Allison, Fiona, Cunneen, Chris, and Schwartz, Melanie (2017) The civil and family law needs of Indigenous people 40 years after Sackville: findings of the Indigenous Legal Needs Project. In: Durbach, Andrea, Edgeworth, Brendan, and Sentas, Vicki, (eds.) Law and Poverty in Australia: 40 years after the Poverty Commission. Federation Press, Annandale, NSW, Australia, pp. 231-248.

PDF (Published Version) - Published Version Restricted to Repository staff only

Abstract

[Extract] In Law and Poverty in Australia (hereafter the Sackville Report), Sackville describes being poor as going without basic necessities but also as denial of access to life opportunities and as entrapment within a cycle of disadvantage through poor people's lack of power to 'influence decisions and processes that affect their daily lives'.1

The report posits that the law has a positive duty to address and the poor have a corresponding right to expect protection against inequalities associated with socio-economic disadvantage. The Sackville Report is concerned with identifying ways in which the law is failing in its duty to the most vulnerable, thereby exacerbating rather than reducing inequity. This inequity manifests as legislation and legal principles of' considerable importance to the everyday lives of poor people that are heavily weighted against their interests'.2 It is also evident in the difficulties they have in accessing the law to' enforce their basic rights and to protect themselves against grievous injustice'.3 He argues for more purposive action on the part of the law to ensure that the legal system is 'loaded in favour of the weak and exposed'.4

Item ID:	51210
Item Type:	Book Chapter (Research - B1)
ISBN:	978-1-76002-124-5
Date Deposited:	23 Oct 2017 01:28
FoR Codes:	45 INDIGENOUS STUDIES > 4505 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, society and community > 450518 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the law @ 10% 48 LAW AND LEGAL STUDIES > 4805 Legal systems > 480501 Access to justice @ 50% 48 LAW AND LEGAL STUDIES > 4805 Legal systems > 480502 Civil procedure @ 40%
SEO Codes:	94 LAW, POLITICS AND COMMUNITY SERVICES > 9404 Justice and the Law > 940401 Civil Justice @ 80% 94 LAW, POLITICS AND COMMUNITY SERVICES > 9404 Justice and the Law > 940499 Justice and the Law not elsewhere classified @ 20%
Downloads:	Total: 4
	More Statistics