Reforming the Australian Justice System's Response to Sexual Offences

Format

5.15pm Registration 

5.30pm The Chair, Her Honour Judge Deborah Richards, District Court of Queensland, will introduce the speaker, The Honourable Anthony North QC, Chair, Victorian Law Reform Commission, and commentator, Professor Julia Quilter, University of Woolongong.

6.45pm Refreshments in the foyer

Abstract

The Victorian Law Reform Commission has recently released a major report on the Response of the Justice System to Sexual Offences. The State's Attorney-General has indicated that this report will guide the next ten years of reform in this area. In this seminar, Chair of the VLRC, the Honourable Tony North QC will discuss several key reforms suggested in the report, where progress is urgently needed. These include:

• Consent: the introduction of a model of 'communicative consent' requiring a person to take active steps to ensure that another person consents to sex before engaging in it.
• Victim advocates: the appointment of an independent person to 'walk alongside' victim-survivors throughout their involvement in the justice process, providing information, support, liaison, referrals and advice.
• Alternatives to criminal trial: the creation of other ways in which survivors can obtain justice besides the criminal trial, such as restorative justice, truth telling, and civil litigation.
• Specialisation: the introduction of specialised training and specialist accreditation requirements for all judicial officers and lawyers involved in sex offence cases.
• Independent review panels: the introduction of an independent panel to review police and prosecutors' decisions to continue, drop or downgrade sexual offence charges; and
• Improvements to trial processes: further improvements to trial processes in areas such as jury directions and expert evidence, designed to make trials less traumatic for victim-survivors.

CPD

This seminar is accredited for CPD purposes by the Queensland Bar Association, 1.5 CPD points in the Substantive Law strand.

Registration 

Registrations are now open via the Bar Association of Queensland:

BAQ members     Non-members