How should we regulate commercial actors who want to mine the moon for resources? It’s not science fiction, it’s a question nations are facing right now, as the US released the controversial Artemis Accords last year, and discussions at the UN ramp up on this issue. Join Dr Cassandra Steer as she talks with Professor Emeritus Steven Freeland about international space law-making mechanisms and the challenge of regulating resource extraction, a key issue for 21st century commercial and international competition.

How to govern space mining with Professor Steven Freeland

The notion of colonising the Moon or Mars, the emergence of space tourism, and the move towards commercial lunar mining might seem like futurism, but when we look at the relationship between corporations and powerful states underneath these competitions, there’s nothing new. International law and international relations have seen these trends repeated for hundreds of years. Dr Cait Storr shares her expertise in the history and politics of international law, the lessons learned for space law, and we discuss why “space colonisation” is such a problematic approach.

Colonisation of space with Dr Cait Storr

In this episode, hosts Associate Professor Ntina Tzouvala and Ally King are koined by Associate Professor Wayne Morgan to reflect on the cultural shifts regarding perceptions of queerness in Australia and whether legal reform in regard to equal access to marriage triggered progressive or conservative changes. Wayne also shares his firsthand involvement in the ground-breaking Toonen case, which lead to the decriminalisation of sodomy in Tasmania.

Read 'Sexuality and Human Rights: The First Communication by an Australian to the Human Rights Committee under the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights' by Associate Professor Wayne Morgan: http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/AUYrBkIntLaw/1992/7.pdf

Law and cultural change with A/Prof Wayne Morgan (ANU College of Law)

In this episode, hosts Associate Professor Ntina Tzouvala and Ally King are joined by Steph Lum to discuss the push for legislative reform regarding the treatment of individuals with diverse sex characteristics. Steph shares their experiences working in advocacy roles, including their contributions to the Darlington Statement (on inter-sex human rights) and their publication YOUth&I.

Learn more about YOUyh&I: https://youthandi.org

Intersex human rights and legal reform with Steph Lum (YOUth&I)

In this episode, hosts Associate Professor Ntina Tzouvala and Ally King are joined by Dr Tamsin Paige to discuss her work on international law, the queer lens she applies across her areas of interest and expertise, and how to build queer comradery in the legal and academic spheres. Dr Paige highlights the role of class and socio-economic status in legal education.

Read 'The maintenance of international peace and security heteronormativity' Dr Paige: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315266787-6/maintenance-international-peace-security-heteronormativity-tamsin-phillipa-paige

Queer solidarities in (international) law with Dr Tamsin Paige (Deakin Law School)

In this episode, hosts Associate Professor Ntina Tzouvala and Ally King are joined by Danish Sheikh to discuss the use of art to articulate queer legal critiques beyond academic work. Focusing on Sheikh's acclaimed play, Contempt, this conversation explores the possibilities for playful and responsive queer dissent by adapting legal narratives for art and storytelling.

'Out of TIme: The Queer Politics of Postcoloniality' by Rahul Rao: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/out-of-time-9780190865511?cc=au&lang=en&#

Art and queer legal critiques with Danish Sheikh (Melbourne Law School)

In this episode, hosts Associate Professor Ntina Tzouvala and Ally King are joined by Associate Professor Angela Dwyer to discuss the theory and practise of queer criminology. Dr Dwyer draws on her extensive academic and advocacy experience, centring the need for intersectional critique of law enforcement and the justice system.

'Queering Criminology in Theory and Praxis Reimagining Justice in the Criminal Legal System and Beyond' edited by Carrie Buist and Lindsay Kahle Semprevivo: https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/queering-criminology-in-theory-and-praxis

Queer Criminology with A/Prof Angela Dwyer (University of Tasmania)

In this episode, hosts Associate Professor Ntina Tzouvala and Ally King are joined by Professor Fiona Kelly to discuss LGBTQIA+ family law, assisted reproduction, queer parenting and trans children seeking healthcare. This episode poses the question - what kind of families does the law imagine, and which are beyond its imagination?

LGBTQIA+ families and the law with Professor Fiona Kelly (La Trobe University Law School)

In this episode, hosts Associate Professor Ntina Tzouvala and Ally King are joined by Professor Dianne Otto to discuss international human rights law. Professor Otto shares her experiences with advocacy for lesbian human rights, the tensions between different branches of the feminist and queer movements, and the importance of queer kinship that transcends nations and species.  
 
