30th Anniversary of the Shanghai Winter School
2024-02-21 17:30 - 19:30 (Australia/Sydney) | New Law Building (F10)
Celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the Shanghai Winter School
In-person event
Join us for a special reception hosted by the University of Sydney Law SchoolÂ Centre for Asian and Pacific Law, commemorating three decades of theÂ Shanghai Winter SchoolÂ program. We extend a warm invitation to our esteemed staff, students, alumni, and anyone passionate about Asian and Pacific Law to be part of this joyous occasion.
This event offers a unique opportunity to connect with renowned scholars and practitioners in various legal fields, particularly business compliance in the Asia Pacific region.
Chair:Â Dr. Jie (Jeanne) Huang, Co-director, Centre for Asian and Pacific Law of the University of Sydney
Speakers:

Dean and Professor Simon Bronitt, University of Sydney Law School
Vice President and Professor Peili Ying, East China University of Political Science and Law
Professor Vivienne Bath, University of Sydney Law School
Professor Bing Ling, University of Sydney Law School

This event is being held in conjunction with the Business Compliance in International Commercial Transactions in Asia Pacific Conference. Visit this page for further details and registration.
Wednesday 21 February 2024
Time:Â 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Venue:Â New Law Building (F10), University of Sydney, Eastern Avenue, Camperdown campus

Catering and beverages will be provided to enhance your experience.
Let’s come together to reminisce, network, and celebrate the rich legacy of the Shanghai Winter School. We look forward to your presence at this memorable reception!
This conference is hosted by the Centre for Asian and Pacific Law at Sydney Law School and the China Studies Centre at the University of Sydney.

China as a Development Model for the Global South: Opportunities and Limits
2024-02-22 13:00 - 14:00 | Common Room, Level 4, Sydney Law School
China as a Development Model for the Global South: Opportunities and Limits

In-person event
With its remarkable economic success, China could be regarded by countries in the Global South as presenting a development model that is easier to emulate than that of Western developed countries. In this paper, we examine to what extent the Chinese model, which China calls â€œSocialism with Chinese Characteristics,â€ could be regarded as a universal truth for the Global South. We start with two key features of the Chinese model: its export-oriented growth model, which reversed its import-substitution model that communist China practiced in the first 30 years under Mao, and can still be found in many developing countries; and its extensive use of industrial policy that relies heavily on state-owned enterprises and government subsidies, in contrast to the more market-oriented model in Western countries.
In addition, we discuss two new areas of development that illustrate the complexity and adaptability of China’s heterodox approach to development: the phenomenal growth of its e-commerce sector, despite its longstanding censorship regime; and its sustainable development policies, as illustrated with its recent experience in climate adaptation and energy transition. We conclude by discussing how the Chinese approach, which combines a variety of seemingly irreconcilable approaches, reflects another major feature: experimental pragmatism, and what lessons it might offer to countries in the Global South.
Speaker

Professor Henry Gao,Â Singapore Management University

Chair
David S G Goodman is Director of the China Studies Centre, University of Sydney, where he is Professor of Chinese Politics. He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia. Recent publications include: Local Governance in China: Structures, variations, and innovations Elgar 2023 (with Ceren Ergenc); Class and the Communist Party of China, 1921-2021 (2 Vols) (with Marc Blecher, Yingjie Guo, Jean-Louis Rocca, Tony Saich, and Beibei Tang) Routledge, 2022.
Thursday 22 February
Time:Â 1-2pm
CPD Points: 1
Venue:Â Common Room, Level 4, New Law Building (F10)

This event is proudly co-presented by the Centre for Asian and Pacific LawÂ and the China Studies Centre at the University of Sydney.

Book launch: Youth Crime, Youth Justice and Children's Courts in NSW
2024-02-27 17:30 - 19:00 | New Law Building (F10)
Book launch: Youth Crime, Youth Justice and Children’s Courts in NSW
In-person event
The University of Sydney Law School is delighted to invite you to the launch of Youth Crime, Youth Justice and Children’s Courts in NSW, co-edited by Dr Garner Clancey, Sydney Law School, and Dr Rohan Lulham, University of Sydney.
About Youth Crime, Youth Justice and Children’s Courts in NSW
Youth Crime, Youth Justice and Children’s Courts in NSWÂ provides a comprehensive account of the complex arrangements impacting youth crime, youth justice and Children’s Courts in NSW. The reader is provided deep insights into the many aspects of the system that impact young people â€” the journey of a young person, from their first contact with police to release from custody and the elements which shape it, are illuminated to provide a practical understanding.
Find out more about the book and order it online here.
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Tuesday 27 February 2024
Time: 5.30-7pm
Venue: New Law Building (F10), Room TBC
This event is being held in-person at Sydney Law School.
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Contributors toÂ Youth Crime, Youth Justice and Children’s Courts in NSW

Foreword â€“ Judge Peter Johnstone, Chief Magistrate of NSW
Chapter 1: Introduction â€“ Dr Garner Clancey and Dr Rohan Lulham, University of Sydney
Chapter 2: Youth Crime and Youth Justice Trends â€“ Jackie Fitzgerald, Executive Director, NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research
Chapter 3: Early Intervention to Divert Children and Young People from the Criminal Justice System â€“ Janet Killgallon, Manager of the Whole of Government Team, Youth Justice NSW
Chapter 4: The Children’s Court â€“ Judge Nell Skinner, President of the NSW Children’s Court
Chapter 5: Addressing the Needs of Children with Neurodevelopmental Impairments in Contact with Youth Justice â€“ Kasey Tyler, Experienced Policy and Legal Professional
Chapter 6: Development and Importance of Adolescent Criminal Identity â€“ Dr Tim Warton, Senior Manager of Practice and Implementation, Youth Justice NSW
Chapter 7: Contemporary Youth Detention Experiences in NSW â€“ Dr Lisa Ewenson, Social Science Researcher
Chapter 8: Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism and Young People â€“ Steve Barracosa, Senior Manager of the Countering Violent Extremism Unit, Youth Justice NSW
Chapter 9: YLS-CMI Risk Assessment Tool and Neutrality – Dr Lobna Yassine, University of Sydney
Chapter 10: Intersectional Rurality and Youth Justice in NSW â€“ Dr Luke Butcher, Adjunct Associate Professor Charles Darwin University
Chapter 11: Deconstructing, Decolonising and Disrupting Youth Justice Approaches with Pacific Young People â€“ Professor Jioji Ravulo, University of Sydney
Chapter 12: A Yarn About Identity, Community and Youth Justice â€“ Joseph Clarke, proud Murrawarri/Gomeroi man and Dr Rohan Lulham, University of Sydney
Chapter 13: Conclusion – Dr Garner Clancey and Dr Rohan Lulham, University of Sydney

This event is proudly presented by Sydney Law School and the Youth Justice Collaboration at the University of Sydney.

2024 Paul Byrne Memorial Lecture: The Rule of Law in Modern Australia
2024-02-28 18:00 - 19:30 | Law Foyer, Level 2
2024 Paul Byrne Memorial Lecture: The Rule of Law in Modern Australia
Delivered by The Honourable Chief Justice Lucy McCallum
In-person event
**This event is now at full capacity. A recording will be released after the event.**
About the speaker
Chief Justice Lucy McCallum graduated with a BA/LLB from the University of New South Wales in 1986, majoring in philosophy.Â She commenced her legal career as a commercial litigation solicitor at Mallesons Stephen Jaques in Sydney before moving to Canberra to take up a position as a prosecutor in 1988.Â In 1990, her Honour joined the Queensland DPP as a trial advocate.Â She returned to Sydney in 1991 to become a barrister, taking silk in 2005.Â In 2008, her Honour was appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales in the Common Law Division.
In 2016, Chief Justice McCallum was appointed Chair of the NSW Judicial Commission Ngara Yura Committee, which works to educate judicial officers on matters relating to contemporary socio-cultural issues that have an impact on Aboriginal people in the justice system. In February 2019, she was elevated to the New South Wales Court of Appeal.Â Her Honour was sworn in as Chief Justice of the Australian Capital Territory on 8 March 2022.Â Her personal interests include a range of outdoor adventure sports as well as cooking, music and reading.
WEDNESDAY 28 FEBRUARY 2024
Time:Â 6-7.30pmÂ (followed by a cocktail reception)
This event is being held in-person at Sydney Law School.

