http://www.thepunch.com.au/author-bios/andrew-lynch/ Andrew Lynch is the Director of the Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law and an Associate Professor in the UNSW Faculty of Law. Andrew’s research in recent years has concentrated on the topics of judicial dissent in the constitutional law decisions of the High Court of Australia, federal reform and the intersection of public law and legal responses to terrorism. He is an author of Equity and Trusts (2001 and 2005), What Price Security? Taking Stock of Australia’s Anti-Terror Laws (2006) and a co-editor of Law and Liberty in the War on Terror (2007) and Counter-Terrorism and Beyond: The Culture of Law and Justice After 9/11 (2010), as well as authoring journal articles, conference and seminar papers in these and other areas. Additionally Andrew has frequently been called before parliamentary and non-government inquiries to speak to submissions on matters of public law and Australia’s counter-terrorism legislative scheme. He writes regularly on public law issues in the media. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:49 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/electing-judges-would-totally-undermine-our-legal-system/ Earlier this year Tony Abbott warned us that we should be wary of taking seriously those comments he makes about policy when speaking off the cuff. Presumably, his suggestion in a community forum this week that Australia might consider moving to elect its judges falls into this category. We can only hope that is the case.  Anxiety over perceived leniency in criminal sentencing is never too far from the surface of public discussion and as a result we might expect that politicians have given the issue some thought before they express an opinion. Certainly it is hard to credit that a political figure as senior as Mr Abbott would be caught off guard when quizzed about judges, sentencing and community values, as he was at the Brisbane forum.  What exactly did the Leader of the Opposition say? “I never want lightly to change our existing systems, but I’ve got to say if we don’t get a better sense of the punishment fitting the crime, this is almost inevitable. If judges don’t treat this kind of thing appropriately, sooner or later, we will do something that we’ve never done in this country. We will elect judges. And we will elect judges that will better reflect want we think is our sense of anger at this kind of thing.” feedback@thepunch.com.au (Andrew Lynch) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/electing-judges-would-totally-undermine-our-legal-system/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/electing-judges-would-totally-undermine-our-legal-system/#item4452 Thu, 11 Nov 2010 20:00:54 +0000 Andrew Lynch | Author bios | The Punch