Public Law Events Roundup April 2022
Welcome to the April edition of the AUSPUBLAW Australian Public Law Events Roundup. We would firstly like to draw your attention to the following call for papers:
Call for Papers: Commonwealth Association of Legislative Counsel Virtual Conference
Commonwealth Association of Legislative Counsel
CfP closes: 4 April 2022
Conference dates: 18-19 July 2022
Location: OnlineCALC’s virtual conference on 18-19 July 2022 will comprise a range of online sessions over two days to suit three different time-zone regions:
- Africa and Europe;
- Asia, Australasia and the Pacific; and
- The Americas.
CALC Council’s conference programme group invites CALC members (and people applying for CALC membership) to submit paper proposals by Monday 4 April 2022.
Papers are invited on any topic of interest and relevance to drafters, editors, and translators, of legislation, including the following:
- Technology and legislation: Rules as Code, virtual Parliaments, automated decision-making, etc;
- Recent developments in statutory interpretation;
- The nature and challenges of emergency legislation;
- New frontiers and developments in plain language;
- Subordinate legislation: scrutiny, disallowance, pushing the limits of delegated power; and
- Innovations in accessibility of legislation.
If you would like to submit a paper proposal, please send a brief outline of your proposed paper (an outline up to 500 words), and a brief CV, by 4 April 2022 to CALC Vice-President, Dr Katy Le Roy, at katy.leroy@oqpc.qld.gov.au.
For more information, 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.
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 CourtWe 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 College of Law.
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 and there are no conference fees. There will be an informal dinner at Walt & Burley after the conference.
For more information, and to register, click here.
Impact of the Pandemic on Human Rights in NSW
Law Society of NSW
Date: 4 April 2022
Time: 4:30-6:00pm (AEST)
Location: OnlineThe last two years have seen significant changes in the way government and individual citizens interact – ways that would have been unimaginable before the pandemic took hold.
Lockdowns, curfews and closed borders became a part of everyday life, as did emergency legislation generally. But many have questioned the way in which these extraordinary measures fit into our system of government, including their interaction with human rights, and the nature of human rights protection in NSW and Australia.
Our first Thought Leadership panel for 2022, led by Professor George Williams AO, will explore the impact of the pandemic on human rights in NSW. Don't miss this engaging evening as our expert panellists navigate this topical issue, and consider the longer-term implications for citizens, lawyers, and governments alike.
Speakers:
- Joanne van der Plaat, Law Society of NSW President
- Professor the Hon Bob Carr, University of Technology Sydney
There is a fee for this event.
For more information, and to register, click here.
Launch the Indigenous Law and Justice Hub: Reimagining the Relationship and Reshaping our Institutions
Melbourne Law School
Date: 5 April 2022
Time: 6:15-7:15pm (AEST)
Location: The David P. Derham Theatre (GM15), Law Building (106), Melbourne Law SchoolTim Goodwin, barrister at the Victorian Bar, will speak about how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders must think beyond how to participate in current institutions and structures in nation building projects and instead build an intellectual base for reshaping those institutions and structures and assert an innovative form of cultural leadership – one both traditional and modern – that remakes Australia’s political, legal, social and cultural landscape.
For more information, and to register, click here.
Global Book Series: Reframing Human Rights in a Turbulent Era
Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law and Australian Human Rights Institute, UNSW
Date: 8 April 2022
Time: 12:00 - :1:00 pm (AEST)
Location: OnlineNo one could doubt that we live in turbulent times – floods, fires, COVID-19 and a war in the Ukraine are but some of the challenges facing the world today. Yet what role do human right have to play in responding to these challenges, and making policy and practice more just and effective?
In this first global book series event for 2022, hosted by the G+T Centre of Public Law and Australian Human Rights Institute, we explore these questions in conversation with global human rights expert, NYU Professor Gráinne de Búrca, author of Reframing Human Rights in a Turbulent Era (OUP, 2021). Professor de Búrca will be joined in conversation by UNSW Professor Ben Golder. The event is co-hosted by the Australian Human Rights Institute and chaired by its Director, Professor Justine Nolan.
For more information, and to register, click here.
CCCS Global Public Law Seminar Series - ‘Democracy of Expression: Positive Free Speech’ – Panel Discussion
Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies, Melbourne Law School
Date: 11 April 2022
Time: 5:30 - 7:00 pm (AEST)
Location: OnlineThis is the second event of the new CCCS Global Public Law Seminar Series; a panel discussion of Professor Andrew Kenyon’s recently published monograph Democracy of Expression: Positive Free Speech and Law.