CPD Points:Â 1.5

The Paul Byrne Memorial Fund
The Paul Byrne Memorial Fund was set up to honour and continue Paul’s interest in the criminal justice system by supporting the ongoing activities of the Institute of Criminology, such as lectures, seminars, publications, and awards. Attendees of the Paul Byrne SC Memorial Lecture are warmly invited to make a donation to The Paul Byrne SC Memorial Fund.
Gifts to The Paul Byrne SC Memorial Fund support the activities of the Institute of Criminology and other activities in the field of criminal law at Sydney Law School, in memory of the late Paul Byrne SC.

This event is proudly hosted by the Sydney Institute of Criminology, highlighting the Institute’s support of critical criminal justice research, practice, policy and debate.

Research launch | Let's talk about confidentiality: NDA use in sexual harassment settlements
2024-03-06 17:30 - 19:30 | Law Foyer, Level 2
Research launch | Let’s talk about confidentiality: NDA use in sexual harassment settlements
In-person event
Join us for the launch of research by our first Social Justice Pratitioners in Residence (SJPIR) (jointly held by Sharmilla Bargon of Redfern Legal Centre and Regina Featherstone of the Human Rights Law Centre).
After joining the law school in August 2023, Regina and Sharmilla set out to investigate the impacts of the Respect@Work Report around non-disclosure agreement (NDA) use in workplace sexual harassment disputes. They have produced a research report on the prevalence of NDA use and heard from lawyers and barristers on their experiences with NDAs of all shapes and sizes in settlement negotiations. This report also examines the rise of defamation responses to sexual harassment complaints and considers contractual enforceability of NDA terms. While legislative reform is one model to approach regulating NDA use, their report considers lawyers’ professional obligations as a largely unexplored avenue for reform.

Wednesday 6 March, 5.30-7.30pm AEDT
Venue:Â New Law Building (F10), Level 2, Law Foyer, Eastern Avenue, Camperdown campus

This event is proudly presented by Sydney Law School at the University of Sydney.

JSI Seminar | European Ã‰migrÃ© Legal Scholars in Australian Law Schools: Julius Stone's Circle
2024-03-07 18:00 - 19:30 | Common Room, Level 4, Sydney Law School
JSI Seminar | European Ã‰migrÃ© Legal Scholars in Australian Law Schools: Julius Stone’s CircleIn-person event

During and immediately after World War II, some Australian law schools had the opportunity to rescue European Ã©migrÃ© legal scholars fleeing persecution and fascism. Overwhelmingly, Australian universities did not become shelters for refugee intellectuals, despite the extraordinary efforts of some individuals and agencies supporting them. Nevertheless, some Ã©migrÃ© legal scholars did come to Australia, some gained positions in Australian universities, and they prompted a significant transformation in legal pedagogy and research.

Mark Lunney has remarked that the influence of European Ã©migrÃ© scholars on Australian law is a â€œforgotten historyâ€.[1]Â Part of a larger collaborative project that aims to retrieve that history, this paper details the contributions of Ã©migrÃ© scholars in the Department of International Law and Jurisprudence at the University of Sydney under Julius Stone’s leadership. Building upon the existing scholarship on Stone’s influence in Australia, this paper examines other individuals within Stone’s circle, including Ilmar Tammelo, Otto Bondy and Charles Alexandrowicz. It also explores the role of the Australian Society of Legal Philosophy, which was established to offer sanctuary and intellectual camaraderie for Ã©migrÃ© legal scholars.

Drawing upon archival records, unpublished sources and interviews with former students of the Department, the paper offers a case study of the network of jurists based at the University of Sydney in order to investigate the impact of migration on Australian legal institutions, education and practice.

The project, and perhaps also this paper, will introduce a wider cohort of characters that have influenced the development of Australian jurisprudence and legal education. In particular, it will allow for a richer understanding the aftermath of the Second World War as a key moment of transformation in the legal institutions and cultures in Australia.

[1]Â See Mark Lunney â€˜Legal Emigres and the Development of Australian Tort Law’ 36(2)Â Melbourne University Law ReviewÂ 494, 495.
About the speaker:
Katherine BiberÂ is a legal scholar, historian and criminologist, and Professor of Law at the University of Technology Sydney, where she specialises in the law of evidence. She is author ofÂ In Crime’s Archive: The Cultural Afterlife of EvidenceÂ (Routledge, 2019) andÂ Captive Images: Race, Crime, PhotographyÂ (Routledge, 2004). Her recent co-edited collections includeÂ Law’s DocumentsÂ (with Trish Luker and Priya Vaughan, Routledge 2022) andÂ Evidence and the ArchiveÂ (with Trish Luker, Routledge, 2017). She is currently writingÂ The Last Outlaws, a legal history of Australia’s last proclaimed outlaws, the brothers Jimmy and Joe Governor. Her research on the journeys and legacies of European Ã©migrÃ© lawyers in Australia is part of a collaborative research project with Eloise Chandler, Sara Dehm and Ana Vrdoljak.

Thursday 7 March 2024, 6-7.30pm AEDT
Venue: Level 4, Common Room, New Law Building (F10), Eastern Avenue, Camperdown campus

CPD Points:Â 1.5

This event is proudly presented by theÂ Julius Stone Institute of JurisprudenceÂ at The University of Sydney Law School.

2024 ACCEL Environmental Law Year in Review: Spotlighting Climate Change, Nature Repair, Transport, and Greenwashing
2024-03-08 08:30 - 18:45
2024 ACCEL Environmental Law Year in Review: Spotlighting Climate Change, Nature Repair, Transport, and Greenwashing
The Australian Centre for Climate and Environmental Law at Sydney Law School invites you to its Environmental Law Year in Review Conference on 8 March 2024.
In Australia and around the world, 2023 was a significant year for climate and environmental law reform. To keep 1.5Â°C within reach, COP28 called on governments to ‘transition away’ from fossil fuels. An ambitious environmental agenda was pursued by the Australian Government, including reforming the Safeguard Mechanism and advancing a framework to require financial risk disclosures related to climate change.
Biodiversity loss and the risk of ecosystem collapse continued to drive a variety of developments. The global Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures finalised a voluntary framework to assist organisations in reporting and acting on nature-related issues. A groundbreaking legal opinion also highlighted the need for directors to consider nature-related risks. The Australian Government passed the Nature Repair Act 2023, creating the framework for a voluntary national nature repair market, and consulted on complex changes to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act 1999, including the establishment of a new national environment authority – Environment Protection Australia.
Meanwhile, the High Court, in a 4:3 decision, held that the Victorian electric vehicle road user charge was unconstitutional, raising broader questions about road infrastructure funding and the role of states in transport decarbonisation. Regulatory action on greenwashing surged, with increasing scrutiny by the ACCC and ASIC of company sustainability and climate-related claims. ASIC’s case against Mercer marked a historic moment, and greenwashing continues to be a focus of strategic climate litigation, including by Greenpeace.
This event will bring together academics, practitioners, members of the NGO sector, government officials and students to hear about the implications of these â€˜once in a generation’ developments in climate and environmental law. Keynote speakers and panellists will discuss the following topics:
Outcomes of COP28

Reforms to the Safeguard Mechanism
Sustainable Finance Strategy and mandatory climate-related financial disclosures
NSW Climate Change (Net Zero Future) Act 2023
Reforms to the EPBC Act
New Nature Repair Act
Legal opinion on nature-related risks and directors duties
The Vanderstock decision and transport decarbonisation
Greenwashing regulation and litigation

