The theme of this biennial International Criminal Law Congress is ‘Criminal Justice Today and Tomorrow'. This will be reflected in a suitably diverse program, designed to address the challenges of investigation, prosecution, defence, adjudication and punishment of crime in the twenty-first century. The advent of cyberspace and accelerating cross-border movements of trade, investment and people have been matched by the growth of online and transnational crime. Accordingly, the congress will examine identity theft, cyber-crime, money laundering and other complex jurisdictional and law enforcement challenges.

Of course, long-standing issues in criminal law, such as detention of forensic patients, a functioning justice system for indigenous communities, evidence and the role of juries will feature prominently.

The program will have a strongly empirical emphasis, with a number of speakers reporting on the latest research, statistical analysis and developments in compulsory diversion and therapeutic jurisprudence. Others will examine the influence which the omnipresent media has upon facets of criminal justice systems in Australasia and many other jurisdictions.

The 2008 Criminal Law Congress will be an invaluable aid to practitioners who must adapt to rapid change in the age of terrorism, transnational and online crime and developing alternatives to traditional trial and punishment regimes.

Provisional Program

Wednesday, 8 October 2008

17:00 - 18:30: Welcome Reception

Thursday, 9 October

09:00 - 09:15: Welcome
Nicholas Cowdery AM QC, Director of Public Prosecutions, NSW

09:15 - 10:30: Coppers Without Borders: Criminal Justice & Globalisation
Nick Kaldas, Deputy Commissioner, Specialist Operations, NSW Police Force

10:30 - 11:00: Morning Tea

11:00 - 12:30: Identifying the Innocence Gene: DNA Evidence in the Twenty-First Century
Andrew Haesler SC, NSW Public Defender
Ken Shadbolt QC, Chair, NSW DNA Review Panel

12:30 - 14:00: Lunch

14:00 - 15:30: Made Round to Go Round: Money Laundering & Illegal Transfers
John Visser, General Manager, Intelligence Branch, AUSTRAC

15:30 - 16:00: Afternoon Tea

16:00 - 17:15: So You Want to be Briefed in A War Crimes Trial?
Mrs Fatou Bensouda, Deputy Prosecutor, Prosecution Division, International Criminal Court
Chrissa Loukas, NSW Public Defender

Friday, 10 October

09:00 - 10:30: Broadband Robbery: Online Crime in the Twenty-First Century
Joel Schwarz, Prosecutor, United States Department of Justice
Kevin Zuccato, Australian High Tech Crime Centre

10:30 - 10:45: Morning Tea

10:45 - 12:00: Business Behaving Badly: White Collar Crime in the Twenty-First Century
Chris Craigie SC, Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions
Peter Renehan, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission

13:00: The Long Lunch - Sponsored by Foleys List Pty Ltd

Saturday, 11 October

09:00 - 10:15: Hypothetical: Presumed Guilty? What do Jurors Really Think?

Moderator:
Julie McCrossin, Media Personality

Panel Members:
The Hon James Wood QC, Chair, NSW Law Reform Commission
Malcolm Knox, Journalist and Author
Associate Professor Jane Goodman-Delahunty, School of Psychology, University of NSW

10:15 - 10:30: Morning Tea

10:30 - 12:00: Justice in Indigenous Communities: Twenty First Century Solutions
Rex Wild QC, Former DPP for the Northern Territory, Co-chair "Little Children are Sacred" inquiry (sponsored by Forbes Chambers)
Shannon Smallwood, Crown Prosecutor, Public Prosecution Service of Canada, Northwest Territories

12:00 - 13:00: Lunch

13:00 - 15:00: Sexual Assault Trials: Has the Pendulum Swung too far Against the Accused?

