Bulletin Awards

Bulletin Article of the Year 
Winner: Holly Nikoloff
Civil Penalty Provisions: deterrence, deterrence, deterrence!

This article expertly parses the differences between the principles that underpin civil penalties and criminal sanctions.

Bulletin Article of the Year - Special Interest Category 
Winner: Danielle Gilby
When being sick is your full-time job: a perspective on flexible working arrangements from a disabled practitioner

Danielle Gilby’s article reflects on her experience as a lawyer with a disability to highlight the importance of flexible working arrangements.

Bulletin Article of the Year 
Winners: Professor Tania Leiman and Lydia Chia
Surveilling our bodies? FemTech and the Legal Ramifications of using Ovulation Apps

This article examined the privacy implications of “FemTech”, such as apps that can assist in managing pain, monitoring fertility and optimizing sports performance, but have caused some concern about whether they cross the line into intrusive bodily surveillance.

Bulletin Article of the Year - Special Interest Category 
Winner: Mark Douglas
It is time for the legal profession to recognise and embrace disability

Mark Douglas, who is severely vision impaired, wrote a powerful and personal piece about the need for the legal profession to step up and actively work to dismantle the barriers that are facing current and aspiring lawyers with disability, and to remove the biases and stigma that ae associated with disability.

Bulletin Article of the Year 
Winners:  Madi McCarthy and Professor Tania Leiman

Madi McCarthy and Professor Tania Leiman’s article 'Sex with robots: how should the law respond?' examines the development of technology that facilitates new forms of intimate connection, surveys the moral and ethical landscape surrounding the technology, and looks how the law is starting to grapple with this issue and how it might deal with it as it becomes more integrated into modern life.

Bulletin Article of the Year - Special Interest Category 
Winner: Amy Nikolovski 

Amy Nikolovski’s deeply personal article 'It's OK to grieve, and to reach out for support' recounts the heartbreak of having a miscarriage and is sure to inspire more people to talk about their own experiences of grief, which will in turn help them to find the support they need to help them through times of immense loss and suffering.

Bulletin Article of the Year 
Winner:  Dr Phillip Ritson

Dr Philip Ritson won this Award, from a field of exceptional articles, for his article “Supreme Court decision highlights pitfalls of raising money for charitable purposes”, that was published in the August 2020 edition of the Bulletin. 

Bulletin Article of the Year - Special Interest Category 
Winner:  The Honourable Justice Sam Doyle

The Honourable Justice Doyle’s considered article, “The path to gender equality requires removing cultural & structural barriers in the profession”, published in the March 2021 edition of the Bulletin, reflects the heightened awareness and commitment in the profession to addressing gender equity, which is an important issue for the judiciary. 

Kris Handshin SC

Kris Handshin’s article Advocacy in the Appellate Context: Fulfilling the functions of written submissions, published in the May 2020 edition of the Bulletin, beat a very strong shortlist of articles to be named 2019-20 Bulletin article of the year. Mr Handshin’s article demonstrated a deep understanding of court advocacy and was written in an engaging, accessible and logical manner, providing clear, practical guidance that will no doubt be of great benefit to practitioners who are involved in court work.

It is no surprise that, given the depth of understanding that was exhibited in the article, that Mr Handshin was, like fellow award winner Kerry Clark, among the most recent group of barristers to be appointed Senior Counsel.

Peter Norman

Peter Norman, who has recently retired as a Master of the District Court, was a clear winner of the Bulletin Article of the Year – Special Interest category, with his winning article “Reflections on the Charles Manson case”, published in the August 2019 Bulletin, offering a fascinating insight into the infamous case that precipitated the end of the so-called “summer of love” era of the 1960s. Mr Norman participated in a legal exchange program in 1975, which included working with the prosecution team on the Charles Manson and Sirhan Sirhan (Robert Kennedy assassination) appeals.

Mr Norman’s account of the Manson murders and the lengthy prosecution of Charles Manson is gripping, thoroughly researched, and clearly draws on meticulous notes that Mr Norman took of his experience some 45 years ago.

Article of the Year Winner: AI in Criminal Sentencing: a risk to our human rights?, By Raffaele Piccolo
Special interest article of the year winner:  Can women really have it all? A perspective from a barrister & mother, By Penelope Kari