Spencer Zifcak

Spencer Zifcak is Emeritus Professor of Law and Allan Myers Chair of Law at the Australian Catholic University.

Spencer's recent articles

Spencer Zifcak. Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights.

Fairness, Opportunity and Security. Policy series edited by Michael Keating and John Menadue. Do Human Rights Fit or Should We Just Forget About Them? Hard upon the ascent of violent terrorism in the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere, and Australias first experience of terrorist crime in Martin Place, the Australian Government has been active in bringing forward new legislation designed to prevent and punish terrorist crime. There can be no quarrel with that. Nevertheless, the draconian nature of the new laws has caused alarm amongst many concerned with the protection of individual rights and freedoms. One of...

Spencer Zifcak. The Martin Place Siege

I first came across Man Haron Monis, the Sydney siege gunman, in early 2013. The High Court of Australia had just handed down an important new decision on the breadth of the protection the Australian Constitution provides for freedom of expression. The facts of the case centred upon offensive letters sent to the parents of Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan. The issue was whether sending offensive letters through the post to the private addresses of parents could properly be regarded as an exercise of constitutionally protected free speech. The person who sent the letters was Monis. In one letter,...

Spencer Zifcak. Proportionality Lost: Australias New Counter-Terrorism Laws. Part 2

The Foreign Fighters Bill The second tranche of counter-terrorism legislation introduced by the Attorney-General, Senator Brandis, late last year was contained in the Counter-Terrorism Legislation Amendment (Foreign Fighters) Bill. This Bill (now passed into law) amended several Commonwealth Acts, most notably the Commonwealth Criminal Code. The primary purpose of these new laws is to enable the investigation, arrest, prosecution and punishment of people supporting foreign conflicts. Foreign Incursion Offences Each of the foreign incursion offences pivots upon the definition of to engage in hostile activity. A person engages in hostile activity in a foreign country if...

Spencer Zifcak. Proportionality Lost in Australias new Counter-Terrorism Laws. Part 1

The Attorney-General, George Brandis, crashed two major tranches of counter-terrorism law through federal parliament recently. As always there are two problems with such an approach: overkill and error. Both tranches demonstrate these deficits in abundance. Its important to say that in Australia the threat of terrorist attacks is real. So is the danger posed by fighters returning trained and hardened in Middle Eastern conflicts. The threat and the danger have undoubtedly increased because of the Governments military commitment to a third Iraq war. The case for some new security laws, specifically targeted at clearly identified threats, is persuasive. ...

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