The Mythology of Modern Law: At 25 Years
In 1992, Peter Fitzpatrick published The Mythology of Modern Law. The text challenged everything we thought we knew about the foundations of modern law and their relationship to myth. It questioned the solidity of modern law’s foundations, and issued an invitation to think through the implications, both legal and political, of this challenge to modern law’s supposedly coherent, secular and universal pretensions.
Many took up that invitation, and in myriad ways. The text has become foundational to the critical cannon in several disciplines, and its author has become perhaps the world’s leading theorist of postcolonial legality.
This conference (on 12 May) seeks to bring together scholars in many discipline to consider the (still unfinished) legacy of The Mythology of Modern Law and the continuing importance of its intellectual and ethical imperatives for our times.
An Early Career Researcher workshop will also be organised for 11 May, around Professor Fitzpatrick’s visit to Australia. Details available soon on the IILAH website.
Scholars from all disciplines are welcome to register to attend. If you would like to apply to present a paper, please follow the link marked ‘call for papers’ before 30 March 2017.
The events around Professor Fitzpatrick's visit are being organised by Kathleen Birrell, Ben Golder (UNSW), Fleur Johns (UNSW), Richard Joyce (Monash) and Sundhya Pahuja with the support of the Melbourne University Institute for International Law and the Humanities (IILAH), the McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellowship project, Counter Narratives, and the Birkbeck Law School. An address will be given by Professor Fitzpatrick at the workshop.
Registration for this event is now full. Please email law-iilah@unimelb.edu.au if you would like to be placed on the wait list.