A Principled Theory of Legal Interpretation. Law's practical operation depends upon the meanings of statements of law: judges, lawyers and parliamentarians all must frequently grapple with issues of legal interpretation. The development of a principled theory of legal interpretation - which will be the result of this project - is therefore crucial to the practice of law-makers and legal officials. It is also important to the broader community, whose interests are often affected by interpretive d ....A Principled Theory of Legal Interpretation. Law's practical operation depends upon the meanings of statements of law: judges, lawyers and parliamentarians all must frequently grapple with issues of legal interpretation. The development of a principled theory of legal interpretation - which will be the result of this project - is therefore crucial to the practice of law-makers and legal officials. It is also important to the broader community, whose interests are often affected by interpretive decisions made by legal officials. By bringing together a team of Australian and New Zealander philosophers of law with a leading international philosopher of language, this interdisciplinary project will also raise the international profile of Australian legal philosophy.Read moreRead less
Delivering Digital Architecture in Australia. Design, documentation, and off-site prefabrication of numerous recent major international architectural projects, were achieved with evolving integrated 3D digital methods. While Australian architects, engineers, manufacturers, fabricators, and constructors have participated in a few such projects using these technologies, generally, local understanding and uptake of the opportunities is still very low. Growth in this area means growth in an existi ....Delivering Digital Architecture in Australia. Design, documentation, and off-site prefabrication of numerous recent major international architectural projects, were achieved with evolving integrated 3D digital methods. While Australian architects, engineers, manufacturers, fabricators, and constructors have participated in a few such projects using these technologies, generally, local understanding and uptake of the opportunities is still very low. Growth in this area means growth in an existing export rather than increasing reliance on importing these services and products. More fundamentally, it means a huge cultural dividend to Australia from greater affordable freedom of architectural expression.Read moreRead less
Australian Jurors' Perspectives on Expert Evidence. This inter-state, industry and research collaborative project will shed light on how courts, lawyers and experts can best work together to assist juries in their decision-making task. With the cost of a criminal jury trial running well in excess of $20,000 per day, policy-makers are keen to find ways of improving the efficiency of criminal trials. Improving the performance of the jury system will benefit the Australian community by enhancing th ....Australian Jurors' Perspectives on Expert Evidence. This inter-state, industry and research collaborative project will shed light on how courts, lawyers and experts can best work together to assist juries in their decision-making task. With the cost of a criminal jury trial running well in excess of $20,000 per day, policy-makers are keen to find ways of improving the efficiency of criminal trials. Improving the performance of the jury system will benefit the Australian community by enhancing the quality and reducing the cost of the criminal justice system. By intimately involving the judges and forensic scientists in this project we maximise the potential for the results of our research to be adopted by those in a position to improve the jury system.Read moreRead less
Acts of electronic negotiation: Overcoming communication barriers to transdisciplinary innovation in design. Improved collaboration between the diverse contributors to design in the construction industry is urgently needed to reduce waste, streamline production and improve performance. It is also a key to better and more advanced design. The quality of human to human interaction in computer mediated environments is critical to the occurrence of innovation between design disciplines. This project ....Acts of electronic negotiation: Overcoming communication barriers to transdisciplinary innovation in design. Improved collaboration between the diverse contributors to design in the construction industry is urgently needed to reduce waste, streamline production and improve performance. It is also a key to better and more advanced design. The quality of human to human interaction in computer mediated environments is critical to the occurrence of innovation between design disciplines. This project will create a pool of highly qualified personnel in this area in Australia, including participating designers introduced to novel empowering approaches to network communication. It will develop and apply knowledge from other disciplines to developing tools for the design community. Read moreRead less
Enacting Reconciliation: Negotiating Meaning in Youth Justice Conferencing. 'Restorative justice' initiatives like youth justice conferencing are aimed at strengthening the social fabric by making sure the voices of victims are heard while giving offenders a genuine opportunity to 'set things right' and get back on track with their lives. More detailed research into the way participants use language and other communicative modes will help the convenors of conferences, and the trainers of conveno ....Enacting Reconciliation: Negotiating Meaning in Youth Justice Conferencing. 'Restorative justice' initiatives like youth justice conferencing are aimed at strengthening the social fabric by making sure the voices of victims are heard while giving offenders a genuine opportunity to 'set things right' and get back on track with their lives. More detailed research into the way participants use language and other communicative modes will help the convenors of conferences, and the trainers of convenors, to understand better the potential of this social healing process. This project will also add to Australia's reputation as a world-leader in the field of restorative justice.Read moreRead less
Mapping argumentation structures to narrative for eCommerce dialogue support. Argumentation theories have proven to be essential for structuring reasoning and the provision of intelligent computer support. However, stilted human - computer interaction limits the effectiveness of argumentation for reasoning support. This research aims to realize a narrative model that, once mapped onto an existing argumentation model will enable users to dialogue with computer systems using story telling metapho ....Mapping argumentation structures to narrative for eCommerce dialogue support. Argumentation theories have proven to be essential for structuring reasoning and the provision of intelligent computer support. However, stilted human - computer interaction limits the effectiveness of argumentation for reasoning support. This research aims to realize a narrative model that, once mapped onto an existing argumentation model will enable users to dialogue with computer systems using story telling metaphors. This will facilitate the adoption of knowledge based support, particularly for e-commerce discourses involving multiple participants. Applied to legal reasoning, this approach has natural application for facilitating just outcomes for residents regardless of geographical location.Read moreRead less
Knowledge Discovery in Discretionary Legal Domains. The development of legal decision support systems in discretionary domains will lead to: (1) Consistency; (2) Transparency; (3) Efficiency; and (4) Enhanced support for dispute resolution. The researchers on this project have been using the World Wide Web to disseminate legal knowledge.
With the collaboration of Victoria Legal Aid and JUSTSYS, we propose to use knowledge discovery from databases and argumentation techniques to model how discre ....Knowledge Discovery in Discretionary Legal Domains. The development of legal decision support systems in discretionary domains will lead to: (1) Consistency; (2) Transparency; (3) Efficiency; and (4) Enhanced support for dispute resolution. The researchers on this project have been using the World Wide Web to disseminate legal knowledge.
With the collaboration of Victoria Legal Aid and JUSTSYS, we propose to use knowledge discovery from databases and argumentation techniques to model how discretionary legal decision-makers operate. A significant application of the research will be the construction of a prototype for assisting criminal law defense lawyers to make arguments with regard to their client's sentences.Read moreRead less