Centre for Law, Arts and the Humanities
The Centre for Law, Arts and the Humanities (CLAH) is the first of its kind in Australia. It brings together humanities-based research into questions of law and justice, both within the ANU College of Law and across diverse disciplines including art history and theory, literature, philosophy, human rights, history, and cultural studies at ANU. The Centre is building new bridges and opening new dialogues across disciplines, between critical theory and law, and with the wider community. Our world-class research reaches a wide and interdisciplinary audience.
This year, for example, sees major new books by both Tim Bonyhady (The Enchantment of the Long Haired Rat, Text 2019) and Desmond Manderson (Danse Macabre: Temporalities of Law in the Visual Arts, Cambridge 2019), showcasing the range and influence of research undertaken in the Centre. For more information, see Publications.
Curated by co-director Tim Bonyhady, the ANU College of Law’s Indigenous Art and Politics Exhibition has assembled a collection of photographs, prints and posters that commemorate significant moments and raise important questions about the history of the relationship of Indigenous peoples to the law. The collection is not just an illustration of crucial legal questions for our students; it demonstrates the critical importance of art and images in how we understand and respond to them. Find out more about this remarkable and innovative initiative here.
CLAH has initiated and continues to develop new collaborations with Canberra’s wealth of cultural institutions, including with the National Gallery of Australia, the National Library of Australia, the ABC, and the Street Theatre. We welcome to ANU visiting scholars and artists, and continue to pursue a range of creative collaborations. For more information, see People.
For more about our present and future events, including the upcoming Idea of the University (National Library of Australia, March 2020), the Visual Studies Symposium (August 2019) and, in collaboration with Université Paris II and Sciences Po, the Colloquium on Surveillance in Law and Literature (August 2020), see Events.
The Centre has developed a full suite of courses connecting study in law to other disciplines. Its courses in law and the humanities, human rights and literature (with English), philosophies of the body politic (with Philosophy), law and art (with Art History and Theory), and colonialism (with Political and Social Change) are all co-taught with other disciplines, and are open to students not just in law but in these other fields. CLAH offers students in the flexible double degree program a possibility, unmatched elsewhere in Australia, to seriously explore the relationship between their areas of interest. To find out more, see Study.
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Recently
The Australian National University (ANU) Centre for Military and Security Law (CMSL) Director, Associate Professor David Letts AM, CSM, recently caught up with his former CMSL Co-Director, Professor Hitoshi Nasu, while attending a workshop at the US Naval War College’s Stockton Center for International Law in Newport, Rhode Island.
Professor Nasu was a member of the faculty at the ANU College of Law from December 2006 until December 2017 when he departed for his current appointment at the University of Exeter.
The workshop, "US Consultative Meeting for the Revision of the San Remo Manual Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea", was held 17-18 December. It brought together academic and government legal experts from around the world to discuss potential changes to the manual originally compiled in 1995 by experts under the auspices of the Institute for International Humanitarian Law in San Remo, Italy.
The next stage in the San Remo Manual update project will be a workshop at the ANU College of Law in June 2020.
Big Ideas on ABC Radio National recently recorded an event with ANU Law's Centre for Law, Arts and the Humanities. The thought provoking conversation with Alexis Wright, Peter Singer, Russell Jacoby and Jacqueline Dutton will go to air this Monday evening at 7:05pm. You can listen via radio, stream or download the podcast.
Challenging Words, led by Dorota Gozdecka, will bring together artists, cartoonists and musicians with students and legal academics in an innovative and creative workshop, the first of its kind in Australia.
On Thursday 11 August we welcome Professor Alex Sharpe to the Centre for a series of events co-sponsored by the ANU Gender institute.
Alex is based at Keele University UK. She is an international scholar of issues in transgender, sexualities, and the law, as well as broader interests in contemporary critical theory. She will be fronting a Q & A session on ‘gender fraud’ at 12pm, Friday 12 August, in the Moot Court. Then at 4pm, she will be presenting a public lecture entitled Scary monsters: the hopeful undecidability of David Bowie (1947-2016), which promises to be a load of fun.
Latest news
In the Media
In politics and law, does art matter?
