Dear alumni and friends,  
 
This year marks the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. Australia was one of the first nations in the world to ratify the Convention, which aims to end statelessness for the estimated 10–15 million persons around the world who lack legal status and protection.  
 
The Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, led by Professor Michelle Foster, has had an extraordinary impact on the global debate on statelessness since it was established in 2018. Bridging academic research with policy development, law reform, and practical workshops for policymakers, the Centre provides a national and global forum for interrogating the many facets of this complex issue.  
 
Last week the Centre launched a new research report on child statelessness in Australia, titled A Place to Call Home, which was co-authored by Research Fellow Katie Robertson and Sarah Dale, Centre Director and Principal Solicitor at the Refugee Advice and Casework Service (RACS). The report identifies barriers to accessing citizenship for Australian-born children who would otherwise be stateless, including that parents of stateless children are unlikely to be able to navigate the citizenship application process without access to free, specialised legal support. It also chronicles the lack of consistent and coordinated data regarding the number and location of stateless people in Australia. Importantly, the report documents the lived experience of statelessness through interviews with Australian stateless families. You can watch a recording of the launch event here. 
 
In tandem with this report, the Centre also launched the Stateless Children Legal Clinic (SCLC) in partnership with RACS and the MLS Clinics. The SCLC offers MLS Juris Doctor students the opportunity to develop practical legal skills and directly assist in the delivery of essential legal services to stateless children in their application for Australian citizenship, with potentially life changing outcomes. The Stateless Children Legal Australia Network was also launched, which seeks to create a network between legal practitioners working on this issue. 
 
The establishment of the Centre on Statelessness was enabled through a very generous philanthropic donation from MLS alum Peter McMullin and his wife Ruth, which is one of the most significant gifts in the history of the Law School. The donation operates as a co-investment with MLS to enable the work to continue over ten years. Your Law School welcomes a chance to explore this model of philanthropic investment across our many other areas of research, spanning Indigenous law and justice, technology and the law, health and medical law, financial regulation, and climate and environmental law, to name but a few.  
 
If you would like to find out more about the Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness, I invite you to join the Centre’s mailing list.  
 
Last week we launched the new Melbourne Climate Futures initiative, led by MLS’s Professor Jacqueline Peel. This multi-disciplinary research network was launched with four excellent panel discussions featuring researchers from across the University. If you are interested in finding out more, you can watch a video recording of the opening panel here.  
 
Melbourne Climate Futures represents another significant research partnership that seeks to drive regulatory change on a major global challenge. I look forward to sharing more with you about the initiative as it gathers momentum this year.  

As always, stay well and stay safe.

Professor Pip Nicholson
Dean, Melbourne Law School

The Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness at Melbourne Law School is making a big impact on the global effort to reduce statelessness and protect the rights of stateless people in Australia and around the world.

 

A new University of Melbourne initiative brings together multi-disciplinary climate change experts, including the Law School’s Professor Jacqueline Peel, to focus on global solutions here in Australia and beyond.

 

 

Social procurement initiatives are on the increase both in the public and private sector in Australia. Dr Warren Staples, Hannah Irving and Melbourne School of Government Director Professor John Howe reflect on this emerging field.

 

The event will feature Senator for Western Australia Pat Dodson, the Commissioner in the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, talking about his experiences and outcomes of the Commission, 30 years on.

15 April, 6pm

The Amsterdam Center for International Law (ACIL) at the University of Amsterdam and Melbourne Law School’s Institute for International Law and the Humanities (IILAH) are pleased to announce a new seminar series entitled Unpacking Transitional Justice: International Law, Memory, and Power, convened by Dr Eliana Cusato and Valeria Vázquez Guevara.

21 April, 5pm

Join us for the launch of Legal History Matters: From Magna Carta to the Clinton Impeachment, by the Hon Justice Steward of the High Court of Australia and edited by Associate Professor Amanda Whiting and Professor Ann O’Connell. The volume comprises outstanding legal history papers authored by final year JD students from Melbourne Law School.

 

 

22 April, 5.30pm

Dr Matthew Bell reflects on the recent decision for LU Simon not to pay $12 million in damages for combustible cladding installed in Melbourne's Lacrosse tower. 

 

 

 

29 March, Australian Financial Review

Katie Robertson from the Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness co-authored an opinion piece on the plight of stateless children and their families in Australia.

 

25 March, SBS News

MLS Professor Julian Webb says the intention behind the ousted MinterEllison CEO's email to staff seemed to be about staff wellbeing and support, but that may have been lost in the way it was communicated.

 

13 March, The Sydney Morning Herald

Dr Amanda Porter spoke with the ABC's 7.30 about the need for greater public scrutiny and accountability in relation to the deaths of Indigenous Australians in custody.

 

10 March, ABC News