LawFest

LawFest 2022 - Presenters

Professor Tim McCormack is Professor of International Law at the University of Tasmania Law School. In October 2020 Tim was appointed by the Attorney-General (with Professor Stephen Smallbone) to undertake an independent Inquiry into the Department of Education's Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Tasmanian Government Schools. The Report of the Inquiry was submitted to the Department of Education in July 2021.

Dr Zelinda Sherlock Dutta is an Elected Member of the Hobart City Council and a Lecturer in the University of Tasmania Law School. In 2022 Zelinda was Unit Co-ordinator in Administrative Law and also in Criminal Law. She graduated from the University of Tasmania with a combined BA and LLB and from Deakin University with a Masters and PhD.

LawFest 2022 - Presenters

Professor Kate Warner AC is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Tasmania Law School and former Governor of Tasmania (2014-2021). In July 2002 then Premier Peter Gutwein appointed Kate to lead a consultation with Tasmania's Aboriginal People and to report back to him mapping out a Pathway to Truth-Telling and Treaty. That Report was delivered to the Premier in November 2021.

Professor Tim McCormack is Professor of International Law at the University of Tasmania Law School. In July 2002 Tim was appointed to support Prof Kate Warner in a consultation with Tasmania's Aboriginal People and to report back to Premier Gutwein mapping out a Pathway to Truth-Telling and Treaty. That Report was delivered to the Premier in November 2021.

LawFest 2022 - Presenters

Dr Yvette Maker is a Senior Lecturer in the University of Tasmania Law School specialising in Law and Social Policy – particularly in the field of Human Rights Law, Disability and Mental Health Law and in Aged Care. She co-ordinates the Law School’s Clinical Legal Education Program and is passionate about the potential of legal education and research to contribute to community and social justice goals.

Ms Anja Hilkemeijer is a Lecturer in the University of Tasmania Law School specialising in Constitutional Law, Human Rights Law and International Trade Law. Anja also co-ordinates the Law School’s Social Justice Program and the Student Competitions Program.

LawFest 2022 - Presenters

Dr Matt Killingsworth is the Head of Discipline for Politics and International Relations, Co-ordinator of the Bachelor of Justice Studies and Senior Lecturer in International Relations in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Tasmania. Matt’s current research focuses on the history of the laws of war and on new forms of international criminal justice. He regularly comments publicly on matters of global politics and justice including on the war in Ukraine.

Professor Tim McCormack is Professor of International Law at the University of Tasmania Law School and the Special Adviser on War Crimes to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague. In that latter capacity, Tim is delivering advice on international criminal law aspects of the war in Ukraine.

LawFest 2022 - Presenters

Ms Robin Banks is the former Tasmanian Anti-Discrimination Commissioner (2010-2017) and has recently completed her PhD at the University of Tasmania Law School on Discrimination Law and Lessons for other Disciplines for Prevention and Resolution. Robin holds an LLB from UNSW and she has years of experience in human rights advocacy, public interest lawyering and law reform.

Mr Rodney Croome AM is an Australian LGBT rights activist and academic. Rodney successfully campaigned to decriminalise homosexuality in Tasmania, was a founding member of Australian Marriage Equality and currently serves as the spokesperson for the Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group. Rodney holds a BA and an honorary Doctor of Letters – both from the University of Tasmania.

Presenters

Anja Hilkemeijer

Anja Hilkemeijer is a Lecturer in Public Law at the University of Tasmania, where she teaches Foundations of Public Law, Human rights Law and International Trade Law. Anja’s research focusses on the use of executive power and anti-discrimination law. With Brendan Gogarty, Anja developed the Tasmanian Constitutional Law Reform Project: an online compendium on the Tasmanian Constitution (2017-2019)

Dr Brendan Gogarty

Brendan Gogarty is Director of Clinical Practice and Education at the University of Tasmania

and Acting Director Tasmanian Law Reform Institute. In 2020, Brendan led the development of a series of factsheets on COVID-19 and the Law. With Anka Hilkemeijer, Brendan led the Tasmanian Constitutional Law Reform Project: an online compendium on the Tasmanian Constitution (2017-2019).

Professor Richard Eccleston

Richard Eccleston is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Tasmanian Policy Exchange. An international authority on tax policy and the politics of tax reform, Richard has led projects on a wide range of topics from housing affordability, migration, preventative health to campaign finance reform. He works closely with governments of all political persuasions and has provided numerous policy briefings and formal submissions and is a respected political commentator.

