Public Law Events Roundup September 2019
Welcome to the September edition of the AUSPUBLAW Australian Public Law Events Roundup.
Remember, if you have an AUSPUBLAW opportunity, conference or significant public lecture that you would like included in this roundup, please contact us at auspublaw@unsw.edu.au. The roundup is published once a month on the first business day of the month, so please let us know in time for that deadline.
Call for Papers: The Fourth Biennial Public Law Conference, University of Ottawa Law School, Common Law Section, 17-19 June 2020
Date: 17 - 19 June 2020
Location: University of Ottawa Law School, Canada
Deadline for Applications: 2 September 2019
The Public Law Conference series is the pre-eminent regular forum for the discussion of public law matters in the common law world. From 17 to 19 June 2020, the University of Ottawa Law School will host the Fourth Biennial Public Law Conference, co-organised by the University of Ottawa, University of Melbourne and University of Cambridge.
The 2020 conference, convened by Peter Oliver (Ottawa), Michael Pal (Ottawa), Jason N E Varuhas (Melbourne), and Shona Wilson Stark (Cambridge), will feature approximately 80 speakers from across the common law world, and bring together over 250 delegates to discuss the most important issues in public law today. The convenors have confirmed the participation of a number of leading judges, scholars and office-holders from common law jurisdictions. The full list of confirmed speakers can be found on the conference website.
The theme of the conference is “Public Law: Rights, Duties and Powers”. The theme is intended to invite engagement with a range of topics related to the conceptual building blocks of public law systems, with a focus on rights, duties and powers. A fuller description of the conference theme can be found here.
The call for papers is now open, and the conference website gives details about how to submit an abstract. The call for papers will close on 2 September 2019. The convenors invite contributions by those at all career stages. The 2020 conference, like the preceding conferences, will include dedicated panel sessions for doctoral students and a fee-waiver programme for doctoral candidates participating in those panels; and the third Richard Hart Prize will be awarded to the best paper by an early career scholar.
Reconsidering ‘revolution by Constitution’: law, social change, justice
ANU College of Law
Date: 4 September 2019
Time: 1:00 – 2:00pm
Location: Fellows Rd Law Theatre 1, ANU College of Law, 5 Fellows Rd, CanberraBased on long-term ethnographic research on the “revolution by constitution” in contemporary Bolivia, this talk by Professor Mark Goodale (University of Lausanne) will examine the theoretical implications of the country’s turn to law as the principal mechanism of structural change and justice-seeking. Given Bolivia’s dependence on law as arguably one of the most radical laboratories for post-Cold War transformation, it offers a unique empirical vantage point for examining the outer boundaries where legal categories and discourses, social change, and historical accounts of justice meet. The talk will trace the contours of these outer boundaries with reference to a range of legal, political, and anthropological theory, including Ran Hirschl’s theory of juristocracy, Nancy Fraser’s revised theory of justice, E. P. Thompson’s obiter dicta on the “logics of law,” and John and Jean Comaroff’s discussion of “lawfare.”
For more information and to register, click here.
Democracy, Human Rights and the Judiciary: the Common Law and the Wider World
Australian Academy of Law
Date: 4 September 2019
Time: 5.00 pm
Location: Court One, Federal Court of Australia, Level 8, Commonwealth Law Courts, 305 William St, MelbourneThis lecture will be delivered by Sir Nicholas Blake, Deputy Judge of the High Court of England and Wales, Queen’s Bench Division, and chaired by the Honourable James Allsop AO, Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Australia.
Further information and registration available here.
2019 Holt Prize Presentation - Dr Shipra Chordia
The Federation Press
Date: 5 September 2019 (RSVP by 3 September)
Time: 5:45 pm for 6:00 – 7:30 pm
Location: University of Sydney Law School, Common Room, Level 4, New Law Building (F10), Camperdown
The Federation Press cordially invites you to the presentation of the 2019 Holt Prize which will be awarded to Shipra Chordia for her manuscript, Proportionality in Australian Constitutional Law. The distinguished judging panel of Professor William Gummow AC, Justice Alan Robertson and Dr Ruth Higgins SC, were unanimous in their decision. Dr Chordia is a barrister at the NSW Bar with a PhD in Constitutional Law from UNSW and an LLB with first class honours from the University of Sydney. She is also a sessional lecturer in public law at UNSW.
The Holt Prize was established in 2015 to honour the late Christopher Holt, co-founder of The Federation Press, and is awarded every second year to a first-time author of a manuscript that covers an academic or practical area of the law. The award, which includes a publishing contract and $12,000 in prize money, reflects the ongoing commitment of The Federation Press to new authors and original Australian scholarship.
Click here to RSVP or call John Xenos on (02) 9552 2200.
RSVP acceptances by Tuesday 3rd September 2019.
The Jack Richardson Oration 2019: The Hon Virginia Bell AC
ACC Australian in conjunction with the ACT Law Society
Date: 9 September 2019
Time: 11:45am
Location: Hotel Realm, National Ballroom, 18 National Circuit, BartonACC Australia in conjunction with the ACT Law Society invite you to the 2019 annual Jack Richardson Oration, proudly sponsored by Sparke Helmore. The 2019 Oration will be delivered by Justice of the High Court, The Hon Virginia Bell AC, and will be in a luncheon format. The Oration is held each year in honour of the late Professor Jack Richarson AO, the Commonwealth's first Ombudsman.
