Public Law Events Roundup February 2022
Welcome to the February edition of the AUSPUBLAW Australian Public Law Events Roundup. We would firstly like to draw your attention to the following opportunity for public law teachers:
Public Law in the Classroom Workshop 2022
Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law, University of New South Wales; Public Law and Policy Research Unit, University of Adelaide; Castan Centre for Human Rights Law, Monash University
Date: 10 February 2022
Time: 11:00am-2:30pm (AEDT)
Location: OnlineThe eighth annual Public Law in the Classroom workshop will be held via Zoom on Thursday 10 February 2022. The past seven workshops have been a great success, each attracting around 70 public law teachers from across the country and internationally.
The first session will be on the theme of Teacher Engagement and Motivation. This session is 90 minutes in length, commencing at 11:00 am and concluding at 12:30pm AEDT.
Panel:
Dr Rebecca Collie, University of New South Wales
Dr Sarah Hook, Western Sydney University
Dr Murray Wesson, University of Western AustraliaThe second session will be centred around the theme of Extensions of Public Law. This session is 90 minutes in length, commencing at 1:00 pm and concluding at 2:30pm AEDT.
Panel:
Dr Dani Larkin, University of New South Wales
Dr Janina Boughey, University of New South Wales
Dr Eric Windholz, Monash UniversityFor more information, and to register, click here.
And, as always, on the day following Public Law in the Classroom, the annual Gilbert + Tobin Centre Constitutional Law Conference will be held:
Constitutional Law Conference
Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law, University of New South Wales; Australian Association of Constitutional Law
Date: 11 February 2022
Time: 8:30am-7:00pm (AEDT)
Location: OnlineThe virtual conference will feature discussions of important developments in the High Court, the Federal Court and State Courts and provide an overview of the key public law debates in 2021. The conference will include sessions on the separation of powers and administrative justice, the implied freedom of political communication and its limits, and the constitutionality of national and international border closures, and related disputes between Mr Clive Palmer and the state of Western Australia.
The conference will be addressed and attended by leading judges, academics, barristers and government lawyers, and include multiple opportunities for informal interaction.
There is a registration fee for this event.
For more information, and to register, click here.
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. We are grateful to Kelly Yoon for compiling this roundup.
ANU Law and Philosophy Forum: Reflections on Death
Australian National University College of Law
Date: 8 February 2022
Time: 1:00-2:00pm (AEDT)
Location: Online or In-person at Liz Allen Meeting Room, Room 7.4.5, ANU College of Law, 5 Fellows RoadThe ANU Law and Philosophy Forum is delighted to announce its first meeting in 2022: a reading and discussion led by Dr Joshua Neoh, who will be reflecting on the topic of death.
The discussion will be based upon Bernard Williams’s 1973 paper, ‘The Makropulos Case: Reflections on the Tedium of Immortality’.
When is the right time to die? Death can come too early, but it can also come too late. In many cases, death comes like a thief in the night to rob one of life, but is it all that bad? Even if life is a great good, there is the risk that one might end up having too much of a good thing. In this seminar, we will consider these mortal and morbid questions by reflecting on the Makropulos case.
For more information, and to register, click here.
Call for Papers: New Technologies on the Global Battlespace – 2022 ANZSIL IPSIG Workshop
Law and the Future of War Research Group, University of Queensland; International Peace and Security Interest Group, Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law
Paper proposal deadline: 13 February 2022 (for workshop on 13 May 2022)
Location: UQ St Lucia Campus, BrisbaneTechnology has become inextricably linked with national and global security. New developments in science and technology create new opportunities to protect national interests or to promote the global. At the same time, they give rise to new vulnerabilities and risks. Technological advances also raise many legal issues, including international humanitarian law/the law of armed conflict, the law relating to the use of force, arms control law, peacekeeping law, human rights law, as well as international and transnational criminal law.
