Justice with Jon Faine

The polls failed to capture the extent of American voters' dissatisfaction with two years of Republican governance, as Democrats swept to power in both the House and Senate.  Has an extraordinary swing against Donald Trump put an end to fears of another two years of norm-breaking and executive power that is stretching the US Constitution to its limits? Has American democracy survived its brush with authoritarianism?  Constitutional law expert Associate Professor Will Partlett explores what the midterm results reveal about the resilience of US institutions, and how Trump might wield his veto power.  Melbourne Law School and host Jon Faine bring you Justice: a biweekly podcast about the law behind the news.   Justice is a podcast of Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne. We acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples as the Traditional Owners of the unceded land on which we record, publish, work, learn and live. 

Stateless people have lived in Australia for decades, yet government agencies continue to lack processes to ensure stateless people are ‘counted’ or recognised. Not only does this suggest a protection gap for stateless people in Australia, but it also presents a serious challenge to robust, transparent and principled public administration.   Katie Robertson is the Associate Director of the Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness and Assistant Director of the Melbourne Law School Clinics at the Melbourne Law School. She is also the Director of the Stateless Legal Clinic, which supports stateless children and adults to obtain Australian citizenship.    Along with her co-authors, Professor Michelle Foster and Amelia Walters, in 2026 Katie published the report 'Understanding Statelessness in Australia'. The report documents the findings and recommendations of the first comprehensive study of statelessness in Australia. Katie joins us in this episode of Justice to discuss the report’s findings. You can read the Understanding Statelessness in Australia report on the Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness website: https://law.unimelb.edu.au/centres/statelessness/engage/reports/understanding-statelessness-in-australia  Melbourne Law School and host Jon Faine bring you Justice: a biweekly podcast about the law behind the news.   Justice is a podcast of Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne. We acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples as the Traditional Owners of the unceded land on which we record, publish, work, learn and live. 

Dr Jessica Lake, specialist in media law and feminism, takes a piercing look at the use and misuse of smart glasses - an old problem now finding outlet with a new technology.  Melbourne Law School and host Jon Faine bring you Justice: a weekly podcast about the law behind the news.   Justice is a podcast of Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne. We acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples as the Traditional Owners of the unceded land on which we record, publish, work, learn and live. 

Melbourne Law School and host Jon Faine bring you Justice: a weekly podcast about the law behind the news.   Artificial intelligence can be used as surveillance in the workplace, dislikes older workers and their resumes, and can be as biased against women and LGBTQI+ people as any human employer. Professor Alysia Blackham talks us through the new world of work   Read more of Alysia’s writings on this topic here: https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/over-45-and-looking-for-a-job-ai-thinks-you-might-be-too-old https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/when-ai-gets-it-wrong-workers-suffer https://doi.org/10.1093/indlaw/dwag013 https://law.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/4805047/02-Blackham-62.pdf  Justice is a podcast of Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne. We acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples as the Traditional Owners of the unceded land on which we record, publish, work, learn and live. 

Melbourne Law School and host Jon Faine bring you Justice: a weekly podcast about the law behind the news.   A new report by the Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness and UNHCR recommends nine areas for law and policy reform to avoid additional hardship for millions of stateless persons, and to prevent millions more who will risk statelessness if forced to move in the context of climate disasters.  Report co-author and Associate Professor, Radha Govil, explains.  You can find the report in full below: Global recommendations on nationality and statelessness in the context of climate change  You can also watch this recent panel featuring Associate Professor Radha Govil speaking on these issues:Pre-COP31 Summit: Belonging Beyond Rising Seas: Safeguarding Nationality, Preventing StatelessnessJustice is a podcast of Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne. We acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples as the Traditional Owners of the unceded land on which we record, publish, work, learn and live. 

Melbourne Law School and host Jon Faine bring you Justice: a weekly podcast about the law behind the news.   Meta has copped it big time from the largest lawsuit yet over how his platforms harm young users. Meta must pay $A 24 billion to the US states that sued it. Professor Jeannie Paterson explains what it will mean for Australians.   Jeannie Paterson is a Professor of Law (consumer protection) at Melbourne Law School, and the cofounding director of the Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Ethics (CAIDE). Further reading:https://www.admscentre.org.au/digital-duty-of-care-for-online-safety-and-platform-accountability-in-australia/https://theconversation.com/meta-settles-landmark-us-lawsuit-for-nearly-18bn-and-agrees-to-change-facebook-and-instagram-290609https://theconversation.com/metas-18b-settlement-echoes-past-tobacco-lawsuits-and-how-they-avoided-harsh-penalties-290819