Book launch and reception
Following the conference proceedings, the Law School is delighted to invite you to the launch of the third edition of The International Law of the Sea,Â co-authored by Professor Don Rothwell, ANU College of Law, and Professor Tim Stephens, Sydney Law School and published by Bloomsbury Publishing.
The book will be launched by Her Excellency the Honourable MargaretÂ BeazleyÂ AC KC, Governor of New South Wales.
Find out more about the book and order it onlineÂ here.
Â Draft program

9.15
Nature-related risk, repair and the EPBC Act
Panelists:
Samantha Daly – Johnson Winter Slattery
Gabriella Warden – Carbon Market Institute
Rachel Walmsley – Environment Defenders Office

10.45
Morning tea

11.15
COP28 and climate reform
Panelists:
Professor Rosemary Lyster – University of Sydney Law School
Ilona Miller – Gilbert and Tobin
Keith Rovers – Minter Ellison

12.45
Lunch

1.30pmÂ
Vanderstock – where does it leave us?
Panelists:
Associate Professor Celeste Black – University of Sydney
Roderick Campbell – The Australia Institute
David Barnden – Equity Generation Lawyers

3pm
Afternoon tea

3.30pm
Combatting greenwashing
Kirsty Ruddock – Environment Defenders Office
Kirsten Webb – Clayton Utz
Marita Hogan, Senior Executive Leader in Enforcement and Compliance, ASIC

5pm
Close and networking reception

5.30pm
Book launch
Launch of the third edition of The International Law of the Sea, launched by Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC KC, Governor of New South Wales.

Registration:

Full day in-person attendance: $80 (inc. GST)
University of Sydney students (full day attendance): FreeÂ (Students will need to provide proof of student status at registration. Any registrations that do not provide valid proof, will be cancelled)

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8 March 2024
Time
Conference: Registration from 8.45am, 9am-5pm conference, followed by the book launch of The International Law of the Sea
Book launch: 5.30pm – 7pm
Venue: New Law Building (F10), Level 1, Law Lounge, University of Sydney, Camperdown Campus
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This event is hosted by theÂ Australian Centre for Climate and Environmental LawÂ (ACCEL) at Sydney Law School.

Revisiting the Role and Relevance of the 'The Right to Strike'
2024-03-11 13:15 - 14:15 | Common Room, Level 4, Sydney Law School
Revisiting the Role and Relevance of the â€˜The Right to Strike’

In-person event
In 2023, the University of Bristol Centre for Law at Work (UK) joined forces with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), and International Lawyers Assisting Workers (ILAW) Network at the Solidarity Center (Washington DC, US) to commence a project on the right to strike. In the context of the notorious decline in legal protection of industrial action across the globe, the project explores what role the right to strike could and should play in contemporary domestic and transnational labour markets.
A first convening meeting for the project has been held, which more than forty experts attended in person and online. One output of the project is a special issue of a journal (the International Labour Review) and a second will be an open access multi-authored book designed to be accessible to those seeking to engage in right to strike litigation and lobbying. Both will be published early in 2025. A website is also being constructed by the ITUC and ILAW which will host primary legal materials (international labour standards, national legislation and case law) of assistance to workers and their representatives.
In this seminar, Professor Tonia Novitz will present some of the initial findings of the project relating to issues of employment status, precarious work, global supply chains, climate change and autocratic governments. She will also outline the content of recent discussions at the International Labour Organisation, where she has been a visiting scholar in the research department. In addition, Professor Shae McCrystal will discuss her contribution to the project, arising from her collaborative research on restrictions of the right to strike for the â€˜public good’, including the mechanisms through which decisions are made and who bears the costs of their outcomes. This session will be of interest to all those interested in international labour standards and comparative labour law relating to freedom of association, collective bargaining and industrial action.
About the speaker
Tonia Novitz is a Professor of Labour Law at the University of Bristol Law School in the UK. A graduate of the University of Canterbury (Christchurch, New Zealand) and Balliol College (Oxford, UK), she has held fellowships at the International Institute for Labour Studies and the research department at the International Labour Organization (Geneva), the European University Institute (Florence), the University of Melbourne and the University of Auckland. From 2019 – 2023, she was chair of the steering committee of the international Labour Law Research Network (LLRN). She is currently a UK representative on the advisory board of International Lawyers Assisting Workers (ILAW), and a Vice President of the UK Institute of Employment Rights. She was a founding co-director of the Bristol Centre for Law at Work. Her research interests encompass collective labour rights, international and EU trade, sustainability and migration. Her publications have been cited in the Supreme Court of Canada, the UK Supreme Court and the UK Parliament Joint Committee on Human Rights. She is the author of International and European Protection of the Right to Strike (Oxford University Press 2003) and co-author of The Right to Strike in International Law (Hart/Bloomsbury 2020). Her most recent book, Trade, Labour and Sustainable Development: Leaving no one in the world of work behind is in press and will be published by Edward Elgar in 2024.

Monday 11 March
Time:Â 1.15-2.15pm
CPD Points: 1
Venue:Â Common Room, Level 4, New Law Building (F10)

This event is proudly presented by the University of Sydney Law School.

Ross Parsons Centre Law and Business seminar | Insolvency and Restructuring Reform in Europe: The Italian Experience
2024-03-14 18:00 - 19:00
Ross Parsons Centre Law and Business seminar | Insolvency and Restructuring Reform in Europe: The Italian Experience
Online event
This webinar will discuss recent reforms in the European Union and reflect on how those reforms have been implemented in Italy. It will provide an overview of Italian insolvency and restructuring laws, with a particular focus on reforms focussed on SMEs.
Speakers

Dr Irene Pollastro, Research Fellow, University of Turin
Chair: Dr Jason Harris,Â Professor of Corporate Law, Sydney Law School

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Thursday 14 March
Time: 6-7pm
Venue: Online webinar
CPD Points: 1
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This event is proudly presented by the Ross Parsons Centre at Sydney Law School.

Responding to repression and strengthening human rights systems | In conversation with Human Rights Watch's Tirana Hassan
2024-04-12 12:30 - 14:00 | Common Room, Level 4, Sydney Law School
Responding to Repression and Strengthening Human Rights Systems | In conversation with Human Rights Watch’s Tirana Hassan
In-person event
The last few years have seen extensive human rights suppression and wartime atrocities. Selective government outrage and transactional diplomacy has carried profound costs for the rights of those not in on the deal.Â The drivers of these human rights crises and their consequences often transcend borders and cannot be solved by governments acting alone. Understanding and responding to these threats needs to be rooted in universal principles of international human rights and the rule of law. These ideas built on shared human histories agreed upon by nations across all regions 75 years ago in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the basis for all contemporary human rights conventions and treaties.
This foundation is needed now more than ever. But this very system we rely on to protect the human rights of people everywhere is under threat. Every time a government overlooks or rejects these universal and globally accepted principles, someone pays a price – in freedoms and liberties, in their health or livelihood, and at times their lives. Australia grapples with the far-reaching arm of transnational repression while at the same time it chooses to sacrifice human rights in the name of military alliances, enabling autocrats, particularly across the Southeast Asia region, to erode the independence of key institutions vital for protecting human rights.
These topics will be traversed in a conversation between Human Rights Watch’s Executive Director Tirana Hassan, and the University of Sydney’s Ben Saul.
About the speakers:
Tirana Hassan is Executive Director at Human Rights Watch, one of the world’s leading international human rights organizations, which operates in more than 90 countries and has over 500 staff members.
Tirana specializes in human rights protection in conflicts and crises. Prior to becoming Human Rights Watch’s Executive Director, Tirana served as director of Amnesty International’s Crisis Response Program and served on the organization’s interim executive team. Between 2010-2015, Tirana worked as a senior researcher in Human Rights Watch’s Emergencies Division. She has worked with various non-governmental organizations including MÃ©decins Sans FrontiÃ¨res (MSF), the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and Save the Children. Tirana was a founding member of a refugee legal serviceÂ in Australia in the early 2000s.
She has carried out and lead teams of investigations in the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia, as well as East and West Africa. She has authored reports and op-eds for major publications worldwide.
Tirana graduated with honors degrees in both social work and law in Australia and holds a master’s in international human rights law from Oxford University.
Moderator
Professor Ben Saul is Challis Chair of International Law at The University of Sydney and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms while Countering Terrorism.
Friday 12 April, 12.30-2pm AEDT
Venue: Level 4, Common Room, New Law Building (F10), Eastern Avenue, Camperdown campus
CPD Points:Â 1.5
This event is proudly presented by the Sydney Centre for International LawÂ at The University of Sydney Law School and Human Rights Watch.