Panel Members:
Janet Fife-Yeomans, Journalist
Stephen Odgers SC, Barrister
Margaret Cunneen SC, Deputy Senior Crown Prosecutor, NSW

15:00 - 15:30: Afternoon Tea

15:30 - 17:30 At the Governor's Pleasure: Detention of Forensic Patients and Crime by the Mentally Ill
Dan Howard SC, Associate Professor, University of Wollongong
Dr Bruce Westmore, Psychiatrist

19:00 - 23:30: Conference Dinner - Sponsored by NSW Bar Association

Sunday, 12 October

09:00 - 11:00: Recidivism & Rehabilitation in the Age of Zero Tolerance
Luke Grant, Deputy Commissioner Inmate Management, NSW Department of Corrective Services
Dr Don Weatherburn, Director, NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research

11:00 - 11:30: Morning Tea

11:30 - 13:00: Compulsory Diversion & Therapeutic Jurisprudence
Judge Roger Dive, NSW Drug Court
Emeritus Professor Ian Webster AO, University of NSW

Invited Speakers

• Mrs Fatou Bensouda
• Emeritus Professor Michael Chesterman
• Chris Craigie SC
• Margaret Cunneen SC
• Jane Goodman-Delahunty JD PhD MAPS
• Judge Roger Dive
• Janet Fife-Yeomans
• Andrew Haesler SC
• Associate Professor Dan Howard SC
• Deputy Commissioner Nick Kaldas
• Chrissa Loukas
• Stephen J Odgers S.C.
• Peter Renehan
• Joel Schwarz
• Ken Shadbolt
• Shannon Smallwood
• Mr John Visser
• Dr Don Weatherburn
• Emeritus Professor Ian Webster AO
• Dr Bruce Westmore
• Mr Rex Wild QC

Mrs Fatou Bensouda

Mrs Fatou Bensouda, a Gambian national, was elected Deputy Prosecutor by the Assembly of State Parties on 8 September 2004. She is in charge of the Prosecution Division at the Office of the Prosecutor. Before joining the International Criminal Court she was a Trial Attorney, Senior Legal Advisor and later Head of the Legal Advisory Unit of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. In the Gambia, Mrs Bensouda held various positions, including Attorney General and the Minister of Justice. She was also the delegate of the Gambia to the meetings of the Preparatory Commission for the International Criminal Court.

Emeritus Professor Michael Chesterman

In 1997-2001, Emeritus Professor Michael Chesterman, formerly Dean of the UNSW Law Faculty, led a UNSW team conducting empirical research into the impact of media publicity on criminal jury trials.

Between 1998 and 2008, he was an Acting Judge of the District Court of NSW. He is currently a Deputy President of the Administrative Decisions Tribunal.

Chris Craigie SC

Chris Craigie SC is the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions. He has been a lawyer in practice as a criminal law specialist since 1976. He was appointed Senior Counsel in 2001. From private practice at the New South Wales Bar, he was appointed a NSW Public Defender in 1994 and took silk in 2001. He held appointment as Deputy Senior Public Defender 2002 - 2007, with what became a predominantly appellate practice, built upon extensive career as trial counsel. He was appointed Commonwealth DPP in 2007. As head of the Australian Commonwealth's prosecuting authority the CDPP has ultimate responsibility for the prosecution of Federal criminal and many regulatory offences against laws enacted by the Australian Parliament. Some of the more publicly prominent areas of prosecution include, terrorist offences, commercial frauds, tax offences, anti-competitive business conduct and welfare fraud. The Commonwealth DPP's area of operation extends over a vast array of matters referred by more than forty Government agencies throughout Australia.

Margaret Cunneen SC

Margaret Cunneen has been a Crown Prosecutor since 1990 and was appointed Deputy Senior Crown Prosecutor in 2002. From 1977-1981 she worked in the Attorney-General's Department Ministerial Office and from 1981-1986 she was an Industrial Officer at the Public Service Board's Legal Branch. From 1986-1990 she was Senior Principal Solicitor at the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, heading the Child Sexual Assault Unit. Margaret has a Bachelor of Laws (NSWIT) and a Master of Laws (Syd) and has prosecuted many murder trials and a series of high-profile paedophile and gang rape cases. She has a keen interest in upholding the rights of victims of violent crime and those bereaved by crime and assisting them in their journey through the criminal justice system. She is the mother of 3 teenage boys and has a black belt in Taekwondo.

