Sir Kenneth Bailey Memorial Lecture: Past Lectures

2024 Annual Lecture

Dr Nilufer Oral — International Law and the Multilateral System in Face of Climate Change and Threats to the Ocean

The world is facing multiple threats to the environment, among which climate change dominates. Australia and Oceania are especially vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change, in particular, harm to the marine environment and sea level rise. Climate change is a collective threat that requires collective action. The question is whether international law and the current multilateral system can meet the challenges of climate change? Can the seemingly fractured and cacophonic world of the United Nations rise above the daily commotions of crisis and find solutions to pressing problems facing the world?

International cooperation is at the heart of the United Nations Charter as expressed in Article 1, paragraph 3 of the UN Charter. The lecture will discuss cases in which the multilateral system through international law has rallied to address threats to the marine environment, including sea level rise, focusing on the work of the United Nations International Law Commission on sea level rise, the advisory opinion request presented to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea by the Commission on Small Island States (COSIS) and that presented to the International Court of Justice by the General Assembly, at the initiative of Vanuatu.

The lecture was presented at the Melbourne Law School on 19 September 2024.

2023 Annual Lecture

Mr Les Malezer — Breaking Laws and Making Laws on Indigenous Peoples: From the National to the International

In this lecture, Mr Malezer draws on his extensive experience working in local, national and international organisations on the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to consider the contemporary challenges to changing laws and doctrines regarding the status of Indigenous peoples in Australia. He recounts his personal perspectives on the way in which international processes on the rights of Indigenous peoples can supplement the national processes to enhance the goals of justice and equality for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

The lecture was presented at the Melbourne Law School on 6 September 2023.

2022 Annual Lecture

Associate Professor Rain Liivoja — Marching in the Rear and Limping a Little? International Law's Response to the Development of Autonomous Weapons and Cyber Capabilities

Throughout history, technological changes have reshaped the character of warfare. In some instances, major developments in military technology have precipitated changes in the law that governs warfare. Over the past decade, major debates about the adequacy of the currently legal regulation of armed conflict have focused on the impact of two technological shifts – the increased autonomy in weapon systems and the proliferation of cyber capabilities.

Despite their interconnectedness, these debates have proceeded in different fora and along rather different trajectories. At the same time, both debates have highlighted the challenges that the international legal system faces when dealing with technological change in the peace and security context. This lecture seeks to provide a general account of the similarities and differences of these two regulatory debates, and what these might mean for the future of the law of armed conflict and arms control law.

The lecture was presented at the Melbourne Law School on 24 May 2022.

2020 Annual Lecture

Professor Gerry Simpson — The Atomics

How might international law respond to the prospect of nuclear annihilation? With abolitionist fervour? Technocracy? Legalism? Insouciance? In this lecture, Professor Simpson delivers a report on international legal nuclearism.

The lecture was presented at the Melbourne Law School on 11 March 2020.

2019 Annual Lecture

Professor Lavanya Rajamani — Innovation and Experimentation in the International Climate Change Regime

The international climate change negotiations, plagued as they are by deep-seated and seemingly irresolvable differences, have had to demonstrate remarkable dexterity over the years in skirting political dysfunction to reach agreement. The agreements reached reflect innovation and experimentation in several respects: the architecture of the legal instruments adopted, the profusion of norms of differing legal character in these instruments, the forms of differentiation between developed and developing countries, and even in the processes and procedures parties followed to reach agreement.

This lecture explores innovation and experimentation across the climate change regime, with a focus on issues relating to legal character and differentiation.

The lecture was presented at the Melbourne Law School on 12 March 2019.

2018 Annual Lecture

Professor Joseph H H Weiler — Reconsidering the Trial of Jesus:
A Reading for Our Times

Could the Son of God truly be guilty of Blasphemy? Was his trial fair? Who are the Christ killers? – The Jews? The Romans? Hundreds of books have engaged with these questions. While covering this familiar ground the Kenneth Bailey Lecture will address three other questions to date neglected. What is the significance of this most famous of Trials to our Western understanding of Justice? Why does it matter theologically speaking that the death of Jesus was brought about by Trial and not, say, assassination? And is there any reading of the Trial which may be relevant to the debates of our mostly secular culture of today?

The lecture was presented at the Melbourne Law School on 29 May 2018.

2017 Annual Lecture

Emeritus Professor Gillian Triggs — The Rule of Law in a Post-Truth Era

As the internet and social media provide unprecedented access to information and commentary, a curious and probably unforeseen consequence has been that responses to contemporary problems are increasingly emotional and ideological. Research reports, scientific evidence and balanced reports are often ignored in favour of subjective, entrenched views.  If facts don’t matter, how can public policy and laws be developed to address today's challenges? This public lecture considered the implications of a “post- truth” era on the rule of law in the context of marriage equality, indigenous policy and vulnerable children.

The lecture was presented at the Melbourne Law School on 4 October 2017.

2016 Annual Lecture

Professor Guy Goodwin-Gill — International Refugee Law: Yesterday, Today, but Tomorrow?

The international refugee law regime is currently facing fundamental challenges. We are witnessing unprecedented levels of forced displacement, and yet many developed states continue to implement a raft of policies, including securitisation, restrictions on access to asylum, exclusion, interception, and external controls, that threaten not only the scope of protection, but also the very foundations of the regime.

The lecture was presented at the Melbourne Law School on 14 September 2016.

Other Lectures

Professor Stewart Motha — Forget Sovereignty: The Nomos of the Sea & People in Small Boats

This lecture was held in 2013 in conjunction with the Institute of International Law and the Humanities. An audio recording of the lecture can be listened to here.