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'Employment or Nothing'

Douglas Freeburn

University of Queensland Law Journal2025https://doi.org/10.38127/uqlj.v44i1.8931article
ABDC B
Weight
0.50

What the paper says

This article concerns the extent to which institutions should be held vicariously liable for abuse perpetrated by non-employees. Recently, in Bird v DP (‘Bird’), the High Court of Australia confirmed that a relationship of employment is a precondition to vicarious liability attaching to a defendant (subject to limited exceptions). Contrary to developments in overseas jurisdictions, the Court refused to expand the doctrine to encapsulate relationships ‘akin to employment’. This article first details the doctrine of vicarious liability and its application to institutional abuse cases. It then compares the historical approach in Australia to that adopted in the United Kingdom and Canada. Finally, it focuses upon the decision in Bird and analyse the competing arguments as to the appropriateness of the binary ‘employment or nothing’ test.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.38127/uqlj.v44i1.8931

Or copy a formatted citation

@article{douglas2025,
  title        = {{'Employment or Nothing'}},
  author       = {Douglas Freeburn},
  journal      = {University of Queensland Law Journal},
  year         = {2025},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.38127/uqlj.v44i1.8931},
}

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Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.