- Catherine Mackinnon in Ellen Dubois, Mary Dunlop, Carol Gilligan, Catharine MacKinnon and Carrie Menkel-Meadow, ‘Feminist Discourse, Moral Values and the Law—A Conversation’ (1985) 34 Buffalo Law Review 11, 34.
- Norberg V Wynrib (1992) 92 DLR (4th) 449, 500 (McLaughlin J, her emphasis).
- Williams V Minister, Aboriginal Land Rights ACT 1983 and Anor (1994) 35 NSWLR 497, 519.
- MK v MH (1992) 96 DLR (4th) 289. The Canadian Supreme Court has a well-earned reputation for its progressive development of equitable doctrines, including the development of fiduciary law in relation to Indian land claims. See Donovan Waters, ‘New Directions in the Employment of Equitable Doctrines: The Canadian Experience’ in T G Youdan (ed) Equity, Fiduciaries and Trusts, Toronto: Law Book Co, 1989, 411.
- Williams V Minister, Aboriginal Land Rights ACT 1983 and Anor, above n3, 519.
- Sir Anthony Mason, ‘Themes and Prospects’ in P D Finn (ed), Essays in Equity, Sydney: Law Book Co, 1985, 242.
- Regina Graycar, ‘Telling Tales: Legal Stories About the Violence Against Women’ (1996) 7 Australian Feminist Law Journal 79, 90. See also Lori Beaman-Hall, ‘Abused Women and Legal Discourse: The Exclusionary Power of Legal Method’ (1996) 11 Canadian Journal of Law and Society 125.
- Vicki Bell, Interrogating Incest: Feminism, Foucault and the Law, London: Routledge, 1993, 57–91.
- Bruce Feldthusen, ‘Discriminatory Damage Quantification in Civil Action for Sexual Battery’ (1994) 44 Toronto Law Journal 133, 134.
- For an overview of research findings, some of which indicates that males constitute between 5–20% of victims see Regina Graycar and Jenny Morgan, ‘Disabling Citizenship: Civil Death for Women in the 1990s' (1995) 17 Adelaide Law Review 49, 64. See also Janet Mosher, ‘Challenging Limitations Periods: Civil Claims by Adult Survivors of Incest’ (1994) 44 University of Toronto Law Journal 169, 174.
- Innes Willox, ‘Girls at Risk of Abuse: Research’, The Age, 20 January 1997, 1.
- Charlotte Mitra, ‘Judicial Discourse in Father-Daughter Incest Appeals’ (1987) 15 International Journal of the Sociology of Law 121, 127–8.
- See for example Adrian Howe, ‘“Social Injury” Revisited: Towards a Feminist Theory of Social Justice’ (1987) 15 International Journal of the Sociology of Law 423 and ‘The Problem of Privatised Injuries: Feminist Strategies for Litigation’ (1990) 10 Studies in Law, Politics and Society 119.
- Catharine Mackinnon, The Sexual Harassment of Working Women, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979.
- Bruce Feldthusen, ‘The Civil Action for Sexual Battery: Therapeutic Jurisprudence’ (1993) 25 Ottowa Law Review 203, 205–6.
- Graycar, ‘Telling Tales’, above n7, 93.
- Adrian Howe, Punish and Critique: Towards a Feminist Analysis of Penality, London: Routledge, 1994, 171–176.
- See the list of Canadian cases in Feldthusen, ‘The Civil Action’, above n15, 203.
- Carol Smart, Feminism and the Power of Law, London: Routledge, 1989, 50.
- Ibid, 26.
- Ibid, 49.
- Smart, ‘Law's Power, the Sexed Body and Feminist Discourse’ (1990) 17 Journal of Law and Society 194, 205.
- Ibid.
- Ibid, 207.
- Ibid, 204.
- Smart, ‘The Woman of Legal Discourse’ (1992) 1 Social and Legal Studies 29, 34.
- Jocelyn B Lamm, ‘Easing Access to the Courts for Incest Victims: Towards an Equitable Application of the Delayed Discovery Rule’ (1991) 100 Yale Law Journal 2189.
- Feldthusen, ‘The Civil Action’, above n15, 211.
- MK v MH, above n4, 293. The civil incest literature in the United States and Canada has been preoccupied with devising strategies for adult incest survivors to get around statutory limitations periods. See Lamm, above n27; Melissa Salten, ‘Statutes of Limitations in Civil Incest Suits: Preserving the Victim's Remedy’ (1984) 7 Harvard Women's Law Journal 189; Alan Rosenfeld, ‘The Statute of Limitations Barrier in Childhood Sexual Abuse Cases: The Equitable Estoppel Remedy’ (1989) 12 Harvard Women's Law Journal 206; Carol Napier, ‘Civil Incest Suits: Getting Beyond the Statute of Limitations' (1990) 68 Washington University Law Quarterly 995; Norrie Clevenger, ‘Statute of Limitations: Childhood Victims of Sexual Abuse Bringing Civil Actions Against their Perpetrators after Attaining the Age of Majority’ (1991–2) 30 Journal of Family Law 447; Ann Marie Hagen, ‘Tolling the Statute of Limitations for Adult Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse’ (1991) 76 Iowa Law Review 355; Janet Mosher, ‘Challenging Limitations Periods’, above n10, 169.
