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aus.legal
aus.legal.moderated
aus.legal.moderated
A moderated Australian and New Zealand legal group. (Moderated)
Charter of aus.legal.moderated
From: Aus.Legal.Moderated Moderator <alm@spirit.net.au>
Newsgroups: aus.legal.moderated
Subject: ** CHARTER: Charter for Aus.Legal.Moderated (monthly posting) **
Date: 31 Mar 1998 19:25:1 GMT
Organization: client service of Spirit Networks at http://www.spirit.net.au
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Approved: alm@spirit.net.au (aus.legal.moderated)
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__________________________________________________________________________
CHARTER FOR AUS.LEGAL.MODERATED
__________________________________________________________________________
The original Request for Discussion (RFD, as amended) has been
prepended to the charter (see below for full charter).
_Name:_
aus.legal.moderated.
_Date:_
First draft, June 1996. Last update, 7 October 1996. Last
amendments are marked with "***".
_Description: (***)_
A moderated Australian and New Zealand legal group.
_Status:_
Moderated. This newsgroup is moderated. That means that all
articles sent to the group must be approved by the moderator
before they will be distributed to the Net at large. Some delay
in posting will occur.
_Proponent:_
Peter Faris QC (farisgp@ozemail.com.au).
_Moderators: (***)_
Peter Faris QC (farisgp@ozemail.com.au) and Daniel Austin
(Daniel.Austin@anu.edu.au). The list of current moderators is
available from the ALM home page.
_Backup Moderators:_
The most up to date list of moderators is available over the
Web at http://www.spirit.net.au/~alm/mods.htm.
_Why a moderated group?_
The purpose of moderation is primarily to increase the "signal
to noise ratio" of the group. Most postings will be accepted.
Categories of postings that will be rejected are set out below.
Moderators (whilst being volunteers) may perform other useful
activities for the group, including establishing an FAQ,
statistics, archive, mail server and Web pages.
__________________________________________________________________________
CHARTER
__________________________________________________________________________
Aims of group
Aus.legal.moderated is for the discussion of law and legal theory in
an Australian context. The group is intended to provide a forum for
lawyers generally, and Australian lawyers in particular, as well as
for all persons interested in the law. It is intended that the group
should focus, as far as possible, on legal issues relevant to
Australia. Contributions are accepted from persons with all points
of view. No particular point of view is enforced or restricted.
Some Topics for Discussion in the Group
Discussions would include, but not be limited to, the following:
* Current developments in the law including Australian court
decisions, legislative enactments, and executive actions with
legal implications.
* The content and effect of existing Australian, State and Territory
constitutions and laws.
* International Law and in particular its impact on Australia.
* Proposals for changes to Australian law which have a 'legal'
content, eg drafting and technical proposals for changes.
* Legal doctrine, legal theory (jurisprudence), and schools of legal
interpretation and thought.
* Legal history, legal sociology and other interdisciplinary work of
interest to lawyers, judges and/or legal scholars.
* Professional ethics and discipline of legal professionals.
* The role of law and lawyers in society.
* The role of judges and other judicial officers.
* The role of para-legals.
* Legal Aid and community legal services.
* Legal education.
* The type, quantity, and terms of employment for lawyers and other
legal professionals.
* Posts by legal practitioners concerning legal problems they have
encountered that may be of interest to the legal community.
* Posts (including those from non-lawyers) asking specific factual
questions as to the content of the law, and replies to those
posts, so long as the context of the exchange makes it clear that
legal advice is not being provided.
* Posts by persons seeking legal advice, or seeking to engage a
lawyer, which are to be replied to by private e-mail. Such persons
are reminded in advance that legal advice obtained via email is
inherently unreliable, and is not a substitute for direct
consultation with a lawyer.
* Legal humour.
* The role and future of Law Societies, Law Councils and other
representative bodies in the provision of services and the
regulation of the legal profession.
* Management of legal practices, particularly issues of interest to
smaller suburban and rural practitioners.
* Issues in administrative law, tribunals mediation and alternative
dispute resolution.
Moderation Policy - General
The ALM moderation policy has been formulated as follows:
1. All postings will be accepted or rejected at the discretion of the
moderator and consistent with the policy of this Charter.
2. A Robomoderator or similar will be used at the discretion of the
moderator.
3. All discussion is to be carried out in a courteous and civilised
manner.
4. No person or topic shall dominate the group to the exclusion of
others. The moderators will develop a consistent policy on this
issue.
