Case In Point

#15 - Is This the End of the U.S. Free Press?

MINIATURE — Mon, 11 May 2026 04:30:00 +1000

The award-winning journalist behind the podcast S-Town, Brian Reed, says a civil-rights era US Supreme Court decision that protects journalists is under threat.

Brian tells the story of the landmark press freedom case of New York Times v. Sullivan (1964).

What it made possible? And what happens to journalism in the US if it falls now?

Guest:

Brian Reed, host of Question Everything and S-Town

Case:

New York Times v. Sullivan (376 U.S. 254) (1964)

Co-Hosts:

Melissa Castan, Professor of Law, Monash University
James Pattison

Brian's podcasts:

S-Town (Serial Productions / New York Times)
The Trojan Horse Affair (Serial Productions / New York Times)
Question Everything (Placement Theory)

#14 - The Rise of Sovereign Citizens and Pseudo-Law.

MINIATURE — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 23:44:41 +1000

You've probably seen sovereign citizen videos on social media. People reciting weird incantations to get out of traffic stops and court appearances, spouting words that sound like legalese but are actually nonsense.

This stuff is darkly funny. But it's having real consequences for our legal system and for social cohesion.

In Western Australia in 2022 a suburban Magistrate asked a simple question of a defendant: Are you this person?

The interaction kicked off a legal drama that ended up in the Supreme Court. The decision could provide a solution to the growing problem of sovereign citizens and pseudolaw adherents.

Case:

KELLY v FIANDER [2023] WASC 187

Guest:

Joe McIntyre, Associate Professor of Law, Adelaide University

Hosts:

Melissa Castan, Professor of Law, Monash University

James Pattison

#13 - Space: The Next Frontier for Court Cases.

MINIATURE — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 18:28:41 +1000

With Artemis II safely back on Earth, we turn our eyes to the skies above. What is the Moon Agreement? Did Sandra Bullock breach the law in the movie 'Gravity'? Who is legally responsible when someone is injured by a falling satellite?

Guest: Professor Melissa de Zwart, Andy Thomas Centre for Space Resources, University of Adelaide.

Hosts: Professor Melissa Castan, Monash University & James Pattison.

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#12 - What Happens When a Stateless Person is Also a Serious Offender?

MINIATURE — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 05:30:00 +1100

In 2023, the High Court told the Australian government it couldn't lock people up forever in immigration detention.

This was a constitutional bombshell that led to political panic, and the fallout is ongoing.

Guest: Professor Luke Beck, Monash University.

Cases

Update: Australia’s high court orders ankle bracelets be removed and curfews end for 43 former immigration detainees

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#11 - Exposing One of the Biggest Corporate Cover-Ups of All Time.

MINIATURE — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 05:30:00 +1100

When English lawyer Richard Meeran uncovered mining company Cape PLC's internal documents in the 1990s, he found damning evidence of one of the biggest international corporate cover-ups in history.

His friend, lawyer David Kinley, tells the story in "In a Rain of Dust", a real-life legal thriller.

In this episode:

How Meeran exposed the cover-up
How Cape PLC was prepared to fight dirty to keep it all suppressed, including targeting Meeran.
The surreal story of finding smoking-gun documents in an abandoned mining office

In a Rain of Dust: Death, Deceit, and the Lawyer Who Busted Big Asbestos by David Kinley

Guest: Professor David Kinley, Chair in Human Rights Law, University of Sydney Law School

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#10 - The Legal Loophole Football Leagues Use to Dodge Player Injuries.

MINIATURE — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 21:51:21 +1100

Every week, professional athletes break their bodies for our entertainment. So it will come as a huge shock to sports fans how poorly the law protects our sporting heroes.

In this episode:

How our sporting codes lobbied to carve athletes out of injury protection in the 1970s
How a Carlton player briefly cracked that system open in the 2000s before it slammed shut again, and
Why the concussion crisis gripping the AFL and NRL is forcing a reckoning today.

If you're paid to play, and paid to get hurt, why aren't you protected when the damage is done?

Guest: Associate Professor Eric Windholz, Monash University Law School

Case: Whitehead v Carlton Football Club Ltd [2005] VSC 257

NEW SEASON - Sovereign Citizens, Space Junk, Press Freedom Under Attack!

MINIATURE — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 20:24:33 +1100

Who is to blame when one of Elon or Jeff's suspiciously shaped rockets crashes to Earth from space?

What is pseudo-law, and where did all these goddam sovereign citizens come from?

Why was the government forced to release over 100 serious criminals into the community?

