Law School: Events

Digital vulnerability: Vulnerable individuals and remote access technologies in justice
2026-06-20 00:10 (Australia/Sydney)
2023 Criminal Law CPD Series:
Digital vulnerability: Vulnerable individuals and remote access technologies in justice
Ethics & professional responsibility
Professional skills
Practice Management
CPD Points: 1.5
About
This seminar will focus on the use of remote access technologies, such as audiovisual links, when working with vulnerable individuals in the justice system, and the developing concept of â€˜digital vulnerability’. The seminar will draw on Dr McKay’s current Australian Research Council (â€˜ARC’) funded research and examine the multiple layers of vulnerability that individuals may experience while involved in legal matters. It will present preliminary findings from initial fieldwork interviews with lawyers and judicial officers that reveal critical perspectives on the impacts of digitalisation on vulnerable people in the justice system. While the research project and findings centre on the criminal justice system, many of the issues are equally relevant to legal practitioners working with vulnerable people in civil matters.
Presenter
Dr Carolyn McKay is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Sydney Law School where she teaches Criminal Law, Civil & Criminal Procedure and Digital Criminology. She is CoDirector of the Sydney Institute of Criminology.
Carolyn is recognised for her research into technologies in justice, specifically her empirical research into prisoners’ experiences of accessing justice from a custodial situation by audio visual links, published in her monograph,The Pixelated Prisoner: Prison video links, court â€˜appearance’ and the justice matrix (2018)Â Routledge. During the period July 2021 – June 2024, Carolyn will undertake her ARC Discovery Early Career Research Award (DECRA) ‘The Digital Criminal Justice Project: Vulnerability and the Digital Subject’.
Carolyn serves on the NSW Bar Association Innovation & Technology Committee and served on the 2019 NSW Law Society Legal Technologies Committee. She has been a Visiting Scholar at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford 2019 and for 3 months at the OÃ±ati International Institute for the Sociology of Law, Spain 2013-14. Carolyn has previously consulted on anti-dumping trade disputes and indirect taxation, working in both Sydney and Tokyo, and she also has a digital media/visual arts practice.

This webinar will be released on Thursday 29 June, 2023.
Find out more about the series.

Vulnerable witness advocacy
2026-06-20 00:10
2023-24 Criminal Law CPD Series:
Vulnerable witness advocacy
Professional skills
Ethics & professional responsibility
CPD Points: 1.5
About
This seminar will discuss the definition of a vulnerable witness in theÂ Criminal Procedure ActÂ 1986Â (NSW) and the provisions in the Act that allow for the use of pre-recorded evidence and provide for other alternative means of giving evidence. The seminar will particularly consider the way a complainant’s evidence is adduced in the Child Sexual Assault Program operating in some NSW courts. There will also be some discussion ofÂ Evidence ActÂ 1995Â (NSW) provisions that may be relevant to the evidence of a vulnerable witness. Finally, the seminar will cover relevant provisions of theÂ Equality before the Law Bench BookÂ and some findings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
Presenter
Philip Hogan is a Deputy Senior Crown Prosecutor with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (NSW) (â€˜ODPP’). He was appointed to this office in 2018, having served as a Crown Prosecutor since 2010. Before that, Philip spent 13 years at the NSW Bar, practising from Samuel Griffiths Chambers. He appears regularly in serious criminal proceedings in the Supreme Court of NSW and the District Court of NSW.

This webinar will be released on Thursday 25 May, 2023.
Find out more about the series.

Book launch: Gender and International Criminal Law
2022-09-07 12:00 - 13:30 | Common Room, Level 4, Sydney Law School
Book launch: Gender and International Criminal Law
Sydney Centre for International Law is excited to host a panel on the new book â€˜Gender and International Criminal Law‘ (Oxford University Press 2022), edited by Indira Rosenthal, Valerie Oosterveld, and Susana SÃ¡Couto.
In this panel, participants will hear from some of the book’s Australian authors and participate in a live â€˜question and answer’ session.
Chaired by transitional justice expert Rachel Killean (Sydney Law School), the panel will feature presentations from:
â€¢ Indira Rosenthal (University of Tasmania) on â€˜Gender and International Criminal Law’;
â€¢ Professor Valerie Oosterveld (Western Law, Canada) on gender-based persecution;
â€¢ Melanie O’Brien (University of Western Australia) on â€˜Forced marriage’;
â€¢ Jonathan O’Donohue (University of New South Wales) on â€˜Gender inclusive reparations’;
â€¢ Rosemary Grey (Sydney Law School) on â€˜Forced pregnancy and other reproductive crimes’ and
â€¢ Dianne Otto (University of Melbourne) on “Is international criminal law particularly impervious to feminist reconstruction?”.

Wednesday 7 September 2022, 12:00 to 1.30pm (AEST)
This event is being held an online and in-person at Sydney Law School. Please indicate your viewing preference when registering.
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About the book
Gender and International Criminal LawÂ
The last few decades have seen remarkable developments in international criminal justice, especially in relation to the pursuit of individuals responsible for sexual violence and other gender-based crimes.
Historically ignored, justified, or minimised, this category of crimes now has a heightened profile in the international political and judicial arena. Despite this, gender is poorly understood, and blind spots, biases, and stereotypes prevail.
Responding to that challenge, this book brings together leading feminist international criminal and humanitarian law academics and practitioners to examine the place of gender in international criminal law (ICL).
The book

Provides an in-depth examination of how gender is perceived and analysed in international criminal law
Offers recommendations for how gender, including sexual violence and other gender-based crimes, can be more meaningfully addressed by international courts and tribunals
Identifies key gaps in the understanding of gender within international criminal law

Order online with code ALAUTHC4 to save 30%.
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CPD Points:Â 1.5
This event is hosted by the Sydney Centre for International Law at The University of Sydney Law School.Â