For more information and to purchase tickets, click here.
The Two University Freedoms: Academic Freedom and Freedom of Speech
Academy of Social Sciences in Australia and the University of Melbourne
Date: 10 September 2019
Time: 6:30 – 7:30 pm
Location: Theatre 102, Melbourne Law School, 185 Pelham Street, Melbourne2019 Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia Fay Gale Lecture
Two concepts are much bandied about in contemporary public debate about universities: academic freedom and freedom of speech. Almost everyone agrees that they are very important but opinions differ wildly as to what these two freedoms require. In this lecture, Professor Adrienne Stone (Melbourne Law School) argues that two freedoms are quite distinct: academic freedom springs from the university’s mission to advance and disseminate knowledge, whereas freedom of speech is important because universities are also institutions of civil society.
Professor Stone argues for the primacy of the university’s teaching and research mission. Teaching and research are ordinarily enhanced by a strong and vibrant public debate and culture of freedom of speech. However, where freedom of speech undermines or disregards academic standards and values, freedom of speech should give way.For more information and to register, click here.
The Right to Health in the New Human Rights Act of Queensland – Crash Course
University of Queensland Centre for Policy Futures
Date: 11 September 2019
Time: 9:00 am - 12:00 pm
Location: Level 2, Group Learning Space (273), Global Challenge Institute Building (20), UQ St Lucia CampusIn 2019, Queensland’s Parliament passed the Human Rights Act of Queensland (HRAQ), which will make Queensland the third Australian State/Territory to implement rights legislation.
The new HRAQ will have 23 rights, including the right to health (Article 37). The right to health in the new HRAQ is a significant milestone: this is the first time the right to health will be domesticated and justiciable in Australia.
This workshop will provide a ‘crash course’ on what is the right to health, what are the key right to health challenges likely to emerge in Queensland, and how can this human right be leveraged to advance the health and wellbeing of all Queenslanders, especially as part of Australia’s larger Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) commitment to Leave No One Behind by year 2030.
Further information and registration instructions are available here.
Banishment and the Pre-History of Legitimate Expulsion Power
Statelessness Research Initiative, University of Melbourne Law School
Date: 12 September 2019
Time: 1:00 – 2:00 pm
Location: Room 920, Level 9, Melbourne Law School, 185 Pelham St, MelbourneIn the introduction of a recent work on the denationalization of terrorists across the West, the legal scholar Audrey Macklin announced that 'after decades in exile, banishment is back' (Macklin 2015). Over the last decade, as new laws allowing individuals to be stripped of citizenship have sprung across liberal democratic states, many others have also analogised denationalization to this medieval practice. In this talk, Professor Matthew Gibney (University of Oxford) explores not why banishment has returned, or the consequences of its revival, but why it went away in the first place. Before the twentieth century, the expulsion of individual offenders, typically citizens or settled residents as punishment, was in everyday use across Europe. Banishment’s ubiquity and frequency reflected a widespread and deeply ingrained view that membership and continued presence in political society was contingent upon behaviour that adhered to the law and dominant societal norms. The historical rootedness of banishment, as well as its putative revival, make it important to understand the twists and turns of this practice over the (very) longue durée. This seminar will attempt to answer three questions: first, how are citizenship and banishment interrelated historically? Second, why did banishment fall out of fashion at the end of the eighteenth century? Third, what are the differences and similarities between modern practices of legitimate expulsion power (like deportation and denationalization) and the historical practice of banishment?
For more information and to register, click here.
Discretion, Authority and Relationship: Situating the Importance of Procedure
Julius Stone Institute of Jurisprudence, University of Sydney Law School
Date: 12 September 2019
Time: 6:00 – 8:00 pm
Location: University of Sydney Law School, Common Room, Level 4, New Law Building (F10), Camperdown NSWIn other work ('Fuller's Relationships', forthcoming), Associate Professor Kristen Rundle (University of Melbourne) has developed an account of Lon Fuller's contribution to theorising the demands of the rule of law in terms of prescriptions to be imposed on all governing relationships framed by the authority of law.
The place of procedure within this account is central. As the primary vehicle for relational contact between legal officials and legal subjects, procedures provide the structure through which the authority of law directly touches upon those subject to it. It therefore follows that procedures must be burdened with the same relational demands that inform the creation of a condition of lawful authority in the first place.
Administrative discretion constitutes a particular form of legal relation in which the quality of procedural participation afforded to subjects is determinative of whether it operates as a form of authority or mere power. This paper seeks to develop an understanding of the demands of procedural justice in discretionary settings in a way that builds upon the connections between authority, procedures and relationships revealed in Fuller's thought. In doing so, the paper aims to illuminate the significance of procedure to the authority of discretion as a particular form of legal relation at the same time as it seeks to contribute to a growing scholarly interest in the application of Fuller's jurisprudence to questions of administrative law. The paper will form part of an interdisciplinary volume on procedural justice edited Denise Meyerson, Therese MacDermott and Catriona Mackenzie, to be published in early 2020.For more information and to register, click here.
