As restrictions continue to be eased in Victoria and we manage an impressive run of days with zero COVID-19 cases, MLS has been working through what a return to campus looks like.
Consistent with Victorian Government health advice, we have begun a soft reopening of the Law School, with limited numbers of staff returning to the building for essential work. After eight months, I had my first day back in the building last week and was joined by several colleagues and the Jessup Moot team. I have since reflected that my mood almost immediately lifted, but that benefit emerged after I returned home. The first day at Pelham Street felt entirely ‘normal’ and concurrently ‘deafeningly quiet’. I assume many of you are reflecting on the return to your ‘old’ place of work also.
We very much look forward to welcoming staff and students back to campus. In our planning we need to ensure staff and student health and safety, balance staff and student anxiety, consider the dynamic health advice (currently, teaching must be socially distanced, for example), accommodate local and international students, and ensure that we re-engineer a cohort experience, harnessing technology and the campus as we can.
There is still ongoing discussion about what teaching will look like, and we will need to balance face-to-face teaching, likely to be delivered in two-hour blocks of 15 students, and virtual teaching. We have consistently said returning to campus will be harder than leaving, and that has proven to be the case to date. I thank my MLS staff colleagues for continuing to resolve new and interesting logistical challenges.
In February 2021 the University will again assess its financial position. There is still uncertainty and I would like to thank all MLS staff for their patience and fortitude at this time.
Just as every legal organisation across the country is reassessing its operations, so too is MLS, looking to build on the lessons of 2020 and hoping to return more resilient and adaptable in 2021. This level of disruption demands we consider what we can do differently and why we might choose to change. We will keep you abreast of developments.
As always, stay well, stay safe and keep in touch.
Professor Pip Nicholson
Dean, Melbourne Law School
Feature Stories
Paying it forward
As a student, Katherine Brazenor (LLB(Hons)’08) often wished she had a mentor to guide her through the realities of legal practice. Now in her ninth year of the MLS Mentor Program, Katherine reflects on her experiences and the importance of giving back.
The interim report of Victoria’s COVID-19 Hotel Quarantine Inquiry outlines the future operations of the program – but the failure of contracting-out services sits behind some of the key recommendations, says MLS Professor Kristen Rundle.
MLS Associate Professor Rebecca Giblin is part of a new project digitising important Australian novels, beloved children's classics and ground-breaking plays that are currently out of print and inaccessible to readers.
Nominations are open for the 2020 McKinnon Prize in Political Leadership, an annual national prize championing political leadership across all tiers of Australian government.
Your nomination will help to reward leaders who are improving our democratic processes and creating positive outcomes for Australians, and help to set an example for others to follow.
Individuals are encouraged to nominate local, state and territory or federal politicians for the Political Leader of the Year award and the Emerging Political Leader of the Year award.
Untapped: the Australian Literary Heritage Project
MLS Associate Professor Rebecca Giblin and the Honourable Julie Dodds-Streeton QC met at Longacres, the historic house of Sir Arthur Streeton, to launch 'Untapped: the Australian Literary Heritage Project'.
Featuring readings from Australian authors Anita Heiss, Garry Disher, Carmel Bird, Gillian Rubenstein, Sophie Masson, Danielle Clode and Cory Doctorow, you can watch the full event online.
To find out how you can support the project, visit our website.
Social equity and the rise of digital mental healthcare
In this online event, Dr Piers Gooding will discuss his research on the law and politics of ‘digital mental health care’. This includes the remarkable under-involvement of people who use mental health services, and the potential for such technologies to change how we experience ourselves and the world.
Data science and the need for collective law and ethics
Join MLS academics Dr Jake Goldenfein, Associate Professor Tatiana Cutts and other information science experts as they discuss the future of data science and explore the concept of treating data as a medium of self-governance.
In addition to graduate degrees, the MLM program offers more than 150 subjects from 26 specialist legal areas that can be undertaken without enrolling in a formal course. Available to both law and non-law graduates, single subject enrolment is a great way to advance your professional knowledge in a specific area of law. Single subjects may be undertaken with or without assessment, however, to receive credit you must complete the subject with assessment.
An international lawyer, humanitarian, human rights advocate and trusted advisor to world leaders, MLS alum Dr Samuel Pisar AO was also a significant influence in the life of his stepson, America’s next Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
“Anti-discrimination law and human rights law are two major areas for businesses to consider when working out a policy on mandatory COVID vaccination,” says Dr Paula O’Brien, who is studying the legal and commercial implications of mandatory vaccinations.
MLS Professorial Fellow Raimond Gaita discusses Australia’s devastating bushfires, our perception of ‘country’ and how climate change will test if the world’s nations can constitute a community in more than name only.
In the wake of a shocking report about alleged war crimes in Afghanistan, 19 defence force personnel have been referred to the Australian Federal Police over alleged unlawful killings. MLS Professor Alison Duxbury and ABC News' Thomas Oriti discuss why the legal process is likely to play out through civilian courts.
When postgraduate subjects and courses are open to non-lawyers as well as lawyers, both groups can further expand their all-important professional networks, says MLS Dean Professor Pip Nicholson.
Climate litigator David Barnden had a landmark win against a major superannuation fund this month. MLS environmental law expert Professor Jacqueline Peel says the new approach to political inaction “seeks more systemic, transformative change through holding corporate and government actors liable for their contribution to climate change”.