Welcome to the Hearsay podcast

Welcome to Hearsay, a podcast about law and legal issues for students and everyone else.

The first episode is coming soon…

Each episode, I will present a selection of news updates and discussion of legal issues. The show will generally follow this format:

  • Summary Matters — Brief information about a selection of legal news that is important, but doesn’t require detailed discussion or explanation. (Summary matters are less serious criminal cases, heard in the Magistrates’ Court.)
  • Examination-in-Chief The main topic each week will be explained or discussed in more detail. I will try to provide background information, context, and my own views about the merits of the issue. (Examination-in-chief is the main questioning of a witness by the party who called them.)
  • Learned Friends — There are a lot of other great sites out there, and each episode I’ll give you a recommendation and a brief explanation why I like it. (In court etiquette, counsel refer to other barristers as “my learned friend”.)
  • Address in Reply — I welcome your feedback! Please, leave a comment or send me an email to robert@hearsaypodcast.com, and I will try to respond directly or in the next episode. You can also leave a voice message to be included in a future episode! I would love to hear your thoughts, suggestions for topics, or any questions you have. (At the start of each parliamentary session, the Governor or Governor-General makes a speech setting out the Government’s agenda; the Address in Reply is a formal motion that allows MPs to respond.)
  • Adjournment — I will wrap up each episode with some light-hearted legal news, and remind you about how to find the podcast and get in touch to discuss what you’ve heard. (At the end of a court hearing or parliamentary sitting, proceedings are adjourned to be recommenced at a future time.)

The show notes for each episode will include links to relevant sources, either referred to in the episode or for further background. Even if you don’t listen to the podcast, I hope you will find these links useful.

What happened to Ignorantia Juris?

First, the Latin title was too much of a mouthful, which made it hard for people to find the blog. Second, it went into an unofficial hiatus after my daughter was born, and now that life has settled into a new rhythm, I’m keen to try something new.

So Ignorantia Juris has made way for the Hearsay podcast.

I will continue to categorise the podcast episodes according to the key topics in the VCE Legal Studies study design, so that you can search them for revision, and the show notes will still contain the key links if you don’t want to listen to a podcast.

If you’re looking for the old blog posts, they can all be found in the Ignorantia Juris archives.

But please — subscribe to the podcast, follow on Twitter for a regular stream of relevant links, and let me know what you think.

Welcome back for 2016

Welcome to another exciting year of Legal Studies!

One of the most interesting things about the VCE Legal Studies course is the way it engages with current issues and controversies. This blog will help you identify issues and reforms that are relevant to the course, give you a brief summary, and link to news and commentary for further detail.

The best way to keep up to date is to subscribe to the email list, which will send you a copy of any new posts. You can also follow the blog on Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr.

I also try to categorise the posts according to how they fit in to the Study Design. On the right-hand-side of the site you can see the list of categories, and clicking on those will take you to all of the posts related to that topic.

All the best with your studies this year!