Political impact: writing submissions to parliamentary inquiries
Centre for Policy Futures and TC Beirne School of Law
Date: 16 September 2019 (RSVP by 13 September 2019)
Time: 12:00 – 1:30 pm
Location: Sir Gerard Brennan Boardroom (W353), Level 3 West Wing, Forgan Smith Building, UQ St LuciaThis event brings together academics from the Centre for Policy Futures and the Law School to deliver a practical, skills-based seminar on writing submissions and appearing before Parliamentary Inquiries.
This is a rare opportunity to hear from experienced experts across a range of fields and receive targeted advice on:
- why parliamentary Inquiries are important and how to find out about them
- how to draft a submission to a parliamentary Inquiry - what techniques to adopt and what to avoid
- collaborating on submissions
- how to get your message across to a government audience
-how to give your research the greatest impact
- what to expect from an appearance before a government inquiry
- how to prepare for your appearance and approach questions.Presenters:
Professor Karen Hussey and Anna Moloney from the Centre for Policy Futures; Justine Bell-James and Rebecca Ananian-Welsh from UQ Law.For more information and to register, click here.
Development in Administrative Law and Human Rights in the Xi Jinping Era – Workshop
Melbourne Law School
Date: 16 September 2019
Time: 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
Location: Room 611, Level 6, Melbourne Law SchoolAdministrative law regulates the relationship between the state and the citizen. Human rights law seeks to protect rights fundamental to leading a decent human life. Inevitably, human rights concepts are deeply implicated in administrative law and the relationship it instantiates between citizen and state. We are now operating in an era where the proper boundaries between citizen and state have been opened up for renewed scrutiny and discussion. What human rights values should administrative law reflect and protect? What type of relationship should law establish between the state and its citizens? In the Xi Jinping era these questions have all been caught up in the debate about the scope and meaning of the Party-state’s commitment to governance according to law.
This workshop brings some leading experts from China to discuss these issues. The focus is on the intersection between the policy of governance according to law, the proper role and scope of administrative law and both of their relationship to human rights.
For more information and to register, click here.
Inconsistency
Australian Association of Constitutional Law
Date: 18 September 2019
Time: 5:30 – 7:00 pm
Location: Law Courts Building, Queens Square, 184 Philip Street, Sydney NSW 2000Speakers: Craig Lenehan (Fifth Floor St James Hall), ; Perry Herzfeld (Eleven Wentworth); Zelie Heger (Eleven Wentworth)
Chair: Alison Hammond (Sixth Floor Selborne/Wentworth)This seminar will feature presentations and discussion of recent decisions of the High Court in Masson v Parsons, Williams v Wreck Bay Aboriginal Community, and Work Health Authority v Outback Ballooning.
2019 Derek Fielding Memorial Lecture 2019 – Hon Chief Justice Catherine Holmes
Queensland Council for Civil Liberties
Date: 18 September 2019
Time: 6:00 – 9:00 pm
Location: All Saints Convention Centre, 330 Ann St, BrisbaneThe Queensland Council for Civil Liberties presents the 2019 Derek Fielding Memorial Lecture delivered by the Hon. Chief Justice Catherine Holmes.
The QCCL has been campaigning for a Human Rights Act for 50 years. It will come into force on 1 January 2020. Come and hear the Chief Justice of Queensland speak on its implications for Queensland law.
Canapes and drinks provided.For further information and to purchase tickets, click here.
The Journey of a Restless Advocate: Creating a more Gender Equal Australia
Australian Academy of Law
Date: 19 September 2019 (RSVP by 13 September 2019)
Time: 5:00 pm
Location: Nitmiluk Lounge Level 4, Parliament House, DarwinThe speaker, Ms Elizabeth Broderick AO, has brought together captains of Industry, Sport, Governments and Defence Force chiefs to address gender inequality in Australia and beyond. As Australia’s longest serving Sex Discrimination Commissioner (2007-2015), Elizabeth worked tirelessly to break down structural and social barriers faced by women and men, and to promote gender equality. Her review into the treatment of women in the Australian Defence Force led to sweeping cultural reforms. She established and convenes the globally recognised ‘Male Champions of Change’ strategy, enlisting a ‘who’s who’ of powerful male leaders to tackle workplace gender inequality. She is a powerful and influential voice in the struggle for gender equality, enlisting both women and men as agents of change.
For more information including registration information, click here.
YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH? Media’s Dwindling Role in Democracy
Melbourne Law School
Date: 19 September 2019
Time: 5:30 – 7:30 pm
Location: Room 102, Level 1, Melbourne Law School, 185 Pelham St, MelbourneGovernments and journalists have always had an uneasy relationship. But relations are at a low ebb at present after a series of police raids on media agencies, the introduction of laws targetting whistleblowers and journalists, and a deepening divide over who should know what. Is national security becoming a fix-all for political insecurity? In Australia in 2019, media freedoms are under threat and globally our reputation as a strong democracy is under a cloud. The need to speak truth to power is as important as ever yet the public, the voters, the citizens are left wondering who to trust - the media or the government? Join our esteemed panel to discuss what’s needed to restore trust.
Presenters: Karen Percy (ABC Senior Reporter), John Pesutto (Victorian Shadow Attorney General), Sandie Keane (Editor-in-Chief, Michael West Media), Dr Ben Eltham (Monash University)
For more information and to register, click here.
