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 democratisation 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 submissions

In 2023 the Federal Law Review - the flagship journal of the ANU College of Law - will publish a special issue on equality and public law, in conjunction with the Australian National University's 75th anniversary celebrations. This call for submissions is open to all, including but not only participants in the December 2021 conference on equality to organised by the Centre for International and Public Law (CIPL) on behalf of the ANU College of Law in commemoration of the anniversary.
 
It is expected that this special issue will include national or comparative perspectives on equality spanning several countries. The issue's editors will be Rosalind Dixon, Ron Levy, Leighton McDonald and Julie Suk.

Paper submissions for this special issue are due Friday 18 March 2022. Papers should ideally be between to 6,000-8,000 words, inclusive of footnotes.

For information specific to the equality issue, please contact flr.law@anu.edu.au.