These cases and plenty more coming in this new (and 99.9% improved™) season of Case In Point.

🎙️ Case In Point is produced by MINIATURE.
Start your expert-led podcast today 👉 www.miniaturecreative.com.au

#9 - This Company Banned Its Employees From Taking the Contraceptive Pill (And Won).

MINIATURE — Wed, 02 Apr 2025 04:00:00 +1100

When the US Supreme Court ruled in favour of a company called Hobby Lobby in 2014, it was hailed by conservatives as a win for the religious freedom of business owners.

Critics of the decision said it dealt a major blow to the rights of employees to access reproductive healthcare.

But there's more to this case than meets the eye.

Has the Hobby Lobby case rewritten the rules about what a corporation actually is?

Guest: Associate Professor Steve Kourabas, Deputy Director, Centre for Commercial Law and Regulatory Studies, Monash University

Case: Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., 573 U.S. 682 (2014)

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#8 - Agatha Christie Anticipated This Case in One of Her Most Famous Novels.

MINIATURE — Wed, 19 Mar 2025 04:00:00 +1100

This case has been described as one of the most bizarre cases in recent Australian legal history, with a climax mirroring one of Agatha Christie’s most famous novels.

Today we ask: is it legally possible to murder a dead body?

Guest: Dr Natalia Antolak-Saper, criminal law scholar, Monash University

Case: R v Darrington [2016] VSC 60

Further Reading: Man jailed for eight years for attempting to murder a corpse (The Age, 29 February 2016)

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#7 - An Athlete Tests Positive For Doping. Case Closed, Right?... Wrong.

MINIATURE — Wed, 05 Mar 2025 04:00:00 +1100

What happens when an athlete is punished for doping, but the athlete has no idea how the drugs entered their system?

In 2019 the Australian swimming world was rocked by news that champion swimmer Shayna Jack had returned a positive test for a banned performance enhancing drug.

The ensuing legal battle, including the penalties awarded against Jack, has exposed the challenges athletes face under current global anti-doping rules.

Guests:

Paul Horvath, Principal at SportsLawyer. Lawyer for Shayna Jack
Associate Professor Catherine Ordway, Sport Integrity Research Lead, University of Canberra

Case:

Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) v. Shayna Jack & Swimming Australia, CAS 2021/A/7579 & 7580, 16 September 2021

Further Reading:

Tennis is facing an existential crisis over doping. How will it respond? by Catherine Ordway (The Conversation, January 2025)
The US has exposed the World Anti-Doping Agency’s precarious funding model by Catherine Ordway (The Conversation, January 2025)
Paul Horvath speaks on ABC Sport Podcast about the Jannik Sinner doping case (ABC Sport, February 2025)
Doping to Win: The Risks for Feeder Clubs and Their Athletes by Alexandria Anthony (SportsLawyer blog, February 2025)
Australia Anti-Doping Processes: Balancing a Level Playing Field Against Unintentional Offences by Paul Horvath (SportsLawyer, December 2024)
Ethics in Sports: Mitigating Risk for Sports Organisations by Paul Horvath (SportsLawyer, October 2024)

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#6 - A U.S. Military Base and Britain's Secret Deportations.

MINIATURE — Wed, 19 Feb 2025 05:00:00 +1100

This is the story of how the Cold War turned an island paradise into one of the most strategically important US military bases in the world—and the people left behind.

In the 1960s and 70s, Britain forcibly removed an entire population from the Indian Ocean to make way for the Diego Garcia US military base—then spent decades denying it had happened.

This decades-long legal battle has pitted Mauritius against the United Kingdom across multiple international courts, challenging Britain's sovereignty claims and seeking justice for the exiled population.

Guest: Professor Douglas Guilfoyle, University of New South Wales

Further info:

Check out Douglas's podcast Called to the Bar: International Law Over Drinks.
Litigation as legal statecraft: Small states and the law of the sea, by Douglas Guilfoyle (Centre for International Law Blog, National University of Singapore, 7 July 2023)
The Chagos Archipelago Before International Tribunals: Strategic Litigation and the Production Of Historical Knowledge, by Douglas Guilfoyle (Melbourne Journal of International Law)
Chagos islanders make historic trip home without British escort (BBC News, 16 February 2022)
The Last Colony: A Tale of Exile, Justice and Britain's Colonial Legacy by Philippe Sands & Martin Rowson
UK Foreign Secretary's statement on the Chagos Islands (7 October 2024)

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#5 - Were These Two Men Criminals, or Resistance Fighters?

