Patrick Keyzer – författare

In recent years, controversy has surrounded the role of top government lawyers in the United States and the United Kingdom. Allegations of bad lawyering and bad ethics in public office over the ’torture memos’ in the United States and the political pressure placed on the Attorney-General in the United Kingdom to approve the legality of the Iraq war, have seen these relatively obscure group of government lawyers thrust into the public debate. Unlike its Anglo-American contemporaries, Australia’s chief legal adviser, the Solicitor-General, has remained largely out of the public eye. This collection provides a rare and overdue insight into a fundamental public institution in all Australian jurisdictions. It provides a historical, theoretical, practical and comparative perspective of this little known, but vitally important, office at a time when the transparency and accountability of government has taken on an increased significance. Of interest to anyone interested in the integrity of government, the book will be particularly useful to government, political parties and the academy. It will also be a valuable reference work to those working towards a redefinition of the role of top government legal advisors.

Experienced legal academics and mental health professionals explore the current approaches to “dangerousness” and preventive detention. The defining characteristics of those deemed dangerous by society vary according to culture, place, and time, and the contributors to this text have gathered to analyze the policies and practices related to current out-groups such as sex offenders, suspected terrorists, and young offenders in the United States, Scotland, England, and Australia. Dangerous People is the result of their research, workshopping, and writing. The text is organized logically and begins with a section on Parameters that explores the international human rights and legal limitations related to preventive detention schemes. It moves on to Policy, where contributors examine legislative policy, and Prediction, or risk assessment, especially in terms of violent crimes in youth. The section on Practice focuses on recent schemes to prevent re-offending. This text is indispensible as a resource that deals with the practical issues surrounding preventive detention and supervision schemes, the assessment of the risk of future harm in offenders, and different programs and sentencing options for high-risk offenders with mental illnesses. It contains case examples that bring real-life issues to light and sets forth an agenda to provide effective ways to protect communities from harm.

There is much debate about the scope of international law, its compatibility with individual state practice, its enforceability and the recent and limited degree to which it is institutionalized. This collection of essays seeks to address the issue of access to justice, the related element of domestic rule of law which does not yet figure significantly in debates about international rule of law. Even in cases in which laws are passed, institutions are present and key players are ethically committed to the rule of law, those whom the laws are intended to protect may be unable to secure protection. This is an issue in most domestic jurisdictions but also one which poses severe problems for international justice worldwide. The book will be of interest to academics and practitioners of international law, environmental law, transitional justice, international development, human rights, ethics, international relations and political theory.

There is much debate about the scope of international law, its compatibility with individual state practice, its enforceability and the recent and limited degree to which it is institutionalized. This collection of essays seeks to address the issue of access to justice, the related element of domestic rule of law which does not yet figure significantly in debates about international rule of law. Even in cases in which laws are passed, institutions are present and key players are ethically committed to the rule of law, those whom the laws are intended to protect may be unable to secure protection. This is an issue in most domestic jurisdictions but also one which poses severe problems for international justice worldwide. The book will be of interest to academics and practitioners of international law, environmental law, transitional justice, international development, human rights, ethics, international relations and political theory.

In recent years, controversy has surrounded the role of top government lawyers in the United States and the United Kingdom. Allegations of bad lawyering and bad ethics in public office over the ’torture memos’ in the United States and the political pressure placed on the Attorney-General in the United Kingdom to approve the legality of the Iraq war, have seen these relatively obscure group of government lawyers thrust into the public debate. Unlike its Anglo-American contemporaries, Australia’s chief legal adviser, the Solicitor-General, has remained largely out of the public eye. This collection provides a rare and overdue insight into a fundamental public institution in all Australian jurisdictions. It provides a historical, theoretical, practical and comparative perspective of this little known, but vitally important, office at a time when the transparency and accountability of government has taken on an increased significance. Of interest to anyone interested in the integrity of government, the book will be particularly useful to government, political parties and the academy. It will also be a valuable reference work to those working towards a redefinition of the role of top government legal advisors.

In any society some people pose a risk to others. For hundreds of years preventive detention has been authorised by governments to ensure people are available for criminal proceedings (e.g. remand), in the mental health area, for quarantine, for inebriates, enemy aliens, and sexual predators. The policy has also been famously employed more recently to control suspected terrorists. These regimes have proliferated in recent years, and this book asks and answers some of the fundamental questions about these regimes. What are their doctrinal foundations? Is there a risk in laws that blur the historic division between criminal and civil law, allowing civil law to be used for criminal law purposes but without the protection normally provided to criminal defendants? Are they effective in protecting people from harm? How do these regimes challenge fundamental principles, such as human rights? Are our laws and policies geared towards the rehabilitation of the detained? What are the remedies available to people who seek to challenge these regimes?Regimes that punish people who have not been convicted of a fresh crime or that contemplate the infliction of punishment upon breach of a 'control order' require careful scrutiny to avoid human rights abuse. This volume considers preventive detention in its many varying forms across Europe, the Americas and Australasia, interrogates the theoretical underpinnings of the regimes, and then critically analyses these regimes for consistency with international human rights. The volume brings together respected international experts to guide lawmakers, policymakers and academics in an increasingly significant area of penal and public policy.