Melbourne Law School News

Books for Burma: Call for donations.

The Burma/Myanmar Studies Network is seeking second-handbooks to help set up a library at a law firm in Yangon, Burma, for lawyers who would otherwise not have access to such resources.

To view the flier, please click here

Drop-off location/ enquiries:

Ms Melissa Crouch
Room 832, Melbourne Law School
m.crouch@unimelb.edu.au
+61 3 9035 6580

Donations will be accepted until 31 May 2012

Tue 31-Jan-12.

Professor Anne Orford to be awarded honorary doctorate.

The Faculty of Law at Lund University in Sweden has voted to award Professor Anne Orford the Michael D. Kirby Professor of International Law, an honorary doctorate in law. Two honorary doctorates are awarded by the Faculty each year, with President of the Supreme Court of Sweden, Marianne Lundius receiving the second award for 2012.

The degrees will be awarded at a ceremony in Lund Cathedral on 25 May. Professor Orford will be awarded the honorary doctorate 'for her research that releases international law into its full intellectual, political and emancipatory complexity'.

More information on Lund University Faculty of Law.

Wed 1-Feb-12.

Professor Sundhya Pahuja wins prestigious award.

Melbourne Law School’s Professor Sundhya Pahuja has been awarded the 2012 American Society of International Law Certificate of Merit for her book, Decolonising International Law : Development, Economic Growth and the Politics of Universality (Cambridge University Press, 2011).

The ASIL Certificate of Merit is one of the world’s most prestigious award for a work of international legal scholarship.

In her timely book, Professor Pahuja considers the history of contemporary international law as an important field of contestation over global inequality. Taking three central examples, she tracks what has happened with the attempts made by the Global South to use international law to bring about a more just global order, and the relationship between that story and the ideas of development, economic growth and universality.

The book was recently the subject of the first ‘International Conversation’ between Professor Pahuja and Professor Gerry Simpson, hosted jointly by Readings Bookshop and the Melbourne Law School.

Professor Sundhya Pahuja teaches International Law and Development and Human Rights and Development in the Melbourne Law Masters. She also teaches Legal Theory in the Melbourne JD.

Tue 6-Mar-12.

2012 Dreamlarge Student Engagement Grants.

Applications for the 2012 Dreamlarge Student Engagement Grants are now open.

Go to http://www.knowledgetransfer.unimelb.edu.au/content/pages/2012-dreamlarge-student-engagement-grants to download the Application Forms and more information. Applications close on 25 May 2012.

The Dreamlarge Student Engagement Grants 2012 aim to:

broaden student experiences
assist and promote the development of projects between students and external organisations
enable students to apply their learning, develop skills and leadership and improve economic, social, environmental or cultural life locally, nationally or internationally.

Grants will normally be to a maximum of $2,500. However, six grants will be awarded for amounts up to $5,000, including the Melbourne University Credit Union (MUCU) Dreamlarge Student Engagement Grant.

There must be a minimum of 3 currently enrolled students in each project. Each project must have a Partner organization that makes a contribution in cash or kind to the project. Projects should commence no later than the end of Semester 1, 2013, and be completed within a year of commencement.

Each project must also have a Faculty Mentor. If you are thinking of applying, please contact Associate Dean (Engagement), Professor Miranda Stewart, to make an appointment to discuss who would be an appropriate mentor for your project (m.stewart@unimelb.edu.au).

Mon 19-Mar-12.

Electoral Regulation Research Network (ERRN) now established.

Pioneering network to foster research on the regulation of elections established

In an Australian-first, a network to foster research and debate on electoral regulation has been set up at the University of Melbourne.

Collaboration between the New South Wales Electoral Commission, the Victorian Electoral Commission and Melbourne Law School has resulted in the establishment of the Electoral Regulation Research Network.

