Publications
Our publications are the most important means of contact between the Centre's ideas and its general readership. Since 1976, The Centre for Independent Studies has produced some of the most authoritative publications in Australasian academia. From the influential Lands of Shame to the authoritative Will China Fail? CIS has published hundreds of publications covering topics from the social policy to legal affairs to religion and education.
In addition to books, the CIS publishes a range of shorter publications: Issue Analyses deal with controversial and current issues and Policy Mongraphs investigate and offer policy solutions. Since 1984, Policy magazine has published feature articles and reviews authored by some of the foremost national and international thinkers on public policy and ideas. The quality of writing and the diversity of topics in Policy ensure its status as a 'must read' by leading politicans, businesspeople and academics.
Hard copies of our publications are available for purchase through the bookstore. Many of the smaller publications are also available for download.
CONTRIBUTIONS
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All Law Publications
Back to the Bad Old Days? Industrial Relations Reform in Australia
Has the Fair Work Act thrown industrial relations back to ‘the bad old days?’ This report analyses the changes in industrial...
After the Riot: the Meaning for Multicultural Australia
The riot on 15 September in the Sydney CBD by Muslim protestors has raised questions about the health of Australian multiculturalism....
Trans-Atlantic Fiscal Follies: The Sequel
What started as the US subprime crisis became the global financial crisis and has now developed into the Trans-Atlantic sovereign...
FEATURE: The Battlelines of Interpretation in Racial Vilification Laws
Racial vilification law ensnares courts in political disputes.
FEATURE: Anti-Discrimination Law and the Attack on Freedom of Conscience
Anti-discrimination law is targeting belief as well as behaviour.
Alcohol Policy and the Politics of Moral Panic
New Zealand’s proposed liquor legislation marks a return to old attitudes towards alcohol regulation that perversely believe,...
The Multi-layered Hayek
Friedrich August von Hayek was one of the intellectual giants of the 20th century. His contributions ranged from economics...
BOOK REVIEW: Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do?
Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? by Michael J. Sandel (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009.)
FEATURE: No One True Culture of Liberty
Tolerance is important but difficult to define and easily subverted.
FEATURE: Democratic Accountability and the Australian Federal System of Government
With better design, federalism can still bring government closer to voters.
FEATURE: Liberating our Cities
Development and zoning laws run contrary to private and public interests.
Behind the Moral Curtain: The Politics of a Charter of Rights
Elise Parham argues that a federal charter of rights would be used by special interest groups as a powerful political tool....
BOOK REVIEW: Innovation For the 21st Century: Harnessing the Power of Intellectual Property and Antitrust Law
Innovation for the 21st Century: Harnessing the Power of Intellectual Property and Antitrust Law by Michael A. Carrier (Oxford...
BOOK REVIEW: The Rise of the Conservative Legal Movement: The Battle For Control of the Law
The Rise of the Conservative Legal Movement: The Battle for Control of the Law by Steven M. Teles (Princeton University Press,...
FEATURE: For Richer and Poorer: Compulsory Legal Insurance and Access to Justice
Private legal insurance would protect legal rights. In both criminal and civil proceedings, if an individual is not properly...
Family on the Edge: Stability and Fertility in Prosperity and Recession
Barry Maley argues that unless family law and policies rapidly change, family stability and a buoyant birth rate will be...
BOOK REVIEW: Don't Leave Us With the Bill: The Case Against an Australian Bill of Rights
Don't leave us with the bill: The case against an Australian Bill of Rights edited by Julian Leeser and Ryan Haddrick (Menzies...
Diminishing Democracy: The Threat Posed by Political Expenditure Laws
Electoral law reforms nearing a Senate vote risk making political activists inadvertent lawbreakers, deterring financial...
FEATURE: A Statute of Limitations: The case against a charter of rights
A charter of rights could expand as well as limit government.
BOOK REVIEW:The Henson Case
The Henson Case by David Marr (Text Publishing, 2008).
FEATURE: What's So Bad About Judicial Review?
Judges can provide a useful check on activist legislators.
BOOK REVIEW: A Charter of Rights for Australia
A Charter of Rights for Australia by George Williams (UNSW Press, 2007).
BOOK REVIEW: Actual Ethics
Actual Ethics by James R Otterson (Cambridge University Press, 2006).
BOOK REVIEW: Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of a Theo van Gogh and The Limits of Tolerance
Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance by Ian Buruma (Atlantic Books, 2006).
