Victorian Sentencing Manual

Guidance on many complex & varied considerations which apply to sentencing matters. Freiberg focuses on Victorian & federal sentencing law with extensive coverage of appellate decisions in every Australian jurisdiction, particularly in relation to matters of general principle.

This monograph addresses a contested but under-discussed question in the field of criminal sentencing: should an offender's remorse affect the sentence he or she receives? Answering this question involves tackling a series of others: is it possible to justify mitigation for remorse within a retributive sentencing framework? Precisely how should remorse enter into the sentencing equation? How should the mitigating weight of remorse interact with other aggravating and mitigating factors? Are there some offence or offender characteristics that preclude remorse-based mitigation? Remorse is recognised as a legitimate mitigating factor in many sentencing regimes around the world, with powerful effects on sentence severity. Although there has been some discussion of whether this practice can be justified within the literature on sentencing and penal theory, this monograph provides the first comprehensive and in-depth study of possible theoretical justifications. Whilst the emphasis here is on theoretical justification, the monograph also offers analysis of how normative conclusions would play out in the broader context of sentencing decisions and the guidance intended to structure them. The conclusions reached have relevance for sentencing systems around the world.

This book provides guidance for judicial officer in the conduct of civil proceedings, from preliminary matters to the conduct of final proceedings and the assessment of damages and costs. It contains concise statements of relevant legal principles, references to legislation, sample orders for judicial official to use where suitable and checklists applicable to various kinds of issues that arise in the course of managing and conducting civil litigation.

This is the long-awaited second edition of Australia's leding text on the law of sentencing. It examines sentencng principles of general application thoughout Australia, as well as the law applicable to the sentencing of federal offenders.

Former High Court judge of Australia, the Hon Michael Kirby, AC, CMG, in addressing the symposium that has evolved into this book, stressed the need for vigilance in the pursuit and protection of justice. Justice Connections is evidence of such vigilance. The book is a veritable smorgasbord of subjects – violence against women, Indigenous people, sentencing, genetic profiling, cultural exceptionalism, arbitral proceedings and environmental law. However, certain themes are constant. The notion of respect for the individual and their personal characteristics underpins the analyses in the book. Accordingly, a number of contributors examine the need to recognise and protect the potentially vulnerable in society. There is recognition too of the significance of the public interest and public participation in just policy and decision-making. Whilst the principle of the rule of law is a constant in civilised society another message of the book is that its form is very much an evolving beast. Furthermore, the book illustrates that justice is not synonymous with law, but more, as Professor Margaret Thornton concludes, ‘a performative idea that is played out differently in different sites by different actors’.