LAW IN CONTEXT PODCast
WELCOME TO THE LAW IN CONTEXT PODCAST
LAW IN CONTEXT began as a book in 1991 and is now also a podcast series designed to introduce law in a critical way to the general public, current students and those thinking of taking up the subject.
Season 1 in 2024 contained 15 episodes designed as a primer for those interested in the fundamentals of common law systems and how they differ from other legal systems.
Season 2 in 2025 takes a deeper dive into the fascinations of Law in Context.
latest episodes
episode 14 – WHO YA GONNA TRUST? FIDUCIARIES AND THE LAW
Who should I trust? If your answer is no one, the world would be a more difficult and expensive place. Whenever someone does something on your behalf you might have to employ someone else to watch over them, and then someone else to watch over the someone else etc etc.
Over the centuries, equity law has picked out certain kinds of relationships where there is an imbalance of power or knowledge and called them fiduciary relationships. The “trustee” is a prime example. A fiduciary has a duty of loyalty, of not taking an undisclosed benefit from the relationship, and of doing everything they can on the beneficiary’s behalf.
This is quite different from the normal situation in a market, where the rule is “caveat emptor”: let the buyer beware.
Fiduciary law versus contract law reflects the balance in life between being fair to others and letting others look after themselves: a balance that is forever changing in the law.
In an exciting climax to the episode, the two Steves debate how you pronounce “fiduciary”.
episode 15 – PROVE IT! HOW PERSUADED MUST WE BE IN LAW?
It’s well known that for someone to be found guilty of a crime, the decision-maker must be persuaded “beyond a reasonable doubt”. This is the standard of proof. In civil claims, the standard is “on the balance of probabilities”.
In criminal matters, the onus of proving to this standard is on the prosecution; and in civil claims it is on the plaintiff.
In this episode we discuss what all this means in practice, and note that in the majority of all court matters it doesn’t reach this stage because the defendant pleads guilty or the civil claim is settled without trial.
This is said to be different in civil code systems such as France, but although there are major differences in procedure, the required standard actually seems to be similar.
We promise to give listeners our opinion on which system is better – in episode 1000
episode 16 – Mine not yours! property law in context
You might think the idea of property is straightforward. In a way, it is. Almost anything tangible and many things intangible are capable of being property, under the common law. Even one of our jokes is capable of being property, assuming we actually made it up.
But “property” to a lawyer is not so much about the item in question, but the rights associated with it.
Is the right exclusive, or is it divided up, for example between the landlord who owns the freehold and a tenant who owns a lease?
Has someone else acquired rights over land by continuous use, through the law of prescription?
Has the apparent owner actually lost their rights if contested by someone who has been in exclusive possession of the land, without force, secrecy or permission, for a long period – so-called “squatters’ rights”?
In this episode we try to unbundle what the law bundles up, and we end by noting the cultural context of property law, which is based around individuals and particular kinds of uses. This looks ahead to the next episode, on native title, and the question whether and when the common law is capable of recognising the communal use of property by first nations’ peoples.