Research Project: The Coroner’s Court in Law and Society: Role, Function and Structure

Professor David Studdert

Email d.studdert@unimelb.edu.au, Tel 8344 1237, Room 737

Overview of Research Project

The coroner’s court is one of law’s great survivors. Originally a medieval office responsible for enforcing the Crown’s monetary interests, its role has changed repeatedly over the centuries. The last century saw several waves of reform to coronial jurisdictions throughout Anglo-American legal systems. A period of change is once again in the air.

The Shipman murders triggered a series of high-profile inquiries into coronial services in the United Kingdom, and fundamental reforms are currently being debated in the British Parliament. Ireland and Ontario have commenced reviews of their coronial systems, and New Zealand adopted a thoroughly modernised coroners statute in 2007. In Australia, Victoria has recently overhauled its coroners act; the changes come into force in November, 2009. Government inquiries into coronial services currently underway in Western Australia and the ACT are expected to lead to reforms in those states.

A central issue in many of these reviews, and the debates that surround them, is whether the coroner’s traditional role as certifier of deaths, which dominated the office for much of the 19th and 20th centuries, should stand as the court’s chief function, or whether coroners should be given new powers and tools. Should they, for example, operate as active agents of public health and injury prevention? In addition, there are ongoing questions about the extent to which coroner’s inquiry should move beyond a focus on medical causes of death to consider criminal activity, policy failures, and risky corporate practices. As an inquisitorial body in a sea of legal institutions geared toward adversarialism, there is even an open question as to whether coroners’ courts should remain courts at all, or shift, as many states and counties in the United States have, to a non-legal medical examiner model?

Professor Studdert’s group is engaged in a series of projects examining the functions and performance of coroners’ courts in Australia. This seminar will draw from that work and extend the lines of inquiry in new directions.

Research Topics

Professor Studdert will work with each student to identify a suitable research topic. The research may focus on particular coronial jurisdictions in Australia, or undertake comparative work within Australia or internationally. There will be a wide array of choices spanning doctrinal, socio-legal, policy, historical and empirical investigations. For example:

Coronial powers are typically prescribed by statute, but the decisions of appellate courts and courts of general jurisdiction tend to mould and shape them. What are the key areas in which this type of judicial activity has occurred has occurred and how has it affected the coronial powers? (doctrinal)
What evidence is there of implementation of coroners’ recommendations in society? (socio-legal)
How do the reforms recently enacted in Victoria compare with those adopted or under consideration in other jurisdictions?
How does the evolution of coroners’ courts in Australia in the 19th and 20th centuries compare with their evolution in other countries of the British Commonwealth? (historical)
How are coroners courts in Australia staffed and organised, and to what extent does this vary across jurisdictions? (empirical)

Assessment

Class Participation: 10%

This mark will be based on the student’s presentation of their work-in-progress at a date to be determined in the last three weeks of semester. Students will not be expected to have finalized their research. They will be expected to define their topic; explain and critically reflect on the way they researched the topic; and, present an outline of their paper and preliminary findings. Students will have about 15 minutes to present with an additional 5-10 minutes class discussion on each presentation.

Research Essay: 90% (8000 words)
Due: 27 November 2009

Seminar Meetings and Time Commitments

The majority of students’ time and effort in this seminar will be devoted to research activities and writing outside class. There will be three classes at the beginning of the semester to introduce the research area, allocate research topics and make sure students are equipped to do their own research. We will then meet twice as a group during the semester to discuss progress and any common difficulties. These will be group meetings so that we can learn from each other, both in terms of the research methods and subject matter that has cross-cutting relevance to multiple students’ research topics.

The class meetings will consist of:

Two class meetings (3 hours each) in weeks one and two of semester (i.e. the weeks of 27 July and 3 August) to introduce the subject area, relevant research methods and challenges, and to develop and assign specific topics.
A series of library sessions to learn relevant research skills. This will consist of 3 to 6 one hour sessions starting in week 3.
Two progress meetings in which students exchange experiences with the research with each other. These meetings enable students to discuss their research task and their experience in carrying it out; determine and justify their research methodology; outline and explain the framework for the research task that they have undertaken; share their experiences in writing and finalising the research and preparing for publication or dissemination. These will be scheduled to suit people’s timetables in Week 5 (beginning 24 August) and 8 (beginning 14 September).
One-on-one meetings between students and the seminar teacher, as required to help the student define the topic or assist in research direction. It will usually be up to the student to ask to schedule a meeting if they feel they need it. In general we encourage all students to raise any questions and issues they have in group meetings so that all can learn from each others’ experience with the research enterprise.
Research symposium: two three hour classes in which students present their research to each other in the last three weeks of semester.

Melbourne Law School The Melbourne JD

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