The central purpose of the Network is to foster exchange and discussion amongst academics, electoral commissions, political parties, parliamentarians and other interested groups on research relating to electoral regulation. Under its auspices, seminars and workshops will be held in various capital cities. The Network will also publish regular newsletters and research working papers.

Associate Professor Joo-Cheong Tham, the inaugural Director of the Network, said that ‘the Network has tremendous potential to enliven and enrich Australian policy and scholarship in the field of electoral regulation’.

Associate Professor Joo-Cheong Tham also said:

The establishment of the Network affirms the crucial role of universities to contribute to public debate in highly contested areas such as the regulation of elections; it reflects the belief that principled discussion is not only possible but vital when there are deep disagreements regarding laws and policies.

Please direct queries to Associate Professor Joo-Cheong Tham, Director of the Electoral Regulation Research Network (Tel: 8344 7030; email: j.tham@unimelb.edu.au)

Fri 20-Apr-12.

Electoral Regulation Research Network (ERRN): Join the Mailing List.

The Electoral Regulation Research Network (ERRN) is now established:

Join the mailing list

Thu 26-Apr-12.

Beth Gaze reflects on lawyers? use of the media in big claims.

Fri 27-Apr-12.

Melbourne Law School launches Judge in Residence Initiative.

Melbourne Law School is launching its “Judge in Residence” Initiative this week, with the Hon. Michael Black AC QC to inaugurate the first residency at the Law School.

Alongside the former Chief Justice of the Federal Court and Melbourne Law School Alumnus, current and retired judges will spend time at the Law School to lend their wise counsel to students and academics. This Initiative will give students and academics the opportunity to engage with some of Australia’s most influential judicial leaders through a series of workshops, classes and guest lectures.

Students will get the opportunity to gain a unique insight into the working of courts and the role of judges that is unlike the typical law school experience.

“I think the concept will be of great value for students – they have a fascination with how the law works in practice and, for whatever reason, they find it extremely interesting talking to the people who have decided the cases they have read, said the Hon. Michael Black.

“The program will certainly benefit law students by giving them an understanding of who the judges are and what they do, as well as giving them an idea of their personalities. I think this will be interesting and, I would hope, reassuring for the students to see the face behind the words.”

Dean of Melbourne Law School Professor Carolyn Evans said that the Initiative would encourage judges and academics with shared interests in particular areas of law to learn from one another, as well as allow students to obtain insights into the working of the courts and the role of Australian judges.

“We are delighted to have Michael Black joining us this semester and look forward to developing this Initiative in the coming years,” said Professor Evans.

The Hon. Michael Black has had a keen interest in legal education, having served as Chair of the Juris Doctor Advisory Board shortly after its inception in Australia in 2001. He was also foundation chairman of the Victorian Bar's course of instruction for new barristers.

Wed 2-May-12.

Director discusses role of ERRN on 'The Conversation'.

Associate Professor Joo-Cheong Tham, Director of the Electoral Regulation Research Network (ERRN), discusses the role of the Network on The Conversation.

View the fiull article here.

Wed 2-May-12.

10th Anniversary of Melbourne Law School building.

After more than fifty years’ campaigning by successive deans, the new purpose-built home for the Law School in University Square was opened by the Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia, the Hon. Murray Gleeson, on May 2, 2002.

Designs for the new building were first drawn up in the 1950s, but it was not until 2 May 2002 that staff and students of the Faculty of Law finally moved to the new purpose-built accommodation in University Square.

In this location, the Law School retains all the tradition of its first site in the Law Quadrangle, with its world renowned reputation for providing advanced education and research but it is also fully equipped for the opportunities that lie ahead. The Law School building incorporates the latest technological developments and innovative facilities, such as the moot court, where students and the Law School’s successful moot teams develop their practical training as future lawyers.

The building has become a supportive community for staff and students, providing teaching and learning practices by means of specialist theatres, seminar rooms with video conferencing, computer laboratories, audio-visual facilities, projection and plasma screen technologies, and data and power connections to every seat via full wireless networking.

