The Wigs DM Podcasts

Welcome back to the Wigs for a brand new year! We have been on an extended summer break and hope you have enjoyed a great break too. In this episode,recorded at the end of last year, The Wigs examine a recent decision of NSW District Court Judge Newlinds in R v Martinez. The judgment has already been the subject of much media attention and concerns a successful costs application made by Martinez following their acquittal on four charges of sexual assault. The judge, in awarding a costs certificate to the accused, made scathing criticisms of the Director of Public Prosecutions and raised concerns that in sexual offence matters the DPP is applying a surreptitious and improper policy under which sexual offences are prosecuted without proper regard to the strength of the Crown case. The DPP responded furiously to the judgment publicly stating a Judicial Commission complaint would be made against Judge Newlinds. The case raises unusual factual matters and interesting legal and policy matters. Now,
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In this Wigs Extra Episode we present something a little unusual: a speech that Wig Emmanuel Kerkyasharian gave to the Legal Studies Association. 

Asked to speak about basic legal concepts in the context of the Legal Studies Syllabus, Emmanuel couldn’t resist the temptation to go philosophical, and presented a speech about what law is, and how it can be conceptualised as a meme. 

Many thanks to the LSA for sharing this recording with us and allowing us to present it to you.  
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In this episode recorded on 19 December 2023, the wigs analyse the decision of the High Court in NZYQ v Minister for Immigration 2023 HCA 37, one of the most important public law decisions in recent decades which was handed down on 28 November 2023. In the decision, the court unanimously overturned an earlier decision in Al-Kateb. It held that long-standing constitutional principles forbid indefinite detention of non-citizens who cannot be removed from Australia. The judgment has been massively controversial and the federal parliament legislated in December last year in response to it to create a system of monitoring and regulation applying to those persons affected directly by the decision. We do apologise for the delay in releasing the episode but we hope it's still an interesting and useful discussion of one of the most important principles in Australian constitutional law, that detention is prima facie punitive and can generally only be imposed by a court following an adjudication of guilt.
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In this episode, the wigs tackle a bill that passed the federal parliament recently and very substantially amended the part of the Criminal Code 1995 that creates crimes related to engaging in bribery in foreign countries. The Crimes Legislation Amendment (Combatting Foreign Bribery) Bill 2023 passed the Senate on 29 February 2024. These laws implement Australia's international commitments to combat foreign bribery and impose substantial penalties on individuals and companies who engage in bribery while engaging in business overseas. The Wigs analyse the policy rationales for the laws, the elements, and some of the defences. The discussion also touches on some recent Australian prosecutions for this conduct.
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In March this year, the Wigs were back to record a live show at the Reasonable Cause Continuing Professional Development Conference. 

The topic was Ethics for Defence Lawyers and the panel discussion you are about to hear examined the basis of ethical obligations, the nature of the fiduciary obligations lawyers have, common ethical breaches, some of the reasons why they occur, and how lawyers should respond to complaints.

Reasonable Cause CPD gives 100% of its net profit to Reasonable Cause Inc., a charity that focuses on assisting disadvantaged young Cambodians to advance their education. 

Friend of The Wigs Mark Dennis SC runs Reasonable Cause and The Wigs are always happy to assist a very reasonable cause by donating their time. More info on reasonable cause at rccpd.net.au.
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Welcome to a special "recorded live" episode of the wigs! 

The Wigs were invited to attend and live record an episode at the Australian Criminal Law Congress 2023 in Byron Bay. Emmanuel and Jim were unfortunately unavailable, so Felicity and Stephen teamed up with guest wig NSW Public Defender Paul Coady to live record the episode before an audience of lawyers from across Australia. The topic for the episode is "Reform of public criminal prosecutions in Australia, the Sofronoff Inquiry and its aftermath". Felicity Stephen and Paul discuss the key issues and findings of the inquiry and work through what its implications might be. The Conference was hosted by Hugo Law and the keynote speaker was Justice Edelman of the High Court of Australia. A big thank you to Hugo Law and particularly Karen Espinar for reaching out with the invitation. The conference was a big success and The Wigs encourage listeners to consider the conference in future years. A big thanks also to Paul Coady for being a guest wig. A bit about Paul. He began his legal career as a commercial solicitor at Clayton Utz, but turned toward criminal law after an internship with the Innocence Project in New Orleans. He has been at the NSW Bar since 2008 and was appointed a public defender in 2018. 
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