Upcoming events and opportunities
Read our monthly round up of upcoming public law events and opportunities, including conferences, seminars and calls for papers
If you have an AUSPUBLAW opportunity, conference or significant public lecture that you would like included in this roundup, please contact us at auspublaw@unsw.edu.au. The roundup is published once a month by the first business day of the month, so please let us know in time for that deadline.
We would like to firstly draw your attention to the following opportunities:
5 February 2026
Public Law in the Classroom Workshop 2026
Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law, UNSW; Public Law and Policy Research Unit, University of Adelaide; Castan Centre for Human Rights Law, Monash University; School of Law, Western Sydney University
Workshop date: 5 February 2026
Workshop location: Hybrid - Online and In-person at UNSW Kensington Campus, Sydney
The twelfth annual Public Law in the Classroom workshop will be held at UNSW Sydney and online on Thursday, 5 February 2026.
The first panel session will focus on Teaching with Indigenous Legal Traditions, and will explore how we as public law teachers can incorporate Indigenous perspectives, knowledge and laws into our teaching of core public law units. The second panel session will focus on Assessment – and specifically the drafting of problem questions. The third panel session will focus on AI and Public Law, and will examine the opportunities and challenges in integrating AI tools into teaching, assessment, and student engagement in public law courses. The fourth panel session will focus on Public Law Practice and Teaching, and will provide the opportunity to hear from those engaged in public law practice about how their day-to-day work intersects with public law issues, and how what they learnt at law school (or wish they had learnt at law school) supports their public law practice.
This is a free event.
For more information, and to register, click here.
6 February 2026
Constitutional Law Conference 2026
Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law, with the Australian Association of Constitutional Law & Federation Press
Conference date: 6 February 2026
Conference location: Hybrid - Online and In-person at the offices of Gilbert + Tobin in Barangaroo, Sydney
We invite you to register for the 2026 Constitutional Law Conference, to be held in a hybrid format on Friday 6 February 2026 and organised by the Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law at the Faculty of Law and Justice, UNSW, with the support of the Australian Association of Constitutional Law and Federation Press.
The conference will feature discussions of important developments in the High Court, Federal Court and state courts and provide an overview of the key public law debates in 2025. The conference will include papers on the acquisition of property, native title, representative government, and the application of international law in domestic courts, among other topics.
The conference will be held in hybrid format, with attendees able to register in person (100 pax capacity) or online via Zoom. The in-person element of the conference will be held at the offices of Gilbert + Tobin in Barangaroo, Sydney. There will be multiple opportunities for informal interaction throughout the day. Drinks will be hosted after the conference for those attending in person at Gilbert + Tobin. Zoom details will be forwarded to online attendees closer to the date.
Session One: The High Court on Constitutional Law in the 2025 Term
Session Two: The State and Federal Courts on Constitutional Law in the 2025 Term
Session Three: Acquisition of Property and Territories Power
Session Four: Representative Government
Session Five: Limits of State Power and Judicial Power
Session Six: International Law in Domestic Courts
There is a fee for this conference.
For more information, and to register, click here.
Calls for submissions
15 February 2026
Call for submissions - ICON•S 2026 Annual Conference
International Society of Public Law (ICON•S)
Submissions close: 15 February 2026
We are excited to invite you to participate in the 2026 ICON•S Annual Conference, which will be held in person at the University College Dublin (UCD) Sutherland School of Law, in Ireland, from June 29 to July 1 2026.
The conference theme is ‘Reimagining Public Law for a Fractured World: Technology, Identity & Truth’. We particularly encourage submissions relating to the conference theme but welcome proposals addressing all areas of public law, broadly defined. You must be an active member of ICON-S in order to make a submission.
There are three types of submission:
Individual Submission.
Organizer of a Fully-Formed Panel/Book Roundtable: If you are organizing a fully formed panel or book roundtable composed of multiple paper presentations around a unified theme or dedicated to discussing a book.
