Melbourne Law School and host Jon Faine bring you Justice: a weekly podcast about the law behind the news.  

Zuckerberg has copped it big time from the largest lawsuit yet over how his platforms harm young users. He must pay $A 24 billion to the US states that sued him. Professor Jeannie Paterson explains what it will mean for Australians. 

Jeannie Paterson is a Professor of Law (consumer protection) at Melbourne Law School, and the cofounding director of the Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Ethics (CAIDE). 

This episode contains material some people might find disturbing. Listener discretion is advised.  

Melbourne Law School and host Jon Faine bring you Justice: a weekly podcast about the law behind the news. 

Slow femicide: when a woman kills herself after years of relationship violence, should her partner be charged with a crime? Professor Heather Douglas tells us of English cases where the man has been jailed for manslaughter.

If this episode has raised any issues for you, you can contact the Lifeline Australia telephone support service on 13 11 14, or Project Respect on 0477 001 110 by phone call, text or WhatsApp. 

Further reading:

• Douglas, H. . (2026) “Suicides and Claimed Suicides in the Context of Domestic and Family Violence and Coercive Control: Legal and Policy Responses”, International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy:  https://www.crimejusticejournal.com/article/view/4720

• Wallkate, S., & Fitz-Gibbon, K. (2022). Re-imagining the measurement of femicide: From ‘thin’ counts to ‘thick’ counts. Current Sociology, 001139212210826:  https://doi.org/10.1177/00113921221082698

• Dangar, S. et al., (2022) Learning Legacies: An analysis of domestic homicide reviews in cases of domestic abuse suicide: https://aafda.org.uk/learning-legacies

Melbourne Law School and host Jon Faine bring you Justice: a podcast about the law behind the news. This special episode was produced in partnership with the Centre for Advancing Journalism at the University of Melbourne.

Not even a year after Australia made world-first history by effectively banning children under 16 from using social media, the new law faces a High Court challenge. At the same time, Meta settles a staggering $254AUD billion law suit in America after a number of US states alleged that the design of the social media giant’s platforms were harming young people.

What next for social media? Will the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act 2024 survive a legal challenge?

On a University of Melbourne podcast hosted by Vice-Chancellor's Fellow Jon Faine, two experts weigh in: Professor Adrienne Stone, Director of the Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies at Melbourne Law School, and Professor of Political Communication Andrea Carson, who is the Director of the Centre for Advancing Journalism.

Further reading: on the social media playbook: 

• A different playbook for the same outcome? Examining Google’s and Meta’s strategic responses to Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code: 
  https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448241232296

Justice is a podcast of Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne. We acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples as the Traditional Owners of the unceded land on which we record, publish, work, learn and live. 

This episode contains material some people might find disturbing. Listener discretion is advised.

Melbourne Law School and host Jon Faine bring you Justice: a weekly podcast about the law behind the news.

EMDR, a form of therapy now used for many people with a history of trauma, has been targeted by the legal system as possibly contaminating a victim’s memory.  Dozens of women have had their rape allegations dropped as a result.  Anthony Hurst, psychologist with Melbourne University’s Faculty of Health Sciences,  explains how the therapy works. Professor Jeremy Gans, of Melbourne Law School, explains the concerns of criminal prosecutors.  

If this episode has raised any issues for you, you can contact the Lifeline Australia telephone support service on 13 11 14, or Project Respect on 0477 001 110 by phone call, text or WhatsApp. 

Further reading 

The NSW judgment discussed by Jeremy in the podcast: 

• Regina v Daniel Robert Tillott, Torek Hassan Jamal, Robert Andrew Haines and Paul Bargashoun Nos. 60888, 60919, 60928 of 1993 and 60004 of 1994 Criminal Law and Procedure [1995] NSWSC 83 (17 October 1995) 

Plain language summaries of ‘false memories’: 

• https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/people-likely-arent-as-susceptible-to-false-memories-as-researchers-thought/ 

• https://www.bps.org.uk/research-digest/its-easy-implant-false-childhood-memories-right-wrong-says-new-review 

Further reading about EMDR: 

• Does treating emotional memories come at a price? Effects of single-session EMDR, imaginal exposure, and imagery rescripting on forced-choice recognition of event details in healthy adults - a laboratory study, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2025.104884 

• Selective Effects of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, Imagery Rescripting and Imaginal Exposure on Voluntary and Involuntary Memory of an Aversive Autobiographical Event,  https://www.researchgate.net/publication/388655051_Selective_Effects_of_Eye_Movement_Desensitization_and_Reprocessing_Imagery_Rescripting_and_Imaginal_Exposure_on_Voluntary_and_Involuntary_Memory_of_an_Aversive_Autobiographical_Event  

• The effects of eye movements on the content and characteristics of unpleasant autobiographical memories: an extended replication study, https://doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2024.2307925 

Children are hearing about climate change at school and on the news, and rural kids are noticing its changes in their local environments. But how do we have honest conversations with kids about climate change without adding to their increasing climate anxiety?

