The Definition and Significance of Intoxication in Australian Criminal Law: A Case Study of Queensland’s Safe Night out Legislation

Australian criminal law is being actively reconfigured in an effort to produce a more effective response to the problem of alcohol-related violence. This article uses the Safe Night Out Legislation Amendment Act 2014 (Qld) as a case study for two purposes: i) to introduce a set of conceptual tools a...

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Main Authors: Quilter, J., McNamara, L., Seear, Kate, Room, R.
Format: Journal Article
Published: HeinOnline 2016
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/53289
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author Quilter, J.
McNamara, L.
Seear, Kate
Room, R.
author_facet Quilter, J.
McNamara, L.
Seear, Kate
Room, R.
author_sort Quilter, J.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Australian criminal law is being actively reconfigured in an effort to produce a more effective response to the problem of alcohol-related violence. This article uses the Safe Night Out Legislation Amendment Act 2014 (Qld) as a case study for two purposes: i) to introduce a set of conceptual tools and typologies that can be used to investigate the relationship between ‘intoxication’ and criminal law; and ii) to raise a number of concerns about how the effects of alcohol and other drugs are implicated in laws governing police powers, criminal responsibility and punishment. We draw attention to the different and sometimes inconsistent ways in which significance is attached to evidence of the consumption of alcohol and other drugs, as well as to variations and ambiguities in how legislation attempts to capture the degree of impairment or effects that are regarded as warranting the attachment of criminal law significance.
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publishDate 2016
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-532892017-10-16T01:56:29Z The Definition and Significance of Intoxication in Australian Criminal Law: A Case Study of Queensland’s Safe Night out Legislation Quilter, J. McNamara, L. Seear, Kate Room, R. Australian criminal law is being actively reconfigured in an effort to produce a more effective response to the problem of alcohol-related violence. This article uses the Safe Night Out Legislation Amendment Act 2014 (Qld) as a case study for two purposes: i) to introduce a set of conceptual tools and typologies that can be used to investigate the relationship between ‘intoxication’ and criminal law; and ii) to raise a number of concerns about how the effects of alcohol and other drugs are implicated in laws governing police powers, criminal responsibility and punishment. We draw attention to the different and sometimes inconsistent ways in which significance is attached to evidence of the consumption of alcohol and other drugs, as well as to variations and ambiguities in how legislation attempts to capture the degree of impairment or effects that are regarded as warranting the attachment of criminal law significance. 2016 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/53289 10.5204/qutlr.v16i2.654 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ HeinOnline fulltext
spellingShingle Quilter, J.
McNamara, L.
Seear, Kate
Room, R.
The Definition and Significance of Intoxication in Australian Criminal Law: A Case Study of Queensland’s Safe Night out Legislation
title The Definition and Significance of Intoxication in Australian Criminal Law: A Case Study of Queensland’s Safe Night out Legislation
title_full The Definition and Significance of Intoxication in Australian Criminal Law: A Case Study of Queensland’s Safe Night out Legislation
title_fullStr The Definition and Significance of Intoxication in Australian Criminal Law: A Case Study of Queensland’s Safe Night out Legislation
title_full_unstemmed The Definition and Significance of Intoxication in Australian Criminal Law: A Case Study of Queensland’s Safe Night out Legislation
title_short The Definition and Significance of Intoxication in Australian Criminal Law: A Case Study of Queensland’s Safe Night out Legislation
title_sort definition and significance of intoxication in australian criminal law: a case study of queensland’s safe night out legislation
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/53289