Dunedin Airport in New Zealand recently placed a cap of three minutes to hug and farewell loved ones in the airport’s drop-off zone in order to ensure safety and efficient traffic flow. Here, we unpack what common law precedent tells us about the imposition of such rules in public settings.

In this episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with Dr Mark Giancaspro, a senior law lecturer at the University of Adelaide and barrister and solicitor in South Australia, to discuss the recent cap on hugs introduced at Dunedin Airport, how and why the rule has been implemented, and why contract law seems to suggest there are no legal issues with such a cap on airport farewells.

Giancaspro delves into the implicit acceptance of rules promoted via signage once one enters airport grounds, whether such a rule would violate anti-discrimination laws, whether an individual’s acceptance of the airport’s rules can be implicitly accepted even if communication from the airport is verbal, and ultimately why consideration of such legal quirks is a meaningful endeavour.

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