The “Woodward Centre” atop the Law School on level 10 is a recent addition to the building and offers alumni a licensed members’ lounge, espresso coffee bar and function rooms. All alumni are eligible to sign up to the University Club and receive up to 50% off the membership fee.

Over the past 10 years, the building has become an iconic part of the University of Melbourne with its panoramic views and soaring contemporary structure. The building is specifically designed to meet both current and future needs of legal education, expanding and strengthening the School’s position of leadership and reinforcing the high academic standards it has taken into the 21st century.

Thu 3-May-12.

Prof Tim Lindsey's Op-ed, "No quick fix to Asia literacy crisis" in 'The Australian', 03 May 2012.

No quick fix to Asia literacy crisis

From: The Australian

The Australian Higher Education subscribers click here to view article online.

Source: The Australian

It is good that the Commonwealth government is beginning to look again what to do about the collapse of Asia literacy.

It is just a pity that this concern was absent when the decision was made not to renew funding for the National Asian Languages and Studies in Schools Program in the May budget last year.

Yes, NALSPP had its shortcomings but these were mostly a result of its low funding. Its predecessor, the National Asian Languages and Studies in Australian Schools, was funded for eight years at the equivalent of around $100 million annually today but NALSPP was given only about $20 million a year over half that period.

In any case, with NASLPP gone, the situation has now become very serious, exacerbated by decades of inconsistent policy and inadequate or unreliable funding support by state and Commonwealth governments.

The Asia Education Foundation report, Four Languages, Four Stories, and Professor David Hill's more recent report on Indonesian in universities make it clear that the market is failing to produce the expertise Australia needs, as power and wealth shift from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

In October 2011, The Sydney Morning Herald reported that NSW has just reported its lowest proportion ever of students enrolled in a second language _ nine per cent of 72,391 HSC students. French was most popular, with 1,471. Japanese had 1376 and Chinese 1091. Indonesia had just 232 and Hindi a mere 42.

In 1972, when the White Australia Policy was still in place and our population less by a third, 1,190 students did Indonesian language at year 12. Just 1,100 did so in 2010.

Studies of Asia other than languages have fared just as badly too. By any measure, this decline in Asian studies is a failure of policy. Our national dumbing-down in Asia literacy over the last four decades may mean that the only Western country in Asia may instead find itself marginalized in the coming regional debates over trade, security, environment, regional identity, culture and religion.

This has not happened because no one knows what to do.

NALSAS managed to double enrolments in Asian studies in its 8 years before it was axed by the Howard government. Many of its ideas were re-run -- with some success -- by NALSPP in its short life and there are plenty of clear and practical suggestions for further reforms in the AEF and Hill reports, many of which have backing from school and university groups.

No, the problem is lack of consistent, reliable and substantial funding support for Asia literacy from state and Commonwealth governments. Asia literacy programmes will inevitably cost money, because the market hasn't worked. Unfortunately, support for Asia expertise in Australia has been inadequate for decades. When limited resources have been available, their impact has been weakened by short duration, policy flip-flops and a sense of complacency.

Like it or not, if Australia is to be able to engage effectively with Asia in the years ahead a very large investment by the Commonwealth in Asian studies in schools is urgently required _ and it must be maintained for years to come. There are no quick fixes.

If this big investment doesn't happen soon, the cumulative damage wrought by years of inconsistent, low-scale and short-term policy support for Asian studies will be so great that it will take decades to locate and re-train the teachers and Asia specialists necessary to get us back up to speed.

Ultimately, failure to invest now will cost us a great deal more in terms of national prosperity and security in the future -- and it will greatly diminish our national cultural life.

This is all playing out against the backdrop of our deep-seated and longstanding preference for our Western history over our Asian geography. These are wrongly assumed to be incompatible, when our future depends on demonstrating we can reconcile them.

