, the London School of Economics and the University of Hong Kong. Before arriving in Australia in February of 2005, he spent 11 years teaching law in New Zealand at the University of Otago and before that lectured law in Hong Kong. Professor Allan has had sabbaticals at the Cornell Law School, at the Dalhousie Law School in Canada as the Bertha Wilson Visiting Professor in Human Rights, and at the University of San Diego School of Law. His main areas of interest are legal and moral philosophy, constitutional law and bills of rights. He has published widely in these areas, including in all the top English language legal philosophy journals in the U.S., the U.K., Canada and Australia, much the same being true of constitutional law journals as well. He writes regularly for The Spectator Australia, Quadrant and The Australian

Morgan Begg is a Research Fellow with the Institute of Public Affairs (‘IPA’). He joined the IPA in 2014 to advance a major report into ‘The State of Fundamental Legal Rights in Australia’, which was referenced extensively in the Australian Law Reform Commission’s seminal ‘Freedoms Inquiry’ released in March 2016. He specialises in legal and policy issues as they relate to proposals for constitutional change, freedom of speech and religion, the rule of law and the meaning of legal conservatism in the Australian context. His published articles and submissions to parliamentary inquiries have complemented significant research papers on the GST and federalism, red tape and centralisation, the unique threat to religious liberty from anti-discrimination laws.

Grzegorz Jan Blicharz PhD (Law), MA (Law, Philosophy), Assistant Professor at the Chair of Roman Law, Faculty of Law and Administration, Jagiellonian University in Kraków, recipient of the NCN Scientific Grant – Sonata 14 (2019) and the Scholarship of the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education for outstanding young scholars 2018–2021, Academic Visitor at University of Oxford (2020). He completed post-graduate studies in Roman law at the University of Rome La Sapienza and Program for Development of Soft Skills and Entrepreneurship at Alberta School of Business in Edmonton. Executive Manager of Utriusque Iuris Foundation and co-editor of Forum Prawnicze. He also teaches at the Faculty of Law at Lazarski University in Warsaw and Copernicus College.

Lorraine Finlay B.A (UWA), LL.B (UWA), LL.M (NUS), LL.M (NYU) is a lecturer in the School of Law at Murdoch University. She is also an adjunct senior law lecturer in the Sydney School of Law at the University of Dame Australia. Her research interests include criminal law, constitutional law, international criminal law and public international law. Lorraine is also a Research Scholar with the Centre for Public, International & Comparative Law (University of Queensland) and a Fellow with the Murdoch Learning Excellence Academy (LEAD). Before moving to academia in 2010, Lorraine worked as a State Prosecutor at the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (WA). She has also previously worked at the High Court of Australia, initially as the Legal Research Officer and then as an Associate to The Hon. Justice Dyson Heydon. In 2009 she was selected as a Singapore Scholar with the NYU@NUS program. As part of this program she was awarded a dual LL.M in Law and the Global Economy (with a concentration in Justice and Human Rights) from New York University and in International & Comparative Law from the National University of Singapore.

David Edward Flint AM is Emeritus Professor at UTS and read law and economics at the Universities of Sydney, London and the Sorbonne, Paris. He has been Chairman of the Australian Press Council, Broadcasting Authority and Law Deans, and World Association of Press Councils. He is National Convenor of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy, which prevailed in all states in the republic referendum. Named World Outstanding Legal Scholar by the World Jurist Association at Barcelona, he is a Member of the Order of Australia and Grand Officer of the Order of the Star of Honor of Ethiopia. He comments in the media ( especially Spectator Australia, Epoch Times, 2GB/4BC and in Take Back Your Country on goodsauce.news), has published  widely on topics including  the media, international economic and constitutional law, including explaining what would be the likely results in the UK referendum, and the 2016  American and 2019 Australian elections.  

