Setting the law back to the 1800s

First off, I want to congratulate the Human Rights Law Resource Centre for its excellent coverage of the Momcilovic appeal over twitter. In the coming days, I'll sit down with the transcript and give my thoughts on which way the wind was blowing at the hearing. In the meantime, I recommend you all get on Twitter, do a search for #momcilovic, and read the HRLRC's summaries. It's a credit to them that they managed to compress the gist of several party's arguments into the Twitter character limit.

I now want to turn to a brief article I saw in the MX on the way home, which is reproduced in most of the Herald Sun's companion papers. The article warns that "UNDERAGE girls in NSW could be charged with being an accessory to their own rape due to a legal loophole" (link here)

The article goes on to state:

Children, crime and mental illness

Patrick McGorry has been in the news a lot this year since he was named Australian of the year, for his work highlighting the poor state of mental health services for children. Sadly, there is an all too common link between crime and mental illness. In its more serious forms, mental illness can rob a person of the chance to meaningfully participate in a trial. For that reason, Part 2 of the Crimes (Mental Impairment and Unfitness to be Tried) Act 1997 deals with the issue of what a court should do in that situation. Unfortunately, as CL (A minor) v Lee [2010] VSC 517 demonstrates, the law is not entirely thorough in its coverage of youth unfitness.