Participant in a Fully-Formed Panel/Book Roundtable: If you will be acting as a chair or discussant on a fully formed panel or book roundtable.
Each submission type has distinct requirements.
For more information, and to make a submission, click here.
Conferences and seminars
3 December 2025
When to sit in judgment – Applications for recusal on the ground of apprehended bias
Australian Academy of Law
Date: 3 December 2025
Time: 5.15-6.45pm (AEST)
Location: Hybrid - Online and In-person at Banco Court, Supreme Court Building, Level 1, 415 George Street, Brisbane
In this free public event, The Hon Justice Shane Doyle, Justice of the Supreme Court of Queensland and the Court of Appeal will speak on applications for recusal on the ground of apprehended bias, with a particular focus on the duty to sit.
Commentary will be provided by The Hon Justice Glenn Martin AM, Senior Judge Administrator of the Supreme Court of Queensland, followed by a Q&A session.
The event will be chaired by The Hon Justice John Bond, Queensland Court of Appeal.
For more information, and to register, click here.
5 December 2025
50 years of territory representation in the Senate
Department of the Senate, Procedure & Research Section
Date: 5 December 2025
Time: 12.15-1.15pm (AEDT)
Location: Theatre, Parliament House, Canberra
In this lecture Trish Crossin AM and Gary Humphries AO will discuss territory representation in the Senate to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the election of the first territory senators in December 1975.
Trish will recap the long and controversial journey to representation in the Senate for residents of the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). She will discuss how the anniversary is a timely reminder that the right of people from the territories to be represented in the Senate is not protected in the Constitution and is instead at the mercy of a piece of legislation and the political composition of the Senate. She will explore what needs to happen so that future anniversaries are a celebration of equity and fairness.
Gary will examine the way in which political debate in the ACT was changed by having representation in the Senate. After 1980, this representation provided the conservative side of ACT politics with its only voice in the national parliament, and became an important vehicle for a broadening of the debate about the ACT and its needs.
For more information, and to register, click here.
6 December 2025
In-Person Symposium: Judicial Independence in Australia - Looking Forward, Ten Years On
Centre for Public, International and Comparative Law, University of Queensland
Date: 6 December 2025
Time: 9.00am-5.00pm (AEST)
Location: T. C. Beirne School of Law, University of Queensland
Ten years after the publication of Judicial Independence in Australia: Contemporary Challenges, Future Directions (Federation Press, 2016), the landscape of judicial independence has radically changed. The time is ripe for a new edited collection taking stock of these changes and looking to the future.
The symposium will bring together leading scholars, judges and lawyers to discuss the nature and importance of judicial independence in Australia, and to debate current and future challenges.
For more information, click here.
10 December 2025
Accountability, Resistance and Disruption: The Future of Disability Policy
University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Law
Date: 10 December 2025
Time: 3.00-5.00pm (AEDT)
Location: Hybrid - Online and On Campus at UTS
Join Rosemary Kayess (Disability Discrimination Commissioner, Australian Human Rights Commission), Professor Scott Avery (Professor of Indigenous Disability, Health and Wellbeing, University of Technology Sydney) and Professor Sheila Wildeman (Director, Dalhousie Health Justice Institute, Dalhousie University, Canada) in a discussion on critical issues at the intersection of disability, law and society.
This event is supported by funding from UTS Law, UTS Disability Research Network, The Centre for Social Justice and Inclusion, La Trobe Law, La Trobe CERI and Melbourne Law School.
For more information, and to register, click here.
12 December 2025
2025 Myint Zan Law and Philosophy Lecture
Australian National University College of Arts & Social Sciences
Date: 12 December 2025
Time: 5.00-6.30pm (AEDT)
Location: 146 Ellery Crescent, Level 1, Auditorium, Acton, ACT, 2601
Leibniz's Dream: How to Automate Legal Reasoning with Artificial Intelligence
In the 17th Century, the philosopher, mathematician, and lawyer Gottfried Leibniz envisioned the creation of a characteristica universalis and calculus ratiocinator that would enable reasoning in law and morals as systematically as in geometry and analysis.