JSI Seminar | Dominium in the Age of Neurotechnologies: Who Is the Subject of Neurorights?
2024-04-15 18:00 - 19:30 | Common Room, Level 4, Sydney Law School
JSI Seminar | Dominium in the Age of Neurotechnologies: Who Is the Subject of Neurorights?In-person event

Many scholars expressed concerns about how potential misuse of neurotechnologies may threaten some basic rights such as right to privacy, freedom of thought, freedom from self-incrimination, right to fair trial, prohibition of discrimination, etc. In order to ensure an effective protection against these potential threats concrete proposals, such as reconceptualizing already existing rights or creating new rights, are set forth. Nevertheless, the academic debate on how to effectively protect the domain of cognitive liberty from potential violations is conducted without an open discussion on who should be the subject of neurorights. This is not surprising at the first glance, for there is a quasi-unanimity on the content of the notion of â€œhumanâ€ as the subject of human rights. The proposed categories of neurorights, especially that of cognitive liberty do not contradict the existing human rights concept in this respect.

The recently flourishing scholarship on the history of human rights, however, offers a critical study of the abstract concept of human as the subject of human rights. The present paper, in line with this scholarship, attempts to introduce a historiographic perspective to the debate on neurorights by asking whether the concept of human as maintained in the theory of human rights is suitable for defining a subject of rights in the age of neurotechnologies. First, the paper offers a historical account on how the concept of human was formed theoretically at the dawn of modernity. Secondly it explains the concept ofÂ dominiumÂ from a historical perspective and links it to the modern theory of human rights. Finally, it discusses whether neurotechnologies present a challenge to the theoretical constellation around the subject of human rights originating from the notion ofÂ dominium.
About the speaker:
Ozan ErÃ¶zdenÂ holds a PhD in public law from the University of Istanbul (1996). Before joining Kadir Has University Faculty of Law he held permanent lecturer positions at Istanbul University Law Faculty, YÄ±ldÄ±z Technical University, Department of Political Science and International Relations and at MEF University Law Faculty. Between 1998 and 2001 he worked as human rights observer within the OSCE mission to Croatia. Between March 2006 and September 2007 he conducted research at the International Criminal Law Institute of Cologne University as an Alexander von Humboldt fellow.

He participated in two different international scientific projects, namely Blue-Bird (funded by UNDP and coordinated by Central European University) and JURISTAS (funded by European Commission under the 6th Framework Programme), as well as a national one (TÃœBÄ°TAK 1001). ErÃ¶zden’s published works relate mainly to theory of state, theories of nationalism, human rights, transitional justice and philosophy of law. His current area of research is the interaction between neuroscience and legal theory.

Monday 15 April 2024, 6-7.30pm AEST
Venue: Level 4, Common Room, New Law Building (F10), Eastern Avenue, Camperdown campus

CPD Points:Â 1.5

This event is proudly presented by theÂ Julius Stone Institute of JurisprudenceÂ at The University of Sydney Law School.

Informers Up Close: Stories From Communist Prague
2024-04-30 13:00 - 14:00 | Common Room, Level 4, Sydney Law School
Informers Up Close: Stories From Communist Prague
In-person event
Informers are generally reviled. After all, â€˜snitches get stitches’. Informers who report to repressive regimes are particularly disdained. While informers may themselves be victims enlisted by the state, their actions cause other individuals to suffer significant harm. Informers, then, are central to the proliferation of endemic human rights abuses. Yet, little is known about exactly why ordinary people end up informing onâ€”at times betrayingâ€”other people to state authorities. Through a case study of Communist Czechoslovakia (1945-1989) that draws from secret police archives, oral histories, and a broad gamut of secondary sources, this book unearths what fuels informers to speak to the secret police in repressive times and considers how transitional justice should approach informers once repression ends.
This bookÂ – co-authored with Barbora HolÃ¡ — unravels the complex drivers behind informing and the dynamics of societal reactions to informing. It explores the agency of both informers and secret police officers. By presenting informers up close, and the relationships between informers and secret police officers in high resolution, this book centers the role of emotions in informer motivations and underscores the value of dignity and reconciliation in transitional reconstruction. This book also leverages research from informing in repressive states to better understand informing in so-called liberal democratic states, which, after all, also rely on informers to maintain law and preserve order.
About the author:
Mark A. Drumbl is the Class of 1975 Alumni Professor and Director, Transnational Law Institute, at Washington and Lee University. He has held visiting appointments and has taught intensive courses at law schools world-wide, including Queen’s University Belfast, Oxford University (University College), UniversitÃ© de Paris II (PanthÃ©on-Assas), Free University of Amsterdam, University of Melbourne, and John Cabot University in Rome. His work has been relied upon by courts; he has served as defense lawyer in genocide trials; and has been an expert in litigation including on international terrorism, with the United Nations in matters involving child soldiers, and the drafting of a global convention to criminalize racist hate speech. Books includeÂ Atrocity, Punishment, and International LawÂ (CUP, 2007),Â Reimagining Child Soldiers in International Law and PolicyÂ (OUP, 2012), andÂ Informers Up Close: Stories from Communist PragueÂ (OUP 2024, with Barbora HolÃ¡); and co-edited volumesÂ Research Handbook of Child SoldiersÂ (Elgar 2019, with Jastine Barrett);Â Sights, Sounds, and Sensibilities of Atrocity ProsecutionsÂ (Brill, 2024, with Caroline Fournet), andÂ Children and ViolenceÂ (Routledge 2024, with Christelle Molima, Mohamed Kamara et al).

Tuesday 30 April, 1-2pm AEST
Venue: Level 4, Common Room, New Law Building (F10), Eastern Avenue, Camperdown campus
CPD Points: 1
This event is proudly presented by the Sydney Centre for International LawÂ at The University of Sydney Law School.

How Canada Chose Exile: The decision to banish Japanese Canadians, 1946
2024-05-03 13:00 - 14:00 | Common Room, Level 4, Sydney Law School
How Canada Chose Exile: The decision to banish Japanese Canadians, 1946
This event is proudly co-presented by the University of Sydney Law School and Discipline of History.
In-person event

As the end of the Second World War drew into view, federal officials in Canada faced a policy problem of their own creation. They had displaced over 22,000 people of Japanese descent from their Pacific Coast communities and dispossessed them of their homes. With the scale of Nazi crimes in Europe increasingly known, mass internment of people on the basis of race had become unsustainable. Yet, many remained convinced that Japanese Canadians were â€œunassimilableâ€ in Canadian society on the basis of race. To resolve the problem of internment, Canadian officials devised a new harm, seeking to banish to Japan as many as possible so that the diminished number left behind could be allowed to live freely. This presentation explores Canada’s tangled path to exile amidst the dramatic shifts and stubborn continuities of the close of the Second World War. Seeking to situate Canada’s exile within a global history of the unmixing of peoples in the 1940s, the paper will close in reflection on Australia’s own expulsion of people of Japanese descent in the same era.
About the author:
Jordan Stanger-Ross is Professor of History at the University of Victoria, British Columbia. His past publications include Landscapes of Injustice: A New Perspective on the Internment and Dispossession of Japanese Canadians (2020) which received the John T. Saywell Prize in Canadian Constitutional Legal History.

