A Symposium on the topic "Legal Actors and Human Rights in Asia" will take place from 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday, 3 June 2025, in the Woodward Conference Centre (Level 10, Melbourne Law School)
As part of its 40th Anniversary celebrations, a special issue of the Australian Journal of Asian Law will be published.
A core objective of the Asian Law Centre is to promote the rule of law. This special issue focuses on legal actors in and around the jurisdictions of Asia who give this ideal concrete form, for better or worse. We will take a broad view of the concept of legal actors to include lawyers, judges, prosecutors, legislators, legal academics and other civil actors who use law to advocate for human rights.
The core theme circulates around the varying roles that legal actors play in promoting human rights and the administration of justice. We see legal actors as agents, integrally involved, even responsible, ultimately for shaping, creating and implementing law and legal systems. Legal actors may support liberal ideals through human rights and legal constraints on the exercise of state power. They may also support illiberal power holders and authoritarian concentration of political power. In support of liberal ideals, legal actors may be influential across many dimensions. Human rights come in many forms, and the law plays a central role in advocacy for rights as well as providing the legal tools to protect rights. Human rights advocacy sometimes challenges powerful state actors to act in accordance with the law and to give concrete application to rights defined and protected by law. These actors play an important role in shaping the minds and morals of legal students and, therefore, shaping a future in which human rights remain a core component of the rule of law.
Professor Malcolm DH Smith Memorial Scholarship
The Malcolm DH Smith Memorial Scholarship was launched in 2010 in tribute to Professor Malcolm Smith, a leading international figure in Asian legal studies and the Founding Director of the Asian Law Centre at the University of Melbourne. This scholarship was initiated by members of the Asian Law Centre, with the support of Dr Rosalynd Smith, widow of Professor Smith.
The scholarship is designed to assist first-year Melbourne JD students who have completed an undergraduate law degree or a degree majoring in Asian studies at a tertiary institution in Australia or Asia.
Donations to the Malcolm DH Smith Memorial Scholarship Fund would be gratefully received at any time. Gifts over $2 are tax-deductible.
Symposium Program
The Symposium will take place from 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday, 3 June 2025, in the Woodward Conference Centre (Level 10, Melbourne Law School)
Symposium Registration
Please direct queries about the conference to Kathryn Taylor (in English)