Desmond Manderson interviewed by ABC Radio National - Big Ideas
Questions raised over Scott Morrison's declaration he is not a New Zealand citizen
Kim Rubenstein quoted in The Guardian
Porter is swimming against the tide on legal cannabis
Desmond Manderson writes in The Canberra Times
Cannabis laws bound for the courtroom to work out whether ACT or Commonwealth is right
Desmond Manderson quoted in ABC News
Minister faces fight over ruling on Australia Day citizenship ceremonies
Kim Rubenstein quoted in The Australian
Section 44 trap is irrational and should be axed
Kim Rubenstein writes in The Australian
The National Picture: Overwhelming reminder of wilful gaps in Australia's history
Tim Bonyhady interviewed by The Guardian
Upcoming events
Belonging: Art - Aesthetics - Politics - Law
What is the role of art and aesthetics in developing the capacities of the public sphere to engage with the crises of the 21st century? What new resources do they offer to Australia’s endemic political failure to come to terms with our unfinished business, including the failure to offer constitutional recognition of First Peoples, denial of anthropogenic climate change, fears of immigration and growing social alienation? How can aesthetic forms engage with political ideas and public discourse?
“Give me glory!” – Feminism and the Politics of Refusal
Professor Bonnie Honig is a globally renowned scholar. Her recent work reflects her enduring interest in contemporary political theory, democratic politics, and feminism. Her visit to the ANU will provide the occasion to present a public lecture that speaks to her new book, not yet released.
The Idea of the University - Crisis or Adaptation?
This event explores the role and responsibilities of universities in these urgent times. It matters not just to scholars, administrators and students – but to everyone concerned about adaptation and change in the 21st century. The event will be broadcast to the public – and will anchor refreshed internal
dialogue at ANU during the year in which its world-leading law school turns 60.
Past events
Celebrating the launch of a new book by Professor Desmond Manderson
For the very first installment of the ANU College of Law Book Club, we celebrate Professor Desmond Manderson's new book: Danse Macabre.
Contemporary Antigones: the writing of today's critical theory play
- Dr Dorota Gozdecka
The Politics of Art
Melbourne Law School’s Institute for International Law and the Humanities and ABC Radio National’s Big Ideas are hosting a public discussion on The Politics of Art.
Visions Not So Splendid: Law, Art, Justice
This event brings together artists and scholars from around Australia and overseas, established and early career, working in innovative ways on the cusp between law and visual studies.
In Conversation with Ron McCallum
- Ron McCallum AO - The University of Sydney
- Professor Kim Rubenstein FAAL, FASSA - Australian National University
Ron McCallum AO will be in conversation with Professor Kim Rubenstein on Ron's memoir, Born at the Right Time.
New Work in a new field
The Centre is the first of its kind in Australia. Through international collaborations, research and teaching, the Centre will build new bridges and open new dialogues in three dimensions: across disciplines; between critical theory and law; and with the wider community.
The Centre is committed to advancing world-class teaching and research in the field. We aim to consolidate and expand domestic and international networks of scholars, and to support new interdisciplinary collaborations.
We are also committed to a strong public engagement with the most important contemporary problems in Australia and around the world—including questions of social justice, human rights, rule of law, globalization, pluralism, and sovereignty. Bringing the insights and traditions of the humanities and the arts to bear on law, justice and ethics in the modern world, has never been more urgent or more necessary.
The Centre reflects the growth of research in law, literature and the humanities—a creative interdisciplinary field in which Australian scholarship leads the world. The Centre is directed by Professor Desmond Manderson, FRSC and draws on his recent Australian Research Council Future Fellowship which pioneered Australian research into representations of law and justice in the visual arts; and by Professor Tim Bonyhady, AO, one of Australia’s leading writers whose work extends from environmental law to art and social history.
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Portrait of Professor Desmond Manderson, by Jackie Adcock, 2001 |
Portrait of Professor Timothy Bonyhady, by Andrew Sayers, Archibald Prize Finalist, 2015 |
Innovative Teaching
The Centre is taking a university-wide lead in developing major new interdisciplinary courses that will help students bring their degrees and their interests, their career and their passions, together in innovative ways.
- The first of these courses, Literature, Law, and Human Rights, was jointly taught in Law and English in 2017.
- A course on democracy and sovereignty in the 21st century – Leviathan, Art, and Law – will be jointly taught in Law and Philosophy in 2018.
New collaborative courses with other humanities disciplines, including art, history, and politics, are already in development, positioning the ANU as a world leader in teaching interdisciplinary courses in law and the humanities.
Interview of Prof. Desmond Manderson from Richard Sherwin on Vimeo.
An interview with Professor Desmond Manderson on law and the humanities, as part of the 'Visualizing Law in the Digital Age' conference held at New York Law School on 21 October 2011.