MINIATURE — Wed, 11 Dec 2024 04:00:00 +1100

The arrival of two men in the frontier town of Melbourne sparks a chain of events that ends with a brutal execution witnessed by thousands.

Were these men criminals or resistance fighters?

Guest: Professor Lynette Russell AM, Sir John Monash Distinguished Professor and Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow, Monash University

Case: The trial and execution of Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner (Melbourne, 1842)

Further Reading: Auty, K., & Russell, L. (2016). Hunt Them, Hang Them: 'The Tasmanians' in Port Phillip 1841-42. (1 ed.) Justice Press.

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#4 - Can a Corporation Own My Dead Body?

MINIATURE — Wed, 27 Nov 2024 04:00:00 +1100

A series of strange events kicking off in 1868 has massive implications for ownership of human body parts.

This curious court case has overthrown our legal understanding of who owns our bodies (living or dead), and could lead to a RoboCop style distopian nightmare.

Guest: Dr Marc Trabsky, Associate Professor of Law, La Trobe University. www.lifedeathandlaw.com

Case: Doodeward v Spence [1908] HCA 45; (1908) 6 CLR 406 (31 July 1908)

Further info:

One day, your body might be owned by an evil corporation because of what's inside this glass jar. (The Object in Question, February 2026)

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#3 - Today's Storyteller is the Attorney-General of Australia.

MINIATURE — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 04:00:00 +1100

Would you take a friend to court to settle a dispute? Could this be awkward?

This is what Australia did with Japan, a key friend and ally, in 2014 over Japan's refusal to stop killing whales in the Southern Ocean.

Special guest Mark Dreyfus is Attorney-General of Australia.

Mark represented Australia in the culmination of a 40-year diplomatic stoush between Australia and Japan which went all the way to the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

Case: Whaling in the Antarctic (Australia v. Japan) (2014)

Guest: Mark Dreyfus KC MP, Attorney-General of Australia

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#2 - This A.I. Company Is Selling Your Images to Law Enforcement Worldwide.

MINIATURE — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 04:00:00 +1100

In 2017 a little-known Australian technologist develops a revolutionary form of facial recognition technology. Clearview AI is being used by law enforcement agencies to hunt down criminals.

But is there a catch?

A series of legal disputes around the world are among the most stark and alarming of our time.

Guest: Professor Jeannie Paterson, University of Melbourne (Co-Director, Centre for AI and Digital Ethics)

Update: Since recording, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner released this Statement on Clearview AI (21 August 2024).

Further info:

The Secretive Company That Might End Privacy as We Know It by Kashmir Hill (The New York Times, 18 January 2020)
Clearview AI breached Australians’ privacy: Statement by Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (3 November 2021)
ACLU v. Clearview AI case summary (American Civil Liberties Union, 11 May 2022)
Facial recognition startup Clearview AI settles privacy suit (AP News, 22 June 2024)

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#1 - Meet the U.S. Military Lawyer Who Took On His Country's Top Brass.

MINIATURE — Wed, 16 Oct 2024 22:00:00 +1100

It's 2003. An Australian man is captured by US forces in Afghanistan and imprisoned at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on terrorism charges.

The prisoner's defence lawyer is a United States Marine Corps lawyer named Dan Mori.

He's about to be thrust onto the world stage in a fight against his own country's military and political establishment.

(Update: The US government has revoked a plea deal with the men accused of plotting the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al-Hawsawi.)

Guest: Dan Mori, Legal Consultant, Shine Lawyers; LtCol, U.S. Marine Corps (Retired)

Case: David M. Hicks v United States of America, CMCR 13-004 (2015) (PDF)

Further info:

Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 548 U.S. 557 (2006) (PDF)
Sworn charges: Providing Material Support for Terrorism; and Attempted Murder in Violation of the Law of War" , Military Commissions: David M. Hicks. US Department of Defense (1 March 2007) (PDF)

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COMING SOON - Grave Robbers! A.I. Law Enforcement!

MINIATURE — Wed, 16 Oct 2024 14:00:00 +1100

Grave robbers, AI law enforcement, international diplomatic beefs!

Introducing Case In Point, the stories behind some of the most amazing court cases you need to know about.

Each episode a special guest picks a weird and wonderful court case with an epic backstory.

Hosted by Melissa Castan (Professor of Law at Monash University) and James Pattison (the guy who's not a Professor of Law at Monash University).

🎙️ Case In Point is produced by MINIATURE.
Start your expert-led podcast today 👉 www.miniaturecreative.com.au