Western Sahara - Africa's last colony - the legal, political and human aspects of the conflict
Sydney Centre for International Law at University of Sydney Law School
Date: 25 September 2019
Time: 1:00 – 2:00pm
Location: Common Room, Level 4, New Law Building, University of SydneyThe seminar, presented by Kamal Fadel (Representative of the Frent Polisario in Australia and New Zealand) and Tecber Ahmed Saleh (advocate for human rights), explores the unfinished decolonisation, by considering the legal, political and historical aspects of Western Sahara as a non-self-governing territory, which raise questions about the international right to self-determination and the enduring legacies of colonialism and occupation.
In 1975 Morocco invaded Western Sahara when Spain abandoned its former colony. Saharawis fled the occupation, setting up refugee camps in south-west Algeria. Today 173,600 remain in the refugee camps supported by the UN Food Program and other humanitarian aid while the Saharawis who remained in their homeland face constant persecution, arrest and imprisonment at the hands of Moroccan occupying forces. In 1975 the International Court of Justice found that Western Sahara was not terra nullius prior to its colonisation by Spain. The court reaffirmed that the people of Western Sahara are entitled to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination and independence. Today the Saharawi continue their nonviolent struggle, waiting for the United Nations referendum on self-determination agreed in 1991.
For more information and to register, click here.
Addressing Modern Slavery: Book Launch
UNSW Law
Date: 25 September 2019
Time: 5:45 – 7:00 pm
Location: UNSW Bookshop, Quadrangle Building (E15), Kensington Campus, SydneyAuthors: Justine Nolan, (UNSW Law); Martijn Boersma (UTS Faculty of Business)
Chair: Professor Andrea Durbach (UNSW Law)
Commentators: Professor Jennifer Burn (NSW Interim Anti-Slavery Commissioner and Faculty of Law, UTS); Jo-anne Schofield (National Secretary of United Voice); Amy Sinclair (Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, Australian and Pacific Representative)
An estimated 40 million people are modern-day slaves, more than ever before in human history. Long after slavery was officially abolished, the practice not only continues but thrives. Whether they are women in electronics or apparel sweatshops, children in brick kilns or on cocoa farms, or men trapped in bonded labour working on construction sites, millions of people globally are forced to perform labour through coercion, intimidation or deceit.
In a world of growing inequality and trade-offs between the haves and the have-nots, consumers, business and government are all part of the problem and the solution. While we have all become accustomed to fast fashion and cheap consumer goods, the affordability of these commodities often comes at the price of human exploitation. Addressing Modern Slavery examines slavery in the modern world and outlines ways it can be stopped.
This event is free of charge, but you are kindly requested to register attendance here.
Just Voting Procedures under Non-Ideal Circumstances
Julius Stone Institute of Jurisprudence, University of Sydney Law School
Date: 26 September 2019
Time: 6:00 – 8:00 pm
Location: University of Sydney Law School, Common Room, Level 4, New Law Building (F10), CamperdownMajoritarian rule is often defended as an "intrinsically just" procedure which, by granting equal voting powers to all citizens, respects all members as equals. In this talk, Dr Piero Moraro (Charles Sturt University) raises some issues with this claim; in doing so, he has no intention to undermine the democratic project, rather, he seeks to emphasise another value usually associated with democracy, i.e. justice.
He draws attention to a morally relevant way in which citizens, under non-ideal circumstances, are not equal: they face different levels of risks in relation to the electoral outcome. For example, citizens from socially disadvantaged backgrounds risk losing more (in terms of basic needs) compared to their wealthier fellows, from a change in government; a just procedure should be able to capture these different degrees of vulnerability, when they are morally significant. Applying an argument sketched by Harry Brighouse and Marc Fleurbaey (2008), Dr Moraro contends that voting power should be granted in proportion to what one has at stake: those who have more to lose should have more power to influence the outcome. By focusing on social life under neo-liberal regimes, he claims that the votes of economically disadvantaged citizens should be afforded more weight, in comparison to those of their wealthier peers. Having presented his argument, he will consider some objections.For more information and to register, click here.
Sir Anthony Mason Constitutional Law Essay Competition
Law Society of NSW Young Lawyers Public Law and Government Committee
Deadline for submissions: 30 September 2019Students studying an undergraduate law degree are invited to submit an essay of no more than 2,500 words (including footnotes but not bibliography) by 30 September 2019 on one of the following questions:
1. With reference to Burns v Corbett [2018] HCA 15, discuss how Federation affected the power of the former colonies to allocate judicial power.
2. Does the Australian Constitution meet the commitment to restrained and limited government endorsed by modern accounts of constitutionalism?
3. “[Constitutionalism] comprises a commitment to fundamental self-determination... along with an ideology of restrained and limited government which in many ways is quite uneasy with or hostile to the idea of popular government.” – Jeremy Waldron, ‘Constitutionalism: A Skeptical View’ (2012) Is Waldron right? Discuss.
4. Does the principle of structured proportionality require the judges to venture beyond the exercise of federal judicial power under the Constitution, and if so, in what respects?Please email your essay as a PDF by 30 September 2019 to publiclaw.chair@younglawyers.com.au.
Prize money details
First place: $1,200 gift card; Second place: $800 gift card; Third place: $500 gift card. The student who wins first prize will also receive the wonderful opportunity to publish their essay on AUSPUBLAW.Acknowledgements
The Public Law and Government Committee is grateful for the support of Sir Anthony Mason AC KBE GBM QC, the Law Society of NSW and Gilbert+Tobin Centre of Public Law.Awards Night Info
The presentation evening will be held on Thursday 24 October from 6–8pm. The speaker for the ceremony will be David Bennett AC QC, former Solicitor-General (1998-2008) – currently practising at 5 Wentworth Chambers.