Read 'Between Pleasure and Danger: Lesbian Human Rights' by Prof Otto:
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2608293

Queering International Human Rights Law with Prof Dianne Otto (Melbourne Law School)

In this episode, hosts Associate Professor Ntina Tzouvala and Ally King speak with Nicholas Stewart, partner at Dowson Turcor Lawyers, about the Special Commission of Inquiry into LGBTIQ hate crimes established in 2022. Nicholas also shares insights gleaned from his experience practising law as a partner with a queer law firm.

Queering Criminal Law, in Practice with Nicholas Stewart (Dowson Turco Lawyers)

In this episode, hosts Associate Professor Ntina Tzouvala and Ally King speak with Liam Elphick, a lecturer at Monash University Faculty of Law, about the current state of anti-discrimination laws in Australia and the upcoming final report on the Inquiry into Religious Education Institutions and Anti Discrimination Laws. Liam shares his experiences navigating public discussions about queerness while drawing on personal identity, academia and advocacy.

Anti-Discrimination Law and Queerness with Liam Elphick (Monash University Faculty of Law)

In this episode, hosts Dr Ntina Tzouvala and Ally King and guest Dr Sarah Keenan discuss the connections between identity and property in the common law tradition. Dr Keenan reflects on the formation and history of property law, the relations between identity and material conditions, and the process of designing curricula to communicate both doctrine and critique in property law.

Purchase 'Subversive Property Law and the Production of Spaces of Belonging' by Dr Sarah Keenan: https://www.routledge.com/Subversive-Property-Law-and-the-
Production-of-Spaces-of-Belonging/Keenan/p/book/9781138785892

Queerness and Property with Dr Sarah Keenan (University of London)

Nuclear Liability

Nuclear Waste Management

Nuclear Safety and Security

Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones

Nuclear Non-Proliferation regime and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Safeguards

Banaban and Gilbertese Struggles Across Our Sea of Islands

Presented by ANU Gender Institute and the Centre for Law, Arts and the Humanities.

More information: https://law.anu.edu.au/event/lecture/scary-monsters-hopeful-undecidability-david-bowie

ANU Gender Institute Public Lecture

Professor Alex Sharpe - Scary Monsters: the hopeful undecidability of David Bowie

The Annual Kirby Lecture on International Law - The duality of water: Conflict or co-operation
Presented by Federal Court of Australia, the Hon. Justice Melissa Perry.
Hosted by the ANU Centre of International and Public Law

Water is key to the existence of life. From the nourishment of our physical selves, to sanitation, health, agriculture, and energy production our existence and way of life depends upon access to adequate and reliable supplies of fresh-water. 

Yet population growth, climate change, industrial and agricultural consumption, water pollution, demographic changes, and urbanisation, are contributing to a global fresh-water crisis. These stressors in turn have created a real and increasing risk of conflict not only over control of water sources, but also for equitable access to fresh-water, and through vulnerability to attacks on water systems as a weapon of war or terror. 

While their intensity and scale have varied, these risks have confronted integrated state systems since antiquity. Themes of universal relevance to inform the international responses can be drawn from classical Greek systems of water management and for the pacific settlement of disputes. Using ancient history to illuminate the issues of today, the lecture will explore principles of international law as they relate to fresh-water resources and the mechanisms by which water may be a cause for co-operation as opposed to conflict.

2018 Kirby Lecture - Justice Melissa Perry - the duality of water

Topics covered in this workshop include:

1. OSP Design tips: things to bear in mind when you prepare your OSP application.
2. OSP road trip and home game tips: the challenges and opportunities of Visiting Appointments and staying in Canberra.
3. OSP productivity tips: what research and publication plans are feasible for 6 months of OSP? 
4. OSP Reporting tips: how to craft your end of OSP report.

OSP planning seminar

Insider trading law in the United States is drawn mainly from a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions construing a broad anti-fraud rule promulgated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the watchdog agency created by the U.S. Congress to administer the federal securities laws. As such, the jurisprudence encompasses literally hundreds of lower federal court decisions over a fifty-year span, with each one struggling to determine whether a trader, or in some instances a “tipper,” has engaged in deceptive conduct in connection with a securities transaction.  With a view to the common law concept of misleading silence, the presentation contends that U.S. insider trading law would have been much more coherent, as well as far more effective in attaining Congress’s and the SEC’s policy goals, had the Supreme Court regarded the breach of a fiduciary disclosure duty as a sufficient condition -- rather than a necessary condition -- for insider trading liability under SEC Rule 10b-5.  It further contends that while federal courts can still theoretically broaden their application of the common law in insider trading cases, tradition and the sheer passage of time makes the judiciary unwilling to do so.  A new federal statute that would prohibit securities trading on the basis of “wrongfully obtained information” is therefore the best way forward.

