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.  

Competitions, calls for papers and scholarships

1 May 2025

Call for Papers - Judicial Independence in Australia: Looking Forward, Ten Years On
T. C. Beirne School of Law, University of Queensland
CfP closes: 1 May 2025

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.

We invite submissions for an in-person symposium at the University of Queensland on 6 December 2025. 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. Written papers will be circulated to other presenters in the lead-up to the symposium. Selected papers will then be featured in an edited collection to be published by Federation Press in 2026.

Submissions are sought on any topic relating to judicial independence in Australia, including but not limited to the following:

  • Judicial workload and wellbeing

  • Indigenous and pluralist justice

  • The judicial role and independence in the context of democratic backsliding

  • Media and political pressure on the courts

  • Technology and the courts

  • Judicial appointments, diversity and education

  • Judicial immunity and complaints

  • Pensions and resourcing

Abstracts of around 200 words should be submitted by email to the symposium organisers, Rebecca Ananian-Welsh (rebecca.aw@law.uq.edu.au), Jonathan Crowe and Jessica Kerr (jessica.kerr@uwa.edu.au), no later than 1 May 2025.

Successful applicants will be notified by mid-May with full draft papers due by 1 November 2025. There will also be an informal Zoom session in July for presenters to share preliminary outlines.

1 June 2025

Call for Entries: 2025 Law and Religion Essay Competition
The University of Southern Queensland School of Law and Justice
Entries close: 1 June 2025, midnight AEST

Students currently enrolled in an LLB or JD university law program in Australia are invited to enter the 2025 Law and Religion Essay Competition.

The University of Southern Queensland School of Law and Justice invites submissions for the 2025 Law and Religion Essay Competition. All entries will be evaluated by a panel comprising two UniSQ academics and one external expert using standardised assessment criteria.

Prize information:

Entries must be submitted by 1 June 2025.

For more information, click here.

30 June 2025

Call for Submissions: Fencott v Muller Prize
The University of Western Australia
Submissions close: 30 June 2025

Just over 40 years have passed since the landmark, finely balanced decision in Fencott v Muller [1983] HCA 12. Not only did the decision relate to a Western Australian business, but it featured a number of notable UWA alumni as counsel on both sides, including Hon Robert French AC. The decision continues to reverberate to this day.

To celebrate the decision and the activities of UWA alumni in helping shape the law, the UWA Law Review is pleased to announce a $1,000 prize, kindly provided by the Hon Robert French AC, for the best article submitted to the Review on any topic related to federal jurisdiction, the corporations power or trade practices law.  

Eligible articles must be submitted for publication in the Review by the end of June 2025, and the winning article will feature in a special supplement to the Review. Students, recent graduates, and practitioners are all welcome and encouraged to apply.

For more information, and to make a submission, click here.

30 June 2025

Call for Nominations: Saunders Prize for Excellence in Scholarship in Constitutional Law
Australian Association of Constitutional Law (AACL)
Nominations close: 30 June 2025

The AACL is now calling for nominations for the 2025 Saunders Prize, which will be awarded to the author of an article or note on a subject of constitutional law published in an Australian legal journal in 2024. 

The AACL is pleased to announce that the winner of the Saunders Prize in 2025 will be awarded $1000. 

Nominations should take the following form: 

  • A nominated article should be sent by way of e-mail attachment to the AACL Council at secretariat@aacl.asn.au (with the subject line "Saunders Prize").

  • The article should be in the form in which it was published. Manuscripts in other forms will not be accepted.

  • In addition, a covering letter should be included containing the details of the nominating party and (if different) the article's author. The covering letter should also confirm that the article was published in an Australian legal journal in 2024.

  • An article may be nominated by an individual or by a law journal. However, each individual and each law journal is limited to one nomination. 

Nominations must be received by 30 June 2025. 

For more information, click here.

31 August 2025

The Australian Academy of Law Annual Essay Prize 2025
 Australian Academy of Law
Entries close: 31 August 2025

The Australian Academy of Law is pleased to announce the offering of its Annual Essay Prize for 2025.

