Secondary Rules

In our season finale, our 'big idea’ is ‘THE CONSTITUTION’: Joshua and Ryan offer a cruel and unusual discussion of constitutional change, foreign powers, the role of “random” unelected judges, and apologise to our French and Tasmanian listeners.  Our reading for this week: The 8th Amendment Sue v Hill (1999) Breyer and Scalia on Judicial Interpretation   Learn more about  ANU Law here . Our thank...

This week’s ‘big idea’ is ‘SOVEREIGNTY’: Joshua and Ryan discuss Churchill, Guantanamo Bay, and Australian history. Our reading for this week: Churchill’s 'Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat' speech Carl Schmitt in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy “Even two world wars could not stop Australians casting their ballots, whether at home or on the battlefield” (Australian War Memorial) Learn more abou...

This week’s ‘big idea’ is ‘ DEMOCRACY ’: Joshua and Ryan discuss Ancient Athenian hillsides, marketing scams, Hare Clark with a Robson Rotation, and why Joshua doesn’t trust his neighbours. Our reading for this week: The Gettysburg Address (1863) | Constitution Center (Lincoln) How is the UK’s Brexit referendum different from Australian referendums? (Goss) The Tally Room podcast (Raue) Learn more...

This week’s ‘big idea’ is ‘The State’: Joshua and Ryan talk about mutual protection, whether states need territory, who is on the other side of the breathalyser, and what the French have to learn from giant sea monsters. Our reading for this week: Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State, and Utopia Leviathan (Wikipedia) Learn more about  ANU Law here . Our thanks to the ANU College...

This week’s ‘big idea’ is ‘The Rule of Law’: Joshua and Ryan thinking about chickens and ducks, the laws of cricket, and the mafia; and Joshua offers a few gratuitous reflections on the French. Further reading for this week: Waldron on the rule of law Lisa Burton Crawford on the rule of law Lon Fuller on King Rex Remembering Prof Gardner (1965-2019) Learn more about  ANU Law here . Our thanks to t...

Secondary Rules returns for a new season! This week, our ‘big idea’ is ‘The People’: Joshua and Ryan thinking about revolutions in France, the US and beyond; why it’s a bad idea to make big decisions on an empty stomach; and how everything comes back to the Parting of the Red Sea. For more, check out: Hannah Arendt (1963)  Independence National Historic Park, Pennsylvania   Learn more about  ANU L...

Here’s the long-awaited trailer for the third season of ANU Law’s Secondary Rules podcast — coming soon! Make sure you’re following or subscribed so you get the new episodes as soon as they land. Catch up on our back catalogue at https://secondary-rules.simplecast.com Secondary Rules is hosted by ANU Law's Joshua Neoh and Ryan Goss . Learn more about  ANU Law here . Our thanks to the ANU College o...

How a conversation at James Cook University led to the most momentous decision in Australian legal history. Read the judgment Watch the movie (only accessible via ABC iView in Australia) Read an interview with Mabo counsel, Ron Castan Learn more about the ANU College of Law here . Our thanks to the ANU College of Law Marketing and Communications team. ANU acknowledges and celebrates the First Aust...

Water under the bridge, and judges kissing babies, in this episode of Secondary Rules. What business do Courts have thinking about socio-economic rights? Can a Constitution transform a society, and can litigation safeguard a democracy? All this and more as we consider the right to water in the Constitutional Court of South Africa. Mazibuko  v City of Johannesburg [2009] ZACC 28 Constitution of the...

The trial that changed the world. A Jewish rabble-rouser came face-to-face with a provincial Roman governor. He was hanged. But his death was not the end. It was just the beginning. Spikenard not included. For a cosmic interpretation, see Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ (2004). For a comic interpretation, see Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979). Learn more about the ANU College of Law here...

‘Directly chosen’ for your enjoyment, this week we look at a case about free speech in a democratic society (and Joshua is a harsh marker of Ryan’s work), all of it ‘unaccompanied by moving images or other vocal sounds’. ACTV v Cth (1992) “ Whither the Implied Freedom of Political Communication ?” (2022 paper) Nettle J Learn more about the ANU College of Law here . Our thanks to the ANU College of...

Long live the common law! This week we look at the fascinating Malaysian Federal Court decision in Indira Gandhi v Director of the Islamic Department.  Indira Gandhi v Director of the Islamic Department (2018, Federal Court of Malaysia) J Neoh,  Legitimacy of the Common Law in Post-Colonial Malaysia  [2010]  LAWASIA  59 Learn more about the ANU College of Law here . Our thanks to the ANU College o...

Bonjour et bienvenue: how do you change the way a constitution changes, without being sure how to change the constitution? In each episode of Season 2, we tell the story of a great landmark court decision from around the world. This week we look at the fascinating Supreme Court of Canada decision in the Patriation Reference (1981).  Patriation Reference (Re Resolution to amend the Constitution)(SC...