This episode contains material some people might find disturbing. Listener discretion is advised.  Melbourne Law School and host Jon Faine bring you Justice: a weekly podcast about the law behind the news. Slow femicide: when a woman kills herself after years of relationship violence, should her partner be charged with a crime? Professor Heather Douglas tells us of English cases where the man has been jailed for manslaughter. If this episode has raised any issues for you, you can contact the Lifeline Australia telephone support service on 13 11 14, or Project Respect on 0477 001 110 by phone call, text or WhatsApp. Further reading:"‘Slow femicide’: Call to hold abusive partners to account for suicides" (article behing paywall): https://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/life-and-relationships/slow-femicide-call-to-hold-abusive-partners-to-account-for-suicides-20260607-p604lx.htmlDouglas, H. . (2026) “Suicides and Claimed Suicides in the Context of Domestic and Family Violence and Coercive Control: Legal and Policy Responses”, International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy:  https://www.crimejusticejournal.com/article/view/4720Wallkate, S., & Fitz-Gibbon, K. (2022). Re-imagining the measurement of femicide: From ‘thin’ counts to ‘thick’ counts. Current Sociology, 001139212210826:  https://doi.org/10.1177/00113921221082698Dangar, S. et al., (2022) Learning Legacies: An analysis of domestic homicide reviews in cases of domestic abuse suicide: https://aafda.org.uk/learning-legacies

Melbourne Law School and host Jon Faine bring you Justice: a podcast about the law behind the news. This special episode was produced in partnership with the Centre for Advancing Journalism at the University of Melbourne.Not even a year after Australia made world-first history by effectively banning children under 16 from using social media, the new law faces a High Court challenge. At the same time, Meta settles a staggering $254AUD billion law suit in America after a number of US states alleged that the design of the social media giant’s platforms were harming young people. What next for social media? Will the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act 2024 survive a legal challenge? On a University of Melbourne podcast hosted by Vice-Chancellor's Fellow Jon Faine, two experts weigh in: Professor Adrienne Stone, Director of the Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies at Melbourne Law School, and Professor of Political Communication Andrea Carson, who is the Director of the Centre for Advancing Journalism. Further reading: on the social media playbook: A different playbook for the same outcome? Examining Google’s and Meta’s strategic responses to Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code: https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448241232296Justice is a podcast of Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne. We acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples as the Traditional Owners of the unceded land on which we record, publish, work, learn and live. 

This episode contains material some people might find disturbing. Listener discretion is advised. Melbourne Law School and host Jon Faine bring you Justice: a weekly podcast about the law behind the news.EMDR, a form of therapy now used for many people with a history of trauma, has been targeted by the legal system as possibly contaminating a victim’s memory.  Dozens of women have had their rape allegations dropped as a result.  Anthony Hurst, psychologist with Melbourne University’s Faculty of Health Sciences,  explains how the therapy works. Professor Jeremy Gans, of Melbourne Law School, explains the concerns of criminal prosecutors.   If this episode has raised any issues for you, you can contact the Lifeline Australia telephone support service on 13 11 14, or Project Respect on 0477 001 110 by phone call, text or WhatsApp.  Further reading  The NSW judgment discussed by Jeremy in the podcast: Regina v Daniel Robert Tillott, Torek Hassan Jamal, Robert Andrew Haines and Paul Bargashoun Nos. 60888, 60919, 60928 of 1993 and 60004 of 1994 Criminal Law and Procedure [1995] NSWSC 83 (17 October 1995)  Plain language summaries of ‘false memories’: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/people-likely-arent-as-susceptible-to-false-memories-as-researchers-thought/ https://www.bps.org.uk/research-digest/its-easy-implant-false-childhood-memories-right-wrong-says-new-review  Further reading about EMDR: Does treating emotional memories come at a price? Effects of single-session EMDR, imaginal exposure, and imagery rescripting on forced-choice recognition of event details in healthy adults - a laboratory study, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2025.104884 Selective Effects of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, Imagery Rescripting and Imaginal Exposure on Voluntary and Involuntary Memory of an Aversive Autobiographical Event,  https://www.researchgate.net/publication/388655051_Selective_Effects_of_Eye_Movement_Desensitization_and_Reprocessing_Imagery_Rescripting_and_Imaginal_Exposure_on_Voluntary_and_Involuntary_Memory_of_an_Aversive_Autobiographical_Event  The effects of eye movements on the content and characteristics of unpleasant autobiographical memories: an extended replication study, https://doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2024.2307925 

Children are hearing about climate change at school and on the news, and rural kids are noticing its changes in their local environments. But how do we have honest conversations with kids about climate change without adding to their increasing climate anxiety?To explain, we are joined by Melbourne Law School's Dr Lily O'Neil and Dr Linden Ashcroft from the School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Melbourne.Together, Lily and Linden have created Climate Kids, a YouTube series that brings together researchers across the University of Melbourne to answers kids' climate questions. You can watch episodes from season one of Climate Kids here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhOObpoQndRmgMyR7gOBBIvCPnXVyt_8jNew episodes will be released monthly from August 2026.Justice is a podcast of Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne. We acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples as the Traditional Owners of the unceded land on which we record, publish, work, learn and live.