Michael Douglas

This article considers the prospective liability of OpenAI for harm caused by ChatGPT. It considers defamation and privacy law, as well as practical considerations of transnational enforcement, including application of private international law.

We ought to rethink how we understand the conflict of laws in Australia with respect to forum statutes. This is an important issue: the proper treatment of ambiguous statutes is the focus of many, if not the vast majority of cases, including cross-border cases. Statutory interpretation is the primary means by which Australian courts must resolve cr...

In Facebook Inc v Australian Information Commissioner, the High Court of Australia will consider whether the American parent company behind the social media platform is amenable to the Federal Court of Australia’s jurisdiction in proceedings brought in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal. The central issue is whether Facebook I...

This is text of a December 2022 speech on forum shopping in Australian defamation litigation.

This article explores issues relevant to the pleading of two distinct yet related causes of action: conspiracy by lawful means, and conspiracy by unlawful means. It considers how these causes of action should be pleaded. It is hoped that the article will be of value to those interested in these economic torts, and to practitioners considering how t...

From ALA event website: Representing travellers injured in a foreign country means navigating the complexities around the enforcement and recognition of foreign judgments. Join us for a free two-part travel law webinar series covering the enforcement of foreign judgments in Australia (Part 1), and the enforcement of Australian judgments in foreig...

This article considers the principles relevant to a defamation claim against an intermediary for content ‘authored’, or created, by others. The article comments on Australian law reform and floats an idea for making it easier for defamed persons to protect themselves against serious reputational harm without spending their life savings: a right fo...

Materials for a CPD presentation to WA practitioners on professional responsibility in cross-border legal practice. Content underlying the presentation is an academic paper in progress.

Demands notice and offer of amends ... Effective remedy distorted by application of NSW Court of Appeal's decision in Mohareb ... Little regard paid in Goldberg v Voigt to defendant's response ... Bad policy should be addressed by defamation reform project ... Proposed concerns provision needs further work ... Late attempts to make amends ... Apolo...

Submission on the United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation

Slides for a presentation delivered at Melbourne Law School's CMCL Media Law & IP Conference on 5 December 2019

In May 2018, the Hague Conference on Private International Law (‘HCCH’) produced a draft convention for the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments. A Diplomatic Session of the HCCH is expected to take place in 2019 at which this draft ‘Judgments Convention’ will be presented. If a multilateral convention emerges from the Diplomatic Sessio...

The media is not free to report on everything that goes on in court. Through exercise of inherent, implied, or statutory powers, courts depart from open justice by orders concealing information or restricting publication. They do so to balance competing public interests. Commentators have questioned whether orders departing from open justice can be...

These slides were the basis for a presentation to the Harvard Law School Conflict of Laws course of Fall 2018, on 26 September 2018.

This presentation outlines the principles applicable to recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments in Australian private international law, identifying recent case law, points of uncertainty, and forthcoming legislative changes.

I do not believe that s 44(i) ought to be amended. The arguments to the contrary seem to fall into two categories: first, procedural arguments, which claim that s 44(i) is unclear or too difficult to comply with, and second, more substantive arguments, which claim that s 44(i) is incompatible with a multicultural Australia or is otherwise unjust. T...

Certain kinds of breach of confidence may be characterised as torts, at least for the purposes of Australian private international law, in respect of rules of jurisdiction and choice of law. When a breach of confidence involves a misuse of private information, a tortious characterisation is appropriate. This view is consistent with appellate author...

This presentation was delivered at Melbourne Law School on 5 April 2018. Abstract: In Fourie v Le Roux, Lord Scott said that ‘provided the court has in personam jurisdiction over the person against whom an injunction, whether interlocutory or final, is sought, the court has jurisdiction, in the strict sense, to grant it’. But just because the cou...

Case note on Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd v Hancock [2013] WASC 290

The Victorian Court of Appeal rejects an application by six media organisations for leave to intervene in Bauer Media's appeal against Australia's largest ever defamation award ... Caps on damages ... The case for media intervention ... From Michael Douglas

In September, Justice John Dixon awarded Rebel Wilson $4,567,472 damages in respect of a series of articles published in print and online by Bauer Media magazines. This was the largest defamation damages awarded by a court in Australian history. Although record-breaking, the amount was not entirely unexpected. In her submissions, Wilson had sought...

In The ‘Halcyon Isle’, a bare majority of the Privy Council held that questions as to the recognition of a foreign maritime lien are to be determined by the lex fori. The case divided the common law world. Recently, in The Ship ‘Sam Hawk’ v Reiter Petroleum Inc, the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia held that The ‘Halcyon Isle’ should ap...