Friday 3 May, 1-2pm AEST
Venue: Level 4, Common Room, New Law Building (F10), Eastern Avenue, Camperdown campus
CPD Points: 1
This event is proudly co-presented by the University of Sydney Law School and Discipline of History.

How China governs Big Tech and regulates artificial intelligence
2024-05-06 13:00 - 14:00 | Common Room, Level 4, Sydney Law School
How China governs Big Tech and regulates artificial intelligence

In-person event
China has long been recognized as a powerhouse in cultivating Big Tech firms that rival those in the United States. However, the Chinese government recently embarked on a massive regulatory crackdown, targeting its largest tech corporations such as Alibaba, Tencent, and Meituan. Â Many Western experts have perceived China’s tech crackdown as the government’s assault on private businesses, causing growing doubts among investors whether Chinese firms are still investable.
In this talk, Professor Zhang will take us beyond the headlines to unravel the complexity of China’s regulatory governance. Drawing insights from her newly released book, High Wire: How China Regulates Big Tech and Governs Its Economy,Â she will introduce the dynamic pyramid model of regulation, a new analytical framework that demystifies Chinese regulatory governance.
Professor Zhang will also apply this model to analyze China’s strategic approach to regulating artificial intelligence and discuss its implications for the global tech rivalry and the prospects for international cooperation. Â Join Professor Zhang as she uncovers how China regulates on the high wire by navigating the intricate balance between innovation, regulation and geopolitical contest.
About the speaker
Angela Zhang is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Hong Kong and Director of the Philip K. H. Wong Center for Chinese Law. Widely recognized as a leading authority on China’s tech regulation, Angela has written extensively on this topic. She is the author of Chinese Antitrust Exceptionalism: How the Rise of China Challenges Global Regulation (Oxford, 2021), which was named one of the Best Political Economy Books of 2021 by ProMarket. Angela’s second book, High Wire: How China Regulates Big Tech and Governs Its EconomyÂ was released by Oxford University Press in March 2024. In fall 2024, Angela will join the University of Southern California as a Professor of Law. For more information, please visit her website at AngelaZhang.net, and follow her on Twitter @AngelaZhangHK.

Monday 6 May
Time:Â 1-2pm
CPD Points: 1
Venue:Â Common Room, Level 4, New Law Building (F10)

This event is proudly presented by the Centre for Asian and Pacific Law and the China Studies Centre at the University of Sydney.

JSI Seminar | Well-tempered power: "˜A cultural achievement of universal significance'
2024-05-09 18:00 - 19:30 | Common Room, Level 4, Sydney Law School
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Peace in the Ancient Near East: Insights into the world's first attested peace treaty
2024-05-15 13:00 - 14:00 | Common Room, Level 4, Sydney Law School
Peace in the Ancient Near East: Insights into the world’s first attested peace treaty
In-person event

This seminar gives some background to the first attested peace treaty in world history, between Ramses II of Egypt and Hattusili III of Hatti. This treaty survives in several copies, in two languages (Ancient Egyptian and Akkadian) and in two countries (Egypt and Turkey). This seminar will explain some of the provisions of the treaty and also examine some of the treaty’s more unusual aspects, for instance, that its formation was not a direct consequence of conflict, and that not all of its articles are bilateral.
About the author:
Dr Camilla Di Biase-Dyson
A Sydneysider with a passion for Ancient Egypt since childhood, Dr Camilla Di Biase-Dyson has BA(Hons) and PhD degrees in Ancient History from Macquarie University (2000-2008). She moved to Berlin to conduct postdoctoral research in Egyptology and linguistics, first as a Fellow of the Excellence Cluster ‘Topoi: The Formation and Transformation of Space and Knowledge in Ancient Civilizations’ (2009-2010) and then with the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (2010-2012). Following this, she was Junior Professor for Egyptology at the Georg-August University in GÃ¶ttingen, Germany (2012-2019), then a Research Fellow at the University of Vienna (2019-2020). In April 2020sheI moved back to Sydney to take up a Lectureship in Egyptology at Macquarie University.

Wednesday 15 May, 1-2pm AEST
Venue: Level 4, Common Room, New Law Building (F10), Eastern Avenue, Camperdown campus
CPD Points: 1
This event is proudly presented by the Sydney Centre for International Law at the University of Sydney Law School

Navigating China's regulatory approach to generative artificial intelligence
2024-05-17 13:00 - 14:00 | Common Room, Level 4, Sydney Law School
Navigating China’s regulatory approach to generative artificial intelligence
In-person event
In-person event
The rapid development and application of generative artificial intelligence (AI) systems have raised growing concerns of their potential risks at a global level. In July 2023, Chinese regulators passed the Interim Measures for the Management of Generative AI Services (the Measures). The Measures target various risks associated with this technology, particularly around content safety and security. At the same time, a key policy objective of Beijing is to promote further growth of the industry. The unresolved tensions between such policy objectives are reflected in the Measures’ provisions relating to obligations on generative AI service providers, which present significant challenges in the implementation of the regulation. As Beijing looks to developing a comprehensive legal framework for AI, legislators will need to further clarify and balance the liability of different regulated actors in a range of contexts.
About the speaker
Mimi Zou is Professor of Law and Head of School of the School of Private and Commercial Law, UNSW Sydney. Her research focuses on the impact of new technologies such as AI and blockchain on private and commercial law, and the regulation of new technologies from comparative and international perspectives. Professor Zou has spent most of her academic career in the UK and Hong Kong, and have held senior positions at top universities including a Chair in Commercial Law at the University of Exeter and the first-ever Fellowship in Chinese Law at the University of Oxford.
Friday 17 May
Time: 1-2pm
CPD Points: 1
Venue: Common Room, Level 4, New Law Building (F10)
This event is proudly presented by the Centre for Asian and Pacific Law at Sydney Law School and the Chinese Studies Centre at the University of Sydney.

JSI Seminar: On Constitutional Review
2024-05-23 18:00 - 19:30 | Common Room, Level 4, Sydney Law School
JSI Seminar: On Constitutional Review
In-person event
Constitutional review is a continental European instrument of checking the parliamentary legislation for its compliance with the constitution. This practice has a long history traced from ancient Greek democracy to the French and American Revolutions up to the 20th century culminating in Constitutional Courts. The Czechoslovakian experience of its Constitution of 1920 gives a unique perspective on the rule of law and the perennial questions of constitutional review: who should be the guardian of the Constitution? In its contemporary form, this question has become whether the doctrine of the sovereignty of the parliament is a serious obstacle for a too strong (dominant) role of the judiciary the Large scale of competences of the Constitutional courts (except constitutional review). The talk concludes by discussing possible solutions without Constitutional Courts.
About the speaker
Alexander BrÃ¶stlÂ is a Professor of Legal Philosophy in Slovakia. He was formerly a Judge on and later advisor to the Constitutional Court of the Slovak Republic, as well as a member of the Judicial Council. His career has included positions at Fudan University in Shanghai, and then Slovakian Consul in Beijing. Alexander next spent 18 years in Strasbourg as the Slovak member of the European Charter on Minority Languages. In addition, he has been professor of law at the PJ Å afÃ¡rik University and University of Trnava, and held several high level administrative positions.

Thursday 23 May 2024, 6-7.30pm AEST
Venue:Â Level 4, Common Room, New Law Building (F10), Eastern Avenue, Camperdown campus
CPD Points:Â 1.5
This event is proudly presented by theÂ Julius Stone Institute of JurisprudenceÂ at The University of Sydney Law School.

