Melbourne Law School - Theses

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Start date: 1982 × End date: 1982 × Type: Masters Research thesis ×

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    The law and transsexuals
    Baczynski, Mary ( 1982)
    The development of our Common Law as well as the law of most other societies has been based on certain fundamental assumptions about sex. Only two sexes exist, male and female. Everyone is classified as belonging to one or the other by anatomical sex at birth. A person's social and legal status may depend on his or her sex, which until recently was regarded as immutable. Transsexual surgery became a modern reality in 1952 when the much publicized case of Christine Jorgensen was brought to world attention. Since that time transsexuality has become both a dilemma and controversy in medicine, psychiatry and the law. There is no clear legal theory for determining how to accommodate the transsexual into our legal system. with the development in modern surgery the essential criteria for determining sex are being re examined. Although the dilemma of sex determination may initially seem far removed from the real concerns of lawyers, recent cases such as Corbett v Corbett , M.T. v J.T. and C and D3 make clear the need to re-evaluate accepted legal classification. (From Introduction)
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    Exemplary damages
    Waters, J. T. ( 1982)
    This thesis explores the historical development of the award of exemplary damages at common law, examines the law as it stands today in England, Australia and The United States of America and reviews the rationale for such damages and the criticism made of them. In the course of the thesis I critically examine the assertion that exemplary damages were first awarded in the constitutional cases of 1763 and argue that in fact they were, in all probability, a feature of the civil law from the earliest period of the development of the jury system and a law of damages. In my examination of the current law in the three jurisdictions I concentrate on the types of actions which allow exemplary damages, the type of conduct that is a necessary prerequisite for them and the principles for their assessment. In my review I submit that there is a valid place in the civil law for the award of damages of this character and that they generally serve a useful purpose. In short, that the benefit to society from allowing such damages outweighs any possible detriment.