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Research Highlights LGPP banner

The Centre for Law, Governance and Public Policy

The Centre was established in 2009 to bring together scholars with a common interest in the development, practices, processes, outcomes and operation of public policy. Its particular focus is on the way the law can promote best practice governance and public policy. The Centre acquires and distributes funding to a number of national and international research projects. It facilitates symposiums, conferences, workshops and facilitates a regular speaker series on current issues in law and policy, both nationally and internationally.

The Centre achieved a number of successes during 2011 including: 

  • Together with Fitness Australia and Sports Medicine Australia the Centre received an Australian Research Council Linkage Project rant worth $388K on the topic of Legal Risk Management of Adverse Health Outcomes and Injury in the Fitness Industry: Developing Evidence-Informed Regulation That Improves Safety. 
  • The Centre convened the first ever Conference of Australasian Solicitors-General. This has produced a symposium edition of the Bond Law Review, and a forthcoming edited collection to be published by Ashgate comprising papers from the event.
  • The Centre convened a Symposium that reflected on the changes on how people receive their information about the courts with the rise of the internet and social media. The issues discussed in the Courts and the Media in the Digital Era symposium have be explored in an edited collection, published by Halstead Press, and edited by Jane Johnston, Patrick Keyzer and Mark Pearson. These researchers have been working during 2012 on further projects in this area.
  • During 2011 the Centre received a $25K donation from the Criminal Lawyers Association of South Australia to conduct a study - The Jury Research Project: Detecting Deception. This study aims to objectively assess the import of expert psychological evidence vis-à-vis witness demeanour. The research will be conducted in 2012 by Professor Ian Coyle.
  • The Centre has also embarked on a pilot projected - Improving Determinations of Testamentary Capacity: A Pilot Project Employing Video Wills To Gauge The Cross-Disciplinary Knowledge of Lawyers and Psychologists/Psychiatrists. This project will explore the knowledge of health care practitioners vis-à-vis the formal legal concepts of testamentary capacity. The project will be conducted by Centre Director Patrick Keyzer together with Professor Ian Coyle and Professor Philip Morris.
  • Centre members Jodie O’Leary, Suzie O’Toole and Bruce Watt are conducting research into Juvenile Fitness to Plead in Queensland. The objective of this research project is to examine the usage of fitness to plead provisions in Queensland and their operation as they relate specifically to juveniles. This project is funded by a Vice Chancellors Research Fund grant and the research will take place in 2012.
  • The Preventive Detention of Serious and High Risk Offenders: The Search for Legitimate Parameters was completed in 2011. This Australian Research Council Discovery Project produced two books and a number of book chapters and refereed journal articles.

Find out more about the Centre for Law, Governance and Public Policy