Gradually, the law of tort has shifted away from a strict-liability approach to one where fault predominates. This book charts important case law documenting this shift. It seeks to understand how and why it occurred. Given that the Rylands v Fletcher decision is typically seen as a prime exemplar of strict liability, it focusses particularly on that case, as part of the historical development of tort law. It considers the intellectual arguments made in favour of strict liability, and for fault-based liability. Having done so, it then focusses on particular areas of the law of tort, including nuisance, defamation and trespass. It is somewhat anomalous that though most would view these as examples of torts of strict liability, fault considerations have become prominent in their application. This presents an uneasy compromise, where torts that are notionally strict in nature are infused with fault considerations, often through exceptions or defences. This book advocates for further development in the law of tort to better reflect a primarily fault-based approach to liability, at least in the common law. This would make the law of tort more coherent.

The scope of vicarious liability has significantly expanded since its original conception. Today employers are being found liable for actions of employees that they did not authorise, and never would have authorised if asked. They are being held liable for an employee's criminal activity. In the related strict liability field of non-delegable duties, they are being held liable for wrongdoing of independent contractors. Notions of strict liability have grown increasingly isolated in the law of tort, given the exponential growth in the tort of negligence. They require intellectual justification. Such a justification has proven to be elusive and largely unsatisfactory in relation to vicarious liability and to concepts of non-delegable duty. The law of three jurisdictions studied has now apparently embraced the 'enterprise risk' theory to rationalise the imposition of vicarious liability. This book subjects this theory to strong critique by arguing that it has many weaknesses, which the courts should acknowledge. It suggests that a rationalisation of the liability of an employer for the actions of an employee lies in more traditional legal doctrine which would serve to narrow the circumstances in which an employer is legally liable for a wrong committed by an employee.

This epic novel of a wide-eyed missionary and a rebellious woman thrust into China's Communist revolution is "an excellent read, panoramic in scope" (Financial Times). In 1931, young English-born missionary Jakob Kellner brings all the crusading passion of his untried Christian faith to a China racked by famine and bloody civil war. He burns to save the world's largest nation from Communism. But when he is swept along on the cold, unforgiving Long March, Jakob becomes entangled with Mei-ling, a beautiful and fervent revolutionary. Soon, powerful new emotions challenge and reshape his faith-and entrap him forever in the vast country's tortured destiny. Once held hostage by Red Guards in Peking for more than two years, author Anthony Grey traces the path of China's Communist party from its covert inception through purge and revolution. He crafts a portrait of China as a land of great beauty and harshness-of triumph and tragedy-in a sweeping narrative, rich in historical and cultural revelations.

Gradually, the law of tort has shifted away from a strict-liability approach to one where fault predominates. This book charts important case law documenting this shift. It seeks to understand how and why it occurred. Given that the Rylands v Fletcher decision is typically seen as a prime exemplar of strict liability, it focusses particularly on that case, as part of the historical development of tort law. It considers the intellectual arguments made in favour of strict liability, and for fault-based liability. Having done so, it then focusses on particular areas of the law of tort, including nuisance, defamation and trespass. It is somewhat anomalous that though most would view these as examples of torts of strict liability, fault considerations have become prominent in their application. This presents an uneasy compromise, where torts that are notionally strict in nature are infused with fault considerations, often through exceptions or defences. This book advocates for further development in the law of tort to better reflect a primarily fault-based approach to liability, at least in the common law. This would make the law of tort more coherent.

The current rights debate in Australia is a long-standing one, in the context of one of the few countries without an express bill of rights. This book discussses historical aspects of rights protection, including Diceyan concepts of parliamentary supremacy and the rule of law, before considering historical support for limits to the power of Parliament. The book discusses theoretical justifications for the power of judges to declare laws inconsistent with human rights to be invalid, including social contract theory and modern versions of democracy. In this context, comtemporary human rights issues are then considered. These include the recent laws allowing groups to be outlawed based on a politician's declaration, laws that limit the right of an accused person to jury trial, both at the national and regional level, laws that restrict voting rights, laws that restrict the ability of a person to work in different regions within Australia, and laws that allow a person to be detained based on an assessment of their future risk to society. Deficiencies in rights protection in Australia are identified and possible solutions suggested.

