[28.1] The principle of legality is a rule of construction under which it is presumed that Parliament does not intend by legislation to abrogate or curtail fundamental common law rights (including privileges and immunities) or principles or to depart to a marked degree from the general system of law.

Part V examined the role played by legislative history as part of the extrinsic context of legislation. Part VI deals with the extrinsic context provided by Acts of general application, and how they impact the interpretation and operation of an individual Act.

[10.1] Australia has nine legislatures1 that between them produce a vast mass of written law each year.2 This chapter focuses on legislative drafting, on how legislative drafting work is carried out within government and on the specialist lawyers who perform that work for government. In presenting a draft to their instructors in response to a set of drafting instructions, these lawyers provide legal advice that the draft is consistent with those instructions and gives legal effect to them. The style of drafting used by these lawyers in their work has evolved over time, with a plain language style now preferred. While there is a common commitment to plain language drafting, particular drafting practices and techniques vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction within Australia, presenting a challenge to the enactment of uniform legislation.

This chapter argues that while we all have a pretty good idea what is meant by the term ‘social class’, it is far from being a straightforward matter. After all, there is only tenuous agreement about exactly what it is, how prevalent it is, how it organises the life opportunities of our citizens and how best to study it. To make it more difficult still, this is a subject that many feel uncomfortable discussing, let alone applying to themselves or anyone else.

In attempting to better understand the relationship between social class and education in Australia, this chapter will ask questions about just how equal Australian society actually is, how schooling success might be more likely for some than others and why money isn’t everything. In doing so, it will trace important changes in the way the social sciences have tried to explain this phenomenon. Most notably, these changes involve a shift away from a focus on economic and structural aspects of social class to a greater emphasis on issues of cultural practice.

[11.1] This chapter examines how Acts are made. The procedure for that (enactment procedure) is traced from the introduction of a legislative proposal (a Bill) into Parliament through to the conversion of that Bill into an Act.

[6.1] Statutory interpretation is to be ‘text-based’. ‘The text’ here refers to the words whose meaning or effect is in issue. Rooted in constitutional principles, consideration of the text is the starting point of the interpretative process. The text supplies the basis for ascertaining the ordinary or grammatical meaning and similar meanings. In turn, that supplies a presumptive and weighty meaning. After having been read in context, the text is also the ending point of the interpretative process. It is where meaning is ultimately held to ‘reside’. But, for an interpreter, the text is not limiting in the sense that he or she must choose between its grammatical or semantic possibilities, read in isolation. The paramount object remains to give effect to the intention of Parliament.

[3.1] The constitutional framework of legislation, federal and state, is relevant to statutory interpretation in various ways. At its most general level, the framework identifies the source of interpretative law for legislation. Further, three fundamental constitutional concepts – the separation of powers, the rule of law and parliamentary supremacy – both influence and provide a foundation for statutory interpretation law. Although these concepts are complex, and the subject of considerable discourse in constitutional law, it is important to understand their basic characteristics as a backdrop to the more detailed examination of statutory interpretation law that follows in this book.

While debates may rage around issues of sexuality, sexual identity and sexuality-based rights, if we are to believe what we hear from some of our political leaders and sections of the media, concerns over sexuality itself should be settled outside of schools. Sexuality, they would argue, is too mature, too controversial and quite simply a biological fact that has no relevance to schooling.However, disturbing stories and statistics point to the significant challenges faced by students, and these surely warrant attention.

With this in mind, this chapter examines some of the questions that often arise when talking about sexualities: Are gender and sexuality the same thing? Is sexuality ‘all about sex’?And what does school have to do with any of this? By unpacking some of the emergent literature in the field, the chapter will suggest that dominant discourses around sexualities ߝ in this case, heteronormativity ߝ are up for challenge.

The differing roles a lawyer can play in civil dispute resolution require ethical judgement to determine how best to act according to the context in which the lawyer is working. As key actors in this system, lawyers have a paramount duty to the administration of justice. This chapter considers some of the impacts of a lack of care by the lawyer and the need for a fulsome notion of competence in providing legal services in dispute resolution. It then turns to how the law of lawyering attempts to balance or observe lawyers’ obligations to the client and the administration of justice in each case. We go on to consider the possibility for lawyers to go beyond the legal minimum, to take responsibility for a more moral activist approach by engaging in a moral conversation with clients. In the final section, we turn to lawyers’ roles in the administration of justice outside the courts, where they represent clients in alternative and more collaborative or non-adversarial forms of dispute resolution.

