Promoting medico-legal knowledge and the fostering of professional and collegiate scholarship since 1931.

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Membership of the Medico-Legal Society of Victoria Inc. is open to Australian Lawyers within the meaning of the Legal Profession Uniform Law and Medical Practitioners holding General or Specialist registration under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law.

Upcoming Meetings

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Professor Dan Lubman

‘Challenges and opportunities in drug law reform: myths and misconceptions’  

Location: General Meeting to be held at the Alexandra Club.
Date: October 19, 2024
Time: 6.30 pm – 11.30 pm
Dress: Black tie preferred

Closing Date:  COB Monday, 14 October 2024

Prof Lubman will explore how drug regulation and stigma have shaped our current approach to drug consumption, and discuss the evidence and challenges associated with recent progressive policies, such as overdose prevention rooms, pill testing and drug decriminalisation.

Professor Dan Lubman BSc, MB ChB, PhD, FRANZCP, FAChAM, AM is a Psychiatrist and Addiction Medicine Specialist. He has worked across mental health and drug treatment settings in both the UK and Australia. He is Executive Clinical Director of Turning Point, Australia’s leading national addiction treatment, research and education centre, inaugural Director of the Monash Addiction Research Centre and Professor of Addiction Studies and Services at Monash University.

Dr Lubman’s research is wide-ranging and includes investigating the harms associated with alcohol, drugs and gambling, the relationship between substance use, gambling and mental disorder, as well as the development of targeted intervention programs across multiple settings.  Dr Lubman is widely published, is regularly contacted for policy advice and community comment, and led the treatment program in the ground-breaking SBS documentary series Addicted Australia.

Mind-altering substances have been part of human society since the beginning of recorded history. However, international drug laws, including prohibition, are a relatively recent concept, that have shaped public discourse and the framing of drug consumption and government policy. This has led to inconsistencies in the legality of different drugs and their associated risks and harms. However, the past decade has seen changing community attitudes towards criminal sanctions, as well as growing support for drug law reform and medical prescribing.

Prof Lubman will explore how drug regulation and stigma have shaped our current approach to drug consumption, and discuss the evidence and challenges associated with recent progressive policies, such as overdose prevention rooms, pill testing and drug decriminalisation.

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AGM – Mr Gavin Silbert KC

‘The Disappearing Rule of Law’

Location: General Meeting to be held at the Melbourne Club.
Date: November 30, 2024
Time: 6.30 pm – 11.30 pm
Dress: Black tie

Gavin Silbert KC took degrees in Latin and Law at the University of Western Australia before undertaking post graduate degrees at the universities of London and Oxford. He was transported to Victoria on marrying a Victorian and has practised at the Victorian Bar for 40 years.

Between 2008 and 2018 he was chief Crown prosecutor. He has practised over a wide variety of jurisdictions and has conducted heavy criminal trials for both prosecution and defence with over a hundred appearances before the Victorian Court of Appeal and some fifty appearances before the High Court of Australia. He now does mainly pro bono and public interest work and has been a member of the Victorian Bar Council for the last two years.

Our democracy has been founded on the Westminster system of government inherited from Great Britain. Integral to the operation of the system has been a strict separation of powers between the Legislative and Executive branches of government and the Judiciary which constitutes an independent arm of government free of political interference. Further, the criminal justice system also presupposes an independent police force and prosecution service free of political interference.

In recent times this independence between government on the one hand and judicial, police and prosecution services on the other has become blurred such that our rights and freedoms have been diminished at the expense of an increasingly autocratic government.

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Committee

President:
Dr Nicole Yap

Vice-Presidents:
Ms Emma Topp (Legal)
Dr Nicole Woodrow (Medical)

Legal Secretary:
Mr Ian Rose

Medical Secretary:
Dr Craig Barnett

Treasurer:
Ms Mary Ann Morgan

Committee Members

Legal:
Ms Mary Ann Morgan
Ms Melissa Iskov
Mr Patrick Tehan OAM KC
Mr Stephen Bunce
Mr Morgan McLay (supernumerary)

Medical:
Dr Maggie Wong
Dr Jeremy Couper
Mr Will Edwards
Prof Chris Bladin
Dr Leslie Fisher

Secretariat:
Ms Lee Evans