The Prize is open to anyone, wherever resident, who is studying or has studied legal subjects at a tertiary level, or who is working or has worked in a law-based occupation. There is no limit by reference to the age or seniority or experience of, or position held by, a person who may submit an entry. Accordingly, judicial officers, legal practitioners, legal academics and law students are all eligible to submit an essay.

The amount of the Prize is $10,000.

The essay topic for the Prize in 2025 is as follows:

Where has Bird v DP [2024] HCA 41 (‘Bird’) left the law of vicarious liability in Australia?  How does it differ from the law in other common law jurisdictions?  Should there be a legislative response to Bird and, if so, what should be its scope? 

The length of the essay to be submitted is a maximum of 8,000 words (excluding the abstract).

For more information, and to submit an entry, click here.

1 October 2025

Human Rights Law Essay Prize
 Human Rights Law Association
Entries close: 1 October 2025

The Human Rights Law Essay Prize is awarded annually to the applicant who produces the most original essay (up to 8,000 words) on human rights in Australia and/or New Zealand, having previously submitted the essay for assessment to an Australian or New Zealand university.

The recipient of the Human Rights Law Essay Prize will be selected by a judging panel appointed by the committee of the Human Rights Law Association. The winner will be announced close to Human Rights Week in December and will receive a prize of $1000. 

Fill in the application form here and send it together with a Word or PDF copy of your essay to admin@hrla.net with the subject line ‘Human Rights Law Essay Prize submission’ by 1 October 2025.  

For more information, click here.

Conferences and seminars

1 May 2025

Queer Connections: A Triple Book Launch
Institute for International Law and the Humanities, Melbourne Law School
Date: 1 May 2025  
Time: 5.00-7.00pm (AEST) 
Location: Online and In-person at Room 202/203, Level 2, Melbourne Law School

This event will celebrate and draw out the connections between three recent edited volumes focused on queer approaches to law:

Queer Judgments brings together scholars, lawyers, and activists from around the world who are interested in re-imagining and re-writing legal judgments by using queer and related critical perspectives. Queer Encounters with International Law and Queer Engagements with International Law are sibling edited books, which apply insights from queer theory to a range of new issues and topics in international law.

Presenters:

  • Dr Senthorun (Sen) Raj, Associate Professor of Human Rights Law, Manchester Law School

  • Dr Claerwen O’Hara, Lecturer, Melbourne Law School

  • Professor Dianne Otto, Professorial Fellow, Melbourne Law School

  • Dr Julia Dehm, Associate Professor and ARC DECRA Fellow, School of Law, La Trobe University

  • Dr Danish Sheikh who writes plays and conducts research at the intersections of law, theatre, and social justice at La Trobe University

  • Sarah Ward, Helpmann Award-winning cabaret artist, actor, teacher, and creative producer

Light refreshments 5.00-5.30pm, seminar 5.30pm-6.30pm. 

For more information, and to register, click here.

6 May 2025

Useless for Fascism? Giorgio Agamben’s Covid Critique and the Homo Sacer project
Institute for International Law and the Humanities, Melbourne Law School
Date: 6 May 2025  
Time: 1.00-2.00pm (AEST) 
Location: Room 831, Level 8, Melbourne Law School

Please join the Institute for International Law and the Humanities for a lunchtime seminar presented by Daniel McLoughlin (University of New South Wales) and chaired by Richard Joyce (Melbourne Law School).

On 26 February 2020, Giorgio Agamben published a short piece on his personal website, entitled ‘Invention of an Epidemic,’ which argued that the Italian state was exploiting the appearance of COVID-19 to govern by emergency decree. Over the following year, he went on to criticise the use of masks, compared the “Green Pass” to the Yellow Star, and argued that academics teaching online were the “perfect equivalent” of Nazi collaborators. Agamben’s work has been enormously influential in critical legal theory over the past two decades. However, these interventions generated a great deal of criticism, with commentators accusing him of peddling “critical-cum-conspiracy theory,” and urging us to “forget about Agamben.”

Daniel McLoughlin analyses Agamben’s interventions around the pandemic and their relationship to his philosophical critique of law and politics.