The 2022 edition of the IPSIG workshop seeks to facilitate a discussion between ANZSIL members and legal practitioners about their work pertaining to this broad theme. We encourage, in particular, discussion of the following topics:
New technologies in the global battlespace, such as military uses of unmanned and autonomous systems, cyber capabilities, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, chemical and biological substances
The use of new technologies outside of armed conflict in furtherance of national or global security and the applicable legal regimes and challenges, including questions about the notion of sovereignty in a digital age
The use of technologies in the context of ‘grey zone activities’ aimed at destabilising adversary without triggering an armed conflict
The use of new technologies in counterterrorism and surveillance
The proliferation of military and security technologies, and regulatory responses, including export controls and sanctions
The many roles of private actors in relation to new technologies
The funding of military and national security technology
New technologies and the international criminal trial, including the use of technology in the collection of evidence, the availability of cyber evidence, admissibility of evidence collected or created by technological means, and the judicial use of decision-support systems
The regulatory framework of national and international cyber-security
Proposals for papers should be submitted no later than 13 February 2022. Draft papers should be submitted by 13 April 2022 to allow for exchange with workshop participants ahead of the workshop. The workshop will take place on 13 May 2022 at the University of Queensland’s St Lucia Campus in Brisbane.
For more information, and to submit a proposal for a paper, click here.
ANU Law 60th Anniversary Conference: Public Law and Inequality
Centre for International and Public Law, Australian National University
Date: 16 February – 18 February 2022
Location: ANU College of Law Moot Court, Building 6, Fellows RoadRegistrations are open for the ANU Law conference on ‘Public Law and Inequality’ on 16-18 February 2022, organised by the Centre for International and Public Law. The conference will be held in a hybrid format, with an in-person conference in Canberra for those in Australia and international participants in virtual attendance. There is a modest registration fee for Australian in-person participants.
Join over 40 speakers, including: Sam Moyn (Yale), Julie Suk (Fordham), Tarun Khaitan (Oxford), Rosalind Dixon (UNSW), Adrienne Stone (Melbourne), Amna Akbar (Ohio State), Jeff King (UCL), Farrah Ahmed (Melbourne), Ntina Tzouvala (ANU), Will Bateman (ANU), Katharine Young (Boston College Law School), Veena Dubal (UC, Hastings), Asmi Wood (ANU), and Christopher Essert (Toronto). Megan Davis (UNSW) will deliver the Sawer Public Lecture as part of the conference program (registration will be separate for this lecture).
Conference details, including the full program, are available here.
In 2023, Federal Law Review - the flagship journal of the ANU College of Law at the Australian National University – will publish a special issue on themes underlying the conference. This call for submission is open to all, including but not only conference participants. It is expected that the issue will include national or comparative perspectives on equality spanning several countries. Paper submissions for this special issue are due 22 March 2022. For details please visit here.
Twenty-third Geoffrey Sawer Lecture
Centre for International and Public Law, Australian National University
Date: 16 February 2022
Time: 5:30-7:00pm (AEDT)
Location: OnlineJoin Professor Megan Davis for the annual Geoffrey Sawer Lecture.
Professor Megan Davis is Pro Vice-Chancellor Indigenous UNSW and Balnaves Chair for Constitutional Law, UNSW Law. She is a constitutional lawyer who researches in public law and public international law. Her current research focuses on constitutional design, democratic theory and Indigenous peoples. In 2015 she was appointed by the Prime Minister to the Referendum Council and designed the deliberative constitutional dialogue process the Council undertook. In 2011, Megan was also appointed to the Prime Minister’s Expert Panel on the Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in the Constitution. She is the Chair of the UN Human Rights Council’s Expert Mechanism on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, an Acting Commissioner of the NSW Land and Environment Court and is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences. She is a member of the NSW Sentencing Council and an Australian Rugby League Commissioner. Professor Davis was Director of the Indigenous Law Centre, UNSW Law from 2006-2016. Professor Davis is formerly Chair and expert member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (2011-2016). Professor Davis has extensive experience as an international lawyer at the UN and participated in the drafting of the UNDRIP from 1999-2004 and is a former UN Fellow of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva.
For more information, and to register, click here.
Call for Papers: 29th Annual Conference of the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law
Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law
Date: 21 February 2022
Location: OnlineThe events of 2020 and 2021 continue to emphasise that human inter-connectedness is both granular and uneven. The COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us of the reality of our physical inter-connectedness as well as the importance of groups such as ‘essential workers’ for the continuing functioning of societies, domestic and international. The escalating climate crisis underscores our inter-connectedness with the environment; a connection that has profoundly shifted and is signalled with the recognition of the Age of the Anthropocene. Simultaneously, forms of inter-connectedness previously taken for granted, such as the global and regional mobility of individuals, goods and services, are facing unprecedented challenges.
