Following scrutiny of the ballot on Tuesday 31st May, the following people were elected to serve on the committee of the Australian Branch of the Chartered Institute for the next three years.

Michael Sanig; Alf Willings; David Moore; Alan Limbury; Mirina Muir; Rodney Parker QC; and Dr Steven Griffith.

They join Alan Chuck; James Creer; Norman Drogemuller; Malcolm Holmes QC (Vice-Chairman); Harry McIver; Derek Minus; Chris Mountifield; Ian Rogers (Vice-Chairman); and Michael Shand QC (Chairman) in making up the 2005 Committee.

The Chartered Institute will be holding membership courses in Melbourne from 27th-30th October. All courses will be held at the Victorian Bar Mediation Centre. For more information click here.

The Chartered Institute celebrates its 90th anniversary this year. Since its foundation in London in 1915, the Chartered Institute has grown to become a worldwide organisation with over 10 000 members located in 86 countries. The Australian Branch was formed in 1995 and currently has almost 170 members.

Granted a Royal Charter in 1979, the Chartered Institute continues to strive to achieve its primary objective, "to promote and facilitate the determination of disputes by arbitration."

To commerate this milestone we have included some documents on the history of the Chartered Institute.

For a paper on the original aims of the Chartered Institute click here.

For a paper on the history of the Chartered Institute click here.

For a paper on the Chartered Institute's coat of arms click here.

The 90th Anniversary will be celebrated with a dinner to be held on Saturday 29th October 2005 at The Essoign Club, Owen Dixon Chambers, Melbourne. The dinner will be held on the same weekend asthis years membership courses. More information on the dinnerwill be available soon.

Over one hundred people attended the combined meeting of the Victorian Bar and the Chartered Institute at Owen Dixon Chambers in Melbourne on the 20th July. The subject of the evening was "Human Rights In Australia - Their Protection and Resolution Through The Law."

The guest speaker for the evening was Dr Sev Ozdowski, the Federal Commissioner for Human Rights and Disability Discrimination Commissioner. Dr Ozdowski spoke for an hour on the theme of Australia's civil society being strong, with that strength coming from its written Constitution, freely elected Parliament and independent system of courts. He concluded that this strong civil society meant that the law protected many human rights in Australia, but that at the same time these institutions were limited in their power and could not prevent all abuses of human rights. He therefore saw a strong case for having a Bill of Rights. He thought the need for this had been seen in recent times because of human rights tensions that had emerged through anti-terrorism laws, the administration of migration laws and the issues pursued by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC), such as the detention of children in custody. HREOC was limited in its powers and could not enforce human rights but could only draw the attention of the Parliament to abuses of human rights where they had been investigated.

Finally, Dr Osdowski focused on what he called '3 BBQ-stoppers', that is current issues of great public interest. They were proposed changes to industrial relations laws, more anti-terrorism laws and changes to the migration laws. He thought all of these issues had the potential for the invasion of human rights, so they had to be watched very closely.

On June 30, in partnership with the Law Society of NSW, the Australian Commercial Disputes Centre (ACDC) presented a seminar on mediation and negotiation techniques in relation to the recently enacted Dust Diseases Tribunal Amendment (Claims Resolution) ACT 2005.

Over 50 people attended the event held at the Law Society in Sydney, taking the opportunity to listen to a defendant lawyer, plaintiff lawyer and plaintiffs in the area of Dust Diseases share their experiences and expectations in preparing a case. The seminar also included a demonstration roleplay mediation which allowed the audience to see the process in a realistic way while questions were answered throughout. Roleplayers included asbestosis victim Bernie Banton; Legal Counsel for CSR Limited and expert defendant lawyer David Miller; andTurner Freemanpartner and expert plaintiff lawyer Tanya Segelov.

The new legislation provides a new claims resolution process for claims involving asbestos-related conditions. It aims to reduce costs by promoting early settlement of claims and streamlining processes and procedures through mediation. Overall the changes are expected to improve efficiency in resolving dust diseases compensation.

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