- MK V MH, above n4, 298. While some commentators have argued for the invoking of this doctrine of delayed discovery (or ‘discoverability’), others have argued against the retention of limitation periods in any form as applied to these cases: Mosher, above n10, 170.
- For an Australian discussion of limitations periods in the context of child sexual assault see Gray car and Morgan, ‘Disabling Citizenship’, above n10, 63–76.
- MK v MH, above n4, 337.
- Ibid, 322. It has been suggested that it is unclear whether Australian limitation acts apply to actions based on a breach of a fiduciary obligation: Graycar and Morgan, ‘Disabling Citizenship’, above n10, 73.
- Norberg v Wynrib, above n2, 449.
- Feldthusen, ‘The Civil Action’, above n15, 207. See also Tom Allen, ‘Civil Liability for Sexual Exploitation in Professional Relationships’ (1996) 59 Modern Law Review 56.
- Norberg v Wynrib, above n2, 459.
- Ibid, 468.
- Ibid, 486.
- Ibid.
- Ibid, 487.
- Ibid.
- Frame v Smith (1987) 42 DLR (4th) 81, 99.
- LAC Minerals Ltd (1989) 61 DLR (4th) 14, 28, 62, 26 and Canson Enterprises Ltd (1991) 85 DLR (4th) 129, 155.
- Norberg v Wynrib, above n2, 488–9.
- Ibid, 489.
- Ibid, 490.
- Ibid, 491.
- Ibid, 492.
- Ibid, 497.
- Ibid, 499.
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
- Ibid, 500 (her emphasis).
- Ibid.
- Ibid, 501.
- Ibid, 502.
- MK v MH, above n4, 323.
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
- Ibid, 324.
- Ibid, 325 (La Forest J citing Wilson J in Frame v Smith).
- But see W and W; R and G 17 (1994) Fam L R 751 for a report of a civil incest suit in which the two plaintiffs claimed damages for assault or in the alternative, damages in negligence and for breach of fiduciary duty.
- Breen v Williams (1994) 35 NSWLR 522.
- Ibid, 547 (citing Norberg v Wynrib, above n2, 499).
- Ibid, 543.
- Ibid, 545 and 549 citing McInerney v MacDonald (1992) 93 DLR (4th) 415.
- Williams v Minister, Aboriginal Land Rights ACT 1983 and Anor, above n3, 509–10.
- Ibid, 516.
- Ibid, 519.
- Breen v Williams, above n63, 570.
- Breen v Williams 6 September 1996 (Unrept, High Court, forthcoming in CLR).
- Ibid, 5.
- Ibid, 13.
- Ibid, 24. Gummow J agreed: Ibid, 39.
- Meagher JA in Breen v Williams, above n63, 570. See also Gaudron and McHugh JJ in Breen v Williams, above n71, 20.
- Sir Anthony Mason, ‘Themes and Prospects’, above n6, 246. While he notes the development of fiduciary Law in Norberg v Wynrib, Mason refrained from comment: Ibid, 247–8.
- R P Meagher, W M C Gummow and J R F Lehane, Equity: Doctrines and Remedies, Sydney: Butterworths, 1992, 47 and 49. See Fiona Burns, ‘The “Fusion Fallacy” Revisited’ (1993) 5 Bond Law Review 152.
- Mabo and Others v State of Queensland (No 2) (1993) 175 CLR 1, 199.
- Hospital Products v United States Surgical Corporation (1984) 156 CLR 41, 96–7. See Lisa Di Marco, ‘A Critique and Analysis of the Fiduciary Concept in Mabo v Queensland' (1994) 19 Melbourne University Law Review 868.
- See Patrick Parkinson, ‘Before the High Court: Fiduciary Law and Access to Medical Records’ (1995) 17 Sydney Law Review 407, 440–2. Parkinson is cited with approval by Gaudron and McHugh JJ in Breen v Williams, above n71, 24.
- P.D. Finn, ‘The Fiduciary Principle’ in T G Youdan (ed), Equity, Fiduciaries and Trusts, Toronto: Law Book Co, 1989, 2. Finn's critique of the Canadian approach and his rejection of the fiduciary rationale for the informed consent doctrine in doctor-patient cases is cited with approval by Dawson and Toohey JJ in Breen v Williams, above n71, 13. Finn's reaction could have been predicted from his view of Canada's ‘propensity to be cavalier with fiduciary relationships' in P.D. Finn, ‘Contract and the Fiduciary Principle’ (1989) 12 UNSW Law Journal 76, 78–9.