For more information, and to register, click here.

7 May 2025

Compulsory Voting in Australia: History and Purpose
Australian Academy of Law
Date: 7 May 2025  
Time: 5.15-6.45pm (AEST) 
Location: Online and In-person at Court 1 - Federal Court of Australia, Courts Building, Queens Square, Sydney

In this free public event, Her Excellency the Hon Margaret Beazley AC KC will speak on Compulsory voting in Australia: its history and purpose. The Hon Arthur Emmett AO KC will provide a commentary.

The event will be chaired by the Hon Alan Robertson AM SC, President of the Australian Academy of Law.

Queensland introduced compulsory voting in 1915. The Commonwealth followed in 1924. Victoria introduced compulsory voting in 1926, New South Wales and Tasmania in 1928, Western Australia in 1936 and South Australia in 1942.

For more information, and to register, click here.

8 May 2025

2025 Margaret Stone Lecture
Faculty of Law & Justice, UNSW Sydney
Date: 8 May 2025  
Time: 6.30-7.30pm (AEST) 
Location: Court 1, Federal Court of Australia, Courts Building, Queens Square, Sydney

In the second Margaret Stone Lecture, The Hon Justice Nye Perram will consider Private Property and Public Rights: a new phenomenon?

The Anglo-American legal tradition has long encumbered some private property rights with burdens in favour of the public or the State. These have ranged from uses of commons through to legislative enlistment or appropriation and, in certain circumstances, exercises of executive power to similar effect. Modern statutes create whole classes of regulated assets which may be used against the wishes of their owners but the mingling of private property and State utilisation of that property is not new and the practice can be discerned both with tangible assets, such a railways, wharves and toll roads, as well as many species of intellectual property. The paper explores whether there is any unifying theme underpinning these inroads into private ownership of property.

For more information, and to register, click here.

20 May 2025

2025 Blackburn Lecture: The Hon Justice Mossop
Human Rights Law Association
Date: 20 May 2025  
Time: 12.30-2.30pm (AEST) 
Location: ACT Law Society, Level 1, 5 Constitution Avenue, Canberra; this event will be live-streamed

Australian Lawyers and Australian Democracy in 2025

In the 2025 Blackburn Lecture, the Hon David Mossop of the ACT Supreme Court will address the external challenges to Australia's democracy, in particular those arising from the changes in the information landscape. It will contend that the challenges are such that active measures need to be taken to ensure that Australia's democracy is able to survive them. It will provide some suggestions as to how Australian lawyers can contribute to making Australian democracy more robust.

For more information, and to register, click here.

21 May 2025

DPP v Smith – The latest on the interpretive clause from the High Court
Human Rights Law Association
Date: 21 May 2025  
Time: 5.00-6.00pm (AEST) 
Location: Online

In DPP v Smith [2024] HCA 32, the High Court recently considered the interpretative clause in s 32(1) of the Charter in more detail than it has in a long time. The question for the Court was whether a broad statutory discretion authorised a trial judge to order a private meeting with a complainant in a sex offence trial before she gave her evidence, or whether the power needed to be read down to ensure compatibility with human rights. 

In this seminar, Julie Debeljak (Associate Professor with the Faculty of Law at Monash University) will explore what the majority and dissenting judgments tell us about the current High Court's approach to s 32(1), and what lessons they may hold for the future.

Chair: Emrys Nekvapil SC, a barrister who has appeared in cases about Australian human rights legislation

For more information, and to register, click here.

22 May 2025

Sherine Al Shallah and Lucas Lixinski on Cultural Objects
Sydney Writers’ Festival; UNSW Sydney
Date: 22 May 2025  
Time: 2.00-2.30pm (AEST) 
Location: Bay 24, Carriageworks, 245 Wilson Street, Eveleigh

The Parthenon Marbles. The Benin Bronzes. Grandma's jewellery that she smuggled in her clothes, never to return. What if taking an object is the best way to keep a community's culture alive?