Free speech has positive dimensions of enablement and negative dimensions of non-restraint, both of which require protection for democracy to have substantial communicative legitimacy. In his monograph Democracy of Expression, Andrew Kenyon explores this need for sustained plural public speech linked with positive communicative freedom. Drawing on sources from media studies, human rights, political theory, free speech theory and case law, Kenyon shows how positive dimensions of free speech could be imagined and pursued. While recognising that democratic governments face challenges of public communication and free speech that cannot be easily solved, Kenyon argues that understanding the nature of these challenges (including the value of positive free speech) at least makes possible a democracy of expression in which society has a voice, formulates judgments, and makes effective claims of government. The book not only reframes how we conceptualise free speech, but also provides a roadmap for reform.
Andrew Kenyon will be joined by Adrienne Stone, Ioanna Tourkochoriti, Jacob Rowbottom, Mathias Hong and Charles Girard to discuss the implications of these ideas for free speech, regulation and democracy.
This webinar will be delivered live at 5.30pm AEST on Monday 11 April 2022. All are welcome. The webinar will be recorded.
For more information, and to register, click here.
When Can a Court’s Decision be Ignored?
Melbourne Law School
Date: 13 April 2022
Time: 6:30pm (AEST)
Location: Room G08, Melbourne Law School, 185 Pelham Street, Carlton, VIC 3053The Melbourne University Law Review is honoured to host the Hon Justice Kristen Walker as our guest speaker for the 2022 Annual Lecture.
It may seem counterintuitive to think that a judicial decision can be ignored. It would seem contrary to the rule of the law and to the good governance of our society. But the picture is more complex than that. The authorities indicate that there are circumstances where a judicial decision can be ignored. First, it is necessary to distinguish between a court’s orders and its reasons for judgment. Second, it is necessary to distinguish between different courts — in particular between ‘inferior courts’ and ‘superior courts of record’. And third, it is necessary to distinguish between the different actors who might wish to disregard a judicial decision: an individual, the executive, the legislature or a court.
In this Lecture, the Hon Justice Kristen Walker will explore the circumstances in which a decision of a court can be ignored.
This event is open to the public. Drinks and canapés will be served after the address.
For more information, and to register, click here.
Book Launch: 'The Laws of Yesterday’s Wars'
Australian National University College of Law
Date: 13 April 2022
Time: 5:30-7:30pm (AEST)
Location: Law Lecture Theatre, ANU College of Law, Building 5, Fellows Road, Acton ACT 2600Join us for the launch of The Laws of Yesterday’s Wars: From Indigenous Australians to the American Civil War (Brill, 2022), featuring Air Commodore Patrick Keane AM CSC, Professor Tim McCormack FAAL and a discussion on the chapter 'Indigenous Australians' with editor Sam White.
This new book offers a culture-by-culture account of various unique restrictions placed on warfare over time, in a bid to demonstrate the underlying humanity often accompanying the horrors of war. It offers the first systematic exploration of Indigenous Australian laws of war, relaying decades of experience in communities. Containing essays by a range of laws of war academics and practitioners, this volume is a starting point in a new debate on the question: how international is international humanitarian law?
For more information, and to register, click here.
JSI Seminar – Legislative Intent: A Rational Unity Account
Julius Stone Institute of Jurisprudence, Sydney Law School
Date: 14 April 2022
Time: 6:00-7:30pm (AEST)
Location: Online or In-person at Sydney Law SchoolDoes the legislature have intentions concerning the effects of legislation? If so, how can that intent be gleaned? Existing theories of legislative intent can be divided into three camps: skepticism, constructivism, and realism. This paper begins by outlining problems for constructivism and (existing accounts of) realism. However, this does not imply a retreat into skepticism. Instead, the paper offers a new account of legislative intent: the rational unity account. The paper explains how this account avoids the problems with existing versions of realism and constructivism, while also capturing the sense in which the legislature is a rational group agent with intentions that can be distinguished from the intentions of individual legislators.
Speaker: Associate Professor Stephanie Collins, Monash University
For more information, and to register, click here.
Human Goods and Human Rights Law
Australian National University College of Law
Date: 27 April 2022
Time: 12:00-1:00pm (AEST)
Location: OnlineIn this seminar, Dr Grégoire Webber discusses his paper 'Human goods and human rights law'.