Jane Goodman-Delahunty JD PhD MAPS

Jane Goodman-Delahunty JD PhD MAPS has conducted empirical research on juries for over 25 years and was a consultant to the ABA on jury competence. In 2007 she led a multistate study of jury satisfaction and confidence in the criminal system. She is a lawyer, psychologist, mediator, and NSW Law Reform Commissioner (part-time).

Judge Roger Dive

Judge Roger Dive has been the Senior Judge of the Drug Court of NSW since July 2004. Judge Dive was previously the Senior Children's Magistrate, and a Local Court Magistrate since 1989, sitting in a variety of country and city courts.

Janet Fife-Yeomans

Chief reporter at The Daily Telegraph in Sydney
Janet began in newspapers on her local weekly in her hometown of Blyth in the north of England and worked on various papers in England before moving to Australia. She began to specialise in court reporting at The West Australian and has been chief court reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald, legal writer for The Australian, deputy editor (business development) for The Australian and corporate affairs manager for News Limited. She has won awards for her legal writing and has written seven books.

Andrew Haesler SC

Andrew Haesler SC is a Barrister and a Deputy Senior Public Defender for NSW. After graduating from UNSW Andrew commenced practice in 1981. He worked as a Solicitor with the Redfern Legal Centre, the NSW Legal Aid Commission and the Aboriginal Legal Service in Alice Springs. Admitted to the Bar in 1990 and appointed Senior Counsel in 2004, Andrew has a large criminal trial and appeal practice. He has given and had published many papers on topics concerned with criminal law and advocacy.

Associate Professor Dan Howard SC

Associate Professor Dan Howard SC is Director of the National Prosecutions Program of postgraduate courses at the Centre for Transnational Crime Prevention within the Law Faculty at the University of Wollongong. He also lectures in the Masters of Forensic Mental Health program at the University of New South Wales. He is co-author of the textbook "Crime and Mental Health Law in New South Wales" published by Lexis Nexis and is a member of the NSW Mental Health Review Tribunal.

Deputy Commissioner Nick Kaldas

Deputy Commissioner Nick Kaldas
NSW Police Force
Nick Kaldas has been a NSW Police Officer for 26 years. His career spans a number of areas primarily in major crime investigations, homicide, armed robbery, major drug investigations, counter terrorism and covert operations.

Nick has received a number of Commendations, the National Medal, and following his return from Iraq was awarded the Humanitarian Overseas Services Medal. He holds a Masters Degree in Public Policy and Administration.

Chrissa Loukas

Chrissa Loukas is a Barrister, Public Defender and member of the New South Wales Bar Council. From 2003 to 2006 Chrissa was Defence Counsel at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

Previous appointments include:

• Acting District Court Judge (1996)
• Judicial Member, Administrative Decisions Tribunal (1997-2003)
• Director, Criminal Law Review, NSW (2000 – 2001)
• Vice President, Association of Defence Counsel (ICTY) (2004 – 2006)

Stephen J Odgers S.C.

Chair, Criminal Law Committee, NSW Bar Association; Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Sydney; General Editor, Criminal Law Journal; Author of Uniform Evidence Law (7^th ed), Principles of Federal Criminal Law (1^st ed); Co-author of Australian Criminal Justice (3^rd ed).

Peter Renehan

Since October 2006, Peter has been employed by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission as its Special Counsel.

During the period 1992 to 2006, Peter was a barrister at the Sydney bar. He practised primarily in the areas of trade practices and Commonwealth criminal law.

Prior to commencing practice as a barrister, Peter was the associate to Justice Lionel Murphy, High Court of Australia (1985-1986), a solicitor at Clayton Utz (1986-1988) and employed by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (1988-1992).