UNSW Law Book Forum: ‘The Child’s Right to Development”
UNSW Law and the Australian Human Rights Institute
Date: 1 October 2019
Time: 5:00 – 7:00 pm
Location: Level 2 Common Room, UNSW Law Building, Kensington Campus, SydneyAuthor: Dr Noam Peleg (UNSW Law)
Chair: Scientia Professor Louise Chappell (UNSW Law)
Commentators: Professor John Tobin (The University of Melbourne); Dr Faith Gordon (Monash University); Ms Megan Mitchell (National Children’s Commissioner)
This book provides a comprehensive account of how child development and the right to development of children have been understood and utilised in international children's rights law. The book argues that conceptions of childhood that focus either on children's future as adults, or on children's lives in the present, overlook the hybridity of children's lived experiences. The book therefore suggests a new conception of childhood - namely, 'hybrid childhood' - which accommodates respect for children's agency and human dignity in the present, in the process of growth, and in the outcomes of this process when the child becomes an adult. Consequently, and building on the capability approach's idea of human development, the book presents a radical new interpretation of the child's right to development under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. It offers a comprehensive interpretation of the right to development, and situates it in the broader context of children’s lives and children’s law.
This event is free of charge, but you are kindly requested to register attendance here.
Burns v Corbett [2018] HCA 15 and the Future of State Administrative Tribunals
Australian Association of Constitutional Law
Date: 1 October 2019
Time: 5:30 – 6:30 pm
Place: Neil McPhee Room, Level 1 Owen Dixon Chambers East, 205 William Street, Melbourne VIC 3000Speakers: Mr Mark Costello, Victorian Bar; Associate Professor Luke Beck, Monash University
Chair: Ms Julia Watson, Victorian BarThe High Court's decision Burns v Corbett significantly narrowed the jurisdiction of State tribunals. The High Court held that the Australian Constitution precludes a State tribunal that is not a 'court of a State' from adjudicating disputes involving any of the matters set out in ss 75 and 76 of the Australian Constitution, even when the dispute involves the application of State legislation. The decision affects all areas of law including anti-discrimination disputes, residential tenancy disputes, and building and construction disputes.
This seminar presented by the Australian Association of Constitutional Law will examine the decision in Burns v Corbett and the legislative responses to it in various jurisdictions.
2019 Sir George Turner Lecture: Artificial Intelligence – The Implications for the Legal Profession, the Rule of Law and the Adversarial Process
Melbourne Law School
Date: 1 October 2019
Time: 6:00 – 7:00 pm
Location: Woodward Conference Centre, Level 10, Melbourne Law School, 185 Pelham Street, MelbourneArtificial intelligence (AI) systems are increasingly employed for decision-making in both public administration and private enterprise. Although a late arrival in law, AI is already used for documentary discovery and document review in commercial transactions. The court too is now beginning to exploit digitisation.
Just as AI can displace lawyers in determining relevance, it might one day offer more demanding services, including adjudication. It is uncertain to what extent AI would penetrate the administration of justice. But if we are going to have a say in future evolution, we need to understand the technological direction of travel and its challenges. Such understanding cannot provide complete control over change, but may help us ensure that it is beneficial.
Lecture presented by Professor Emeritus Adrian Zuckerman (University of Oxford). For more information and to register, click here.
2019 John Toohey Oration - The Development of Native Title: Opening Out Eyes to Shared History
UWA Law School and John Toohey Chambers
Date: 2 October 2019
Time: 6:00 – 7:30 pm
Location: Perth Town HallUWA Law School and John Toohey Chambers invite you to join us for the 2019 John Toohey Oration.
The John Toohey Oration honours the career and contribution to public life of a distinguished graduate of The University of Western Australia, Justice John Leslie Toohey. After graduating in Arts and Law, the Honourable John Leslie Toohey AC QC went on to become an outstanding legal practitioner and one of the country's most eminent jurists.
The 2019 John Toohey Oration titled ‘The Development of Native Title: Opening Out Eyes to Shared History’ will be delivered by Justice Michelle Gordon AC. The lecture will address the relationship between history, facts and law in native title.
Places are limited, registration is essential – click here to register.
The Gerard Brennan Lecture: Just How Common is the Common Law? A Comparative Perspective
Bond University Law School
Date: 3 October 2019
Time: 5:30 – 6:30 pm
Location: Basil Sellers Theatre, Building 6 – Bond University, 14 University Drive, Robina QldCountries who were members of the British Empire were required to be uniform in their decision-making. That time has passed. The late 20th century in particular has seen divergences more so than convergences between common law courts, in particular those of Australia, Canada and the UK, in the application and development of aspects of the common law. Why did this occur and what does this mean for the common law? Is uniformity of the common law across jurisdictions a goal worth pursuing? Is it realistic? Indeed is it possible?
Presented by the Hon Chief Justice Susan Kiefel AC. For more information and to register, click here.
Julian Burnside QC – Refugees: What Can Be Done?
