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• Kangaroo meat behind Australian Salmonella outbreak

  Seven people fell sick in a Salmonella outbreak in Australia in 2024 after eating kangaroo meat. A Salmonella Muenchen outbreak occurred in August 2024 after consuming wild hunted kangaroo in the Northern Territory (NT). Of the seven people who shared the food, all became ill; three were confirmed and four were probable cases. The median...

• AAL essay prize: Bird v DP.

  The Australian Academy of Law has announced the offering of its Annual Essay Prize for 2025. The amount of the Prize is $10,000. The essay topic for the Prize in 2025 is as follows: “Where has Bird v DP [2024] HCA 41 left the law of vicarious liability in Australia? How does it differ from...

• Group urges review of body that developed produce standard

  An industry group has called for a review of a body that is responsible for developing food policy in Australia. Jolyon Burnett, chair of the NFF Horticulture Council, has written to Commonwealth, State and Territory members of the Food Ministers’ Meeting, asking them to launch an independent review into the development and implementation of new...

• Katy v Katie: The importance of reputation and early brand protection

  By Jessica Bell, Lawyer – Kalus Kenny Intelex, Melbourne, Australia Pop star Katy Perry has successfully appealed a Federal Court ruling over the use of an Australian designer’s trade mark registration for the words KATIE PERRY. The recent decision by the Full Court of the Federal Court unanimously overturned Justice Brigitte Markovic’s findings in Taylor...

• High Court: Judicial immunity.

  Queensland v Mr Stradford (a pseudonym); Commonwealth of Australia v Mr Stradford (a pseudonym); His Honour Judge Vasta v Mr Stradford (a pseudonym) [2025] HCA 3 (Link to AUSTLII). From the Court summary: Today, the High Court unanimously allowed appeals from a judgment of the Federal Court of Australia. The appeals concerned three issues: (1)...

• Abuse/Insurance: Allianz & Knox Grammar School.

  Allianz Australia Insurance Limited v Uniting Church in Australia Property Trust (NSW) [2025] FCAFC 8 (Link to JADE). Between 31 March 1999 and 31 March 2011, Allianz Australia Insurance Limited (Allianz) or its predecessor issued successive policies of insurance to the Uniting Church in Australia (UCA).  Knox Grammar School (Knox) is a school within the umbrella...

• Australia Strengthens Hate Crime Laws In Face of Rising Antisemitism

  Yesterday, Australia’s Parliament gave final passage to Amendments to Australia’s Hate Crimes Law. (Full text of law.) (Full text of Explanatory Memorandum.) The law is intended to strengthen Australia’s efforts to combat hate crimes, particularly in the face of rising incidents of antisemitism in the country. As summarized by BBC: The new laws were passed...

• Patent Filing Trends 2024– Market Share Shifts Continue as Firms Face Ongoing Challenges

  The landscape of patent filing activity across Australia and New Zealand underwent continued transformation in 2024, marked by declining total filings and ongoing shifts in market share distribution and firm performance.  Total standard patent applications filed in Australia decreased by 3.4% to 30,442, while New Zealand experienced a more pronounced decline of 7.3% to 6,202...

• Chinese Supreme Court Judgment Enforced by Court of NSW Australia

  Key takeaways: In October 2024, the Supreme Court of New South Wales, Australia ruled to enforce a Chinese monetary judgment (Fujian Rongtaiyuan Industrial Co Ltd v Zhan [2024] NSWSC 1318). The interpretation of the Chinese term “gongtong fanhuan” (jointly refund) was pivotal, with differing expert opinions showcasing the challenges of translating and applying foreign legal...

• Australia’s Privacy Reforms: Claus for Concern?

  In the six years since the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) took effect, governments around the world have updated their data protection laws to reflect the seismic changes in data processing that were created with the introduction of the smartphone. Having been in place for nearly 40 years, Australia’s Privacy Act (1988) has been...

Featured documents

• Australia Calling on Legal Technology

  Keep an eye on tech developments in Australia....

• Hep A scare prompts national product recall

  18.jul.06 AAP news.com.au http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,19830446-1248,00.html KR Castlemaine, one of Australia’s largest meat producers, has, according to this story, issued a nationwide recall of some of its products after an employee fell ill with the potentially fatal hepatitis A virus...

• Legal News – LexBlogosphere: 2/10/08

  News on this Sunday comes from as close as Seattle and as far away as Australia, where Nicholas Weston writes about an ongoing legal battle between two leading names in the chocolate business. Global healthcare costs are rising – Management consultant Cliff Mintz of BioInsights Inc. in his Bio Job...

• Australian Unions Call for Regulation of Nanomaterials

  On April 14, 2009, the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) issued a press release entitled “Nanotech Poses Possible Health and Safety Risk to Workers and Needs Regulation.” According to ACTU, “[t]he rapidly growing nanotechnology market in Australia requires urgent regulation to protect the...

• Australia Signing on To Hague Convention on Service of Process

  Australian law firm Clayton Utz explains the situation here....

• More Thoughts About Morrison v. National Australia Bank

  It was obvious from the first reading that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Morrison v. National Australia Bank represents a sweeping victory for the defendants. As I noted in my initial post after the decision came down, the Court’s holding that plaintiffs can’t pursue fraud claims for...

• Under Morrison, Section 10(b) Does Not Apply to Swap Transactions in U.S Referencing Non-U.S. Securities

  In the latest demonstration of just how far the U.S. Supreme Court’s holding in Morrison v. National Australia Bank may restrict Section 10(b) claims involving foreign companies, on December 30, 2010, Southern District of New York Judge Harold Baer held that U.S.-based hedge funds could not pursue...

• Over $ 1 Million Jury Verdict in Australia for Mesothelioma Victim

  In Australian asbestos litigation, a recent $1.15 million jury verdict against James Hardie is reported here. The suit was by a former employee who developed mesothelioma. The key excerpts state:   “A Victorian Supreme Court jury has awarded compensation of more than $1 million to a man exposed to...

• Lost at Sea: Australia’s Dateline Features Cruise Law & International Cruises Victims

  Australia’s popular television program Dateline aired a cruise special today about missing passengers & crewmembers and crime at sea.   The program starts with the case of missing Disney youth counselor Rebecca Coriam who disappeared from the Disney Wonder cruise ship last year.  Her parents Mike...

• Judge Kaplan Joins “Nascent Consensus” and Finds Morrison Applicable to Claims Under Securities Act, Investment Advisers Act

  In an opinion issued last week, Judge Kaplan denied a motion for partial summary judgment on certain civil claims brought by the SEC.  The defendants, investment advisers with foreign clients, argued that the SEC could not prove that the transactions complained of were domestic and that the...