Joel Schwarz

Computer Crime & Intellectual Property Section U.S. Department of Justice
Joel Schwarz is an American criminal law practitioner with long experience in prosecuting computer crime and crimes facilitated by information technology, as well as in the development of methods to prevent, detect and combat these crimes, and in the presentation to colleagues of the principles and practices involved.

Ken Shadbolt

Ken Shadbolt is the Chairman of the DNA Review Panel of NSW. He was a Judge of the District Court for 24 years and Chairman of the Parole Board for two years. Prior to his appointment he was the Public Solicitor for NSW and before that a barrister and public defender.

Shannon Smallwood

Shannon Smallwood received her LL.B. from the University of Calgary in 1999. She articled with the Alberta Court of Appeal and Court of Queen's Bench in Calgary and the Department of Justice Canada. Since 2000, she has worked as a Crown Prosecutor with the Public Prosecution Service of Canada in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories except for a brief period working in Ottawa. She is a Sahtu Dene originally from the Northwest Territories.

Mr John Visser

John Visser is the General Manager, Intelligence at the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC). He sits on a number of AUSTRAC committees, including the Executive, Enforcement, Intelligence Oversight and Audit committees.

John joined AUSTRAC in January 1991 and his career with AUSTRAC has been largely devoted to managing the development of AUSTRAC's analysis and intelligence capabilities, working closely with AUSTRAC's partner agencies and Information Technology Branch as the head of AUSTRAC's Monitoring and Analysis Section.

John has represented AUSTRAC at an interdepartmental level in a number of key money laundering, law enforcement and intelligence forums and has represented Australia in the same capacity at various forums around the world, including the Financial Action Task Force, Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering and the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units.

Dr Don Weatherburn

Don Weatherburn is Director of the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research in Sydney. He is a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia and an Adjunct Professor in the School of Social Science and Policy at the University of New South Wales.

Emeritus Professor Ian Webster AO

Ian Webster is a consulting physician at Liverpool Hospital and in the Shoalhaven Area. He was honorary visiting physician to the Matthew Talbot Hostel for the Homeless from 1976 to 2007.

He is Emeritus Professor of Public Health and Community Medicine in the University of New South Wales and Chief Patron of the Alcohol and other Drugs Council of Australia. He chairs the National Advisory Council on Suicide Prevention, the Alcohol Education and Rehabilitation Foundation Ltd., the New South Wales Expert Advisory Group on Alcohol and Drugs and is President, Governing Committee of the Ted Noffs Foundation.

His research and publications have been in preventive medicine, medical practice, ageing, disability, homelessness, alcohol and other drug problems, suicide prevention and social issues in health.

Dr Bruce Westmore

Dr Bruce Westmore attended the University of Queensland and graduated in 1978. He worked in the area of general medicine until 1980 when he commenced his psychiatric training. Admitted as a Member of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists in 1985, he commenced duties with the Department of Health in Queensland as the acting Deputy Director of Psychiatric Services, a position he held for twelve months before commencing his training in forensic psychiatry at the Maudsley Hospital, London.

In 1987 Dr Westmore was appointed as the Director of Forensic Psychiatry for the State of Queensland, a position he held until his move to Sydney in 1990.

Dr Westmore's experience covers the areas of administrative psychiatry, clinical work in both the hospital and prison settings and an extensive background in teaching and research. He has held a number of appointments with the Royal Australian and new Zealand College of Psychiatrists and has published in a number of areas, including that of mental health legislation.

Mr Rex Wild QC

Rex Wild was admitted to practice in Victoria in 1968. He was a member of the Victoria Bar from 1973-1993. He was appointed a Queen's Counsel in 1991.

Mr Wild was appointed Director of Public Prosecutions in the Northern Territory from October 1995 until January 2006. He remains a member of the NT Bar.

Mr Wild was co-chair of the Northern Territory Government's Board of Inquiry into the Protection of Aboriginal Children from Sexual Abuse which reported in April 2007.(Little Children are Sacred).