Directors
Tim Bonyhady
Professor
Desmond Manderson
Professor
Members
Higher degree research students
Members of the CLAH engage in many research projects which employ the theoretical and methodological model of law and the humanities. Their work appears in leading publications and journals around the world. Readers are invited to explore this work on the individual research pages of our members, and to browse our recent publications.
In addition, the Centre works together to develop new collaborations and joint projects. This involves collaborations with the Early Modern Conversions project at McGill University; an application for funding through the COST program for Literature and the Rule of Law in the New Europe; and the development of a Summer School in Law and the Humanities here at ANU. We will provide regular updates on these activities and collaborative projects.
Listed below are a selection of recent publications by Centre members, in alphabetical order by surname under each subheading.
Please note this is not a complete list of all the publications of all our members. Please see the 'People' tab, and click on the link to their personal profile page for more publications and for a link to their ANU Researchers profile for a complete list.
Recent books
- Bonyhady, Good Living Street (2011)
- Bonyhady, The Enchantment of the Long-haired Rat: A Rodent History of Australia (2019).
- Gozdecka, Rights, Religious pluralism and the Recognition of difference (2015).
- Manderson, Danse Macabre: Temporalities of Law in the Visual Arts (2019).
- Manderson, Kangaroo Courts and the Rule of Law (2012).
- Manderson, Law and the Visual: Representations, Technologies, Critique (2018).
- Manderson, Littoral Readings –Representations of Land and Sea in law, Literature, and Geography (2015).
- Strange, C., Honour violence and emotions in history (New York: NYU Press, 2016)
- Strange, C. et al, eds., Honour Killing and Violence: Theory, Policy and Practice (Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014)
Recent book chapters
- Henne, K and Shah, R 2016 (in press), Feminist Criminology and the Visual. In Oxford Research Encyclopaedia of Crime, Media and Popular Culture. Brown, M, ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Henne, K 2015, Testing for Athlete Citizenship: Regulating Doping and Sex in Sport, Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ, USA.
- Neoh, J ‘Law and Love in Eden’, in Paul Babie and Vanja Savić (eds), Law, Religion and Love (Routledge, forthcoming)
- Neoh, J. Rothwell, D and Rubenstein, K, ‘The Complicated Case of Stern Hu: Allegiance, Identity and Nationality in a Globalized World’, in Fiona Jenkins, Mark Nolan and Kim Rubenstein (eds), Allegiance and Identity in a Globalized World (Cambridge University Press, 2014)
- Strange, C. ‘Mercy and Parole in Anglo-American Criminal Justice Systems, from the Eighteenth to the Twenty-First Century,’ in Paul Knepper and Anja Johansen, eds., The Oxford Handbook of the History of Crime and Criminal Justice Oxford: OUP, 2016
Recent refereed journal articles
- Gozdecka, DA., 'A Community of Paradigm Subjects?, Rights as corrective tools in culturally contested claims of recognition in Europe', Social Identities, Issue 3, 2015 (forthcoming).
- Gozdecka, DA. and Jackson, AR., ‘Caught Between Different Legal Pluralisms: Women Who Wear Islamic Dress as the Religious ‘Other’ In European Rights Discourses’, (2012) Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law, 64:2011
- Gozdecka, DA., Jackson, AR., ‘Caught Between Different Legal Pluralisms: Women Who Wear Islamic Dress as the Religious ‘Other’ In European Rights Discourses’, (2012) Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law, 64:2011
- Gozdecka, DA., ‘Human rights, fundamental rights and the common constitutional traditions in the protection of religious pluralism and diversity in Europe – a study in the democratic paradox’, (2012) Finnish Yearbook of International Law, 2010
- Gozdecka, DA., ‘Catholic Family Values instead of Equality - Polish Politics Between 2005-2007 Envisioning the Role of Women.’ (2009) in Sulkunen Irma, Nevala-Nurmi Seija-Leena, Markkola Pirjo (eds) ‘Suffrage, Gender and Citizenship - International Perspectives on Parliamentary Reforms’ Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Press.
- Gozdecka, D.A., Kmak Magdalena, and Airytman Ercan Selen, ’ From Multiculturalism to Post-multiculturalism: Trends and Paradoxes', (2015) Journal of Sociology vol. 50 no. 1 51-64
- Henne, K 2014, 'The "Science" of Fair Play in Sport: Gender and the Politics of Testing', Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, vol. 39, no. 3, pp. 787-812.Neoh, J. ‘Jurisprudence of Love in Paul’s Letter to the Romans’ (2016) 34 Law in Context [Special Issue on ‘Law and Love’]
- Henne, K 2014, 'The Emergence of Moral Technopreneurialism in Sport: Techniques in Anti-doping Regulation, 1966-1976', International Journal for the History of Sport, vol. 31, no. 8: pp. 884-901.