JSI Seminar: A republican case for regulatory juries
2024-06-06 18:00 - 19:30 | Common Room, Level 4, Sydney Law School
JSI Seminar: A republican case for regulatory juries
In-person event
The idea of administrative juries was proposed by David Arkush in 2013, drawing on the republican revival in public-law theory. These proposed juries would make some key policy choices especially underlying delegated lawmaking in the US. The paper challenges some criticisms that have been made of his proposal. It also draws on aspects of the republican tradition not employed by Arkush to support such juries. Indeed, the paper suggests that more extensive delegation could occur where juries are involved. Partly for that reason, the wider term â€˜regulatory juries’ is preferred. The paper argues that such juries may assist in democratising delegated legislation as well as the political system more generally. They could do so not only in the US but also, at least, in the UK and Australia.
About the speaker
Eric GhoshÂ is an Associate Professor in the Law School at the University of New England, where he has taught jurisprudence and administrative law. His research is in constitutional theory, political philosophy and the history of political thought, with a focus on the republican revival in legal scholarship. He is the author of articles published in journals including theÂ History of Political ThoughtÂ andÂ Oxford Journal of Legal Studies. More recently, he wroteÂ Beyond the republican revival: Liberty as non-domination, positive liberty, and sortitionÂ (Hart, 2020).

Thursday 6 June 2024, 6-7.30pm AEST
Venue:Â Level 4, Common Room, New Law Building (F10), Eastern Avenue, Camperdown campus
CPD Points:Â 1.5
This event is proudly presented by theÂ Julius Stone Institute of JurisprudenceÂ at The University of Sydney Law School.

JSI Workshop: Positive Pluralism and its Limits
2024-06-18 14:00 - 15:00 | Board Room, Level 4
JSI Workshop: Positive Pluralism and its Limits
In-person event
This project asks how freedom of religion should be construed when applied to religious insular communities whose way of life is often at odds with Western assumptions of a good life. I will argue for protection of distinctive religious communal identities as entities in and of themselves that are deserving of constitutional protection on the ground that they contribute to a thick pluralism. I propose a theory of pluralism that is premised on its positive value, and not merely on what John Rawls calls the â€œfact of pluralism.â€ At the same time, I argue that it is equally if not more important to ensure that members of such communities have a meaningful ability to exit from them. The project will spotlight several concrete impediments to the â€œright of exitâ€ in one large insular religious community: the Hasidic community in New York. It will lay out not only how internal communal practicesâ€”including and most notably the lack of secular educationâ€”can hamper members’ ability to exit but also how the state, via its family courts, contribute to its curtailment.
About the speaker
Zalman RothschildÂ is Assistant Professor of Law and Horn Family Distinguished Research Scholar in Law and Religion at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. Previously, he was a Bigelow Fellow and Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago Law School. His research focuses on the First Amendment, anti-discrimination law, and law and religion.
Before becoming a Bigelow Fellow, Zalman served as a law clerk to Judge Jane Roth on the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and practiced law for several years as a litigation associate at Paul, Weiss. During that time, Zalman was recognized byÂ The American LawyerÂ in its “Litigator of the Week” profile for winning a Fourth Amendment appeal and securing the reversal of all convictions of his client (2021) and received the “On the Riseâ€”Top 40 Young Lawyer” award from the American Bar Association (2022).
Zalman holds a JD, magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School and a PhD in Religion from New York University.
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Tuesday 18 June, 2024
Time: 2-3pm
Venue: Level 4, Board Room, New Law Building (F10)
CPD Points: 1
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This event is proudly presented by the Julius Stone Institute of Jurisprudence at The University of Sydney Law School.

JSI Seminar: Social Rights and Proportionality
2024-06-20 18:00 - 19:30 | Common Room, Level 4, Sydney Law School
JSI Seminar: Social Rights and Proportionality
In-person event
This seminar outlines a model of proportionality analysis for the adjudication of positive constitutional economic and social rights [hereinafter: social rights]. Three distinctions are the basis of this model: (i) the distinction between empirical and normative aspects of the adjudication of social rights; (ii) between the level and mode of fulfilment of those rights; and (iii) between the competence of political authorities and courts to determine the appropriate level and mode of satisfaction.
About the speaker
Carlos BernalÂ is First Vice-President and Commissioner of the Inter-American Human Rights Commission. He is professor of law at the University of Dayton (Ohio, USA) and Macquarie University (Sydney, Australia). Between 2017 and 2020, he was Justice at the Colombian Constitutional Court. His qualifications include a LL.B. from the University Externado of Colombia (BogotÃ¡ – Colombia) (1996), a S.J.D. from the University of Salamanca (Spain) (2001), and a M.A. (2008) and a Ph.D. in Philosophy (2011) from the University of Florida (U.S.A).
Prof. Bernal’s research focuses on constitutional rights’ interpretation, comparative constitutional change, human rights, energy transition, and general jurisprudence.
Thursday 20 June 2024, 6-7.30pm AEST
Venue:Â Level 4, Common Room, New Law Building (F10), Eastern Avenue, Camperdown campus
CPD Points:Â 1.5
This event is proudly presented by theÂ Julius Stone Institute of JurisprudenceÂ at The University of Sydney Law School.

Workshop: The Future of the Criminal Law
2024-06-28 10:00 - 14:00 | Law Lounge, Level 1
Workshop: The Future of the Criminal Law
In-person event

In the current moment, it is little exaggeration to say the criminal law, and criminal justice more broadly, is in crisis. In liberal legal systems such as that of NSW and other Australian jurisdictions, the idea of a minimalist criminal law (which maximises liberty for individuals) remains a cornerstone principle, but criminal offences have likely never been so numerous. At the same time, questions about the efficacy of our laws loom large, with issues such as gender-based violence, terrorism, and bullying presenting as â€˜wicked problems’ that seem to both demand and resist solution through the criminal law. In addition, moral pluralism belies easy assumptions about the extent of social support for criminal laws, and the role of the criminal law in perpetuating disadvantage for First Nations peoples makes plain its central place in the long shadow of colonialism. In the context of criminal justice, concerns about the operation of the law in relation to policing of young people and those with mental illnesses, the purpose and contours of bail laws, prosecutorial independence, and coordination between states and territories deepen and expand these problems.
Against this background, what is the future of the criminal law? Given the fracturing that has occurred across the criminal law field – from orthodox offences and defences to novel constructions with deeming provisions and reverse burdens – does criminal law remain a coherent field? If not, what do multiple domains of doctrine share, and what limits the scope of the laws? With victim/survivors and advocates and others telling us what doesn’t work, is it possible that the criminal law of the future will be reconstructed, and more circumscribed, than it is at present?

This workshop invites participants to engage in a wide-ranging discussion about the future of the criminal law. The workshop will be structured around three sets of discussions:

Technology and Justice (Chair: Dr Carolyn McKay): Digitalisation has been described as the defining characteristic of 21st century society and its processes are radically transforming the criminal justice system. How do scholars, activists and others respond empirically, conceptually and epistemologically to the role of digital technologies in criminality, control, courts and punishment?
Legal Convergence (Chair: Professor Thomas Crofts): It is increasingly common for jurisdictions to compare and draw on approaches in other jurisdictions when reforming criminal law and criminal law practices. What are the challenges and possibilities of borrowing from the criminal law of other jurisdictions? What does this mean for the future of criminal law? Will this lead to convergence of criminal law on shared social issues?
Legitimacy in Decision-Making and Knowledge Coordination (Chair: Professor Arlie Loughnan): Massive growth in expert knowledges relevant to criminal law decision-making challenges every aspect of criminal law, from law reform, to responsibility attribution and evaluation and adjudication in particular cases. How is the criminal law responding to changes in knowledge conditions? What do they mean for authority and coherence of criminal law?

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Friday 28 June 2024
Time: 10am-2pm
Venue: The University of Sydney, Level 1, Law Lounge, New Law Building (F10), Eastern Avenue, Camperdown
CPD Points:Â TBC
This event is being held in-person at Sydney Law School.
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This event is proudly presented by the Sydney Institute of Criminology at the University of Sydney Law School.

