Research Brief 19 Last week a new entry appeared in the Prosecution Project database. Trial #64652 records the conviction on 16 February 1870 of Joseph Bragg on the charge of wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm. He had pleaded guilty. Bragg was tried before the Chief Justice of New South Wales, Sir […]
Research Brief 16 In January 1924, an article in Sydney Truth alerted its readers to a spate of crimes against children that had recently appeared before the courts. Sexual offences against three girls and one boy had been committed in various suburbs around the city within a matter of weeks. While the […]
Research Brief 11 The forms of law can appear opaque. Ostensibly they are designed to ensure a measure of due process. Their impact on accused and complainants may be unpredictable. During the nineteenth century governments tried to formalise and even simplify the process by which criminal charges were brought and trials conducted. An early […]
Research Brief 6 ‘In the end’, says Australia’s Prime Minister appealing to the Indonesian government for clemency for Australian drug smugglers facing a firing squad, ‘mercy has to be a part of every justice system’. The sentiment is noble. Mercy has been a prerogative of sovereigns and of the democratic governments that have succeeded […]
Research Brief 3 eResearch Australasia 2014 has just been held in Melbourne. This is the conference that brings together people involved in doing and supporting digital research. The use of digital technology of course is now so much a part of research work that a plenary on the first day considered whether the ‘e’ […]
Research Brief 1 In a world full of centenaries (outbreak of World War 1914, the prelude to Gallipoli next year, the Armistice of 1918 and the Versailles Conference of 1919) there are some that understandably escape attention. One of these is Australia’s Crimes Act of 1914. This was the founding statute of Commonwealth criminal […]