Joshua Forrester graduated with First Class Honours in Politics and International Studies from Murdoch University in 1999. He then graduated with First Class Honours in Law from the University of Western Australia in 2003, with his prizes including those in corporations law and criminal law.  His honours thesis explored using breach of confidence in Equity to protect corporate policy. The supervisor of his honour thesis (and an academic referee for his PhD application) was Dr James Edelman, who is now a Justice of the High Court of Australia. Joshua was awarded a Vice-Chancellor’s Commendation for Teaching at the University of Notre Dame Australia. He is the Editor of The Western Australian law journal, and author of a number of articles in law journals. Joshua lead author of No Offence Intended: Why 18C is Wrong, which is listed as one of The Spectator’s best books of 2016. He has also appeared before various parliamentary inquiries, including the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights inquiry into s 18c, and the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Human Rights Sub-Committee inquiry into freedom of religion and belief. 

Anthony Gray is a Professor of Law and Associate Head – Research at the School of Law and Justice at the University of Southern Queensland.  He has published more than 130 sole-authored refereed articles, and has authored numerous research monographs, including ‘Evolution from Strict Liability to Fault in Law of Torts’ (forthcoming, Hart, 2021), ‘Freedom of Speech in Practice: Controversial Applications of Law and Theory’ (Lexington, 2019), and ‘Freedom of Speech in the West: Comparison and Critique’ (Lexington, 2019). He specialises in constitutional law and human rights, including freedom of speech.  He is a former Director at the Queensland Law Society, and former consultant with Engineering Education Australia.

Weronika Kudła – PhD (Law) and MA (Law, Italian Studies) at Jagiellonian University in Kraków (Poland). She is also a participant of the Erasmus Program Studies at Tor Vergata University of Rome (Italy) and the VIII Edition of Academy of Young Diplomats in Warsaw (Poland). She is the author of an academic book called ‘Hostility to Religion: Warnings from the Supreme Court of the United States’. Her research interests are freedom of religion and freedom of artistic expression. 

Rocco Loiacono is a Senior Lecturer in the Curtin University Law School, where he teaches in the areas of property law and advanced legal research. In his capacity as a NAATI (National Accreditation Authority for Interpreters and Translators) Certified Translator (Italian>English), he is also a lecturer in the Masters of Translation Studies at the University of Western Australia. After graduating with a combined Law and Languages (First Class Honours) degree, he practised as a lawyer for ten years, most of that time at Clayton Utz, one of Australia’s largest law firms. Dr Loiacono received the award of his PhD from the University of Western Australia in 2014. His particular research interest is the translation difficulties arising from the differences that exist between continental legal systems and the English common law, and he has published widely on this research in peer-reviewed journals of translation, linguistics and law.

Gabriël A. Moens AM is Emeritus Professor of Law, The University of Queensland, and Adjunct Professor of Law at Curtin University, and at The University of Notre Dame Australia, Sydney. Professor Moens received the Australian Award for University Teaching in Law and Legal Studies in 1999. In 2003, the Prime Minister of Australia awarded him the Australian Centenary Medal for services to education. He was named the ‘International Alumnus of the Year’ by the Pritzker Law School of Northwestern University in 2019. In June 2019 he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for services to the law and higher education. Professor Moens is a Membre Titulaire, International Academy of Comparative Law, Paris, a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management (WA), a Fellow of the College of Law, and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law. He is co-author/co-editor of numerous books, including The Himalaya Clause (Connor Court Publishing, 2020); Law of International Business in Australasia (2nd ed, The Federation Press, 2019); The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia Annotated (9th ed, LexisNexis Butterworths, 2016); and Jurisprudence of Liberty (2nd ed, LexisNexis, 2011).

Bill Muehlenberg BA (Hon., Chicago), MA (Highest Hon., Boston) has worked in social policy research for various organisations, including the Institute of Public Affairs and the Australian Family Association. He has authored a number of books including ‘Modern Conservative Thought’ and ‘The Challenge of Euthanasia’.He has also written thousands of articles – many hundreds published – on a wide range of topics, including politics, economics, theology, ethics and social issues. He has lectured part-time in theology, philosophy and ethics, and runs the website ‘CultureWatch’.