- Henne, K 2013, 'From the Academy to the UN and Back Again: The Travelling Politics of Intersectionality', Intersections: Gender and Sexuality in Asia and the Pacific, vol. 33. URL: http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue33/henne.htm
- Henne, K and Troshynski, E 2013, 'Mapping the Margins of Intersectionality: Criminological Possibilities in a Transnational World', Theoretical Criminology, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 455-473.
- Henne, K and Shah, R 2012, 'Re-imagining the Images of the Crimino-Legal Complex: Toward a Critical Pedagogy', The Critical Criminologist, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 4-9.
- Manderson, D, 'Towards Law and Music: Sara Ramshaw, Justice as Improvisation: The Law of the Extempore (Oxford: Routledge, 2013)' (2014) Law and Critique, vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 311-317.
- Manderson, D, 'Memory and Echo: Pop cult, hi tech and the irony of tradition' (2014) in C Davies, S L Knox (ed.), Cultural Studies of Law, Routledge, London, pp. 11-29.
- Manderson, D, 'Judgment in law and the humanities' (2013) Revista Forumul Judecatorilor, vol. 1, pp. 43-62.
- Manderson, D, 'Making a Point and Making a Noise: A Punk Prayer' (2013) Law, Culture and the Humanities, vol. Online (published dates tbc), pp. 1-15.
- Manderson, D, 'The Law of the Image and the Image of the Law: Colonial Representations of the Rule of Law' (2012) New York Law School Law Review, vol. 57, no. 2012/13, pp. 153-168.
- Manderson, D, 'Modernism, Polarity, and the Rule of Law' (2012) Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities, vol. 24, pp. 475-505.
- Manderson, D, 'Between the Nihilism of the Young and the Positivism of the Old - Justice and the Novel in D.H. Lawrence', (2012) Law and Humanities, vol. 5.
- Manderson, D, 'Mikhail Bakhtin and the Field of Law and Literature' (2012) Law, Culture and the Humanities, vol. 8.
- Manderson, D, 'Klimt's Jurisprudence-Sovereign Violence and the Rule of Law', (2015), Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, vol. Online Early Version, no. 2015, pp. 1-28.
- Manderson, D, 'Bodies in the Water: On Reading Images More Sensibly' (2015) Law and Literature, vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 279-293.
- Manderson, D & van Rijswijk, H, 'Introduction to Littoral Readings: Representation of Land and Sea in Law, Literature, and Geography' (2015) Law and Literature, vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 167-177.
- Manderson, D, 'Literature in Law - Judicial Method, Epistemology, Strategy and Doctrine.' (2015) University of New South Wales Law Journal, vol. 38, no. 4, pp. 1300-1315.
- Manderson, D, 'The Metastases of Myth: Legal Images as Transitional Phenomena' (2015) Law and Critique, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 207-223.
- Naffine, N and Neoh, J ‘Fictions and Myths in PGA v The Queen’ (2013) 38 Australian Journal of Legal Philosophy 32.
- Neoh, J ‘The Rhetoric of Precedent and Fulfilment in the Sermon on the Mount and the Common Law’ (2013) Law, Culture and the Humanities.
- Neoh, J, ‘Text, Doctrine and Tradition in Law and Religion’ (2013) 2 Oxford Journal Law and Religion 175.
- Neoh, J. ‘Law and Love in Abraham’s Binding of Isaac’ (2015) 9 Law and Humanities 237.
- Neoh, J. ‘The Name of God on Trial: Narratives of Law, Religion and State in Malaysia’ (2014) 18 Law Text Culture 198 [Special Issue on ‘The Rule of Law and the Cultural Imaginary in (Post-Colonial East Asia’)
- Roberts, H. ‘Why (Re)Write Judgments: Australian Feminist Judgments (2015) 37 Sydney Law Review 257 (with Laura Sweeney)
- Roberts, H. ‘Telling a History of Australian Women Judges Through Courts’ Ceremonial Archives’ (2014) 40 Australian Feminist Law Journal 147
- Roberts, H. ‘“Swearing Mary”: The Significance of the Speeches Made at Mary Gaudron’s Swearing-in as a Justice of the High Court of Australia’ (2013) 34 Sydney Law Review 493
- Roberts, H. “Law and Literature: Analysing style in judgment writing” in Gabrielle Appleby and Rosalind Dixon The Critical Judgments Project: Rereading Monis v The Queen (with Associate Professor Gabrielle Appleby) (The Federation Press, 2016
Recent book review essay
- Bonyhady, T 2013, Wohllebengasse: Die Geschichte meiner Wiener Familie, Zsolnay-Verlag, Germany.