Re-imagining the laws of nature - storying the rules of hyperconnected futures
2024-07-02 17:30 - 18:30
Re-imagining the laws of nature – storying rules of hyperconnected futures
Online event

In this seminar, Dr Michelle Lim, Sydney Law School’s George Flannery Fellow, argues that rewriting legal systems to include more-than-human perspectives and employing creative writing in legal scholarship can help address global biodiversity loss, reimagine law, and foster hopeful, normalised human-nature relationships.

Each drop a ripple
Concentric circles collide
Tears spiral to hope?
Maria Ojala (2017) defines hope to include â€˜active coping in the face of hardship’. With the very real hardship of global extinction, I argue that form is as important as content when exploring active coping amidst planetary scale social-ecological upheaval. I contend further, that blurring the lines of form and content enables plural worldviews and understandings of natural worlds.
The sheer existence of our more-than-human kin is disappearing on our watch. The IPBES Values Assessment attributes this unprecedented global biodiversity loss to the prioritisation of instrumental values. In other words, dominant worldviews, which emphasise nature’s use and its usefulness to humans, are a fundamental underlying driver of the catastrophic loss of nature. Creative forms of expression present an important means of engaging emotionally with nature’s intrinsic and relational values. Dominant legal systems, however, largely reflect and entrench dominant value systems which foreground the instrumental values of nature. Current laws mostly focus on safeguarding individual rights and property – and by extension the values of nature that can be easily traded in markets.
Michelle Lim contemplates what it would mean to rewrite legal systems with the more-than-human. She considers how storying with nature may allow the re-imagination of law – and of dominant, destructive ways of understanding nature. She argues that creative writing, as a methodology in legal scholarship (and other disciplines), could contribute to the realisation of radically hopeful futures and the normalisation of human-nature relations.

About the speaker
Dr Michelle Lim is an Associate Professor of Law and a Lee Kong Chian Fellow at the Yong Pung How School of Law, Singapore Management University, Singapore. Michelle’s work focuses on futures-oriented biodiversity law aimed at advancing equity and sustainability under conditions of unprecedented environmental change. She is increasingly interested in approaches which allows affective engagement with scholarship and explores ways which challenge the form of scholarship including through creative and imaginative means of expression.

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Tuesday 2 July 2024
Time: 5.30-6.30pmÂ
You will receive Zoom details closer to the date of the webinar.
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This event is presented by the Australian Centre for Climate and Environmental Law at the University of Sydney Law School in partnership with the Sydney Environment Institute.

Book launch: Judicial Dysfunction in Indonesia
2024-07-15 18:00 - 19:30 | Common Room, Level 4, Sydney Law School
Book launch: Judicial Dysfunction in Indonesia
An analysis of corruption in Indonesia’s courts.

In-person event

The University of Sydney Law School is delighted to invite you to the launch of Judicial Dysfunction in Indonesia by Professor Simon Butt, a revealing book that examines the deep-rooted issues in Indonesia’s judicial system.
Tracing problems back to the authoritarian regimes of Presidents Soekarno and Soeharto, the book explains how the judiciary nearly collapsed by the late 1990s. Despite reforms aimed at improving judicial independence, corruption and inefficiency persist, with judges often acting without accountability.
This essential work offers an empirical analysis of corruption mechanisms, including how bribes are negotiated and paid. It also addresses the impact of public pressure on judicial independence and the prevalence of unsafe convictions.
The book will be launched by Professor Tim Lindsey, University of Melbourne Law School, and Dr Laode Syarif, Executive Director at The Partnership for Governance Reform in Indonesia, and moderated by Lydia Santoso of the Australia Indonesia Business Council.
The book will be available for purchase on the evening.
Find out more about the book and order it online here.

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Monday 15 July 2024
Time: 6-7.30pm (including a cocktail reception)
Venue: Common Room, Level 4, New Law Building (F10), Eastern Avenue, Camperdown campus
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About the author
Simon Butt is Professor of Indonesian Law at the University of Sydney Law School, where he teaches Indonesian law and Private International Law. Fluent in Indonesian, and having spent years in Indonesia, he has written widely on Indonesian law, including Corruption and Law in Indonesia (2012), The Constitutional Court and Democracy in Indonesia (2015), and co-authored The Constitution of Indonesia: A Contextual Analysis (2012) and Indonesian Law (2018) with Tim Lindsey.
This event is presented by the University of Sydney Law School.

The Past, Present, and Future of the Palestine Investigation
2024-07-17 13:00 - 14:00 | Common Room, Level 4, Sydney Law School
The Past, Present, and Future of the Palestine Investigation
In-person event

On May 20th, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan KC, announced that his Office had applied for arrest warrants against three senior Hamas leaders and two high-ranking Israeli government officials. This talk, which is based on Professor Kevin Jon Heller’s role as Special Adviser on War Crimes to the Prosecutor, will discuss the past, present, and future of the investigation in Palestine. He will explain what a Special Adviser does, provide a history of the Palestine investigation, discuss the arrest-warrant applications, and offer a few thoughts for what the future might hold for the warrants and the investigation more generally.
About the author:
Kevin Jon HellerÂ is Professor of International Law and Security at the University of Copenhagen’s Centre for Military Studies and Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires. He is an Academic Member of Doughty Street Chambers in London and currently serves as Special Advisor to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on War Crimes.
Prof. Heller’s books includeÂ The Nuremberg Military Tribunals and the Origins of International Criminal LawÂ (OUP, 2011) and four co-edited volumes:Â The Handbook of Comparative Criminal LawÂ (Stanford, 2010),Â The Hidden Histories of War Crimes TrialsÂ (OUP, 2013), theÂ Oxford Handbook of International Criminal LawÂ (OUP, 2018), andÂ Contingency in International Law: On the Possibility of Different Legal HistoriesÂ (OUP, 2021). He is currently co-writing a book with Samuel Moyn (Yale) provisionally entitledÂ The Vietnam War and International Law. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the international-law blogÂ Opinio Juris, where he has blogged for more than 17 years.
Prof. Heller has been involved in the practice of international law throughout his career, most notably acting as one of Radovan Karadzic’s formally-appointed legal associates at the ICTY; serving as the plaintiffs’ sole expert witness inÂ Salim v Mitchell, a successful Alien Tort Statute case against the psychologists who designed and administered the CIA’s torture program; functioning as UNITAD’s Special Expert for International Criminal and Humanitarian Law; and acting as legal advisor to and expert witness for Ramzi bin al-Shibh, one of the defendants in the 9/11 trial at Guantanamo Bay.

Wednesday 17 July, 1-2pm AEST
Venue: Level 4, Common Room, New Law Building (F10), Eastern Avenue, Camperdown campus
CPD Points: 1
This event is proudly presented by the Sydney Centre for International Law at the University of Sydney Law School

JSI Seminar: Natural Law to Natural Rights to Human Rights
2024-07-24 18:00 - 19:30 | Board Room, Level 4
JSI Seminar: Natural Law to Natural Rights to Human Rights
In-person event
**Please note this event date has been moved to one day earlier than originally advertised.**
Natural law and natural rights are frequently discussed as if they are tightly connected, and human rights are presented as natural rights in a new label. But the relationship between all three is complicated and in tension. Natural law consists of objective legal principles and rules dictating the right course of action: do good and avoid evil, do not murder or steal, honor contracts, and other binding proscriptions and prescriptions. Natural rights, in contrast, are innate subjective rights individuals hold against government and others. This is about individual powers, entitlements, and areas of protection from infringement by others: a right to possess property, to defend one’s life, to exercise free speech, to choose one’s religion, to choose employment and spouses, and so forth.
Thomas Hobbes drew a clear distinction between the two: â€œRIGHT consisteth in liberty to do, or to forbear: whereas LAW, determineth, and bindeth to one of them: so that law, and right, differ as much, as obligation and liberty.â€ Or as John Locke put it, â€œfor right [jus] consists in the fact that we have a free use of something, but law [lex] is that which either commands or forbids some action.â€ A tension arises because natural rights promote freedom while natural law compels conformity. Natural rights and human rights appear obviously connected, since both espouse rights that attach to humans universally. Yet tension exists because natural rights had expired over a century before â€œhuman rightsâ€ obtained recognition, those who recognized human rights did not identify them with natural rights, and the content of the human rights extend far beyond previously recognized natural rights. Natural law, natural rights, and human rights are linked yet distinct.
About the speaker
Brian TamanahaÂ is the John S. Lehmann University Professor at Washington University School of Law. A scholar of jurisprudence and law and society, he has written eleven books, which have collectively received 6 book awards, and his work has been translated into a dozen languages.
Wednesday 24 July 2024, 6-7.30pm AEST – NEW DATE
Venue:Â Level 4, Boardroom, New Law Building (F10), Eastern Avenue, Camperdown campus
CPD Points:Â 1.5
This event is proudly presented by theÂ Julius Stone Institute of JurisprudenceÂ at The University of Sydney Law School.