BOOK REVIEW: What Price Security? Taking Stock of Australia's Anti-Terror Laws
What Price Security? Taking Stock of Australia's Anti-Terror Laws by Andrew Lynch and George Williams (UNSW Press, 2006).
FEATURE: A Contrivance to Raise Prices?
Laws on misusing market power are not the best way to regulate business.
BOOK REVIEW: Catastrophe: Risk and Response
Catastrophe: Risk and Response by Richard A. Posner (Oxford University Press, 2004).
FEATURE: The Rule of Lawyers
A Bill of Rights could lead to an elected judiciary.
Fairness in a Liberal Society
Richard Epstein unravels different conceptions of fairness, a term whcih is elusive and indefinable, yet an indispensible...
BOOK REVIEW: The Case for an Australian Bill of Rights: Freedom in the War on Terror
The Case For an Australian Bill of Rights: Freedom in the War on Terror by George Williams (UNSW Press, 2004).
REVIEW ESSAYS: Justice and Liberty
Justice and Its Surroundings by Anthony de Jasay (Liberty Fund, 2002).
In Defence of Secure Property Rights, 2nd revised edition
Secure private property rights are vital to the development of a growing, healthy Australian economy. Property rights allow...
The Long Eye of the Law Closed Circuit Television, Crime Prevention and Civil Liberties
The NSW Law Reform Commission is considering a proposal that all CCTV surveillance camera footage older than 21 days should...
COMMENT: Can We Preserve Liberty in an Age of Terrorism? Two Perspectives
Security is essential for the enjoyment of freedom in a liberal society, but this does not mean that we should accept security...
COMMENT: The Transformation of International Law
International law has long had its critics. In theory, it provides an indispensable framework for the stable and orderly...
Divorce Law and the Future of Marriage
No-fault divorce law has precipitated marital instability in Australia, discouraging people from marrying, staying together,...
In Defence of Secure Property Rights
Secure private property rights are vital to the development of a growing, healthy Australian economy. Property rights allow...
The Thinning Blue Line
The likelihood that a criminal will be caught after committing an offence is an important deterrent for potential offenders....
BOOK REVIEW: Copy Fights: The Future of Intellectual Property In the Information Age
Copy Fights: The Future of Intellectual Property in the Information Age Edited by Adam Thierer and Clyde Wayne Crews Jr (Cato...
Poor Laws (2): The Minimum Wage and Unemployment
More than half the poor in Australia are unemployed. It is joblessness, not low-paid jobs, that is the biggest source of...
Poor Laws (1): The Unfair Dismissal Laws and Long-term Unemployment
Unfair dismissal laws stifle job creation and compound Australia’s high unemployment problem. Despite a near-decade of...
Family and Marriage in Australia
The growing instability of the nuclear family is a fundamental cause behind a great deal of juvenile crime, youth suicide...
BOOK REVIEW: The Second Wave of Law and Economics
The Second Wave of Law and Economics by Megan Richardson and Gillian Hadfield (The Federation Press, 1999.)
Principles for a Free Society
The need for a principled reconciliation between the prerogatives of individual liberty and social order has been a central...
Children's Rights : Where the Law is Heading and What it Means for Families
Barry Maley cautions that while children are citizens entitled to the protection of the state, he believes that some recent...
COMMENT: An Economic Perspective on Intellectual Property: The Case of Copyright
How to efficiently define intellectual property rights.
COMMENT: Polycentric Law in a New Century
The feasibility of privately produced law.
Freedom of Speech in the Constitution
In recent years, the decisions and methods of the High Court of Australia have been the subject of intense scrutiny and sometimes...
BOOK REVIEW: Rethinking Law and Order
Rethinking Law and Order by Russell Hogg and David Brown (Pluto Press, 1997.)
Property Rights and Competition: An Essay on the Constitution of Liberty
Rising Crime in Australia
Rising Crime in Australia provides a long-term perspective on crime. For much of the twentieth century crime rates were...
FEATURE: The New Populism in Australia
Since the 1970s, Australians have been living through an age of uncertainty or, perhaps more positively, an age of redefinition.
FEATURE: The Moral Habit
An interview with James Q. Wilson.
FEATURE: Beyond The Constitution
The High Court's democratic deficit.
EDITORIAL: Spring 1997
Editorial for POLICY Magazine Spring 1997.
BOOK REVIEW: Thinking About Law: Perspectives On The History, Philosophy and Sociology of Law
Thinking About Law: Perspectives On The History, Philosophy and Sociology of Law edited by Rosemary Hunter, Richard Ingleby...
