Event organisers: Dr Connal Parsley and Dr Jake Goldenfein
Event partners: ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, Melbourne Law School
A one-day workshop at Melbourne Law School, exploring the legal concept of decision after the landmark Australian case of Pintarich v Deputy Commissioner of Taxation (2018). Pintarich concerned the meaning of ‘decision’ in administrative law, in the context of automated processes. The workshop brings into specific the focus of the prescient judgement of Justice Kerr, who suggested in his dissent:
‘The legal conception of what constitutes a decision cannot be static; it must comprehend that technology has altered how decisions are in fact made and that aspects of, or the entirety of, decision making, can occur independently of human mental input.’ [49]
The workshop comes in the wake of a wealth of existing commentary on the Pintarich decision, as well as a substantial and growing literature that maps the disjunctures between automated decision-making and administrative law. It is designed to draw together the consequences and implications of this work, and to ask how the underlying conceptual and normative fabric of legal frameworks might need to be reconsidered.
The workshop’s special guest is The Hon. Duncan Kerr AO, SC. This presents an opportunity for a well-informed exploration of the broader issues around the legal questions that were considered in Pintarich.
What changes to the legal concept of decision are necessary, to accommodate the realities of how decisions by public authorities are made with automated and algorithmic technologies? Is the legal category of decision ‘fit for purpose’ as a way to understand and evaluate how policy is applied through complex automated decision systems?
Presenters:
Jenny Beard, Melbourne Law School
Paul Burgess, Monash Law School
Jake Goldenfein, Melbourne Law School
Paul Henman, University of Queensland
The Hon. Duncan Kerr AO, SC
Sean Morrison, Victorian Information Commissioner
Connal Parsley, University of Kent
Jeannie Patterson, Melbourne Law School
Kristen Rundle, Melbourne Law School
Alexandra Sinclair, University of Sydney
Kimberlee Weatherall, University of Sydney