5. Postings from outside Australia are encouraged.
6. The failure of the moderator to exercise a discretion to reject a
post does not signify the moderator's agreement with or approval
of the post, and is in no way to be seen as the moderator's
endorsement of any legal conclusion or opinion expressed in that
post. The views expressed in a post are those of the author of the
post, not of the moderator or moderators.
7. Any posting rejected by a moderator may always be posted to
aus.legal.
8. The moderator will close threads when, in the moderator's opinion,
the issues have been adequately explored or the discussion is
drifting from the point. The moderator will post a notice of
closure.
9. The moderator will return rejected posts to senders with a short
explanation as to the reason for rejection.
10. The moderator may cancel postings already made. The rules with
relation to the rejection of posts shall apply to cancellations.
11. The moderator may post to the newsgroup, in the capacity of a
contributor, on the same basis as other contributors provided that
she/he shall not moderate her/his own posting.
12. The moderator is encouraged to use her or his discretion in a
manner that permits a wide range of arguments to be presented.
13. The moderator will develop a FAQ for the group.
14. The moderator will, time permitting and if the success of the
group warrants, develop an archive, a mail server, statistics and
a Web page for the group.
Moderation Policy - Rejection of Posts
The following posts will be rejected:
1. Posts which are unduly repetitive or contain personal attacks on
previous writers.
2. Posts containing flames, abusive language or offensive material.
3. Postings repeating a high proportion of other postings: eg
consisting of more than 20 quoted lines and containing less than
1/4 of original text
4. Excessively long (eg articles longer than 400 lines) or obscure
posts.
5. Encoded binary files.
6. Anonymous or remailer postings. All contributors will be required
to identify themselves unless exceptional circumstances are
demonstrated to the moderator.
7. Postings containing identifiable private email.
8. Cross postings. This is done for several reasons. First of all, it
means that those contributing to the group are participating in
the group, not reading the thread in another group. Second, it
cuts down on volume in general, and specifically eliminates a lot
of "off-topic" posts. Finally, it eliminates the problems that
arise when postings are sent to moderated and non-moderated
groups.
9. Commercial advertising.
10. Posts by persons offering legal advice for payment. This rule is
not intended to prevent individuals from discussing non-profit
legal services.
11. Posts that better belong to another group.
12. Posts that deal with general questions of political or social
policy will generally be rejected.
13. Postings with incomplete headers.
14. Forged postings.
15. Defamatory articles or articles contrary to law.
Moderator Selection and Replacement
The moderator selection and replacement process is as follows:
1. A moderator serves until she or he resigns. A moderator may resign
at any time. The moderator is requested to give the group adequate
notice in order to ensure an orderly transition.
2. The moderator may designate a substitute moderator to serve for
periods of not more than four consecutive weeks. The moderator
will not designate substitutes for more than two months per
calendar year.
3. A sole moderator may appoint a co-moderator. Co-moderators may
appoint additional co- moderators, if all serving moderators
consent, so long as no more than five moderators are active at any
one time. Moderators may share their duties in any manner mutually
acceptable. Differences among the moderators shall be settled by
majority vote, or in cases of tie, by lot, or by other means
acceptable to all the moderators. In the event that the group has
multiple moderators, all references to a sole moderator in the
above paragraphs shall apply to all the moderators, collectively
if the context permits.
4. A resigning moderator, whether or not she/he is a sole moderator,
selects his/her successor. Moderators are requested to consider
the opinions of readers of the group when choosing their
successors. A resigning co-moderator may, with the unanimous
consent of the other moderators, choose not to appoint a
successor.
Amending This Charter
This charter can be amended at any time, by following the procedures
then in effect for newsgroup creation.
_________________________________________________________________
Aus.Legal.Moderated / http://www.spirit.net.au/~alm/
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
[NOTE: Posters who comment on legal issues are not offering legal advice or
creating a lawyer / client relationship. Those needing legal advice should
consult a lawyer licensed to practice in their jurisdiction.]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
To submit articles to aus.legal.moderated, e-mail alm-submit@spirit.net.au
To contact the moderators, e-mail alm-request@spirit.net.au
Charter, FAQ, etc available at http://www.spirit.net.au/~alm
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Activity graph of aus.legal.moderated (articles posted per day)
The above graph is a moving average of the number of articles posted into aus.legal.moderated per day. The top of the green area counts the number of articles posted in the last 24 hours, whereas the blue line counts the number of articles posted in the last 2 hours, times 12.