To explain, we are joined by Melbourne Law School's Dr Lily O'Neil and Dr Linden Ashcroft from the School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Melbourne.

Together, Lily and Linden have created Climate Kids, a YouTube series that brings together researchers across the University of Melbourne to answers kids' climate questions.

You can watch episodes from season one of Climate Kids here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhOObpoQndRmgMyR7gOBBIvCPnXVyt_8j

New episodes will be released monthly from August 2026.

Justice is a podcast of Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne. We acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples as the Traditional Owners of the unceded land on which we record, publish, work, learn and live. 

Each State and territory has ‘independent’ agencies that are meant to keep governments accountable. But how independent are they really? Deborah Glass OBE, former Victorian Ombudsman and now honorary fellow at Melbourne Law School, has new research on the question.

Further reading:

• There are invisible strings that the powerful use to keep critics at bay: The Age 

Justice is a podcast of Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne. We acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples as the Traditional Owners of the unceded land on which we record, publish, work, learn and live. 

False scare campaigns and scams are common on Chinese-language media and social media in Australia, particularly targeting people who are anxious about their residency status. Who is behind it, and what can be done to protect our Chinese-language community?  

Dr Fan Yang is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Melbourne node of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making & Society (ADM+S). Her work focuses on technologies and governance, digital ethics, innovative research methods, migration politics, and postcolonial technoscience. Her doctoral thesis, entitled ‘News Manufactories on WeChat’, provided one of the first insights into the internal operation of WeChat in Australia as a content production platform. 

Read more of Fan’s work: 

• Contextualizing critical disinformation during the 2023 Voice referendum on WeChat: Manipulating knowledge gaps and whitewashing Indigenous rights 

Justice is a podcast of Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne. We acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples as the Traditional Owners of the unceded land on which we record, publish, work, learn and live.  

Melbourne Law School and host Jon Faine bring you Justice: a biweekly podcast about the law behind the news. 

In this episode, Associate Professor Jason Bosland explains what defamation is and why politicians sue over it, updates to Australian defamation law, and why some deserve to succeed in their court cases. 

Further reading: 

• Melbourne Law School’s Dr Jessica Lake explains what the Higgins v Reynolds ruling tells us about defamation in Australia 

Cases mentioned in this episode: 

• Reynolds v Higgins (2025) WASC 345 

• [2022] FCA 1235 - Burston v Hanson 

• Palmer v McGowan (No 6) [2022] FCA 927 

• Greenwich v Latham [2024] FCA 1050 

• Hanson-Young v Bauer Media Ltd [2013] NSWSC 1306 

  Russell v Australian Broadcasting Corporation [2023] FCA 38 

It has long been a legal truism that the High Court does not have the power to rule on issues of Aboriginal sovereignty, or the right to self-govern. But this idea is based on a legal misunderstanding, argues Associate Professor Olivia Barr.  

Further reading from this episode: 

• You can read Olivia’s journal article here 

• Read more about the soco-economic benefits of modern treaties in Canada here 

• Read more about Victoria’s first statewide treaty here 

• Read the Treaty of Waitangi here 

Cases mentioned in this episode: 

• Coe v Commonwealth [1979] HCA 68; (1979) 53 ALJR 403; (1979) 24 ALR 118 (5 April 1979) 

• • Mabo v Queensland (No 2) ("Mabo case") [1992] HCA 23; (1992) 175 CLR 1 (3 June 1992) 

  
  

  Justice is a podcast of Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne. We acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples as the Traditional Owners of the unceded land on which we record, publish, work, learn and live. 

This episode contains material some people might find disturbing. Listener discretion is advised.

Melbourne Law School and host Jon Faine bring you Justice: a weekly podcast about the law behind the news.

Should doctors be obliged provide all services that are ethically approved by their colleges and legal under the law, or should they have the right to refuse terminations, assisted dying or any other forms of care on the basis of personal conscience?

Professor Julian Savulescu FAHMS is the Chen Su Lan Centennial Professor in Medical Ethics at the National University of Singapore, where he directs the Centre for Biomedical Ethics. He is an award-winning ethicist and moral philosopher, trained in neuroscience, medicine, and philosophy. He is Distinguished Visiting Professorial Fellow at Murdoch Children's Research Institute and Melbourne Law School.

Read more about medical ethics here: 

• Coelho, Ramona, et al. Unravelling Maid in Canada. McGill-Queen’s University Press, 15 Apr. 2025, www.mqup.ca/Books/U/Unravelling-MAiD-in-Canada2.