law

[rioters bloc]

yo, found out this morning that i had an assignment due in 6 hours and had no idea what it was on or anything. am trying to write it now (i'll just hand it in a day late) but i'm having trouble deciphering the following quote. i thought i knew what it was saying but 200 words in i got all confused and i don't wanna fuck up cos it's worth 40%.

anyway here's the question, quote in italics


“Law is properly conceptualized both as a response to wrongdoing and as a prism through which society explains and understands wrongdoing. Compensation for great wrongs of widespread social impact without law’s explanation deprives society of the opportunity to explain, in its own terms of responsibility and justice, social disasters of the greatest significance…”

Margaret Isabel Hall ‘Institutional tortfeasors: Systemic negligence and the class action’ Torts Law Journal (2006) 14TLJ No 2 at 157

Discuss the above quote with reference to the capacity of tort law to provide redress for systemic institutional negligence and the resultant harm to vulnerable individuals. You can either focus on the ‘stolen generation’ cases or liability by institutions such as schools for sexual assaults by teachers or other employees against children and young people or the liability of residential institutions which provide out of home care for children and young people.

please help! if it's at all useful, i'm planning on using Stolen Generations cases for my case study.

[rioters bloc]

answer me, assholes!!!

[YSR]

In general: perhaps an outline would assist you a little bit? I dunno.

In specific: Shit, I wish I could help you, but torts are the part of law that I understand least.

[rioters bloc]

Originally posted by Young Stupid [email protected] 4 2006, 08:16 AM
In general: perhaps an outline would assist you a little bit? I dunno.

In specific: Shit, I wish I could help you, but torts are the part of law that I understand least.
i suck at torts too :(

but this part of the quote: "Compensation for great wrongs of widespread social impact without law’s explanation deprives society of the opportunity to explain, in its own terms of responsibility and justice, social disasters of the greatest significance…"

do you think that she's saying that reparations for "wrongs" are useless unless done through the law, because the law is what society counts on to explain such "wrongs"? or something?

like i've pretty much been arguing (heh, 'arguing' - my argument is piss weak :P) that when the law is itself perpetuating oppression, like with the Stolen Generations which was state-sanctioned violence and kidnapping, that victims of that oppression are likely to be skeptical of using the law to administer justice.. but that at the same time law provides a legitimacy which broader society might appreciate, even if it means shit all to the groups that it oppresses... if that makes sense.

but so far i've just been ranting and haven't brought in any specific cases or anything at all, i just wanna know if my interpretation of the quote is right before i start doing anything hard :(

argh i'll just hand it in tomorrow i was a fool for thinking i could get it in only one day late :P