- Bonyhady, T 2013, 'Man and Nature', in Roger Butler (ed.), Stars in the river : the prints of Jessie Traill, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, pp. 45-50.
- Bonyhady, T 2011, Good Living Street: The Fortunes of My Viennese Family, Allen & Unwin, Australia.
- Bonyhady, T 2007, 'Out of Aghanistan', in (ed.), Woven Witness: Afghan War Rugs, San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, San Jose, pp. 41-49.
- Neoh, J, ‘Just Jurisprudence: Review of Philip Pettit’s Just Freedom’ (2015) 40 Australian Journal of Legal Philosophy
Students with a passion for interdisciplinary research on the intersection of law and justice issues with history, continental philosophy, art theory and criticism, literary and cultural studies are strongly encouraged to undertake higher degree research and doctoral work in law and the humanities at ANU.
The ANU is Australia’s highest-ranking University, with outstanding international expertise right across law, arts, and the social sciences. The Centre for Law, Art and the Humanities brings together this expertise and works to generate new synergies and a critical mass of intellectual energy. We analyse historical and contemporary issues, drawing on humanistic perspectives through a range of theoretical frameworks in legal and social theory, continental philosophy, and post-colonial studies.
For further information, contact the Directors or Members of the Centre (on the People tab). They can help you craft your proposal and identify supervision resources best able to support your interests.
For examples of the kinds of projects our higher degree research students undertake, please see the list of HDR students on the People tab. Click through to their personal profiles for more information on their thesis projects.
Our partners
CLAH values our links with colleagues at centres working in this area around Australia and internationally. We are actively working on projects, exchanges, and collaborations with important sites of research into law and the humanities and legal theory. In particular—
- Law, Literature and the Humanities Association of Australasia
- Institute for International Law and the Humanities, Melbourne Law School
- Legal Intersections Research Centre, University of Wollongong
- Centre for Critical Thought, Kent Law School
- Institute for the Public Life of Arts and Ideas, McGill University
- Law & Humanities Program, Dipartmento di Giurisprudenza, Roma Tre
- Centro di Ricerca per l’Estetica del Diritto, Universita di Reggio Calabria
Activities archive
The Australian National University (ANU) Centre for Military and Security Law (CMSL) Director, Associate Professor David Letts AM, CSM, recently caught up with his former CMSL Co-Director, Professor Hitoshi Nasu, while attending a workshop at the US Naval War College’s Stockton Center for International Law in Newport, Rhode Island.
Professor Nasu was a member of the faculty at the ANU College of Law from December 2006 until December 2017 when he departed for his current appointment at the University of Exeter.
The workshop, "US Consultative Meeting for the Revision of the San Remo Manual Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea", was held 17-18 December. It brought together academic and government legal experts from around the world to discuss potential changes to the manual originally compiled in 1995 by experts under the auspices of the Institute for International Humanitarian Law in San Remo, Italy.
The next stage in the San Remo Manual update project will be a workshop at the ANU College of Law in June 2020.
Big Ideas on ABC Radio National recently recorded an event with ANU Law's Centre for Law, Arts and the Humanities. The thought provoking conversation with Alexis Wright, Peter Singer, Russell Jacoby and Jacqueline Dutton will go to air this Monday evening at 7:05pm. You can listen via radio, stream or download the podcast.
Challenging Words, led by Dorota Gozdecka, will bring together artists, cartoonists and musicians with students and legal academics in an innovative and creative workshop, the first of its kind in Australia.
On Thursday 11 August we welcome Professor Alex Sharpe to the Centre for a series of events co-sponsored by the ANU Gender institute.
Alex is based at Keele University UK. She is an international scholar of issues in transgender, sexualities, and the law, as well as broader interests in contemporary critical theory. She will be fronting a Q & A session on ‘gender fraud’ at 12pm, Friday 12 August, in the Moot Court. Then at 4pm, she will be presenting a public lecture entitled Scary monsters: the hopeful undecidability of David Bowie (1947-2016), which promises to be a load of fun.
