In this article we apply the method of quantitative textual analysis known as ‘topic modelling’ to a significant Australian legal text corpus: that of judgments of the High Court of Australia from 1903 to 2015. The High Court of Australia has been a perennial topic for study and analysis. It is the highest court in the Australian judicial hierarchy and the site of many of the most significant contests of legal doctrine and practice in Australian history. We find that the topic models generated by this research enable the development of a range of unique, novel and robust observations of the High Court’s judicial workload and the shifting make-up of its legal subject matter over time. Moreover, this article reveals the feasibility and value of topic modelling as a method for the study of legal texts and practices that might fruitfully complement other methods of legal scholarship. The results represent a unique, novel and robust contribution to the study of the High Court’s judicial workload throughout its history. The method reveals new perspectives on the judicial workload, and its legal subject matter, not least across time. Based on the outcomes in our test cases, we believe topic modelling of legal texts represents an opportunity for new methodological problems and questions to be advanced, and for legal scholarship and analysis to render new insights whilst testing existing ones. Finally, we note that the techniques used herein have significant potential for extension into legal research, classification and search practices; a topic we will take up in future work.

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Due to developments in science and biotechnology, the concept of 'gene doping' is emerging as the number one threat to fair play in sport. This procedure, which involves the manipulation of one's natural genetic characteristics in order to enhance athletic ability, has been banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) since 2003. Given the irreversible and potentially undetectable nature of this nascent form of enhancement, it is clear that gene doping poses one of the toughest challenges that anti-doping authorities have yet to face.By adopting an inter-disciplinary approach to the issue that focuses on the scientific, legal, practical and ethical issues associated with this pre-emptive prohibition of gene doping, this article arrives at a somewhat inflammatory and provocative conclusion: it might be time for sport's stakeholders to consider allowing -and regulating to a safe level -the use of genetic modification in sport. The future of cheating in sport is upon us, and the time to act is now.