Melbourne Law School Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies

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2008 Events

Seminars

 

Giving Teeth to International Human Rights Treaties: Commissions, Courts and Corporations - A Practitioner's Perspective.

Professor Brian Burdekin, Visiting Professor at the Raoul

Wallenberg Institute, Sweden

17 July 2008

 

Thinking about "constitutional dictatorship".

Professor Sanford Levinson, The University of Texas at Austin, USA.

4 August 2008

 

The party and the judges: Threats to the independence of the

judiciary in South Africa.

Professor Christina Murray, University of Cape Town, South

Africa

13 August 2008

 

Codification system in the Anglo-American Legal Tradition:

 The case of New York.

Professor Aniceto Masferrer, Professor of Comparative Legal History in the Faculty of Law, University of Valencia, Spain

August/September/October TBC

27 August 2008

 

The Evolution of a Revolution:  The Singapore Constitution after 40 Years.

Professor Li-ann Thio, Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore

24 September 2008

  

Bicameralism and the British House of Lords.

Dr Meg Russell, Reader in British and Comparative Politics,

Constitution Unit, Department of Political Science, University

College, London, United Kingdom.

21 October 2008

 

Political responsibility for rights protection in New Zealand.

Dr Petra Butler, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.

28 October 2008

 

Disintegration through Law? - On the Decomposition of Citizenship in Europe.

Professor Dr Alexander Graser, Professor of Comparative

Public Law and Social Policy, Hertie School of Governance,

Berlin

17 November 2008

 

The Office of Lord Chancellor, the Judiciary and the Constitutional Reform Act 2005: '... a new and original plan'?

Professor Peter Leyland, Professor of Public Law, London

Metropolitan University, U K

24 November 2008

 

PhD Confirmation Seminar: Pakistan's Islamic Identity, its Blasphemy Law and the International Law of Human Rights.

Ms Hajrah Saboor, PhD candidate, Melbourne Law School

3 December 2008

 

Real Constitutional Dialogue: From Canada to Australia.

Assistant Professor Rosalind Dixon, University of Chicago

Law School

16 December 2008

 

Public Lectures

 

Inaugural Professorial Lecture

Foreign Law and Constitutional Interpretation: Cautious Comparativism or Judicial Activism?

Professor Adrienne Stone, Director of the Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies, Melbourne Law School

26 November 2008

 

Judges throughout the world routinely refer to the judgements of courts in other countries for guidance however the practice remains sharply contested. Some judges and scholars go so far as to claim that reference to foreign law amounts to an unethical activism. In her inaugural Professorial lecture, Professor Stone defended the practice against claims of judicial activism and considered the following questions:

§         Is it legitimate to refer to foreign law in interpreting the Australian Constitution?

§         Is foreign law relevant to the Australian Constitution?

§         How should judges use foreign law in constitution cases?

 

Professor Adrienne Stone is the Director of the Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies at Melbourne Law School and an elected member of the AACL Council.  She researches in the areas of constitutional law and constitutional theory. She has published extensively on freedom of expressions, the legal and institutional questions surrounding bills of rights and on judicial method in constitutional cases.

 

Conference

 

2008 Protecting Human Rights Conference

3 October 2008