The category of ‘human rights law’ is sometimes limited to bills and charters of rights on the model of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and to the case law of courts interpreting and applying these legal measures. In an effort to expand the category of human rights law, Dr Grégoire Webber explores the thought that the measures that realise human rights in the law are the everyday, unremarkable measures that make up the full corpus of legal materials directing what may, must, and must not be done. The argument explores how all sound positive law finds its source in human goods through one of two modes of derivation: deduction or specification. These are the same two modes of positive law’s derivation from natural law in the thought of Aquinas, for the reach of human rights law is more or less coextensive with the reach of positive law and the human goods from which are derived human rights law are the same human goods from which are derived natural law’s practical principles and precepts.
For more information, and to register, click here.
‘Liberty, Fraternity and – what was the other word?’ How Equality fell off the political agenda in Australia
Melbourne Law School and Accountability Round Table LTD
Date: 29 April 2022
Time: 6:00pm
Location: Melbourne Law School, Law BuildingPresented by The Hon Barry Jones AC
‘Equality’ dropped off Australia’s political agenda in the 21st Century. Both sides of politics recognise that winning elections depends on the votes of ‘aspirationals’. So progressive taxation was dropped, education became more stratified in Australia than the US or UK, and governments moved away from ‘needs based’ policies.
A standard measure of ‘equality’ has been equal treatment under the law. However, past decades have been marked by the protection of special interests that are above the law and by the harsh treatment of those below the law. Casino owners, private schools and big miners have been in the first category; asylum seekers, public schools and Indigenous Australians in the second. Both sides of politics are tainted.
In the age of retail politics, all values have a dollar equivalent, debate is minimal and ‘truth’ purely operational. Courage, imagination, curiosity, compassion have disappeared without trace to the detriment of ‘Equality’.
What is to be done?
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 2216The 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.
There is a fee for this event.
For more information, and to register, click here.
Public Institutions, Accountability and Sexual Violence
Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law and Australian Human Rights Institute
Date: 6 May 2022
Time: 1:00 - 2:00 pm (AEST)
Location: OnlineThe last few years have forced a major reckoning in our understanding and approach to issues of sexual violence and harassment in all areas of Australian society, including in our highest public institutions – from the High Court to the Commonwealth Parliament. Part of that reckoning is also a debate about how institutional norms and so as to provide a safer workplace for female parliamentarians, parliamentary staff, and those working in the parliamentary service. Most notably, the Jenkins Report called for a range of reforms along these lines.
In this seminar, we bring together leading scholars and practitioners in the field, including UNSW Professors Gabrielle Appleby and Rosalind Dixon and Research Director of the Centre of Public Integrity, Dr Catherine Williams, to explore these reforms, their logic and likely effect, as well as their prospects for adoption now and after the next election. The event is co-hosted by the Australian Human Rights Institute and chaired by its Director, Professor Justine Nolan.
For more information, and to register, click here.
ANU College of Law Research Showcase Series 2022: Moeen Cheema
Australian National University College of Law
Date: 11 May 2022
Time: 5:30-7:00pm (AEST)
Location: Online or In-person at Phillipa Weeks Staff Library, ANU College of Law, Building 7, Room 7.4.1.The inaugural event in the 2022 ANU College of Law Research Showcase Series features Associate Professor Moeen Cheema, who will speak about his book Courting Constitutionalism: The Politics of Public Law and Judicial Review in Pakistan (Cambridge University Press, 2021).
With an introduction by Dean and Deputy Vice Chancellor International Strategy Professor Sally Wheeler OBE, MRIA, FAcSS FAAL and chaired by Associate Professor Will Bateman, Associate Dean of Research, this hybrid event will be of particular relevance to those interested in law and politics of Pakistan or broader South and South-East Asia, socio-legal scholarship or law and development.
Described as a ‘beautifully written and meticulously researched book’ by Professor Peter Cane and released to general critical acclaim, Courting Constitutionalism situates the jurisprudence of the superior courts in Pakistan in the context of constitutional politics, evolution of state structures and broader social transformations.
For more information, and to register, click here.
2022 Harold Ford Memorial Lecture: ‘No body to be kicked or soul to be damned’: The limits of a legal fiction
Melbourne Law School
Date: 17 May 2022
Time: 6:00-7:00pm (AEST)
Location: G08 Theatre, Ground Floor, Melbourne Law SchoolPresented by Justice Patrick Keane, High Court of Australia, the title of the lecture is drawn from the vivid observation by Lord Denning MR as to the fundamental difference between human beings and the corporation. The corporation, like other human artefacts, is a tool, useful as a means to an end, but the ends are human, and humans have a dignity that their tools do not. The lecture explores some respects in which this consideration may be said to limit the operation of the corporate fiction
For more information, and to register, click here.