ANU College of Law
Date: 9 October 2019
Time: 6:00 – 7:30 pm
Location: Theatre 2, Cultural Centre Kambri, Univeristy Avenue, Acton ACTThere are currently 70.8 million forcibly displaced people worldwide. Most of them are internally displaced: there are about 25 million refugees on the move, looking for a safe place to live. About 37,000 people each day are forced to flee their home due to persecution and conflict. In this climate, a durable solution is urgently required.
Julian Burnside AO QC is a barrister, and one of Australia’s leading human rights and refugee advocates. We are incredibly fortunate that Mr Burnside is joining us to share his expertise on important areas for domestic and international refugee law reform.We are also privileged to be learning from Mr Burnside about his experiences practising human rights law, and the possible avenues that the next generation of aspiring human rights lawyers can pursue.
For more information and to register, click here.
The Two University Freedoms: Academic Freedom and Freedom of Speech
ANU College of Law
Date: 10 October 2019
Time: 1:00 – 2:00 pm
Location: Phillipa Weeks Staff Library, Building 7, ANU College of Law, 5 Fellows Rd, Acton ACTSeminar with Professor Adrienne Stone, University of Melbourne
For more information and to register, click here.
Human Rights and Climate Change Conference
Friends of the Earth Climate Frontlines, the University of Queensland’s Human Rights Consortium, the Pacific Islands Council of Queensland and Pacific Climate Warriors 350
Date: 11 October 2019
Location: Global Change Institute, Building 20, University of Queensland St Lucia CampusAustralian and Pacific Island Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples are on the front line of the global climate crisis. They are also leaders in charting responses to this crisis that can uphold human, and including Indigenous, rights.
This one-day event will bring together speakers from across Australia and the Pacific to identify the specific human rights, including Indigenous rights, challenged by the climate crisis. It will also create a forum for strategic alliance building across NGOs, researchers and community organisations to support on-going rights based climate campaigning, research and education.
This event will include keynote addresses from Dr Anne Poelina – Nyikina Warrwa Traditional Custodian from the Mardoowarra, Tony McAvoy SC – Australia’s first Indigenous Senior Counsel, and Genevieve Jiva, coordinator Pacific Islands Climate Action Network.
The day will include panel sessions and round table discussions on:
- the right to a healthy environment: what’s under threat?
- displacement, migration and re-settlement
- opportunities for climate litigation
- youth and climate change
- community leadership and involvement in planning for climate change
- gender, rights and climate changeFor further information and to register, click here.
Call for Applications: 2019 Kathleen Fitzpatrick Visiting Fellowships in the Laureate Program in Comparative Constitutional Law
Deadline for applications: 13 October 2019Applications are invited from suitably qualified female doctoral and early career scholars to participate in the Laureate Program in Comparative Constitutional Law at Melbourne Law School during 2020. The Kathleen Fitzpatrick Visiting Fellowships allow outstanding female doctoral and early career researchers the opportunity to visit Melbourne and work with the program for one to two months each year.
The Fellows will be closely integrated into the Laureate Project and the academic life of the Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies, taking part in project events and workshops, and participating in work-in-progress seminars.
Applications close 13 October 2019. Further information is available here.
Living the Public Law Dream
Australian Association of Constitutional Law
Date: 14 October 2019
Time: 4:00 pm
Location: UWA Law Lecture TheatreChair: Associate Professor Sarah Murray
Speakers: Joshua Thomson SC (WA Solicitor-General), the Hon Melissa Parke (United Nations Group of Eminent Experts on Yemen), Senior Member Lisa Eddy (SAT, WA)
The Global Compacts: A Missed Opportunity or a Promising Tool?
Statelessness Research Initiative, University of Melbourne Law School
Date: 17 October 2019
Time: 1:00 – 2:00 pm
Location: Room 608, Level 6, Melbourne Law School, 185 Pelham St, MelbourneThe Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) and the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) were broadly adopted in December 2018. The adoption of the global compacts has been one of the main developments on international migration governance for decades.
This talk will explore the process for adoption of the compacts focusing particularly on the GCM and also looking at its content. It will explore whether the compacts could be used as a tool or whether their adoption has been a missed opportunity. The talk will also focus on the global architecture for implementation of the global compacts and how new mechanisms and processes are developing.
For more information and to register, click here.
Digital Legislation
Law, Science and Technology Program, TC Beirne School of Law, University of Queensland
Date: 23 October 2019
Time: 6:00 – 7:00 pm
Location: Seminar Room 3, UQ Brisbane City, Level 6, 293 Queen Street, BrisbaneIn this talk, Professor Guido Governatori will introduce the paradigm of Digital Legislation, namely, norms in a normative system that are available in a digital format, executable by machine and understandable by humans. He will present a vision of Digital Legislation and its benefits, and also outline a technical roadmap to implement this vision.
Professor Guido Governatori leads the research activities on Legal Informatics and Computational Law at CSIRO’s Data61.
More information on this event is available here.
Patron’s Address: The Academy and the Courts: what do they mean to each other today?
Australian Academy of Law
Date: 31 October 2019
Time: 5:15 for 5:30 pm
Location: Banco Court, Level 3, Queen Elizabeth II Courts of Law, 415 George St, BrisbaneOne of the purposes for which the AAL was founded was to provide a bridge between the academy and the courts. This draws attention to their relationship in the past and the present. To what extent does the judiciary look to the academy for the purposes of its decision-making? What does the academy take from those decisions? Was there a time when the courts looked to the academy more often and when the academy spoke to the courts? What, if any, changes have taken place which affect the possibility of this communication? The Patron’s address, delivered by The Hon Chief Justice Susan Kiefel AC, Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia, will discuss these and related topics.