Misleading Silence as the Basis for Insider Trading Liability under the U.S. Federal Securities Laws

Considering going to the Bar in the future? Curious about what's involved day to day in the professional life of a "silk"? These questions and more were answered at this 10 March 2020 seminar presented by Dermot Ryan SC, who has 36 years at the Bar including 21 years as Senior Counsel. ANU Master of Laws (LLM) director, Dr Pip Ryan, also shared her insight at the seminar.

Going to the Bar with Dermot Ryan SC

Presenter: Dr Cassandra Steer, ANU College of Law

There is a general consensus that the long-term sustainability of space activities needs to be at the forefront of all space governance structures, including national legislation, compliance with existing international treaties, and the development of new norms. Space traffic management, the increase of space debris, militarization, and the environmental impact of launches, are all of central concern in space governance. There is therefore a need for a strong notion of “good space citizenship” to incentivise responsible behaviour by all space actors. This project asserts that what can be learned from Australian Indigenous knowledge about cosmology, intergenerational relationship and responsibility, and law, has the potential to impact the way we behave in the global commons of space.

Law in the Stars: Incorporating Indigenous Knowledge into Space Governance

We are entering a new era of space. While many people think of space as a “lawless frontier”, the reality is we’ve had a successful international legal framework for space since the beginning of the space age.

As our activities in space become more complex and exciting, there are many questions as to how to govern and regulate these new technologies, as well as the ways they impact our daily lives. How do we deal with arms control in space, and how do bodies of law like the law of armed conflict, environmental law, human rights, intellectual property, finance and insurance, national security, cyber law and treaty interpretation apply to space? What are the rules governing future activities like the mining of natural resources, or space tourism? What licences and permits are needed to launch and operate objects in space? And how does the Australian Space Agency and it’s counterparts in other countries govern national space activities?

Join Dr. Cassandra Steer as she talks about the key space law and policy issues facing us in the 21st century, with leading experts in space law from Australia and around the world, and other fields of law, which may surprise you in their application to space.

Introducing Space Law

Join space law expert and InSpace Mission Specialist Dr. Cassandra Steer as she explores the legal and policy aspects of what's happening in space and how it affects us nationally and globally.

International law and what that means for space activity

Can we really compare space law with the law of the sea? Join ANU space lawyer Dr Cassandra Steer as she talks with Law of the Sea and Space Law expert Professor Dale Stephens from the University of Adelaide Law School, to uncover where there are similarities and where they are worlds apart

Law of the Sea vs Space Law, with Professor Dale Stephens

As part of #WorldSpaceWeek2020, join Dr Cassandra Steer as she speaks with Professor Donald Rothwell FAAL, leading international law expert, as they compare the legal regimes governing areas beyond national jurisdiction: the Antarctic, the high seas and space. With contentions right now about the legality of space mining, what can we learn from these regimes and the notions of 'common heritage' and 'global commons'?

Space law and sovereignty, with Professor Donald Rothwell FAAL

When the US created Space Force last year, it raised a lot of eyebrows, and some ridicule. But did you know that US Air Force Space Command existed for decades already? And that China already has a space force? And that Canada, France and Japan are all seeking set up something similar? Even with this increased militarisation of space, there is still a lot of law governing these activities. Space is anything but a lawless “Wild West”, and to learn more Dr Cassandra Steer speaks with Duncan Blake, former space lawyer and Wing Commander with the Royal Australian Air Force, currently Senior Researcher at UNSW Canberra. What does space law say about military activities in space?

Military activities in space, with Duncan Blake

What’s the most original career you could have in space? How about space archaeologist? Studying human artefacts in space, or those that have returned to Earth from space, and how to deal with the problem of space junk while also protecting some of our human heritage in space. This is the work of Associate Professor Alice Gorman, aka 'Dr Space Junk'. Join Dr Cassandra Steer FHEA as she talks with Dr Gorman about whether the Artemis Accords do a good job of asserting the protection of human heritage on the moon, and how we can protect the moon itself from negative human impact.

Space Archaeology and the Law with A/Prof Alice Gorman

The ANU Law School is Australia’s national law school. Ranked among the top 25 law schools in the world, ANU Law School has a long-standing reputation for excellence in legal education, research and community outreach.

ANU Law School

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