The National Law Reform Conference will be a forum for research about future directions in six key areas of law in society:

1. civil obligations (e.g., tort, restitution, contracts, equity);
2. environment (property, resources, Indigenous relationship to the environment, development);
3. public (constitutional law, Indigenous constitutional issues, governance, administrative law);
4. legal practice (the legal profession, legal ethics, access to justice);
5. commercial (corporations, taxation, consumer law); and
6. criminal (criminal law, criminology, evidence and procedure). 

For effectiveness, efficiency and equity, new policy directions in these areas should be planned carefully; academics can and should take a leading role in providing reasoned proposals based on sound research. To this end, Conference presentations will canvas considered theoretical, socio-legal, and doctrinal work. 

Leading and emerging scholars in each area will be invited to present on the basis of merit and fit with the conference’s focus on the future. The number of presenters is small by design: approximately 50-70. Discussants and registered attendees will lift the number of attendees to between 200 and 300 participants. Presenters will write 2000-3000 word summaries of their contributions for a prominent edited collection.

The National Law Reform Conference will be a breeding ground for legal innovation. It will collect proposals for reform in works with broad cross-over appeal, influencing policy-makers, public commentators, law reform agencies, academics, practitioners and the judiciary alike.

A note from the conference hosts

Thank you to the speakers and attendees who participated in the inaugural National Law Reform Conference. Photos from the two day event can be viewed at the ANU Law Flickr page.