It will be argued in this chapter that the modern school isn’t just about ‘education’ in some abstract, humanist sort of way. Rather, schools have an essential role to play in how we govern our society. It is tempting to think the process of teaching children has always been pretty much the same, and that mass schooling emerged as a result of greater concern for the wellbeing of the young. The evidence paints a somewhat different picture, whereby mass schooling formed a crucial component of a new form of social regulation, based upon an increasing focus on individuality, where the school subtly conforms to the requirements of the state and the disciplinary management of the population is made possible through continual surveillance, as well as through the close regulation of space, time and conduct.

The criminal defence advocate is usually taken as the paradigmatic example of why adversarial advocacy is necessary, is ethically justified and is fully deserving of our admiration. The defence lawyer’s task is to represent the interests of their client. If a client pleads not guilty, defence counsel’s role is to ensure that their client is not convicted ‘except by a competent tribunal and upon admissible evidence sufficient to support the offence charged’. Prosecutors have special duties of fairness because the prosecutor is an agent of the state, and it is not appropriate for a prosecutor to be adversarial in pressing for conviction. We discuss prosecutors’ ethical position in greater detail later in this chapter. Thus the prosecution and the defence have essentially complementary roles as ‘officers of the court’ in criminal trials – the prosecution’s role is to present a fair case while the defence’s role is to test and probe it adversarially. The prosecution must demonstrate judgement and the defence must have courage. It is the combination of these virtues that make for a fair trial and a fair justice system more generally.

A competent interpreter needs to have more than a knowledge of basic principles (Parts I and II) and interpretative approaches (Parts IV–VIII). An interpreter needs a broader knowledge about legislation. Part III is concerned with equipping the reader in this regard. Specifically, the focus of Part III is on the development, drafting, enactment and commencement of legislation and on how, through that process, sources of doubt can emerge.

There is a close relationship between random graphs and percolation. In fact, percolation and random graphs have been viewed as “the same phenomenon expressed in different languages” (Albert and Barabási, ). Early ideas on percolation (although not under that name) in molecular chemistry can be found in the articles by Flory () and Stockmayer ().

Reproduction is a very important stage in the life-history of a species, being essential for its survival and sustenance. Different organisms adopt different strategies as they attempt to maximize their reproductive success and produce a favourable number of new individuals. Reproduction in plants can be achieved by either vegetative or sexual means or a combination of both. The seeds and propagules produced by asexual and sexual modes of reproduction have differing implications on the perpetuation of the species. Asexual means (such as vegetative reproduction) in plants is a quicker reproductive strategy that leads to production of new individuals genetically identical to parents. However, there is a limitation of genetic variability in vegetative reproduction and this may affect the long-term survival of a species. On the other hand, reproduction by sexual means brings genetic heterogeneity in progeny resulting in their wider adaptability and better survival. Sexual reproduction in angiosperms is a complex process involving several sequential events which take place in different organs of a flower. Thus, flower is a unit of sexual reproduction in angiosperms.

Plant reproductive biology is the study of the mechanisms of both sexual and asexual reproduction in plants. It involves the study of interactions of plants with biotic factors (such as pollinators, seed dispersal agents) and abiotic components (such as soil, space, climate) in the environment. With the integration of the many aspects of ecology, reproductive biology of flowering plants is now also known as Reproductive Ecology of Flowering Plants.

Different aspects of Reproductive Biology of Flowering Plants

Study of reproductive biology of plants broadly includes observations on phenology, structural and functional floral biology, sexual system, pollination biology, mating system, pollen–pistil interactions, fertilization, embryo-endosperm development, seed formation, seed dispersal and seed recruitment. These events may also be considered as the series of steps neccessary for the formation of a perfect new sporophyte. These aspects being interconnected, each of these is discussed sequentially in the subsequent sections.