2022 Sir Kenneth Bailey Memorial Lecture: Marching in the rear and limping a little? International law’s response to the development of autonomous weapons and cyber capabilities
Melbourne Law School
Date: 24 May 2022
Time: 6:00-7:00pm (AEST)
Location: Melbourne Law SchoolIn this lecture, Associate Professor Rain Liivoja, Deputy Dean (Research) from the University of Queensland Law School, will discuss the major debates about the adequacy of the current legal regulation of armed conflict on the increased autonomy in weapon systems and the proliferation of cyber capabilities.
Professor Liivoja will seek to provide a general account of the similarities and differences of these two regulatory debates, and what these might mean for the future of the law of armed conflict and arms control law.For more information, and to register, click here.
ICON·S Annual Conference
ICON·S | The International Society of Public Law
Date: 4-6 July 2022
Location: Hybrid - Online and In-person at University of Wroclaw, PolandICON·S | The International Society of Public Law is pleased to announce that its 2022 Annual Conference on Global Problems and Prospects in Public Law will be held in hybrid format at the University of Wrocław in Poland on 4-6 July 2022.
The machinery of public law has been called on to help manage the COVID-19 public health crisis, and in some cases it has succeeded and in others it has not operated as hoped. The same is true of the global crisis of mass migration, the risks and opportunities in law and technology, and the current state of democracy in many corners of the world. The weight of these challenges can feel daunting. History tells us, however, that crises are also opportunities for re-thinking, and for renewal. And whether our purpose is to understand or to protest, or to unmake and re-build, public law will inevitably frame our response.
We take up four key themes in our plenary and featured panels this year: democracy, migration, public health, and technology. Questions of trust and distrust feed into broader debates about democratic backsliding and the rule of law which have become a central concern in Eastern Europe and other parts of the world. In this context, technology creates both new risks and new opportunities: the revolutions in data storage and information dissemination are manifestly double-edged swords. Trust and distrust are central, too, to how societies accommodate migrants, and to how they handle issues of public health, as the current pandemic has made all too obvious. In each of these four areas, the challenges are clear and present. But they are not just dangers. Each is a demand, and an opportunity, to rethink and rebuild key aspects of our societies in light of shared democratic ideals.
For more information, and to register, click here.
Australasian Law Academics Association (ALAA) Conference 2022
Australasian Law Academics Association; Monash Law
Date: 7-9 July 2022
Location: Online or In-person in MelbourneEvolution or Revolution? Challenging Legal Education and Scholarship
The Australian university sector is undergoing a period of significant change, providing both challenges and opportunities. Remote teaching and flexible learning have become entrenched, and we have had to grapple with new ways of working and engaging. In some places, these changes have been rapid and revolutionary, while in others they have been a slower evolution of changes and trajectories that were already taking their course.
The 2022 ALAA Conference asks us to consider whether legal education and scholarship is in a state of evolution or revolution? How is legal education and scholarship being challenged by external forces, and how are we internally challenging legal education and scholarship? What are the defining features of a 2022 law school, law teacher and law student? How can we better reflect the diverse experiences of our student cohort by recognising and redressing disadvantage, especially where this has been exacerbated in recent years? How can we better support both academics and students? How have recent challenges and opportunities presented in different legal disciplines? Which changes should we hold onto, and which should we disregard? And where is further change required, in order to maximise our potential as places of excellent learning, teaching and scholarship?
For more information, and to express your interest in attending, click here.
Religious Freedom, Religious Discrimination and the Role of Law
Bar Association of Queensland; University of Queensland; Supreme Court Library
Date: 13 October 2022
Time: 5:15-6:45pm (AEST)
Location: Banco Court, Level 3, Queen Elizabeth II Courts of LawReligious freedom and freedom from discrimination on the basis of religion are well-established rights in international law and many jurisdictions have a substantial case-law that examine both of these rights, including the tensions between them. While some limited forms of these rights are protected in the constitution, to date there has been relatively limited case law in Australia. With the development of statutory bills of rights and increased social tensions between secular and religious Australians, however, the law is increasingly being asked to step into conflicts that involve religion. What can we learn from the Australian case law to date and from other similar jurisdictions that can help Australian courts and legal policymakers with the complex issues that arise in this realm?
Presenter: Professor Carolyn Evans, Vice-Chancellor and President, Griffith University
Chair: The Hon. Justice Sarah Derrington, Federal Court of Australia, President, Australian Law Reform Commission
Commentator: Professor Patrick Parkinson AM, University of Queensland
For more information, and to register, click here.