The passage of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act in 1999 involved a fundamental revision of Commonwealth environmental law and has potentially wide ranging application to some areas of private land. This Research Note discusses the thresholds of operation of the Act in relation to listed threatened species and ecological communities.

Over the past 25 years in Australia many laws affecting marriage have been instituted by the Commonwealth. However, there remains intact one major limitation, namely, that prohibiting marriage between persons of the same sex. This Research Note details the Hight Court of Australia's interpretation of the term 'marriage' in s. 51(xxi) of the Australian Constitution.

In December last year the US took formal action to terminate the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. This was done because the treaty stands in the way of its desire to develop and deploy systems to defend against attacks by ballistic missile delivered weapons of mass destruction. The American decision is controversial, both inside Australia and...

On 4 December 2001 a 33 year old man died in Brisbane from a suspected heart attack after earlier being subdued by police using oleoresin capsicum (OC) spray. During the past decade OC sprays have become popular with law enforcement and corrections personnel as a less than lethal force option. This Research Note outlines what...

Cannabis, the most widely used illicit drug in Australia, is not as harmful (in terms of individual health and public health costs) as tobacco or alcohol abuse. However, there is emerging evidence linking it to the development of dependence syndromes and mental illness, and legitimate concerns about its role in the development of more harmful...