FEATURE: The Gestative Propensity of Constitutional Implications
"Was there something wrong with the implication of reedom of political communication in the first place? In my respectful...
FEATURE: Politically Impossible?
How ideas, not interests and circumstances, determine public policy.
FEATURE: Threats to Freedom: Then and Now
The Mont Pelerin Society after 50 years.
FEATURE: The CIS At Twenty
Greg Lindsay talks to Andrew Norton on the 20th anniversary of the Centre for Independent Studies.
FEATURE: A Diverse Media Or An Australian Media?
The case for liberalising media ownership laws.
BOOK REVIEW: Competitive Federalism Revisited: Bidding Wars, or Getting the Fundamentals Right?
Competitive Federalism Revisited: Bidding Wars, or Getting the Fundamentals Right? by Wolfgang Kasper (Institute of Public...
BOOK REVIEW: Civilizing Cyberspace: Policy Power, and the Information Superhighway
Civilizing Cyberspace: Policy Power, and the Information Superhighway by Steven E. Miller (Addison-Wesley/ACM Publishing,...
Home Repairs: Building Stronger Families to Resist Social Decay
FEATURE: Electronic Social Justice
Australian ideas about the information have-nots.
FEATURE: Racist Speech and Freedom of Speech
The illiberal effects of racial vilification laws.
REVIEW ARTICLE: Is Law Without the State Possible?
The Enterprise of Law: Justice Without the State by Bruce L. Benson (Pacfiic Research Institute for Public Policy, 1990.)
Restoring The True Republic
In this Policy Forum, two lawyers and an economist document the drift in Australia's constitutional practices away from republicanism...
FEATURE: Australia Should Dump Its Anti-Dumping Laws
Dumping is widely thought to be unfair and injurious to Australia's domestic industries. The argument that dumping is generally...
BOOK REVIEW: Law At The Margins
Law At The Margins: Towards Social Participation by Terry Carney (Oxford University Press, 1991.)
How Much Justice Does A Society Need?
In the ninth John Bonython Lecture, Kenneth R. Minogue, Professor of Political Science at the London School of Economics,...
NOTES & COMMENTS: LEAN Times Ahead?
The Federal Attorney-General's Department is spearheading a proposal to establish a system known as the Law Enforcement Access...
FEATURE: The New World Order and the 'Right to Intervene'
The establishment by the UN of a safe haven for the Kurds in Northern Iraq illustrates the emergence of a new doctrine in...
The Fraternal Conceit: Individualist versus Collectivist Ideas of Community
In this Occasional Paper, Dr Chandran Kukathas defends the liberal conception of civil association, in which individuals...
FEATURE: Product Liability: An American Evolution without a Stable Political Solution
Tracing the evolution of product liability law in the United States and comments on the proposed changes to product liability...
FEATURE: Uncertainty and Judicial Discretion in Commercial Law
The general law of contract and of tort has been transformed from a body of intelligible and specific rules into a system...
NOTES AND COMMENTS: Federal vs State Incorporation: Why The High Court Got It Right
The functions of corporate law.
Welfare State or Constitutional State?
In this contribution to the CIS Social Welfare Research Program, Suri Ratnapala, Lecturer in Law at the University of Queensland,...
FEATURE: A Better Electoral System For The ACT
The Australian Capital Territory's recently-established Legislative Assembly must by law be lected by proportional representation....
NOTES & COMMENTS: Promoting Professional Competition: Part One
Ending The Legal Profession's Monopoly.
The Crisis in Law
Professor Norman Barry argues that the current crisis in the law stems from the demise of the common law (which consists...
Law and Liberty
In the Fourth John Bonython Lecture, Shirley Letwin analyses the way in which the rule of law sustains individual liberty...
Initiative and Referendum: The People's Law
Geoffrey Walker examines the history of direct legislation, how it is used in different countires, whether it favours the...
Affirmative Action: The New Discrimination
Gabriel Moens finds that the philosophical and practical ramifications of such 'affirmative action' may be worse than the...
The Case Against the Arbitration Commission
The Australian Conciliation and Arbitration Commission is the main obstacle to much-needed reform of industrial relations...
Free to Shop
Shopping hours and standards in Australia are far behind those of other countries. The trend of Governments in other countries...
The Constitutional Challenge
Essays on the Australian Constitution, constitutionalism and parliamentary practice. G.S. Reid, James S. Buchanan, Anthony...
