News and Insights

Video and wrap-up - On Monday 24 August 2020 the ALRC and UQ hosted a webinar with a panel of experts discussing the potential for a future ALRC inquiry into press freedom. 

By Rain Liivoja, Eve Massingham, Tim McFarland and Simon McKenzie

Australia was once the model for press freedom in the Asia-Pacific. In 2019, Australia dropped five places in the World Press Freedom Index and widespread calls for law reform prompted two parliamentary inquiries into press freedom; the first of those inquiries has now reported.

There is a theory that despite all the commotion, religious freedom faces no significant threat in Western democracies like Australia. Therefore, the argument goes, we do not need a federal Religious Discrimination Act.

A University of Queensland Law School academic has partnered with a local community legal centre to develop Queensland’s first human rights case law database.

University of Queensland Arts/Law graduate Briana Collins is determined to change the world through her work with the Queensland Environmental Defenders Office (EDO).

Countries around the world are working to develop increasingly autonomous weapon systems and the question of whether, and how, to regulate their development and use is proving very difficult to answer.

Legal professionals, journalists and researchers now have access to a new-and-improved version of the Deaths in Custody Project – the first comprehensive national database of its kind.

With sport so integrated into society, it would be strange if political or religious speech didn’t seep into elite sport. From national anthems to gestures like “taking a knee”, sporting events are suffused with sociopolitical expression.

A Supreme Court of Queensland judge was among many University of Queensland community members recognised in the 2020 Queen’s Birthday Honours.

After years of litigation, Australia’s highest court will today make a major decision on the fate of the controversial proposed expansion to the New Acland Coal mine in Queensland.

Attack the press, and you attack the very system that has made places like the US and Australia among the safest and most prosperous in the world.

New research has called for an end to solitary confinement in Queensland prisons because of the impact on the mental and physical health of prisoners.

Brisbane legal services affected by the COVID-19 pandemic have been getting much-needed help from University of Queensland Law School students.

A ‘human‐centred' approach to the use of autonomous weapon systems in armed conflict has the potential to shape how these technologies interact with a range of international legal regimes.

This month marked a break in tradition when UQ competed in the first virtual Willem C. Vis International Arbitration Moot.

Rebecca Ananian-Welsh explains the latest High Court ruling in The Conversation.

The ACCC has a new focus on evaluating and granting individual exceptions arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Graeme Orr writes about staging elections when voting in person cannot be assumed.