Dean’s message and invitation

Professor Bryan Horrigan

Welcome to this first edition of our new e-newsletter, The Monash Law e-Briefing. It is being launched in our Faculty’s 50th anniversary year. We hope that it keeps our alumni and the broader legal profession informed and connected with us and one another. Complementing our twice-yearly publication of Law Matters, The Monash Law e-Briefing is designed to be an accessible, regular, and useful briefing on Faculty matters and commentary of interest and relevance to you.

Now recognised as a truly global law faculty, we attract top students, provide first-rate opportunities, produce world-class research, and benefit from high-quality alumni, many of whom are well known as thought leaders and pioneers in their chosen professional careers throughout the world. In keeping with this societal outreach and track record after 50 years, The Monash Law e-Briefing aims to provide many things of value to you in your everyday work, engagement with us, and connections with others in professional life.

Inside The Monash Law e-Briefing, you will find topical expert commentary, 50th anniversary news, upcoming seminars and events worth attending, opportunities to become involved with us, celebrations of achievements by members of our community, and other benefits from what our 50 years as a Faculty enables us to offer to you. In this first edition, for example, our expert commentary includes the following timely contributions:

• Internationally renowned commercial arbitrator, Neil Kaplan CBE QC SBS, reflects on Melbourne’s place and Australia’s role in commercial arbitration in this region;
• Ashurst partner Bruce Dyer and Special Counsel Corey Lewis update everyone on the content and impact of the latest revision of the ASX Corporate Governance Council’s Corporate Governance Principles and Recommendations [1];
• Monash Lecturer Dr Eric Windholz highlights the occupational health and safety issues arising under Victorian law and recent heatwave conditions for major events such as the Australian Open;
• Associate Professor Paula Gerber outlines new ways for abuse of children's human rights to receive UN attention; and
• I make the first of a series of planned contributions as Dean, exploring the options, pitfalls, and ripple effects in reforming the law surrounding unconscionable business conduct under the Abbott Government’s ‘root and branch’ review of competition law and policy.

We invite you to contribute to The Monash Law e-Briefing by submitting articles of interest to the wider Monash legal community. Sharing and adding to this collective expertise is in keeping with our University motto – ‘… equip yourself for life, not solely for your own benefit but for the benefit of the whole community’ (Sir John Monash).

We are proud to have you as part of our Faculty of Law community, which I often describe publicly as ‘a community of academic and professional staff, students and alumni, and partners and supporters who are all committed to making a difference to the human condition through law, social justice, and professional and community service in Victoria, across Australia, and throughout the region and the world’.

We hope that you enjoy and benefit from The Monash Law e-Briefing and we welcome your feedback.   

[1] This includes comment on a proposed recommendation for listed companies to report on whether and how they take account of ‘economic, environmental, and social sustainability risks’. This becomes another important route by which companies can embed a strategic approach to corporate social responsibility and their adherence to CSR-related international standards, including human rights considerations within all three specified risk areas, as part of an integrated organisational approach to corporate governance and compliance.