- Finn, ‘The Fiduciary Principle’, above n81, 3–4.
- Sir Anthony Mason, ‘The Place of Equitable Remedies in the Contemporary Common Law World’ (1994) 110 Law Quarterly Review 238, 239.
- Finn, ‘The Fiduciary Principle’, above n81, 26.
- Feldthusen, ‘The Civil Action’, above n15, 215.
- MacKinnon, Sexual Harassment of Working Women, above n14, 87–8.
- Ibid, 171–3.
- K Mark McCourt, ‘The Child Sex Abuse Lawsuit: MK v MH' (1992) 56 Saskatchewan Law Review 223, 228.
- Ibid, 229.
- See the discussion in Burns, ‘The “Fusion Fallacy'”, above n77, 171–7. See also Lee Aitken, ‘Developments in Equitable Compensation: Opportunity or Danger’ (1993) 67 ALJ 596, discussing McHugh's remarks on equitable compensation in Bennett v Minister of Community Welfare (1992) 176 CLR 408, 426–7.
- Norbern v Wynrib, above n2, 502.
- Ibid, 502–3.
- Ibid, 505–6.
- See Richard Tjiong, ‘Are Physicians Fiduciaries?’ (1993) 67 ALJ 436.
- Feldthusen, ‘Discriminatory Damage Quantification’, above n9, 142.
- Norberg v Wynrib, above n2, 470.
- Ibid, 507. She awarded the plaintiff judgment for $70,000. A more pessimistic reading is that the award simply indicated the greater capacity of these judges to provide adequate compensation in these cases.
- Ibid, 340.
- Ibid.
- See W V H Rogers, ‘Tort Law and Child Abuse: An Interim View from England’ (1994) 3 Torts Law Journal 257, 259. Current changes to the Crimes Compensation scheme in Victoria indicates that this jurisdiction is becoming ‘much tougher’: Lauren Finestone, ‘Crimes Compensation: Recent Developments’, unpublished paper, 22 May 1995. See also Julia Cabassi and Amanda George, ‘Time Limitations—the Hurdle for Childhood Assault Survivors Seeking Compensation’, unpublished paper, October 1993.
- See Lamm, ‘Easing Access to the Courts’, above n27, 2196. For a critique of the ‘confusing’ aspects of the Canadian fiduciary approach to family obligations see Elaine Lee, ‘Fiduciary Duty and Family Obligations: The Supreme Court of Canada Signs Change’ (1993) 57 Saskatchewan Law Review 497.
- Lamm, ‘Easing Access to the Courts’, above n27, 2191.
- Salten, ‘Statutes of Limitations’, above n27, 190–1.
- Mosher, ‘Challenging Limitations Periods’, above n10, 179–180; Rosenfeld, ‘The Statute of Limitations Barrier’, above n29, 209–11.
- Hagen, ‘Tolling the Statute of Limitations’, above n29, 357.
- Lamm, ‘Easing Access to the Courts’, above n27, 2203.
- MK v MH, above n4, 335.
- Hagen, ‘Tolling the Statute of Limitations’, above n29, 360.
- Clevenger, ‘Statutes of Limitations’, above n29, 451.
- Napier, ‘Civil Incest Suits’, above n29, 1005.
- Janice Haaken, ‘Sexual Abuse, Recovered Memory and Therapeutic Practice’ (1994) 40 Social Text 115, 141–2.
- J(LA) v J(H) (1993) 102 DLR (4th) 177. It should be noted that the appellant's mother was named as a defendant in MK v MH, above n4, 293.
- Elizabeth Grace and Susan Vella, ‘Vesting Mothers With Power They Do Not Have: the Non-offending Parent in Child Sexual Assault Cases’ (1994) 7 Canadian Journal of Women and the Law 184, 190. Grace and Vella explain that the plaintiff did not seek punitive damages against the defendant father because he had already been criminally convicted: Ibid, 187.
- Graycar, ‘Telling Tales’, above n7, 93.
- Allen, ‘Civil Liability’, above n35, 77.
- Ibid.
- Parkinson, ‘Before the High Court’, above n80, 443, citing with approval the Canadian court's definition of incestuous assault as a breach of fiduciary duty in MK v MH.
- R v Wayland 14 September 1992 (Unrept, Vic SC, Crockett J, 4).
- R v Sposito 8 June 1993 (Unrept, Vic SC, Marks J, 4).
- R v Ware 23 July 1996 (Unrept, Vic SC, Hedigan AJA, 12).
- I thank one of my anonymous referees for this point.
- Sue Jarvis and Fiona Mcllwaine, ‘“Telling the Whole Story”: Reports to the Crimes Compensation Tribunal’ (1996) 7 Australian Feminist Law Journal, 145, 145–6.
Australian Feminist Law Journal
Volume 8, 1997 - Issue 1