Julius Stone Address: Law, Philosophy, and the Susceptible Skins of Living Beings
2024-07-31 18:00 - 19:30 | Auditorium 104/105, Michael Spence Building (F23)
Julius Stone Address: Law, Philosophy, and the Susceptible Skins of Living Beings
In-person event

Catherine the Great (apparently) wrote to the French philosopher Diderot something along the lines of: â€œYou philosophers are fortunate. You write on paper, and paper is patient. Unfortunate emperor that I am, I write on the susceptible skins of living beings.â€ Catherine expressed, I think, an important insight, that is true of the law as well: the law writes on the susceptible skins of living beings.
This doesn’t mean, of course, that we should not philosophize about the law, or that we should not take advantage of the benefits of having patient paper to write on. But as we do so, we should philosophize about the law all the time fully realizing that the law itself does not write on patient paper, but on the susceptible skins of living beings. This has important implications to how we should – and how we should not – do philosophy of law. This talk elaborates on these implications – both in general, and using more specific examples.
About the speaker
Professor David Enoch
David Enoch is The Professor of the Philosophy of Law at Oxford, and the Rodney Blackman Chair in the Philosophy of Law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He works primarily in moral, political, and legal philosophy.
David studies law and philosophy at Tel Aviv University, and then got his PhD in philosophy at NYU (2003). He has published a book defending moral realism (Taking Morality Seriously, OUP 2011), and many papers mostly in moral, political, and legal philosophy.

Wednesday 31 July, 2024
Time:Â 6-7.30pm
Venue: Auditorium 104/105, Michael Spence Building (F23), City Road, University of Sydney, Camperdown campus

This event is hosted by theÂ Julius Stone Institute of JurisprudenceÂ at The University of Sydney Law School.
The Julius Stone Address is generously sponsored by the Educational Heritage Foundation. It is named to commemorate the life and work of Professor Julius Stone, Australia’s foremost legal philosopher and for many years Challis Professor of International Law and Jurisprudence at The University of Sydney.

Corruption and Investment Arbitration in Asia: New Frontiers
2024-08-01 17:00 - 19:00 | New Law Building (F10)
Corruption and Investment Arbitration in Asia: New Frontiers
In-person event

This seminar hosted by the University of Sydney Law School will involve a local re-launch of a new book on Corruption and Illegality in Asian Investment Arbitration (Teramura, Nottage and Jetin eds, published in Open Access in Springer’s Asia in Transition series in April 2024) and discussion of some new research.
Participants include:

Opening: Professor Simon Bronitt (University of Sydney)
Chair and re-launch: Hon Wayne Martin AC KC (Francis Burt Chambers, former Chief Justice of Western Australia)
Book overview and key findings: Assistant Professor Nobumichi Teramura (Universiti Brunei Darussalam)
New pan-Asian empirical study: Professor Luke Nottage (University of Sydney), with Teramura
China focus: Professor Vivienne Bath and Dr Tianqi Gu (University of Sydney)
Indonesia focus: Professor Simon Butt (University of Sydney) and Antony Crockett, Herbert Smith Freehills (Hong Kong).
Commentator: Dr Amokura Kawharu (President, New Zealand Law Commission)

Click here for more information.

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Thursday 1 August 2024
Time: 5-7pm (including a cocktail reception)
Venue: Sydney Law School, Law Lounge, level 1, New Law Building (F10A), Eastern Avenue, Camperdown campusÂ
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This event is presented by the Centre for Asian and Pacific Law at the University of Sydney Law School and the Australian Network for Japanese Law.

Just Cause Season 2 launch: Celebrating social justice at Sydney Law School
2024-08-06 17:30 - 19:00 | Common Room, Level 4, Sydney Law School
Just Cause Season 2 launch: Celebrating social justice at Sydney Law School
In-person event
Join us to celebrate the launch of season 2 of â€˜Just Cause,’ a podcast created by staff and students affiliated with the Sydney Law School Social Justice Advisory Board. Learn more about the exciting new season and get a glimpse into the various dimensions of social justice work being done at Sydney Law School. Are you interested in the social justice dimensions of cross examination? Want to know more about what is to come after the Voice Referendum? Whether you are student interested in social justice initiatives and work being done at USyd, an academic seeking to platform your social justice research, or just someone who enjoys podcasts – come join us!
Speakers

Rachel Killean
Juliette Marchant
Charles Hao

Tuesday 6 August, 5.30-7pm AEST
Venue:Â New Law Building (F10), Level 4, Common Room, Eastern Avenue, Camperdown campus

This event is proudly presented by Sydney Law School at the University of Sydney.

The proliferation of Chinese surveillance tools overseas: sovereignty, resistance, and debt
2024-08-08 11:30 - 12:30 | Law Lounge, Level 1
The proliferation of Chinese surveillance tools overseas: sovereignty, resistance, and debt
In-person event

The heightened public and scholarly attention to Africa-China relations is chiefly inspired by the growing trade, investment, and aid between Beijing and the Global South. More specifically, the research on digital surveillance in Africa focuses largely on the wide distribution of Chinese technology, drawing attention to the fact that regime type is a poor predictor of the purchase and use of that technology.
Questions concerning how digital technologies work, their high local demand, and how they alter or do not alter state capacity have received far less study. More importantly, though, the literature that has already been written ignores an important paradox: if increased digital surveillance is wanted to support government authority because of its ability to police and administer, it may also work against state sovereignty.
In the latter regard, digital surveillance tools are embedded within processes that result in the privatization of the state. The outsourcing of its functions to Chinese tech giants, like Huawei, has transformed the government, done within the context of a supposedly weak African state that seeks to ameliorate its inefficiencies, in part, into a holding company in the business of franchising out many operations, including police services, and hence much of its sovereignty. This is all done within the context of supposedly weak postcolonial states that seek to improve their states’ practical and technical inefficiencies.
In this presentation, we explore how postcolonial states seek to use scientific knowledge and technology to scale state capacities. Accordingly, it interrogates claims around China’s growing technological footprint, the role of those technologies in emergent forms of state-corporate venture, the nature of African developmental states, and challenges to local data privacy.
This is the first event in the Centre for Asian and Pacific Law HDR/ECR series.
About the speaker
Bulelani Jili is a Meta Research PhD fellow at Harvard University. His research interests include ICT development, Africa-China relations, cybersecurity, post-colonial thought, and privacy law. He is also a visiting fellow at Yale Law School, a cybersecurity fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, a scholar-in-residence at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a visiting fellow at Hong Kong University Law, a fellow at the Atlantic Council, and a research associate at Oxford University.
Commentator: Jose-Miguel Bello Villarino, Sydney Law School
Moderator: Jie (Jeanne) Huang, Sydney Law School
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Thursday 8 August, 2024
Time: 11.30-12.30pm
Venue: Law Lounge, Level 1, New Law Building, Eastern Avenue, University of Sydney, Camperdown campus

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CPD Points = 1 point
This event is co-sponsored by the China Studies Centre and the Centre for Asian and Pacific Law.