Yes, the government is at last asking for suggestions, but it is also warning that it has little money to spend. This won't work. There are now no cheap and easy solutions to our national Asia literacy wipe-out. Let's hope the forthcoming Australia in the Asia Century White Paper will make governments get more serious, before it is too late.

Tim Lindsey is director of the Asian Law Centre at the University of Melbourne. He was a member of the reference group for NALSPP.

Thu 3-May-12, 9:00AM.

Ian Ramsay discusses the High Court?s ruling on James Hardie.

Fri 4-May-12.

Law & War Seminar - From Subjectivity to Material Practice - Men, Masculinities and the Private Military and Security Contractor.

In recent years, the rapid growth of the Private Military and Security sector into a multi-billion dollar industry has stimulated interest from political scientists, IR theorists, security studies and military studies scholars. Debates have touched on concerns of regulation, questions of domestic sovereignty and the moral and ethical dimensions of the commodification of security. Yet, despite wider claims that the industry speaks to a (re)masculinisation of militarised violence in the contemporary moment, critical scholars of gender and race have been slow to turn their attention to the industry. Thus, much of the critique leveled against the industry and certain of its workforce has turned on their uneven im-pact on security where civilians have been intimidated, injured and even killed by 'cowboy' contrac-tors. Drawing on qualitative interviews and field research in Kabul, the U.S and the UK, Dr Higate ar-gues that one way in which to explain these instances of insecurity resides in the modes of masculinity adopted by some contractors.

Paul Higate's research has been concerned with the gendered culture of the military, in particular military masculinities. Relatedly, he has worked on issues of SEA in peacekeeping missions, the transition from military to civilian life and most recently, Private Military and Security Companies. He is editor of 'Military Masculinities: Identity and the State' and numerous articles He is currently a Fellow of the ESRC/AHRC Global Uncertainties Programme with a project entitled: Mercenary Masculinities Imagine Security: The case of the Private Military Contractor'.

Thu 17-May-12, 6:00PM.

Melbourne JD Information Session.

Interested in studying law in 2013? Come along to the Melbourne JD information session to find out more.

The Melbourne JD program has been designed specifically for graduate students from disciplines and careers outside of law offering a range of international and career opportunities.

Associate Professor Elise Bant, Associate Dean (JD) will discuss the range of benefits of the program, and a current JD student will share their own personal experience in the Melbourne JD.

Register here.

Thu 17-May-12, 6:00PM.

Lost Decade or Decades? Wages & Wage Inequality in the US - Monday 21 May.

This presentation will draw on the new analysis of wage trends that will appear in the forthcoming State of Working America (Cornell University Press and Economic Policy Institute) to be released in September.

This seminar is jointly sponsored by:
The Centre for Human Resource Management, University of Melbourne
The Centre for Employment and Labour Relations Law, University of Melbourne

For further details please click here to view the seminar flyer.

Please rsvp to Samantha Boorn, (03) 8344 4481 or sboorn@unimelb.edu.au

Mon 21-May-12, 12:30PM.

ALC Occasional Seminar: Normalisation and Neoliberalism in Japanese Disability Welfare Law, 1946-2000s.

Please note that registrations are essential as lunch will be provided
Registrations close 5PM Thursday 17 May 2012

For full details, view the seminar flyer

To register, please click here

Mon 21-May-12, 1:00PM.

Internship Orientation Session.

Wed 23-May-12, 1:00PM.

CCLSR Seminar - Would the post-GFC international regulatory reforms have prevented the GFC?.

http://cclsr.law.unimelb.edu.au/files/Douglas_Arner_23_May_20121.pdf

Wed 23-May-12, 1:00PM.

CELRL Labour Law Seminar: Innovation in Employment Standards Enforcement: The Fair Work Ombudsman?s Use of Enforceable Undertakings .

For further information please click here to view the seminar flyer.

To register to attend please click here.

Wed 23-May-12, 1:00PM.