For further information and to register click here.
Public International Law: The role of the International Court of Justice from an Australian perspective
International Law Section, Law Council of Australia
Date: 5 November 2019
Time: 7:45 – 9:00 am
Location: Clayton Utz, 1 Bligh St, SydneyJoin the International Law Section on the 5 November 2019 in Sydney for another exciting ILS International Law and Practice Course lecture with guest speaker Dr Christopher Ward SC who will speak on the topic of ‘Public International Law: The role of the International Court of Justice from an Australian perspective'.
This lecture will consider the Australian experience of public international law through its engagement with the International Court of Justice. It will touch upon issues of jurisdiction, the structure of the Court and Australia’s role in developing the Court and participation in the work of the Court, including as a litigant and through membership of Judges of the Court. It will consider the continuing relevance of the International Court of Justice in an increasingly fragmented international litigation landscape.
Dr Christopher Ward SC is an experienced advocate and specialist in public international law and international commercial law. He has a multidisciplinary and international practice and works in large commercial disputes and inquiries, international law, constitutional and governmental disputes. He has particular expertise in law of the sea, aviation, international anti-corruption and bribery cases. He works regularly in pro bono human rights matters and is the global President of the International Law Association.
For more information and to purchase a ticket, click here.
Protecting Rights, Addressing Inequality: Writs as Constitutional Transfer
UNSW Law School and Konrad Adenaur Stiftung
Date: 15-16 November 2019
Time: 9.45 am – 3.45 pm
Location: Level 2, Law Building, UNSW Sydney, KensingtonThe courts are often a key site of the struggle for the enforcement of rights and accountability. The rise of constitutional adjudication globally is usually framed within the context of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the creation of independent constitutional courts in many parts of the world over the past three decades. This development is held up as a key moment in the globalization of constitutional law. And yet, there have been prior moments in history when key ideas and institutions of constitutional review spread across regions and around the world.
One example is the prerogative writs, a set of common law remedies that were included in post-colonial independence constitutions across former British colonies, particularly across South Asia, as well as parts of Africa, the Pacific and the Caribbean (Crouch 2018). Constitutional writs – the remedies of habeas corpus, certiorari, prohibition, mandamus and quo warranto – are an important remedy both historically and for contemporary modes of administrative adjudication. In the immediate post-colonial era, the constitutional writs were a remedy sought for the protection of rights against the power of the state. While the postcolonial courts in Burma were among the first to develop the constitutional writs in 1948-1949, it is in India that the writs became associated with judicial activism. The writs in constitutional form were also included in places such as Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, among other countries.
This workshop seeks to investigate the history, development and variations of this model of constitutional adjudication, following the transformation from the common law remedies of England to a constitutional means of protecting rights. It will also consider the symbolic status of constitutional writs, how the importance of these remedies has changed over time and under what conditions. This workshop seeks to draw attention to the role of constitutional writs as legal transfer and consider these remedies as the intersection of constitutional and administrative law and rights protection. The constitutional writs have important implications for the protection of rights against the power of the state and for addressing inequality.Further information and registration available here.
Kaldor Centre Annual Conference 2019
Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, UNSW Law
Date: 26 November 2019
Location: UNSW Law Building, Law Theatre G04, Kensington NSWGood decisions: Achieving fairness in refugee law, policy and practice
Every day, decisions are made about whether people need international protection because they are at risk of persecution or other forms of serious harm. A variety of people make these life-or-death calls – immigration officials at the airport, tribunal members and judges, public servants, even Ministers themselves. In another sense, the decisions are also made by the general public, because the politicians they elect to public office will shape the overall approach. This conference explores aspects of refugee decision-making from the micro to the macro level – from individual cases through to wider public policy. It asks how we can ensure that refugee decision-making is fair, transparent and protection-sensitive, with outcomes that are consistent with international law.For more information and to register, click here.
22nd Geoffrey Sawer Lecture: the reserve powers in times of political crisis
Centre for International and Public Law – ANU College of Law
Date: 27 November 2019
Time: 6:30 – 7:00 pm
Location: Finkel Theatre, John Curtin School of Medical Research, 131 Garran Rd, Acton ACTBrexit in the United Kingdom and the Turnbull/Dutton leadership challenge in Australia have given rise to serious consideration about how a Prime Minister might advise the Queen or Governor-General, and whether reserve powers might be exercised, with respect to matters including royal assent, the prorogation or dissolution of Parliament, the appointment and dismissal of a Prime Minister and the exercise of the caretaker conventions. What was previously regarded as inconceivable, has been seriously contemplated. This lecture, given by Professor Anne Twomey (University of Sydney), will place these controversies in the context of constitutional principles, such as the rule of law and representative government, to consider how reserve powers can best operate as a matter of hard or soft power in a manner that supports, rather than opposes, those principles.
For further information and to register, click here.