Legal experts Sherine Al Shallah and Lucas Lixinski engage with old and new arguments about cultural objects. Bringing together perspectives from decolonisation and refugee practices, Sherine and Lucas dare us to think beyond our preconceived notions, showing that ‘whether’ to return can be an even more complicated question than we thought.

If we think about cultural objects not as objects, but as conduits for human connection and identity, they argue, then we may have a chance of solving these complex ethical problems.

For more information, and to register, click here.

23 May 2025

Luke McNamara on Hate Speech and the Law
Sydney Writers’ Festival; UNSW Sydney
Date: 23 May 2025  
Time: 12.00-12.30pm (AEST) 
Location: Bay 24, Carriageworks, 245 Wilson Street, Eveleigh

The Curiosity Lecture series returns to the Festival with a line-up of our most thought-provoking speakers delivering one-time talks on topics of intrigue, interest and importance. 

As state and federal governments move to criminalise forms of hate speech, its time to look at what evidence shows about the effect that laws can have on hate speech and its victims, with legal expert Luke McNamara. 

For more information, and to register, click here.

29 May 2025

Right About Time: A New Convention on the Human Rights of Older Persons
Australian Centre for Health Law Research, Queensland University of Technology
Date: 29 May 2025  
Time: 5.30-7.00pm (AEST) 
Location: Online and In-person at Owen J Wordsworth Room, Level 12, S Block, QUT Gardens Point Campus

On 28th March 2025, the Human Rights Council resolved to establish an open-ended intergovernmental working group with the mandate of elaborating and submitting to the Human Rights Council a draft international legally binding instrument on the human rights of older persons. This historic resolution followed decades of debate in various United Nations forums about whether older persons and the process of ageing need specific human rights protections, including a thematic convention.

The lecture will provide a brief background on the journey from idea to the Human Rights Council’s resolution. Given the process of drafting will commence in 2026, the lecture looks to describe the procedural and geopolitical challenges in coming processes. The lecture will also note some of the key framing and drafting controversies likely to arise when we put pen to paper in 2026.

Speaker: Bill Mitchell OAM HonLLD, Principal Solicitor, Townsville Community Law

For more information, and to register, click here.

29 May 2025

Prerogative pardons and the rule of law
Melbourne Law School
Date: 29 May 2025  
Time: 6.00-7.00pm (AEST) 
Location: Law G08, Law Building (106), Melbourne University

2025 Jim Carlton Integrity Lecture

In light of recent exercises of the power to pardon by outgoing US president Biden and recently inaugurated President Trump, this issue is topical once more.

The rough equivalent in Australia to the power to pardon is the prerogative of mercy which is used in exceptional circumstances to temper the law by providing clemency. The prerogative, seldom used and conventionally said to protect the law’s reputation, was recently used to pardon Kathleen Folbigg after she was convicted of killing her four children, and after 20 years in gaol. In that matter, the Governor of New South Wales exercised the prerogative of mercy to grant clemency to Ms Folbigg, a person convicted of crime. This followed the recommendation by the NSW Attorney General of a pardon and the NSW Governor, Her Excellency the Hon Margaret Beazley AC KC, accepting the recommendation.

The Hon Justice Dr Sarah Pritchard will review the history of each of the power to pardon and the prerogative of mercy (Locke, Blackstone etc), more recent practice in relation to the exercise of each, the relationship of each to the rule of law (including the immunity of the prerogative from judicial review), and more generally political theory and executive or prerogative pardons.

For more information, and to register, click here.

2-8 June 2025

Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit
University of Oxford, United Nations Human Rights
Date: 2-8 June 2025  
Time: 5.30pm (NZST) arrival/registration for 5.50pm oration
Location: In-person at the University of Oxford; the launch event and 24-hour plenary on 5 June will be live-streamed

In June 2025 the University of Oxford is hosting a global summit on climate change and human rights in partnership with UN Human Rights, the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance, the International Universities Climate Alliance, and co-host universities across the world.

