ANU Law 60th Anniversary Conference

To mark the 60^th anniversary of ANU Law and the 30^th anniversary of the Centre for International and Public Law (CIPL), a major public law conference will be held at the Australian National University in Canberra, on 8-9 December 2020.

Conference theme: Public Law and Inequality

Growing inequality is a defining challenge of our times, domestically and globally. Yet the role of inequality in social, political and economic life is often muted (sometimes, invisible) in much public law scholarship. Notably, public law’s foundational concepts were forged in a social world where the inevitability of inequality was often taken for granted. The stuttering processes of democratization have rendered that assumption untenable. 

However, although public law scholarship has considered how the field can contribute to political equality, there has been less focus, particularly in recent decades, on the relationship between public law and material equality. The question of whether equality is achievable in a world of yawning disparities in wealth can no longer be brushed aside.

How do public law concepts, institutions and norms frame or contribute to political and material inequality? How can public law and public law scholarship contribute to clear thinking about the set of problems associated with pervasive inequity in contemporary society?
 

Call for abstracts

We invite papers addressing these and similar themes along a variety of dimensions (e.g. gender), from a number of perspectives (e.g. the experience of Indigenous Peoples) and across multiple disciplines. The conference will be of broad interest to constitutional and administrative law scholars, including those whose work focuses on history and theory of public law or its broader role in social, political, economic and cultural life. 

We encourage abstracts from researchers at all stages of their career. Conference speakers receive a 20% discount on their conference registration fee. 
 

Related Event - 2020 Geoffrey Sawer Lecture

As a precursor to the conference, the inaugural director of CIPL, Professor Philip Alston, NYU Law and United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, will deliver the annual Geoffrey Sawer Lecture at 6pm on 7 December 2020. This is a free public lecture. Registration for this lecture is separate from the Conference registration and will open in early 2020.

Our keynote speakers

We are delighted to introduce our international keynote speakers who will be joining us in Canberra for this two-day Conference. Get to know our keynote speakers by clicking on the links below.

cane_peter_200_x_200.jpg Professor Peter Cane The University of Cambridge	dixon_rosalind_200_x_200.jpg Professor Rosalind Dixon The University of New South Wales	khaitan_tarun.jpg A/Professor Tarunabh Khaitan The University of Oxford The University of Melbourne
king_jeff_sqr.jpg Professor Jeff King University College London	moyn_samuel.jpg Professor Samuel Moyn Yale University	simpson_amelia_sqr.jpg A/Professor Amelia Simpson The Australian National University
stone_adrienne.jpg Professor Adrienne Stone The University of Melbourne	suk_julie.jpg Professor Julie Suk The City University of New York	wood_asmi_sqr.jpg Professor Asmi Wood The Australian National University

anul_60years_withtag.jpg   law.anu.edu.au/sixtyyears