David Rolph

The Coddling of the American Mind by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt

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May 2019, no. 411
David Rolph reviews 'The Coddling of the American Mind' by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt

In 1987, Allan Bloom published his best-selling book, The Closing of the American Mind. The American mind must have remained sufficiently open to allow it, three decades hence, to be coddled. The mind that is being closed or coddled is, in the first instance, the young adult ...

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Religious Freedom and the Australian Constitution: Origins and future by Luke Beck

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August 2018, no. 403
David Rolph reviews 'Religious Freedom and the Australian Constitution: Origins and future' by Luke Beck

The role of religion in public life in Australia has become a prominent issue again as a consequence of the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey. Significant opposition to the passage of marriage equality in 2017 was due to the mobilisation of many faiths and denominations. The centrality of religion in the marriage equality debate is best demonstrated by the title of the legislation amending the ...

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Ma’am Darling: Ninety-nine glimpses of Princess Margaret by Craig Brown

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May 2018, no. 401
David Rolph reviews 'Ma’am Darling: Ninety-nine glimpses of Princess Margaret' by Craig Brown

My earliest memory of Princess Margaret is flicking through my grandmother’s copy of 'The Australian Women’s Weekly' and seeing photographs of a middle-aged woman, in huge sunglasses and a colourful kaftan, on a tropical island. I surmised she was famous but did not know why. My grandmother explained ...

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'The debate over 18C' by David Rolph

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October 2016, no. 385

It is not often that a legislative provision leaves the pages of the statute books and enters everyday conversation. Statutory interpretation rarely enters public consciousness ...

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Closet Queens: Some 20th century British politicians by Michael Bloch

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January-February 2016, no. 378
David Rolph reviews 'Closet Queens' by Michael Bloch

With marriage equality becoming the norm in Western countries (though, signally, not in Australia), it may be tempting to forget how recent and rapid and seemingly decisive changes in the legal treatment of, and social attitudes towards, homosexuality have been. The death of Lord Montagu of Beaulieu in late August 2015 marked the passing of the last living public fi ...

Intellectual Privacy: Rethinking Civil Liberties in the Digital Age by Neil Richards

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May 2015, no. 371
David Rolph reviews 'Intellectual Privacy' by Neil Richards

Privacy is dead, or so it is regularly pronounced. There are many suspects: big government; big business; the media; social media; technology; us, for giving of ourselves too readily and allowing our privacy to shrivel and die. Even if privacy is not yet dead, it is said to be under threat on multiple fronts.

The most recent threat is the