Session topics include:

  • Legal interests in a world of climate change

  • Digital health and climate justice

  • The legally disruptive nature of climate change and the role of universities

  • The right to a liveable planet

A 24-hour global plenary: The cornerstone of the summit is a hybrid global event on World Environment Day, 5th of June 2025. We will bring together leading thinkers and practitioners at the intersection of climate change and human rights for a 24-hour global plenary, which will be broadcast live across time zones. Co-created and co-delivered by universities across the world, the plenary will follow the sun as we pass the baton between different regions.

For more information, and to register, click here.

6 June 2025

The 2025 AIJA Oration
The Australasian Institute of Judicial Administration Limited (AIJA)
Date: 6 June 2025  
Time: 5.30pm (NZST) arrival/registration for 5.50pm oration
Location: Online and In-person at Sir Owen G Glenn Building (Room no. 260-092), University of Auckland, 12 Grafton Road, Auckland Central 

The 2025 AIJA Oration will be delivered by The Right Hon Dame Helen Winkelmann GNZM, Chief Justice of New Zealand on the subject of:

“It’s complicated”: Judicial leadership in the 21st Century

Guests can join us either in person at the University of Auckland or online via Zoom. For more information, and to register, click here.

16 June 2025

The Right to a Healthy Environment
James Cook University
Date: 16 June 2025  
Time: 1.00-2.00pm (AEST) 
Location: James Cook University Cairns, Nguma-bada Campus, Smithfield

The first independent review of Queensland’s Human Rights Act was completed in September 2024, with the release of the report hotly anticipated. The expansion of human rights including the recognition of the right to a healthy environment is one aspect of the review. This could mean legal protections for clean air, safe water and thriving ecosystems. ACT has already led the way, and Qld has the opportunity to follow. Join Naim Santoso-Miller from the Environmental Defenders Office who will delve into how this change could impact Queensland’s legal and environmental landscape.

For more information, and to register, click here.

2-4 July 2025

32nd ANZSIL Annual Conference 2025
Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law
Date: 2-4 July 2025  
Location: Australian National University, Canberra

The 2025 ANZSIL Conference will be in person, at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia on Wednesday, 2 July–Friday, 4 July 2025. The Conference theme is ‘International Law: Silence, Forgetting and Remembrance’.

What is unknown to, or excluded from, international law? What doctrinal fields, subject matters, actors and objects, and approaches are we at risk of forgetting or ‘un-knowing’? Once, universal disarmament, or at least arms limitation, was seen as a core goal of international law. Now, in a period of major international conflicts such goals once again appear to have a contemporary flavour and relevance. What can other forgotten or neglected histories of international law teach us about our present circumstances?  What do we most need to remember?

On the question of silence we may ask: Who is given a voice in international law? What subjects are marginalised as irrelevant by international law? Why are some subjects easier to speak about than others? Papers could explore the perception of the Global South finding its voice in international courts and tribunals in matters ranging from climate change to the Genocide Convention, the involvement of international courts in ongoing conflicts, and the continued failure of international law to give adequate protection to the natural environment in the Anthropocene.

For more information, click here.

2-4 July 2025

2025 Australasian Law Academics Association Conference
Australasian Law Academics Association (ALAA)
Date: 2-4 July 2025  
Location: University of Queensland, Queensland

Navigating Tradition and Change: How can we incorporate contemporary challenges into legal education and scholarship?

Legal educators and scholars today are juggling competing demands. Traditional constraints on legal education (regulatory, economic, structural) often exist in tension with the urgent need to incorporate contemporary issues, such as First Nations truth-telling, climate justice, technological transformation, and global debates on equity and inclusion. The evolving legal profession is requiring us to rethink how we teach, research, and prepare students for practice. Legal scholars experiencing increasing resourcing constrains need to rapidly respond to the changing local and global political climate.

The ALAA 2025 Conference seeks to foster dialogue and innovative solutions for these dynamic challenges across all areas of law.

For more information, click here.

9-11 July 2025

2025 ALSA Law & Technology Conference
Asian Law Schools Association (ALSA); University of New South Wales Law & Justice
Date: 9-11 July 2025  
Location: Sydney, Australia

We are delighted to announce that the 2025 ALSA Law and Technology Conference will take place in Sydney, Australia in July 2025.

