Melbourne Law School - Theses
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ItemThe law relating to the protection and treatment of animals in Victoria( 1984)The subject matter of this thesis is the Victorian law relating to the protection and treatment of animals. Brief reference is made by way of comparison with the laws of other jurisdictions. This thesis attempts to survey the law and examine the way the law provides some protection for animals even though animals are not capable of holding or enforcing legal rights in our system of law. This is generally by way of protecting property rights of owners, the public morality or the public interest in the natural resource of animals. As traditional western attitudes have generally accepted man's dominant status over animals, the law reflects the greater weight to be given to human needs or benefits in balancing any conflicting interests of animals with human interests. Therefore, against the historical background of Chapter 1, the remaining chapters set out the law protecting animals attempting to show how the law has balanced the various competing interests involved. In Chapter 2 the Victorian statutory provisions relating to cruelty to animals are surveyed. They reflect that cruelty to animals is generally prohibited under the Protection of Animals Act 1966. However the concept of cruelty applied to animals requires that there be a balancing between the pain inflicted on the animal and the circumstances surrounding the infliction of pain. The statutory provisions reflect the concept. Cruelty is generally not prohibited under the Act if it can be justified as being reasonable in the circumstances, often on the, grounds that it can be justified in terms of serving a human need. The Act goes on to provide specific exemptions from the cruelty provisions for activities which are generally accepted in Western Society as essential or convenient for human activities or needs and these are not prohibited. The major exemptions relate to using animals for farming purposes, hunting purposes, experimental purposes and exterminating vermin. These are discussed in Chapters 3, 4 and 5. Chapter 6 surveys the law relating to animals used for entertainment purposes. The present law reflects a desire to balance the need to prohibit those sports and entertainments which offend against the moral standards of the community such as blood sports and the need to retain those activities where ill-treatment of animals can be justified in terms of a legitimate object such as an educational interest, in the case of wildlife parks and zoos or a sporting or commercial interest in the case of horse racing. Chapter 7 looks briefly at the Victorian law relating to the conservation of wildlife. The law on this subject reflects the Christian philosophy of preserving all animal species for God's kingdom to come. This basis for the law is strengthened by an increasing awareness of the need to preserve all the animal species as a requirement for preserving the natural balance of animal species necessary for the survival of all plant and animal life. However the law provides varying degrees of protection depending on the animal concerned. Animals which are not native to Australia and animals regarded as vermin do not receive this special protection, because their survival is not essential to the natural balance to be preserved. The law also makes exemptions to allow wildlife to be used for educational purposes such as in wildlife parks and for restricted commercial purposes, such as for sale and for breeding. Thus the law on this subject also reflects the balancing processes involved in preserving wildlife but allowing for some human activities which are recognised or established as sufficiently important to be exceptions to the rule of preserving wildlife. The law is, unless otherwise stated, as at February 1983.
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ItemThe law and transsexuals( 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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ItemCapital gains tax and the resources industry( 1988)In one of the most significant events in the history of government funding since the introduction of uniform taxation, the Federal Labor Treasurer, Paul Keating, announced the introduction of a Capital Gains Tax for Australia on 19 September 1985. This paper assesses the application of this new form of impost to one of the largest and most capital intensive industry sectors in Australia, the resources industry. Such an analysis must necessarily be considered in the context of the peculiar Federal and State regulatory frameworks governing the exploration and exploitation of minerals and petroleum. In particular, the following discussion will focus on the precise scope and operation of the terms 'asset' and 'property' - which together operate as the fulcrum of the capital gains tax provisions. It is the object of this paper to show that non-proprietary 'assets' are not adequately included within the ambit of the capital gains tax provisions. On the premise that property law concepts necessarily underpin the capital gains tax provisions, an examination will be conducted of the 'proprietary' nature of various mining rights, including permits, leases, licences, royalty interests and information. The potential application of capital gains tax in the resources industry turns heavily on the resolution of this 'threshold' issue. It will be seen that the capital gains tax provisions incorporated into the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (Cth) (the Assessment Act) do not, apart from three separate sections, address themselves specifically to the resources industry. It is this decision to deny the resources industry special consideration that has created the most widespread uncertainty and enduring resentment, particularly in view of the industry's historically preferred tax treatment. It will be submitted that specific attention must be given in the capital gains tax provisions to the wide variety of traditional mining and petroleum 'interests', rather than attempting to mould them into a definitional context with a clear cornmon law proprietary bias.
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ItemTaxation of superannuation and other termination payments( 1992)Thesis Plan: This thesis provides an overview of the law and relevant procedures of the taxation of superannuation and other termination payments. Specifically the thesis details the various changes to the concessional taxation treatment afforded such payments from 1/7/1983 to the present. In addition various policy issues are examined in light of the recent release of the Federal Government Statement on the topic re “Security In Retirement: Planning For Tomorrow Today”.
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ItemAustralian water law: an historical and analytical background( 1971)The thesis traces the history of governmental intervention in Australian water management. At the State level, it examines traditional common law doctrines, their inadequacies to meet Australian demands, and the tensions between private rights and public control inherent in the Australian system of administrative rights to water. It argues for clearer recognition of the role of private law actions in such a system. At the national level it documents the history of the conflicts which have shaped the administration of inter-State rivers as a background to the integrated enquiries of other research students.