Reading

• Anne Twomey, Multi-Level Government and COVID-19: Australia as a case study, Melbourne Forum on Constitution Building
• Anne Twomey, “Nowhere to hide: the significance of national cabinet not being a cabinet” The Conversation,I 6 August 2021
• Thomas Keneally, “A Fractured Federation? How the close of state borders in the Covid crisis raises old quarrels” The Guardian Australia, 7 August 2021.

Watch a recording of the live webinar from LawFest 2021 below

Presenters

Robert Tickner, AO

Robert Tickner, AO is Chair of the Justice Reform Initiative. Robert was Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs during the Hawke and Keating governments and led the Government’s response to the Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Royal Commission. In his life after politics, Robert served as CEO of the Australian Red Cross and has been a strong campaigner for reform of the criminal justice system and nuclear disarmament.

Dr Mindy Sotiri

Dr Sotiri is the Inaugural Executive Director of the Justice Reform Initiative. She has worked in criminal justice system settings as an advocate, community sector practitioner, academic, researcher, and policy and service delivery reform specialist for more than twenty years. Most recently, she served as Program Director of Advocacy, Research and Policy at the Community Restorative Centre in Sydney.

Dr Vicky Nagy

Dr Vicky Nagy is a Lecturer in Criminology in the School of Social Sciences, at the University of Tasmania. Vicky teaches a wide range of subjects, including Crime and Criminal Justice and Crime Prevention. Her research focuses on female offending, historical criminology, and criminological teaching and learning practices.

Reading

• JRI, The State of the Incarceration Nation: A Briefing to Australia’s Members of Parliament (2020), available at: https://www.justicereforminitiative.org.au/resources
• JRI, State of Incarceration: Tasmania’s Broken Criminal Justice System (April 2021), available at: https://www.justicereforminitiative.org.au/resources

Watch a recording of the live webinar from LawFest 2021 below

In Australia children can be prosecuted for offences once they are 10 years old. This lecture considers whether we should raise the age to 14 years.

Presenter

Associate Professor Jeremy Prichard, School of Law, University of Tasmania

Jeremy Prichard is an Associate Professor of Criminal Law at the University of Tasmania. He collaborates with multiple disciplines to develop novel strategies to reduce the harms of cybercrimes to children. Jeremy’s PhD examined the Tasmanian youth justice system. At the Australian Institute of Criminology Jeremy conducted the largest national study of young people in detention centres.

Reading

• Wendy O’Brien and Kate Fitzgibbon, ‘The Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility in Victoria (Australia): Examining stakeholders’ views and the need for principles reform” (2017)17 Youth Justice 134-152.
• Law Council President, Dr Jacoba Brasch QC, video statement before the Secretary General’s Special Representative on Violence Against Children within the programme of the 46^th Human Rights Council in Geneva, 8 March 2021. The statement noted the Law Council’s advocacy for raising of the minimum age of criminal responsibility to 14 years across Australia, and discussed the need for a holistic approach to juvenile justice reforms.

Watch a recording of the live webinar from LawFest 2021 below

On August 9, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change released its Sith Assessment of the state of the world’s climate. It warned that the planet was likely to exceed the target temperate goal set out in the Paris Agreement as early at 2030, and by 2040 at the latest. The Australian Government has declined to increase Australia’s policy ambition, despite these predictions. Can novel litigation provide the catalyst that prevents the approval of new coal mines?

Presenter

Professor Jan McDonald, School of Law

Jan McDonald teaches climate and environmental law at the University of Tasmania. She is the author of numerous books and reports on climate change adaptation, biodiversity, and geoengineering. Jan has worked for the United National Development Program and is currently on the Board of Australia’s leading public interest environmental law firm, the Environmental Defenders Office Australia.

Reading

Slides and notes

• Case study of Sharma v Minister for the Environment: http://envlaw.com.au/sharma/
• (the Environmental Law Australia website is a wonderful public resource with all sorts of information about, and hyperlinks to, the leading cases in Australian environmental law).

Watch a recording of the live webinar from LawFest 2021 below

Dr Matt Killingsworth, School of Social Sciences

Dr Matt Killingsworth is a Senior Lecturer in International Relations in the School of Social Sciences. He is currently researching the history of the laws of war and new forms of international criminal justice. His past research focused on opposition and dissent in Communist Eastern Europe, justice in post-Communist Eastern Europe and the changing nature of war.