Monika Nagel Cert. Ed. (Vienna), B. Psych. (Murdoch), PhD (Org. Psych.) is the author of the book Fatal Cocktails, a provocative and compelling exposition on the reasons of the ills in our world with a call for change. She is passionate about reminding societies that rights can only be upheld with correlating responsibility.  She has engaged in public speaking. Her PhD research was about the impact of organisational culture on an organisation’s performance. Her doctoral thesis also investigated how well students are prepared for work. Before undertaking her doctoral research, Monika was a successful educator in Austria and Australia, teaching mathematics, science and arts, and working at a school for children with learning disabilities. Her qualification in psychology has prompted her special interest and research in human behaviour at work, addiction, and human rights.       

Steven Alan Samson is a retired Professor of Government and former Department Chairman with the Helms School of Government at Liberty University. His research and writing focus on the European and American intellectual, cultural, and constitutional traditions, giving particular attention to their ideological challengers. Dr Samson holds the B.A. and M.A. degrees in political science from the University of Colorado and the Ph.D. from the University of Oregon. A resident of Washington State, he occasionally gives guest lectures and writes for such publications as The Market for Ideas, Townhall Finance, and Review of Social and Economic Issues.  

Johnny M Sakr is admitted as a lawyer of the Supreme Court of New South Wales. He is also an Adjunct Lecturer for the School of Law at the University of Notre Dame, Sydney. Johnny has completed a Bachelor of Laws, Graduate Diploma in Legal Practise, Master of Laws (Commercial Transactions) and a Master of Philosophy (Law). Johnny is currently undertaking his PhD (Law) research at the University of Southern Queensland and has written a number of academic articles on a variety of topics, including freedom of religion, philosophy and theology. 

William Wagner currently serves as President and Chairman of Salt & Light Global.  In academia, he holds the academic rank of Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Western Michigan University. Professor Wagner is an internationally recognized expert in constitutional law and good governance. As lead amicus counsel in many matters before the U.S. Supreme Court, he has authored briefs on behalf of various Christian organizations. He has also authored written testimony, evidence, and briefs in such forums as the Swedish Supreme Court, the U.S. Congress, and the U.K. Parliament. He has further addressed many executive, legislative, parliamentary, and judicial audiences throughout the world, and presented at various diplomatic forums including the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. Professor Wagner’s public service includes serving as a Federal judge in the United States Courts, legal counsel in the U.S. Senate, senior assistant United States attorney in the Department of Justice, and as an American diplomat. His writing is published in numerous journals, books, and other publications.

Augusto Zimmermann LLB (Hons.), LLM cum laude, PhD (Monash), DipEd, CertArb is Professor and Head of Law at Sheridan Institute of Higher Education in Perth, WA, and Professor of Law (Adjunct) at the University of Notre Dame Australia, Sydney campus.  He is also President of the Western Australian Legal Theory Association (WALTA), and formerly a Law Reform Commissioner with the Law Reform Commission of Western Australia, from 2012-2017. Professor Zimmermann is also the Editor-in-Chief of The Western Australian Jurist law journal, an Elected Fellow at the International Academy for the Study of the Jurisprudence of the Family, and a former Vice-President of the Australasian Society of Legal Philosophy. He was also Associate Dean (Research) at Murdoch Law School from 2009 to 2013.  While working at Murdoch, Professor Zimmermann was awarded the prestigious Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research, in 2012, as well as 2 Law Dean’s Research Awards, in 2010 and 2011. A leading advocate for free speech and prolific writer of numerous articles and books, he is considered by the Washington-based Heritage Foundation as one of the 12 most influential policy makers in Australia. His books include, among many others, ‘Christian Foundations of the Common Law’ (3 Volumes, Connor Court, 2017), ‘No Offence Intended: Why 18c is Wrong’ (Connor Court, 2016 (with Joshua Forrester and Lorraine Finlay); ‘Global Perspectives on Subsidiarity’ (Springer, 2014) (with Michelle Evans), and ‘Western Legal Theory: History, Concepts and Perspectives’ (LexisNexis, 2013).

To purchase your copy of ‘Fundamental Rights in the Age of Covid-19’, click here.