As COVID-19 case numbers continue to decline in Victoria, MLS looks forward to teaching students face to face in 2021. This will involve further program innovation, building on the lessons of 2020. We will need to offer socially-distant teaching, as well as continuing our online offerings for students who have commenced study abroad and whose capacity to join us in Melbourne remains unclear.
The pandemic has radically escalated the already-strong partnerships between MLS and health-focused researchers at the University of Melbourne. MLS’s existing collaborations in Health Law and Emerging Technologies (HeLEX) and ethics (led by philosopher and practical ethicist Professor Julian Savulescu) have been complemented by four new sites of collaboration: Stem Cells Australia; the Melbourne Genomics Health Alliance; the School of Population and Global Health; and our newest collaborator, the Centre for Digital Transformation of Health. The focus of the partnerships is regulatory design for population health and new and emerging technologies, alongside work on privacy issues, ethics and human rights. MLS is also undertaking research in collaboration with the World Health Organization to support countries in our region in their use of law in responding to COVID-19 across a range of critical policy areas. These include health governance, social distancing measures, COVID-19 testing, the use of digital technologies, and preparing for the availability of vaccines.
These developments complement the work of MLS’s health and law scholars who have in recent years established the pan-university Health, Law and Ethics Network, which brings together scholars and the professions to debate a broad range of medico-legal and public health law issues. This year also saw the establishment of MLS’s COVID-19 Research Network, exploring the pandemic’s health, economic, social and political consequences. Members of that network contributed to the ABC’s three-part video series Germs and Justice, hosted by Jon Faine. Most recently, MLS Professor Kristen Rundle has challenged those called before Victoria’s COVID-19 Hotel Quarantine Inquiry to think of the consequences of ‘contracting out’ with her recent policy brief and also in an op-ed for The Age.
On another note, we sadly lost one of the world’s most eminent jurists this month, US Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Justice Ginsburg’s long and storied career is well documented, but I include here a recent ABC Radio National interview with Laureate Professor Adrienne Stone. Professor Stone reflects on the role of final courts of appeal and constitutional courts and the particular contributions made by Justice Ginsburg.
As always, stay well and stay safe.
Professor Pip Nicholson
Dean, Melbourne Law School
Feature Story
Law Apps 2020: Combining law and technology
A group of MLS students has used creative thinking to develop an app that will help some of Australia’s most vulnerable people to pay outstanding fines.
Rio Tinto and the anatomy of corporate culpability
What are the legal implications of Rio Tinto’s destruction of the 46,000-year-old Juukan Gorge rock shelters? Professors Elise Bant and Professor Jeannie Marie Paterson assess the corporate culture behind Rio Tinto’s narrative of ‘unintentional mistakes and system errors’.
The curfew has divided Victorians with some believing that their human rights are at risk. MLS human rights expert Professor John Tobin examines the management of COVID-19 in Victoria.
Given the importance of a COVID-19 vaccine, we need to unpack the religious and ethical concerns around using human cell lines, say Associate Professor Michelle Taylor-Sands and Dr Christopher Gyngell, co-directors of the MLS Health Law and Ethics Network.
Hospitals refusing to admit COVID-positive aged care residents may be breaking age discrimination laws, write Professor Beth Gaze and Associate Professor Lisa Sarmas.
A new study by MLS construction law experts Professor John Sharkey AM and Phillip Greenham has found more than half of Australia’s construction industry insiders think the industry is not healthy or sustainable.
We are delighted to announce the establishment of a series of broad purpose giving destinations, which allow our alumni and friends to contribute to a Melbourne Law School Highest Priority area of choice. These new giving destinations include: MLS Highest Priorities – Indigenous; MLS Highest Priorities – First in Family; MLS Highest Priorities – Regional & Remote.
For further information or to make a gift online, please visit our Giving to MLS webpage. To discuss philanthropy at Melbourne Law School, please do not hesitate to contact the Advancement team.
What's on at MLS
Indonesia Hallmark Research Initiative Online Conference 2020
The MLS Centre for Indonesian Law, Islam and Society is hosting a web conference on COVID-19 in Indonesia. Topics covered will include politics, democratic regression, freedom of expression, health policy and testing, the impact on women, the disabled and the urban poor, and Muslim attitudes.
The 15th Annual Tax Lecture will be presented by Graeme Cooper, Professor of Taxation Law at the University of Sydney and consultant to Greenwoods & Herbert Smith Freehills. The lecture will outline how Australia might achieve better tax legislation.
MLS is hosting a webinar discussion on the establishment of an Australian International Commercial Court. Professor John Sharkey AM will be joined by former Chief Justice of Victoria the Hon Marilyn Warren AC QC and independent international arbitrator Professor Doug Jones AO.
Leading and managing legal organisations in times of uncertainty
MLS Dean Professor Pip Nicholson, MLS Senior Fellow and Barolsky Advisors Managing Director Joel Barolsky, and Cultivating Leadership’s Dr Rodney Howard discuss how to navigate short-term uncertainty and drive long-term success.
The 2019 McKinnon Prize in Political Leadership Oration
What does good political leadership look like? Watch winners of the 2019 McKinnon Prize in Political Leadership NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Melbourne Lord Mayor Sally Capp discuss this and more in the McKinnon Prize Oration.
To determine whether lockdown is worth the cost, we need to agree on how we should evaluate outcomes and what other ethical principles matter, says Distinguished Visiting Professor Julian Savulescu.
Vanuatu has become one of the few countries in the world to sell its citizenship to stateless and nomadic people. Professor Michelle Foster fears the initiative gives states an excuse to continue persecuting minority groups.