These contexts pose significant questions for international law, international lawyers and international legal institutions. At the 29th ANZSIL Conference, we encourage participants to reflect on whether and how international law shapes, undermines and re-makes inter-connectedness on a global scale.
We invite participants at the 29th ANZSIL Conference to re-evaluate the role of international law as a force in different forms of social, political and even biological connections including, for example, physical processes that tie us together, emerging regionalisms, border crossings, and transnational solidarities, exemplified by the rise of a global Black Lives Matter movement or Indigenous internationalisms. We encourage, in particular, consideration of the following questions:
Which forms of inter-connectedness are ‘visible’ to international law and which are not?Which forms are enabled and which are undermined by international law?Which actors take part in shaping international regimes that assist or hinder inter-connectedness?How do these processes affect groups and individuals, especially the Global South?How can international law – traditionally structured around states and, more recently, individuals – account for and regulate these different forms of inter-connectedness?
The closing date for proposals for panels and/or papers is 21 February 2022. The Conference Organising Committee will endeavour to inform applicants of the outcome of their proposals by middle of March 2022. All presenters will be required to register for the Conference by early May to be included in the final Conference program. The conference will be held from 30 June to 2 July 2022.
For more information, and to submit a proposal for a panel or a paper, click here.
Sydney Centre for International Law Year in Review Conference
Sydney Centre for International Law, University of Sydney
Date: 25 February 2022
Time: 8:45am-5:00pm (AEDT)
Location: OnlineThe Sydney Centre for International Law at Sydney Law School is delighted to present the 2022 International Law Year in Review Conference, to be held online on Friday 25 February 2022.
This annual ‘year in review’ conference brings together expert speakers from around the world to give participants insight into the latest developments in international law over the preceding year, especially those most salient for Australia.
Highlights of the day include:
A keynote address by Professor Megan Davis, Pro Vice-Chancellor Indigenous at UNSWA law literary lunch with Tara June Winch, winner of the 2020 Miles Franklin Award for ‘The Yield’The launch of ‘Non-Binding Norms in International Humanitarian Law’ with author, Associate Professor Emily Crawford, Sydney Law School.
The conference will traverse recent developments in environmental law, private international law and human rights.
Due to the circumstances in Sydney relating to COVID-19, the conference is currently being held online only. Should circumstances change, paid registrations will open up for in-person attendance.
For more information, and to register, click here.
William Ah Ket – His Cases and Career
Melbourne Law School
Date: 2 March 2022
Time: 6:00-7:00pm (AEDT)
Location: Law Building (106), University of MelbourneThis lecture offers glimpses into the life and career of Melbourne Law School graduate, William Ah Ket, Australia’s first barrister of Chinese origin.
William was particularly active in the fight against racial discrimination and appeared in many ‘public interest’ cases. He fought against the requirements of the 1907 Factories (Employment of Chinese) Act, which discriminated against Chinese residents, and successfully opposed legislative amendments in 1904, 1905 and 1907 which would have specifically discriminated against Chinese residents in the furniture industry.
An alumnus of the University Of Melbourne, William was a co-founder of the Australian-Chinese Association and one of two delegates from the Chinese community in Australia to attend the opening of the Chinese National Parliament of 1912.
In 1913-14 and 1917, William served as acting Consul-General for China in Melbourne.
Dr Andrew Godwin, Principal Fellow at Melbourne Law School, will present. Andrew spent 10 years practising law in Shanghai. Andrew is researching the life and times of William Ah Ket and would be delighted to hear from anyone who has information about William.
For more information, and to register, click here.
Beyond CEDAW’s First Four Decades: Harnessing Progress and Countering Regression
Castan Centre of Human Rights Law, Monash University
Date: 8 March 2022
Time: 6:00-7:30pm (AEDT)
Location: OnlineThe Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) is founded on the principles of equality and non-discrimination. CEDAW provides the theoretical, normative framework for respecting, protecting, promoting and fulfilling women’s human rights internationally, and stands today as the cornerstone legal instrument on gender equality and non-discrimination. On the one hand, CEDAW has a proven record for catalysing significant positive effects on women’s human rights. On the other hand, CEDAW is one of the least implemented and most poorly enforced human rights conventions in the world.
At the time when CEDAW was drafted, women’s rights advocates could not have imagined the world we live in today. So has CEDAW passed the test of time? Please join current CEDAW Committee Member Bandana Rana, and former CEDAW Committee Members Shanthi Dairiam and Ismat Jahan as we explore the successes and shortcomings of the women’s human rights system, and discuss the enduring relevance of CEDAW in 2022.