We are now, for the first time in history, positioned to realise Leibniz's dream of automating legal reasoning. The crucial step in this process, Scott J. Shapiro (Charles F. Southmayd Professor of Law and professor of philosophy at Yale Law School) will argue, is the alignment of sophisticated computer science techniques with appropriate types of legal problems. Automating code-based legal reasoning, which relies on explicit statutes and regulations, differs fundamentally from automating case-based reasoning, which depends on precedents and interpretations.
Shapiro will explore how formal methods and Large Language Models can be utilised to achieve what Leibniz envisioned three centuries ago, effectively transforming the landscape of legal reasoning through the power of modern computational technology.
For more information, and to register, click here.
18 December 2025
The Long Road to The Hague: Domestic Efforts to Bring Rodrigo Duterte, Former President of the Philippines, before the International Criminal Court
Asian Law Centre, University of Melbourne; Centre for Indonesian Law, Islam and Society; Institute for International Law and the Humanities
Date: 18 December 2025
Time: 4.00-6.00pm (AEDT)
Location: Room 920, Law Building (106), 185 Pelham Street, Carlton
Melbourne Law School is delighted to host Neri Colmenares, a Filipino human rights lawyer, for a discussion of the International Criminal Court’s activities in the Philippines and domestic efforts to bring former president Rodrigo Duterte to justice.
Duterte was arrested and surrendered to The Hague on 12 March 2025 on allegations of crimes against humanity committed in the context of his violent anti-drugs campaign in the Philippines. Colmenares has long campaigned for the Philippines’ ratification of the Rome Statute, the ICC’s founding treaty, and advocated for the case against Duterte to be taken up by the ICC. He currently represents Filipino victims before the court in the Duterte case.
For more information, and to register, click here.
18 December 2025
Indigenous Rights in East Asia: Current Struggles in Japan, China, and Mongolia
Australian National University College of Law
Date: 18 December 2025
Time: 7.00-8.00pm (AEDT)
Location: Online
The webinar is the 3rd in a series co-sponsored by the Australian National University College of Law, the American Society of International Law, Harvard Law School Human Rights Program, and LAWASIA. The series presents a review of the status of Indigenous rights struggles in the diverse countries of the Asia-Pacific region.
This 3rd webinar looks at East Asia, with focus on Japan, China, and Mongolia. All three countries host continuing discourses over group identity, with contrasting issues and experiences involving movements for Indigenous rights. The webinar is intended for audiences unfamiliar with East Asia, and surveys the major features of Indigenous issues in the region. The webinar features a mix of Indigenous and non-Indigenous speakers, who will draw upon their personal experiences to introduce the parameters of Indigenous rights discourses in their respective countries.
Moderator: Jonathan Liljeblad, Associate Professor at the Australian National University College of Law
Speakers:
Yuko Osakada (Japan)
Kanako Uzawa (Japan)
Narantuya Ganbat (Mongolia)
Fnu Lajiadou (China)
For more information, and to register, click here.
4-6 February 2026
12th Frontiers in Environmental Law Colloquium
University of Melbourne; Monash University; National Environmental Law Association
Date: 4-6 February 2026
Location: In-person at the University of Melbourne and Monash University
The annual Frontiers in Environmental Law Colloquium provides a forum for environmental law academics and practitioners to share and discuss their experiences, research, and teaching practices.
Colloquium Themes for 2026 - Is all law environmental law?
As the global climate and biodiversity crises worsen, and as human activities continue to overstep planetary boundaries, the project of environmental law and environmental lawyers is also expanding. Continued attention to strengthening, implementing and enforcing the core body of environmental laws - which directly address climate change, biodiversity loss, resource extraction, pollution and other issues - remains critical. But alongside these efforts, we see increasing attention being given to the integration of environmental considerations - particularly climate change - into other recognised bodies of law such as company law, consumer law, human rights law, property law and constitutional law. This integration takes shape through strategic litigation, creative lawyering, environmental advocacy, and law and policy reform.