Ginger beer, the 'nauseating sight' of a snail, the Good Samaritan, and the genius of the common law: it’s all here in the House of Lords’ decision in Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 562.  Donoghue v Stevenson (1932) Justice Keane on the great Queenslander, Lord Atkin (2017) Learn more about the ANU College of Law here . Our thanks to the ANU College of Law Marketing and Communications team. ANU ac...

In each episode of Season 2, we’ll tell the story of a great landmark court decision from Australia or around the world. This week: terrorism on the streets of Gibraltar and the right to life, in the European Court of Human Rights' decision in McCann and Others v United Kingdom (21 ECHR 97 GC).  McCann v UK (1995)  European Convention on Human Rights Learn more about the ANU College of Law here ....

This week, Joshua Neoh and Ryan Goss delve deep into one of the most pivotal cases in American legal history: Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954). Discover how the case forever changed the landscape of education and civil rights in the United States through its ruling that state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional. Brown 1 Brown 2 Plessy Learn m...

This week, on a special mini episode of Secondary Rules, Joshua Neoh and Ryan Goss talk about the Coronation of Australia’s Head of State, King Charles III, which takes place abroad this weekend. Further reading: House of Commons Library Guide to the Coronation (2023) Australia and the Coronation (Prime Minister and Cabinet) Coronation Quiche The Coronation Cases  of 1902 Learn more about the ANU...

This week on the last Secondary Rules for 2022, Joshua Neoh and Ryan Goss talk Revelation, revolutions, recidivism, and Rishi. Remember to take our survey! Revelation (c AD 95) Garlett v WA  (2022) Joshua’s new book ! If you're a student in Australian Public Law or Legal Theory this semester, more available on the course WATTLE sites.   Learn more about the ANU College of Law here . Our thanks to...

This week on Secondary Rules, Joshua Neoh and Ryan Goss talk dual-citizenship and the stripping of “foreign fighters” citizenship, the decline and fall of Liz Truss, and torture in an age of terror. Take our survey! Alexander [2022] HCA 19 Bybee Memo (1 Aug 2002) If you're a student in Australian Public Law or Legal Theory this semester, more available on the course WATTLE sites.   Learn more abou...

This week on Secondary Rules, Joshua Neoh and Ryan Goss talk panopticon and the pandemic, how we get our High Court judges, and offer some generalisations about French philosophers and the US Senate. Ethics Explainer: The Panopticon Port Arthur ‘Separate Prison’ panopticon Prof Andrew Lynch on judicial appointments reform (AusPubLaw) English Judicial Appointments Commission Keane laments exit afte...

This week on Secondary Rules, an unprecedented Joshua Neoh and Ryan Goss discussion about precedent, when Courts change their minds, and how legal systems sit alongside one another. Thrown in along the way: a dramatic HCA transcript reenactment and a look at upcoming US Supreme Court cases. Williams (No 1)(2012) 2nd Territory Senators Case (1977) Labor drops Coalition bid to overturn high court ru...

This week on Secondary Rules, Joshua Neoh and Ryan Goss talk about Pape & the Pope: how law is like scripture, who gets to decide when there is an emergency, and Justice Jayne Jagot. Neoh, Law, Love, and Freedom  (2019) Martin Luther’s 95 Theses (1517) Pape (2009) Belmarsh Case  (2004) Appointment of Justice Jagot ovens on accountability (2007) If you're a student in Australian Public Law or Legal...

This week on Secondary Rules, Joshua Neoh and Ryan Goss discuss the theatrical spectacle of Question Time and its constitutional purpose, and activate book club mode to think about why law is like a novel. Bovens on accountability (2007) Dworkin on Law as Interpretation (1982) Cooper v Stuart (1889, UKPC) Mabo (No 2)  (1992, HCA) If you're a student in Australian Public Law or Legal Theory this se...

This week on Secondary Rules, Joshua Neoh and Ryan Goss talk about the Britishness (or Australianness) of the monarchy, cash and coins, and reflect a little on why public law matters. Minister Andrew Leigh, Interview with Patricia Karvelas, RN Breakfast, ABC, 13 Sept PA Keane, In Celebration of the Constitution (2008) If you're a student in Australian Public Law or Legal Theory this semester, more...

This week on Secondary Rules, Joshua Neoh and Ryan Goss talk about the monarchy, the Queen, the King, and reflect on why legal theory matters. Prime Minister’s Statement on the Passing of HM The Queen Succession to the Throne 'London Bridge is down': the secret plan for the days after the Queen’s death (Sam Knight, The Guardian, March 2017) If you're a student in Australian Public Law or Legal The...