In 1997 it will be thirty years since the Sexual Offences Act of 1967 made sex between two men aged over 21 in private no longer a crime. It also marks the seventieth birthday of Antony Grey, who was one of the leading campaigners for homosexual law reform in the 1960s. The articles and talks reprinted in this book (together with others published here for the first time) cover the whole span of Grey's campaigning life, ranging from his first, anonymous, letter to the press about homosexuality written in 1954 to his thoughts on present-day sexual politics in the 1990s. Topics covered include law reform, religious and social attitudes to homosexuality, sex education, young people and sex, and the gay movement. The book concludes with a newly-written essay reviewing the progress achieved since the middle of this century and assessing what remains to be done as we enter the coming one. Never afraid of controversy, Antony Grey provides a unique summary of a pioneering campaigner's forty years of gay activism. For over 40 years, Antony Grey has been a leading campaigner, not only for gay rights, but also for better laws about, and more sensible attitudes towards, sex generally. As Secretary of the Homosexual Law Reform Society during the 1960s, Director of the Albany Trust in the 1970s, and later as a freelance writer and counsellor, he has worked publicly and consistently for individual sexual emancipation and collective common sense. Discussion includes law and morality, pornogaphy and free speech, the Church and homosexuality, young people and definitions of consent, sex education, gay politics from the homophile movement to queer, and outing.

Nowadays we talk about sex incessantly -- yet we still lack a comfortable language in which to do so. The 'polite' vocabularies of religion, medicine, law and sociology are too formal, value-laden and often simply boring, whilst the vernacular Anglo-Saxon words are regarded by some as 'obscene', and are frequently used by others in an aggressively negative, sex-hating way. Antony Grey criticizes the various rhetorics of sexual discussion, and points at the ways in which language often becomes a stumbling-block to mutual understanding and happiness. He calls for a thorough overhaul of sexual discourse, to pave the way for greater realism.

A thrilling novel of the West's first journeys to Japan from "a master storyteller" and theacclaimed author of Saigon and Peking (The Kansas City Star). A fleet of ships billowing black smoke steam past Japan's tributary islands in July 1853, setting off panic among a people who have been sealed off from the rest of the world for over two hundred years. Commodore Matthew Perry has arrived, sent by the US president to open Japan to American ships and trade-by force, if necessary. Navy lieutenant Robert Eden, an idealistic New Englander, immediately recognizes that the colonial intentions of his countrymen will ignite a violent conflict with the feudal, sword-wielding samurai. Inspired to pursue peace, he jumps ship and finds himself plunged into a world of frightful and noble warriors, artfully exotic geishas, and a distraught populace who view the Americans as monsters. Eden tries to bridge the divide between two proud, unyielding cultures in the name of morality, but he may not survive to see the lasting harmony he hopes to create.

An epic saga of love, blood, and destiny in twentieth-century Vietnam: “This superb novel could well be the War and Peace of our age� (San Francisco Chronicle).   Joseph Sherman first visits Saigon—the capital of French colonial Cochin-China—as a young man on his father’s hunting trip in 1925. But the exotic land lures him back again and again as a traveler, soldier, and reporter. He returns because of his fascination for the enchanting city—and for Lan, a mandarin’s daughter he cannot forget.   Over five decades Joseph’s life becomes enmeshed with the political intrigues of two of Saigon’s most influential families, the French colonist Devrauxs, and the native Trans. In this sweeping saga of tragedy and triumph, Joseph witnesses Vietnam’s turbulent, war-torn fate. He is there when millions of coolies rise against the French, and during their bloody last stand at Dien Bien Phu. And he sees US military “advisors� fire their first shots in America’s hopeless war against the Communist revolution. A story of adventure, love, war, and political power, Saigon presents an enthralling and enlightening depiction of twentieth-century Vietnam.  

