Melbourne Law School has a long tradition of being outward looking and global in its affairs. This is manifest through substantive contributions to the development of comparator jurisdictional reforms, and regional and international laws and institutions and the close relationships MLS scholars have with colleagues across the world. These networks have survived, and in some cases been deepened, with our extensive use of digital technologies over the past two years. Personally, I have been able to join a range of conferences, without travel, and I look forward to my next engagement, the Tsinghua World Forum on the Rule of Law, where I will consider legal education in a post-pandemic world.
Perhaps there are fewer greater testimonies to our global reach than when one of our faculty, Professor Hilary Charlesworth, is nominated for election to the International Court of Justice. The election, to be held at the United Nations on 5 November 2021, is to fill a vacancy created by the tragic death of Judge James Crawford, a distinguished Australian jurist and close collaborator of MLS’s international law colleagues. We wish Hilary all the best with election, which will be contested, noting the complexity of geopolitical considerations that will also no doubt impact the vote held at the UN. Election requires obtaining the votes of a majority of the 15 members of the UN Security Council, as well as a majority of the votes of the 193 members of the UN General Assembly.
As always, our global reach is also reflected in our ongoing webinar and virtual events. Daren Tang, who took office as Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) just under a year ago, will reflect on the ways in which WIPO and the global intellectual property network will respond to the challenges of rapidly escalating digitalisation, the consequence of COVID-19, at the Francis Gurry Lecture on Intellectual Property on 20 October.
In 2022, we will host the Miegunyah Lecture, with the School of Population and Global Health, at which Professor Gian Luca Burci, who was longtime Legal Counsel at WHO, and is now at the Global Health Centre at the Graduate Institute of Geneva, will discuss global health law and governance. His address in 2022 will focus on developments regarding a new pandemic treaty.
In October, eminent judges from Singapore and New Zealand will launch a pioneering work, Asia-Pacific Trusts Law. The Honourable T F Bathurst AC, 17th Chief Justice of New South Wales, will address Australian trusts law in the forthcoming Harold Ford Memorial Lecture.
Reflecting on our global reach in teaching, our Master’s programs have been taught by scholars and practitioners across the world delivering over 150 subjects in 2021. With the 2022 program almost settled, once again we will offer outstanding subjects on contemporary legal issues to students located from Darwin to Peru, Malawi, Poland, and beyond. We very much look forward to welcoming students to our virtual classes, and, we hope, to Carlton in 2022.
As you will have seen, the University of Melbourne has announced that staff, students and visitors will need to be vaccinated to come to campus in 2022. We hope our building, and the campus, will erupt with new and returning students meeting each other as they learn about the law, whether as breadth (undergraduate), JD or MLM students. Concurrently, we plan to welcome some of our students to class using blended synchronous learning, enabling Melbourne-based students and those based interstate or overseas to study the same subjects together, as necessary.
Keep safe and keep in touch.
With best wishes, as always
Professor Pip Nicholson
Dean, Melbourne Law School
News and Analysis
Australia needs a democracy fix
Associate Professor Tom Daly says COVID-19's domination of public life since 2020 has overshadowed the need to focus on the health of Australia's democracy.
Effective management of cyber security risks is a core governance concern, but the imposition of a new mandatory directors’ duty would be a step too far, write Associate Professor Rosemary Langford and Dr Andrew Godwin.
The Honourable T F Bathurst AC, 17th Chief Justice of New South Wales, will present on the topic of commercial trusts and examine the adequacy of the current regime in Australia as it concerns the liability of beneficiaries in the event of the insolvency of commercial trusts. The Harold Ford Memorial Lecture 2021 is presented by Melbourne Law School and supported by Clayton Utz.
In his recent book, We, the Robots?: Regulating Artificial Intelligence and the Limits of the Law, Professor Simon Chesterman (Dean of Law, National University of Singapore and Senior Director for AI Governance at AI Singapore) discusses the challenges of regulating new technology, acknowledging that they pose both significant risks but also great benefits. Professor Chesterman will discuss areas from driverless cars and governance by algorithm, to the impact of AI on the legal profession and the possibility that AI might play a role in regulating itself.
Perpetual strangerhood: experiences of highly skilled African professionals
Dr Kathomi Gatwiri, senior Social Work lecturer at Southern Cross University and practising psychotherapist, presents as part of the Migration, Refugees & Statelessness Seminar Series. This presentation is co-hosted by the Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness and the Melbourne Social Equity Institute.
Join us for a public discussion organised by the Alan Missen Foundation, Melbourne Law School and the Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies. The expert panel features Laureate Professor Emeritus Cheryl SaundersAO, Professor Michelle Foster, Timothy Goodwin and Professor Jason Varuhas.
Edited by Associate Professor Ying Khai Liew and Professor Matthew Harding, Asia-Pacific Trusts Law: Theory and Practice in Context will be launched by Justice Andrew Phang (Supreme Court of Singapore) and Justice Susan Glazebrook (Supreme Court of New Zealand). Theory and Practice in Context is the first volume in the ‘Asia-Pacific Trusts Law’ book series.
2021 Francis Gurry Lecture on Intellectual Property
The pandemic has transformed the ways in which we live and work – accelerating pre-existing trends towards digitalisation and opening further opportunities for the use of innovation and creativity to drive growth. In this address, Daren Tang, Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), will reflect on the ways in which WIPO and the global intellectual property ecosystem can respond to recent developments and the challenges they bring.
Reimagining the relationship and reshaping our institutions
Timothy Goodwin will speak about how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders must think beyond how to participate in current institutions and structures in nation building projects and instead build an intellectual base for reshaping those institutions and structures and assert an innovative form of cultural leadership – one both traditional and modern – that remakes Australia’s political, legal, social and cultural landscape.
Following the introduction of a Bill introduced to parliament by the Morrison government to amend the Freedom of Information Act for media exemptions for National Cabinet meetings, Laureate Professor Emeritus Cheryl Saunders AO writes that the government’s determination to keep the National Cabinet’s work a secret should concern us all.
Global impact of China’s crackdown on illegal betting
Professor Jack Anderson is a member of the Asian Racing Federation’s Council on Anti-Illegal Betting & Related Financial Crime, which has released a new report on how China's crackdown on transnational illegal betting is causing ripples globally.