The ALSA was established in September 2020 for the purpose of upholding and advancing excellence in legal education and scholarship in Asia through meaningful collaboration among Asian law schools.

Session topics include:

  • AI and Society

  • Legal Education

  • Digital Regulation and Governance in Emerging Tech Landscapes

For more information, and to register, click here.

17-18 July 2025

2025 Australasian Society of Legal Philosophy Annual Conference
Australasian Society of Legal Philosophy
Date: 17-18 July 2025  
Location: University of Melbourne

The 2025 ASLP conference will take place at the University of Melbourne on Thursday 17 July 2025 and Friday 18 July 2025 (with an informal workshop for PhD candidates on Wednesday 16 July 2025). Keynotes will be delivered by Grant Lamond (University of Oxford) and Margaret Davies (Flinders University). The subject of the book symposium will be Liberalism as a Way of Life by Alexandre Lefebvre (University of Sydney).

The aim of the ASLP Conference is to provide a forum for the discussion and debate of a range of issues in legal theory, broadly defined.

For more information, click here.

24-25 July 2025

2025 CCCS Constitutional Law Conference
Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies (CCCS), Melbourne Law School
Date: 24-25 July 2025  
Location: Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne, Victoria

CCCS is proud to announce the return of the CCCS Constitutional Law Conference on 24th and 25th July 2025. The CCCS Constitutional Law Conference has been a forum for high level discussion of enduring themes in constitutional law since 2009.

The Conference will open on the evening of 24th of July 2025 with the Second Michael Crommelin Lecture to be delivered by The Hon Catherine Holmes AC SC, former Chief Justice of Queensland, Royal Commissioner, Royal Commission into the Robodebt Scheme on the topic "The Accountability of Executive Government: Theory and Bitter Experience".

On Friday 25 July, there will be four panels on contemporary themes in public law:

  • Property, Native Title and the Constitution: Yunupingu v Commonwealth

  • Human Rights Acts in Australasia: The state of the art and challenges for the future’

  • Chapter III and Indefinite Detention: NZYQ and its Sequels’ and

  • Australian constitutionalism 50 years after ‘The Dismissal’.

Among the cases discussed will be Yunupingu v Commonwealth [2025] HCA 6; NZYQ v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs [2023] HCA 37, DPP v Smith [2024] HCA 32, ASF17 v Commonwealth [2024] HCA 19, YBFZ v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs [2024] HCA 40.

Confirmed speakers include:

  • Timothy Goodwin (Victorian Bar)

  • The Hon Justice Graeme Hill (Federal Court of Australia)

  • Associate Professor Lael Weis (Univerity of Melbourne)

  • Kylie Evans SC (Victorian Bar)

  • Associate Professor Scott Stephenson (University of Melbourne)

  • Professor Jason Varuhas (University of Melbourne and Senior Crown Counsel, New Zealand)

  • Dr Ashleigh Barnes (Macquarie University)

  • Dr Julian Murphy (University of Melbourne)

  • Thomas Wood (Victorian Bar)

  • Professor Elisa Arcioni (University of Sydney)

  • Associate Professor Ryan Goss (Australian National University)

  • Brendan Lim (New South Wales Bar)

  • Associate Professor William Partlett (University of Melbourne)

For more information, and to register, click here.

25 July 2025

The Annual Castan Centre for Human Rights Law Conference 2025
Castan Centre for Human Rights Law, Monash University
Date: 25 July 2025  
Location: Online and In-person at Conversation Quarter and Theatrette, Conference Centre, State Library Victoria, 179 La Trobe Street, Melbourne

The highly anticipated Annual Castan Centre for Human Rights Law Conference will take place on Friday 25 July 2025, in person at the Conference Centre of the State Library Victoria. Whether you're a practitioner or student, the Conference offers an invaluable opportunity to deepen your understanding of human rights, and network with fellow practitioners, academics, advocates and activists. Join us for a day of insightful discussions, and thought-provoking panels on critical issues surrounding human rights law. Be sure to mark your calendars and stay tuned for ticket information, which will be available on our website and social media channels, using the hashtag #HumanRights25.