Matias Thomsen, School of Law

Matias Thomsen is currently a lecturer in the School of Law. She specialises in International Criminal and International Humanitarian Law. His PhD examines the role of customary international humanitarian in the interpretation and application of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

Watch a recording of the live webinar from LawFest 2021 below

In June this year, Premier Peter Gutwein invited outgoing Governor Professor Kate Warner to canvass the views of Tasmanian Aboriginal people on a truth-telling process and options for a pathway to a treaty with Indigenous Australians in the state.

Presenters

Professor Tim McCormack, School of Law

Tim McCormack is Professor and former Dean of Law at the University of Tasmania. Tim is working with Professor Kate Warner on the report for the Tasmanian Government.

Dr Michael Guerzzoni, School of Social Sciences

Dr Mike Guerzoni is a Researcher in the Office of the Pro-Vice Chancellor of Aboriginal  Leadership at the University of Tasmania, researching tertiary curricula Indigenisation.

Watch a recording of the live webinar from LawFest 2021 below

Lecture by Professor Ben Richardson

The past year has witnessed many protests by activists, including climate change marches and the Black Lives Matter rallies. Explore our rights to protest in Australia and some legal restrictions such as COVID-19 regulations and maintenance of public order and safety.

Featuring: Professor Ben Richardson

Live Schools Q&A Session

Recorded as part of LawFest Twenty-Twenty, this Q&A with expert Professor Benjamin Richardson addresses anti-protest laws in Australia. The webinar is hosted by Dr Matt Killingsworth.

Lecture by Anja Hilkemeijer

The right to freedom from religious discrimination is often confused with the right to religious freedom. Explore the differences between these distinct rights and the existing state and national laws that protect Tasmanians from religious discrimination.

Featuring: Anja Hilkemeijer

Live Schools Q&A Session

Recorded as part of LawFest Twenty-Twenty, this Q&A with expert Anja Hilkemeijer addresses religious discrimination legislation.  The webinar is hosted by Dr Matt Killingsworth.

Girt by Sea: Legal responses to Australia's coastal climate risks

With over 90% of the population living within 50km of the coast, Australia’s coastal communities will experience severe impacts from sea level rise, flooding and storm surge. How can we design better laws and policies to future-proof our coastal communities?

Featuring: Professor Jan McDonald

Climate change increases Australia's bushfire threat: How should the law respond?

Bushfires are becoming more frequent and intense, burning nature we thought was ‘unburnable’. How can conservation laws help save nature?

Featuring: Dr Phillipa McCormack

Live Schools Q&A Session

Recorded as part of LawFest Twenty-Twenty, this Q&A with experts Prof Jan McDonald and Dr Phillipa McCormack addresses the legal responses to climate-related natural disasters in Australia. The webinar is hosted by Prof Tim McCormack.

Lecture by Dr Peter Lawrence

Does the Paris agreement system of emissions reductions reflect soft law and soft thinking, or can it be salvaged to provide the basis for effective national climate action?

Featuring: Dr Peter Lawrence

Live Schools Q&A Session

Recorded as part of LawFest Twenty-Twenty, this Q&A with expert Dr Peter Lawrence addresses the international legal framework for emissions targets.  The webinar is hosted by Prof Tim McCormack.

Lecture with Dr Lynden Griggs

Essendon Football Club players never tested positive to a performance enhancing substance. Yet, they were found guilty by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, and given a two year prohibition from playing the game that earned their income. Were they political pawns or unlucky athletes who were found out?

Featuring: Dr Lynden Griggs

Live Schools Q&A Session

Recorded as part of LawFest Twenty-Twenty, this Q&A with expert Dr Lynden Griggs addresses anti-doping laws in sport.  The webinar is hosted by Dr Matt Killingsworth.

Social media and workplace law: Part 1

To what extent should employers have a say as to what employees do on social media? Is it lawful for employers to sack or discipline workers for ‘inappropriate' social media use? Lucy Line discusses the legal principles involved.

Featuring: Lucy Line

Social media and workplace law: Part 2

To what extent should employers have a say as to what employees do on social media? Is it lawful for employers to sack or discipline workers for ‘inappropriate' social media use? Mark Rinaldi presents a real life case study, the matter of Bowker & Ors v DP World & Ors.

Featuring: Mark Rinaldi