This project has been a long time in the making. Its goals were to build rigorous empirical infrastructure for studying the Court, then use it to answer substantive questions about judicial agenda-setting. Very grateful to the ARC for the support, and to my co-authors throughout.
"Supporting Comparative Studies of Judicial Behavior: Introducing the Australian High Court Database"
With @zoerobinson.bsky.social, Russell Smyth & Tonja Jacobi
🔗 tinyurl.com/859cdpa2
Just want the data? It's at the Australian Data Archive: lnkd.in/eEQjTyKE
Second: empirical work on the High Court has long been constrained by data. The second paper addresses that directly, introducing the Australian High Court Database, designed to support Australian and comparative judicial research and make findings reproducible and extensible.
The first systematic test of cue theory in the Australian context:
"Lower Court Disagreements as Cues for Agenda Setting in the High Court of Australia"
With Tonja Jacobi, @zoerobinson.bsky.social & Russell Smyth
🔗 cup.org/4vGJvvV
First: why does the High Court grant special leave to some cases and not others? In the Journal of Law and Courts, we find that disagreement among lower court judges functions as a meaningful cue: when courts below are split, the High Court is more likely to intervene.
Two new papers out this week from our ARC Discovery project on agenda-setting in the High Court of Australia. A thread. @anucrawfordschool.bsky.social
Promotional image featuring the logo of the "Journal of Law and Courts" on a teal background with a portion of a classical column, emphasizing its #OpenAccess status.
#OpenAccess from the Journal of Law and Courts -
Lower Court Disagreements as Cues for Agenda Setting in the High Court of Australia - https://cup.org/4vGJvvV
- Russell Smyth, @palesl.bsky.social, Tonja Jacobi & Zoë Robinson
#FirstView
Oh look it’s a Parliamentary Library brief on universalism v means testing in social services www.aph.gov.au/About_Parlia...
Delighted that my article "Supporting Comparative Studies of Judicial Behavior: Introducing the Australian High Court Database" with @palesl.bsky.social, Tonja Jacobi, and Russell Smyth is now published in the Journal of Law and Empirical Analysis, available here: tinyurl.com/859cdpa2 1/3
Border sure, Lewis less. Also sizzler is gone but who cares really?
All the things that Stefanovic lists here are absolutely core to my (and my son’s) understanding of the Australian experience.
Blokes love to go on marketplace and offer 2/3 the asking price for any item (cash).
😭
Glad you asked! It’s currently constitutionally impossible to equalise representation across districts without increasing the number of electorates.
See this paper by Travis Jordan which explains it really well:
static1.squarespace.com/static/68c19...
Very disappointing stuff on the size of the federal parliament. Albo doesn’t say it’s a bad idea, but that it’s tactically impossible.
Politics has been reduced to 1916 style trench warfare. Defence is so much easier than attack.
Periodic reminder that Anglosphere isn't a real thing.
It gets really awkward when you point out that most English speakers aren't white (Hello India and Nigeria!) Then they say, no it's more about English systems of government and education, then you point out that Nigeria and India have those too
My read is there's three things going on (putting aside the question of "do people like what we're selling" and "is what we're selling good")
There is just no reason for a language to be this obtuse
"No Cookies" - Scott Morrison
neil gorsuch voice: a jahb, if you can keep it
my fave time of year
Join me for the Tally Room live on YouTube tonight from 6:30pm Adelaide time: www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCv6... #sapol
It’s… beautiful
it me.
One of these sharks was found to have breached their duties 13 times, was not referred to the NACC, and is now a university VC. I can’t see any difference between disgracing yourself in the APS vs in a public university. We need huge change.
www.crikey.com.au/2026/03/13/n...
To be fair, I did think that perhaps if you removed Morgan McSweeney from Keir Starmer's orbit, you see him revert to being the soft-left social democrat that he presumably once was. No signs of clear eyed lucidity just yet.