Legal Education Research Conference
Date: 27 – 28 November 2019
Location: UNSW Law Building, Kensington NSWThe theme of the 2019 conference is: ‘Teaching as a Subversive Activity’. We are excited to be featuring panels, papers, posters and performances on legal education research related to the theme, which we have drawn from Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner’s classic Teaching as a Subversive Activity (1969). We take this to mean the consideration of research into legal education as lifetime learning, as ‘crap-detecting’, as creating meaning, as transformative and as developing world-changing thinking within the legal context.
In an age when everyone aspires to teach critical thinking skills in the classroom (or, at least, no teacher would say they want to produce uncritical students!), what does it mean today to be a subversive law teacher? Who or what might a subversive law teacher seek to subvert – the authority of the law, the university, their own authority as teachers, perhaps? Are law students ripe for subversion, agents of, or impediments to, subversion?
Keynote speakers: Emerita Professor Raewyn Connell; Professor David Dixon; Professor Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos; Emerita Professor Margaret Thornton; Professor Prue Vines.
For more information and to register, click here. Registration is free for everyone.
“Constitutional Resilience in South Asia” Workshop
The Asian Law Centre and Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies at Melbourne Law School
Date: 5 - 7 December 2019
Location: The Asian Law Centre and Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies at Melbourne Law SchoolConcerns about the stability of democracies, even long-established democracies, have been rising globally. As a region, South Asia has had a tumultuous and varied relationship with constitutional democracy.
Despite presenting a wide range of examples of democratic experimentation in the global South, and housing a huge chunk of humanity, the region has remained relatively ignored by constitutional law and democracy scholars. This workshop aims to begin to address this lacuna by bringing together scholars (especially early career scholars) working on the region to workshop papers on the resilience of democratic institutions in one or more countries in the region.
Papers can look at design and functioning of institutions such as political parties, legislatures, political executive, bureaucracy, courts, 4th branch/integrity institutions, media, and civil society, and their role in strengthening or undermining constitutional democracy.For further information and to register, see here.
2019 Law and Society Association of Australia and New Zealand Conference: Survive, Thrive, Die. Law in End Times
Law and Society Association of Australia and New Zealand and Southern Cross University School of Law and Justice
Date: 5 - 7 December 2019
Location: School of Law and Justice, Southern Cross University, Gold Coast CampusSocial upheaval, political uncertainty, the end of history, or climate collapse: increasingly, such narratives seem to justify the state of exception in a plethora of contexts, slowly eroding the idea that social, political, and environmental stability can ever be achieved through the rule of law. The conference invites socio-legal scholars to re-imagine the question of law in the face of the ‘end times’.
Papers or panel proposals (of three to four papers) are invited on a broad range of law and society topics relating to the conference theme of ‘Law in End Times’.
The committee welcomes proposals across a range of disciplines including (but not limited to) law, humanities, social science, or the sciences.
Further information is available here.
Australian and New Zealand Law and History Society Annual Conference: Does Law’s History Matter? The Politics of our Disciplinary Practices
Australian and New Zealand Law and History Society (ANZLHS)
Date: 11 - 14 December 2019
Location: City Queen Campus, Victoria University, 256 Queen St, MelbourneWriting law’s history has long been understood as a purposeful practice, both necessary and never complete, as the eminent British historian F.W. Maitland noted more than a century ago. Today with the flourishing of imperial and postcolonial scholarship, Maitland’s advocacy of researching law’s past prompts renewed attention to the progenitors, methods and politics of our disciplinary practices. The imperative of capturing and presenting that knowledge seems greater than ever before. Yet for those of us engaged in historical study it can often appear that what we do, and why we do it, is not always well recognised or as valued as it should be. Simultaneously, questions abound about the implications of our practice and its political impact or purpose.
For this conference, we invite those who bring an historical perspective on law to consider together the many ways our work has in the past, and continues into the future, to matter. For example: what is the politics in our chosen methods, or the value in our choice of subject matter? Does it matter how we present and produce work for different audiences (court, academy, or public), or has it mattered in the past? Does it matter to the reception of our work what sources we find and why we use them? And does it matter with whom we write; and whose laws, and experiences of law, we write about? What can we learn from critical study, however incomplete?On behalf of ANZLHS, the Conference Organising Committee cordially invites papers on this theme from any period, geographical area, and from all disciplines - including but not limited to law, history, indigenous studies, environmental studies, legal theory, and gender studies.
Further information is available here.
Public Law in the Classroom 2020
Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law, UNSW, the Public Law and Policy Research Unit, University of Adelaide, and the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law, Monash University
Date: 20 February 2020
Location: UNSW Law Building (F8), Kensington Campus, UNSW SydneyPublic Law in the Classroom has become a community-building forum in which teachers of Australian public law can share ideas and inspire one another. The 2020 Workshop will be opening with a panel session on How technology has changed public law and how we must respond in the classroom, and closing with a panel on Increasing student awareness of public lawyering.
Our second session will be a special session in which we are calling for abstracts from early career public law teachers on the topic of Contextualising public law for students. The session will be made up of short presentations between 5-7 minutes. We are really pleased that this year we have small grants to support early career teachers to attend the session (covering flights and other transport costs) - abstracts are invited from early career teachers of public law for the Workshop Session 2 at Public Law in the Classroom 2020. The abstract must contain your title and a brief explanation of your proposed presentation. Please submit abstracts by Friday 27 September 2019 to gtcentre@unsw.edu.au. The workshop organisers will advise on successful submissions by 18 October 2019.
For further information and to register for the conference, click here.