The Conference brings together leading experts, practitioners, and advocates from around the world. Covering a wide array of critical topics, our presenters will provide participants with an opportunity to engage in meaningful discussions and deepen their understanding of human rights challenges and solutions.

Keynote speaker: Hugh de Kretser, President, Australian Human Rights Commission

For more information, click here.

28-30 July 2025

ICON•S Annual Conference
ICON•S
Date: 28-30 July 2025  
Location: University of Brasília, Brasilia, Brazil

Our 2025 Annual Conference titled “At the Crossroads of Public Law: Equality, Climate Emergency, and Democracy in the Digital Era” will take place on July 28-30, 2025, in person in Brasília, Brazil, hosted by the University of Brasília and jointly organized by the Center for Comparative Constitutional Studies and the Constituições: Centro de Constitucionalismo e Comparativismo.

There is a fee for this event. For more information, and to register, click here.

31 July-1 August 2025

AIAL 2025 National Administrative Law Conference
Australian Institute of Administrative Law (AIAL)
Date: 31 July-1 August 2025  
Location: University Club of Western Australia, Hackett Drive, Crawley, Perth, Western Australia

The overarching theme for the 2025 AIAL National Administrative Law Conference is Perspectives in Administrative Law. Within this topic, the 2025 Conference aims to explore and present various viewpoints and voices in administrative law, whilst also trying to understand the impact of administrative decisions on the individual.

The aim of the Conference is to provide those involved or interested in Australian administrative law with the opportunity to discuss contemporary issues, share practical experiences and consider future developments. The 2025 Conference will be hosted by the Western Australian Chapter of the Institute.

For more information, click here.

21 August 2025

Frail Lawyers and Their Fearless Logics: What Drives Ethical Error?
University of Queensland Law School
Date: 21 August 2025  
Location: TBA

As the Robodebt scandal has illustrated, lawyers’ ethics are important. This paper will show why it is not just bad apples or overweening clients that mean all lawyers are at risk of ethical blunders. Traditional notions of lawyers’ ethics  - ideas such as fearlessness, zeal and cab rank neutrality - will be examined, as will the human frailties that all humans, even (perhaps especially) lawyers face. We will consider how such ideas can drive lawyers towards disaster. Examples will be taken from the United Kingdom Post Office private prosecution scandal, but also elsewhere. I will suggest that traditional notions of ethics are flawed; that rather than protecting the rule of law, they render it vulnerable. 

Chair: Mr Graham Gibson KC

Commentator: Mr Richard Douglas KC 

Speaker: Professor Richard Moorhead, University of Exeter  

For more information, and to register, click here.

22-24 August 2025

2025 Samuel Griffith Society Conference
Samuel Griffith Society
Date: 22-24 August 2025  
Location: Ritz-Carlton Perth

The 35th annual national conference of The Samuel Griffith Society will be held at the Ritz-Carlton in Perth over the weekend of Friday 22 August to Sunday 24 August, 2025.

The conference will feature:

Other announced speakers include:

  • The Hon Richard Court AC, 26th Premier of Western Australia

There is a fee for this event. For more information, and to register, click here.

19-20 November 2025

2025 International Journal of Clinical Legal Education Annual Conference
Monash University Faculty of Law
Date: 19-20 November 2025  
Location: Monash University Law Chambers, Melbourne

The theme of IJCLE 2025 is Navigating Global Challenges in Clinical Legal Education: Innovating for the Future.

The first day of IJCLE will feature a number of workshops focused on building the skills clinical teachers need for their work with students, clients and colleagues. These skills include supervision, reflective practice, assessment, feedback and scaffolding student learning.

Days 2 and 3 will provide participants with opportunities to engage with multiple issues related to climate justice, the impact of technology and AI, access to rights and justice, along with enhancing regional and global collaboration. There will be publication-themed sessions including a writing workshop mini retreat designed to encourage clinical scholarship and research collaborations.

There is a fee for this event. For more information, and to register, click here.