For more information, and to register, click here.
12-13 February 2026
International Law Under Pressure: Reform or Reinforcement? ANZSIL IPSIG Annual Workshop
Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law (ANZSIL)
Date: 12-13 February 2026
Location: Curtin University (city campus) and University of Western Australia
The 2026 edition of the Annual ANZSIL International Peace and Security Interest Group (IPSIG) Workshop seeks to facilitate a discussion between researchers, practitioners and other experts about their work pertaining to issues currently shaping international peace and security law; conversely, considering how international peace and security law is shaping current issues.
We have the honour to welcome Professor Devika Hovell as keynote speaker for the event. Devika Hovell is Professor of Public International Law at the London School of Economics, specialising in international criminal law, Security Council practice and procedure, sanctions, international dispute resolution and the law relating to the use of force.
The Workshop will take the form of interactive panels, with presentations followed by a Q&A session with all Workshop participants. We are also planning to include a panel of Australian and New Zealand Government representatives to discuss current events.
There is no registration or participation fee. If you wish to attend the workshop, please complete the registration form by 23 January 2026. For more information, and to register, click here.
4 March 2026
Truth, Trust & Technology: Implications of AI for Law 2026 Summit
Centre for the Future of the Legal Profession, UNSW
Date: 4 March 2026
Time: 8.30am-5.00pm (AEDT)
Location: The Mint, 10 Macquarie St, Sydney NSW 2000
The one-day summit will provide a unique forum to examine not only the legal innovations in artificial intelligence but will also raise complex discussions on the truth and accuracy in legal practice, and the potential new risks to the trust between lawyer-client relationships. From practical applications to big-picture questions on the future of law, participants will gain valuable insights into how AI is influencing the practice of law today – and how it may transform the profession in years ahead.
Panel topics include:
GenAI in Litigation - the State of Play
The Law Firm Cybersecurity Defence Playbook: Preventing and Responding to the Modern Threat
AI, Legal Ethics & the Digital Frontier
AI and Business Ramifications for the Legal Sector
Scaling and Sustaining A2J with technology
Speakers include:
Her Honour, Judge Judith Gibson, Judge of the District Court of NSW 2001-2025 - Keynote address
Professor George Shinkle, Professor in the School of Management and Governance, UNSW - Chair: AI and Business Ramifications for the Legal Sector
Noel Lim, CEO of Anika Legal - Speaker: Access to Justice
There is a fee for this event. For more information, and to register, click here.
20 March 2026
Drafting Human Rights Treaties
James Cook University
Date: 20 March 2026
Time: 10.00-11.00am (AEST)
Location: Online
Join us for an insightful seminar exploring the evolving landscape of international human rights law as the United Nations drafts a convention on the rights of older persons.
This session, led by Dr Bill Mitchell OAM Hon LLD, Principal Lawyer at Townsville Community Law and Adjunct Professor at JCU will reflect on the drafting process, highlighting key issues and controversies shaping the convention. With Dr Mitchell’s extensive experience representing Community Legal Centres Australia at United Nations forums, attendees will gain a unique perspective on the challenges and opportunities in advancing human rights for older persons. Don’t miss this opportunity to engage with a leading expert and deepen your understanding of this critical global initiative.
For more information, and to register, click here.
15-17 July 2026
Australasian Society of Legal Philosophy Annual Conference 2026
Australasian Society of Legal Philosophy
Date: 15-17 July 2026
Location: University of Queensland, Brisbane
Our next annual conference will take place at the University of Queensland from Wednesday 15 July 2025 to Friday 17 July 2026. Keynotes will be delivered by Janet McLean (University of Auckland) and Irit Samet-Porat (Kings College London). The subject of the book symposium will be Money, Parties and Democracy by Matteo Bonetti (Monash University) and Zim Nwokora (Deakin University).
For more information, click here.