The scope of vicarious liability has significantly expanded since its original conception. Today employers are being found liable for actions of employees that they did not authorise, and never would have authorised if asked. They are being held liable for an employee’s criminal activity. In the related strict liability field of non-delegable duties, they are being held liable for wrongdoing of independent contractors. Notions of strict liability have grown increasingly isolated in the law of tort, given the exponential growth in the tort of negligence. They require intellectual justification. Such a justification has proven to be elusive and largely unsatisfactory in relation to vicarious liability and to concepts of non-delegable duty. The law of three jurisdictions studied has now apparently embraced the ‘enterprise risk’ theory to rationalise the imposition of vicarious liability. This book subjects this theory to strong critique by arguing that it has many weaknesses, which the courts should acknowledge. It suggests that a rationalisation of the liability of an employer for the actions of an employee lies in more traditional legal doctrine which would serve to narrow the circumstances in which an employer is legally liable for a wrong committed by an employee.

The United States Bill of Rights was groundbreaking in providing constitutional recognition to freedom of speech. In the past century the Supreme Court has decided hundreds of cases concerning free speech, providing an established system of jurisprudence to analyze free speech cases. This book explains the development in the US case law and compares it to developments in similar jurisdictions such as Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom, and Europe. Anthony Gray critiques the jurisprudence of each nation studied, while noting some important similarities and differences in terms of how free speech is protected in the Western world, what causes these differences, what one system might learn from others, and whether convergence in approach can be expected.

This book explains the historical significance and introduction of the presumption of innocence into common law legal systems. It explains that the presumption should be seen as reflecting notions of moral comfort around judgment of others. Specifically, when one is asked to make a judgment about the guilt or otherwise of a person accused of wrongdoing, the default position should be to do nothing. This reflects the very serious consequences of what we do when we decide someone is guilty of wrongdoing and is not a step to be taken lightly. Traditionally, decision makers have only taken it when they are morally comfortable with that decision. It then documents how legislators in a range of common law jurisdictions have undermined the presumption of innocence, through measures such as reverse onus provisions, allowing or requiring inferences to be made against an accused, redefining offenses and defenses in novel ways to minimize the burden on the prosecutor, and by dressing proceedings as civil when they are in substance criminal. Courts have too easily acceded to such measures, in the process permitting accused persons to be convicted although there is reasonable doubt as to their guilt, and where they are not guilty of sufficiently blameworthy conduct to attract criminal sanction. It finds that the courts must be prepared to re-assert the prime importance of the presumption of innocence, only permitting criminal sanctions to be imposed where they are morally certain that the accused did that of which they have been accused, and morally comfortable that the conduct being addressed is worthy of the kind of criminal sanction which prosecutors seek to impose. Courts must be morally comfortable about the finding of guilt, and the imposition of the criminal penalty in a given case. They have lost sight of this moral underpinning to criminal law process and substance, and it must be regained.

This book considers the application of free speech principles in controversial contexts discussing United States law and equivalent law in Europe, Canada and Australia. Anthony Gray examines the extent to which speech of public sector employees is and should be protected. He tackles the difficult question of hate speech and the degree to which regulation of it has been permitted, and should be permitted. The growing controversy of speech in a university setting is discussed along with the roles campuses play in fostering intellectual debate which democracies depend on. Lastly, Gray looks at free speech issues at stake in the exponential growth of online activity and analyzes questions the of liability these tech companies have and their role as facilitators of mass communication, to what extent does the first amendment even apply, and the potential of the internet to support democratic traditions. Overall, Gray finds that in these several key areas, free speech rights are not as strongly protected as they should be. Courts have often bowed to decision makers balancing away free speech rights in favor of other objectives and instead need to re-assert the importance of free speech in these disparate contexts.