Celebrate International Women’s Day with the Castan Centre of Human Rights Law and our esteemed speakers as we reflect on what it means to be a women’s rights advocate today.
Moderator: Dr Tania Penovic, Castan Centre for Human Rights Law
Panellists:
Bandana Rana, Current CEDAW Committee Member (Nepal)
Ismat Jahan, Former CEDAW Committee Member (Bangladesh)
Shanthi Dairiam, Former CEDAW Committee Member (Malaysia)For more information, and to register, click here.
Tax and the Rule of Law – Annual Tax Lecture
Melbourne Law School
Date: 23 March 2022
Time: 5:00-7:30pm (AEDT)
Location: Law G08, Law Building (106), University of MelbourneThe Tax Group, Melbourne Law School, is proud to host its 15th Annual Tax Lecture delivered by Mr Mark Leibler AC (Senior Partner of Arnold Bloch Leibler).
The rule of law is a fundamental pillar of civil society. Wars have been fought, regimes toppled and monarchs put to death by citizens defending or rebelling against the rule of law and, in particular, the power to tax.
Without the rule of law, taxation amounts to little more than state-sanctioned theft on a grand scale.
In this year’s Annual Tax Lecture, tax lawyer Mr Mark Leibler AC will consider the extent to which the ever-more excruciating complexity and uncertainty of Australian tax law, along with the evolving sophistication of taxpayer affairs, requires the Commissioner of Taxation to interpret and apply the law without authoritative guidance.
Mr Leibler will explore what this means for taxpayers, who rely on the Commissioner acting fairly, and should be protected for operating within the framework of the Commissioner’s past guidance or practice.
He will explain that, by drawing on overseas models and building on existing legislation, the potential for legal but unjust application of taxation law could and should be alleviated.
For more information, and to register, click here.
I·CON-S Aus/NZ Constitutional Theory Group Annual Conference 2022
Centre for International and Public Law, Australian National University
Date: 1 April 2022
Time: 10:00am-5:30pm (AEDT)
Location: Online or In-person at ANU College of Law Moot Court and Old Parliament HouseWe are pleased to announce the first Plenary Conference of the Constitutional Theory Group of the I·CON-S Aus/NZ branch, to be held Friday 1 April from 10am-5:30pm at the ANU and Old Parliament House in Canberra.
In 2021, we inaugurated the Group with the aim of developing and deepening the constitutional theory academic community in Australia and New Zealand. In our first year, we held over a dozen workshops across the Group’s various sub-streams.
Plenary conferences are opportunities for members of the various streams to come together and share recent scholarship – including both published books and articles.
This will be a hybrid online/in-person event. Presentations are open to non-members, but a Conference Dinner will be held for Group members at Old Parliament House. There are no conference fees (except for an optional dinner for in-person attendees).
For more information, and to register, click here.
32nd Annual Conference of the Samuel Griffith Society
Samuel Griffith Society
Date: 29 April – 1 May 2022
Location: Novotel Sydney Brighton Beach Hotel, Corner of Princess Street and The Grand Parade, Brighton-Le-Sands ,NSW 2216Due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak in Sydney, the 32nd Annual Conference of the Samuel Griffith Society has been postponed until 2022.
The Samuel Griffith Society was founded in 1992. The Society aims to undertake and support research into our constitutional arrangements, and to encourage and promote widespread debate about the benefits of federalism, and to defend the great virtues of the present Constitution.
The Samuel Griffith Society holds a major conference each year and smaller events on an occasional basis. The Society is widely renowned for its prestige and the eminence of its speakers. Persons of all ages and from all disciplines are encouraged to attend our events.
For more information, and to register, click here.
Australasian Law Academics Association (ALAA) Conference 2022
Australasian Law Academics Association; Monash Law
Date: 7 July – 9 July 2022
Location: Monash University Law Chambers, Melbourne CBDMonash Law is proud to announce the ALAA 2022 conference will be held on 7-9 July in our Monash University Law Chambers in the legal district in Melbourne CBD.
The conference will be available in a hybrid format. You will be able to attend either in-person or online.
The theme of the Conference has been chosen to explore and challenge legal education and scholarship.
We look forward to you joining us in 2022! Call for papers, details and programs to follow.
For more information, and to express your interest in attending, click here.