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Legal Realities of Virtual Property
Get PDFWith increasing technological advancements and the soaring popularity of online gaming, the concept of ‘virtual property’ is becoming an ever-present issue. However, despite the growing overlap of virtual worlds and real life, ‘virtual property’ is yet to be legally recognised as property under Australian common law. Considered with the complex issue of enforceability at the forefront, this paper acknowledges that it is inevitably necessary to develop a legal conception and framework for ‘virtual property’. This is particularly so, given the growing real world expectations and status accorded to such property by society, which may lead to potentially severe real-life ramifications
Report on the Undergraduate Awards Global Summit (1)
Get PDFJacqueline Williams was the overall winner in the Law category of the 2016 international Undergraduate Awards for her paper, ‘The Enforcement Regime of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) under Chapter 7 of the Corporations Act: Reform Required’, and attended the Prize Ceremony and Global Summit in Dublin, Ireland. A summary of her paper has been published in The Undergraduate Journal
Report on the Undergraduate Awards Global Summit (2)
Get PDFNatalia Beghin was the overall winner in the Politics and International Relations category of the 2016 international Undergraduate Awards for her paper ‘Perverting the Panopticon: Feminism, Peace, and the Prospect of a “New Totalitarianism”’ and attended the Prize Ceremony and Global Summit in Dublin, Ireland. Her paper has been published in The Undergraduate Journal
Primate social structure as a predictor of modes of communication and the ability to learn a human language
Get PDFFor little over five decades, scientists have attempted to teach nonhuman hominids to communicate using human languages. The decision to utilise nonhuman hominids for this area of research is often attributed to their close genetic relatedness and similarly complex social structures to humans (Gardner and Gardner 1978). However, there has been minimal explanation in the literature as to why more complex social group structures allow for successful human language acquisition. Furthermore, there has been no investigation into whether other nonhominid primates, who may be more genetically dissimilar to humans but share similar social group complexity, could also be good candidates for human language acquisition. The following essay will argue that nonhuman hominids are likely successful at human language acquisition as a result of the social complexity hypothesis—a theory that states there is a positive association between social group and communication complexity (Freeberg et al. 2012). It will be proposed that the social complexity hypothesis may also be useful for identifying potential nonhominid candidates for future primate language acquisition research. However, future research should also analyse language acquisition in genera that do not appear to follow the social complexity hypothesis, to determine whether learning human languages requires only social complexity or communication complexity, and not both in combination
The Habits of Highly Successful Cyborgs: Artificial Enhancement and Equality
Get PDFArtificial human enhancement, which may involve both genetic modification and cyborglike enhancements to our physical capabilities, has become a distinct possibility. In addition to the great improvements enhancement might bring to our wellbeing, it can also exacerbate serious social problems, such as economic and political inequality. In this paper, I explore some of these problems. In addition, by building on theories of social justice by established philosophers such as John Rawls, Elizabeth Anderson and Debra Satz, I propose a list of principles which can regulate the inequality caused by artificial enhancement in a society of free and equal citizens
Rawls, rationality, and responsibility: Why we should not treat our endowments as morally arbitrary
Get PDFJohn Rawls is primarily known for providing his own argument for how political institutions should be organised in A Theory of Justice. He argues that we should pick principles of justice only once we remove ourselves from the position we each hold in society today. Rawls argues that if each individual did not know their wealth, race, gender and so on when deciding how society should be organised, it would be rational for each individual to choose political institutions that maximised the position of the least advantaged. This essay aims to show that this would be an irrational decision to make, an argument supported by John Harsanyi. However, this essay also shows that Harsanyi’s theory is not totally convincing either. Both Rawls and Harsanyi ultimately fail to acknowledge that it is wrong to treat endowments as morally arbitrary. The qualities that define us today should not be treated as arbitrary, because this belittles individual responsibility and autonomy. Rather, we must consider the importance of a person’s choice to develop their own natural assets
Improving labour standards for migrant domestic workers in Qatar: A return to labour rights
Get PDFThe human impact of development in the Middle East is acutely borne by the migrant workforce that sustains it. This paper takes Qatar as a case study to analyse the usefulness of labour rights and human rights in protecting migrant workers. In Qatar, migrant workers are excluded from national law and relying on human rights is, for them, futile, with many protections reserved for citizens. Recourse must be had to something else to protect them. This paper argues that the International Labour Organization (ILO) and a bottom-up approach underlying labour rights can better protect migrant workers in such settings. To do this, it looks at the ILO’s activities and successes in protecting migrant workers to date, and the futility of international human rights in a country that consistently objects to and rejects them. The paper ends by analysing the ILO’s more recent moves towards human rights, and argues against them, instead pushing for a return to pure labour rights that emphasises worker agency over state control
Payments for environmental services and community-level socioeconomic wellbeing: Comparing programs in Vietnam and Australia
Get PDFThe success of Payments for Environmental Services (PES) programs depend crucially on local conditions, although some considerations can help make PES schemes more successful in any locale. Many PES programs are in their infancy yet have ambitious goals for environmental preservation and poverty alleviation. Monitoring and evaluating the outcomes of PES programs can provide insights into how they can best achieve these goals. This research adds to existing PES case studies by evaluating new data on one village’s participation in a World Wildlife Fund PES scheme. A village in central Vietnam was visited and the Administrative Chief of the village was interviewed to gauge the success of the PES scheme in that village. The comments from the Vietnamese village were then compared to written and verbal accounts of the Working on Country program in Australia to elucidate factors that can make PES schemes successful. This comparison revealed four key factors that can improve the outcomes of PES schemes. Community involvement in the design, implementation and evaluation of projects is crucial. Furthermore, the monetary remuneration that the community receives should be adequate. In addition, PES schemes are particularly successful when the community receives non-monetary benefits, such as social or cultural benefits, from participating in the program. Finally, the involvement of outside organisations, including the state, needs to be adequate and appropriate to ensure positive socioeconomic outcomes for the communities involved
Radiance: A Review
Get PDFIn 1991, when Rhoda Roberts and Lydia Miller went looking for a playwright to help redefine the role of Aboriginal women in theatre, they sought out the well-renowned nonindigenous playwright Louis Nowra. They asked for a theatrical effort that would showcase the emotional and intellectual depth of Aboriginal women and stand in stark contrast from the racial profiling of Aboriginals in theatre as drunkards or victims of abuse. Now, almost 25 years later, Leah Purcell’s revival of Belvoir’s original Radiance is an elegant, moving, and striking effort that unites by not just showcasing Indigenous issues, but by exposing the pain and struggles of the human experience; in particular the way we deal with the ghosts from our past