The last outlaw: Making a nation from the crimes of Jimmy Governor. This project aims to produce a legal history of the murderer Jimmy Governor to discover the extent to which law-making was generated by acts of law-breaking. The Australian Federation laid the foundations for the nation’s legal institutions under the rule of law. The Aboriginal serial killer, Jimmy Governor, was outlawed and convicted on the threshold of Federation, in 1900. Through Governor’s legal history, the project will pro ....The last outlaw: Making a nation from the crimes of Jimmy Governor. This project aims to produce a legal history of the murderer Jimmy Governor to discover the extent to which law-making was generated by acts of law-breaking. The Australian Federation laid the foundations for the nation’s legal institutions under the rule of law. The Aboriginal serial killer, Jimmy Governor, was outlawed and convicted on the threshold of Federation, in 1900. Through Governor’s legal history, the project will produce an account of the law and its outsiders at an important historical moment. This project expects to provide knowledge about punishment, surveillance and imprisonment in the emerging nation, and a history of the rules of evidence and criminal procedure.Read moreRead less
The foundations of civil justice in Australia. This project aims to provide an in-depth historical account of the origins of our civil justice system in Australia. Judicial institutions and their practices were key to the founding of civil society in the Australian colonies. This project will produce new knowledge about the origins of our civil justice system. The project will trace legal reformist ideas in England, their dissemination across Britain's Empire and the impact these had on how judg ....The foundations of civil justice in Australia. This project aims to provide an in-depth historical account of the origins of our civil justice system in Australia. Judicial institutions and their practices were key to the founding of civil society in the Australian colonies. This project will produce new knowledge about the origins of our civil justice system. The project will trace legal reformist ideas in England, their dissemination across Britain's Empire and the impact these had on how judges and administrators in the Australian colonies crafted their judicial practices to provide speedy and effective access to civil justice. As well as scholarly writing, this project will provide a podcast and multi-media website that explains how civil trials worked in the mid-nineteenth century.Read moreRead less
Australian violence: understanding victimisation through history. This project aims to undertake the first national study to investigate longitudinal trends in the history of interpersonal violence in Australia. Interpersonal violence is a major national challenge and violence prevention is a policy concern. By analysing case-level data for ten thousand criminal prosecutions over modern Australian history, the project will assess long-term trends in violent events and their relation to historica ....Australian violence: understanding victimisation through history. This project aims to undertake the first national study to investigate longitudinal trends in the history of interpersonal violence in Australia. Interpersonal violence is a major national challenge and violence prevention is a policy concern. By analysing case-level data for ten thousand criminal prosecutions over modern Australian history, the project will assess long-term trends in violent events and their relation to historical change. Tracking the rise and fall of prosecuted violence, the project will test current scholarly understanding about the history of violence, yield new insights about historical victimisation, and provide a critical background for understanding contemporary violence.Read moreRead less
Sexual Offences, Legal Responses and Public Perceptions: 1880s-1980s. Testimony of sexual abuse before the current Royal Commission has exposed the historic neglect and cover-up of institutional offences. Yet, to unearth the deeper and wider dimensions of sexual offending requires scholarly historical analysis. This project aims to use qualitative and quantitative analysis to track how and why certain forms of sexual behaviour sparked public concern and provoked legal responses and public inquir ....Sexual Offences, Legal Responses and Public Perceptions: 1880s-1980s. Testimony of sexual abuse before the current Royal Commission has exposed the historic neglect and cover-up of institutional offences. Yet, to unearth the deeper and wider dimensions of sexual offending requires scholarly historical analysis. This project aims to use qualitative and quantitative analysis to track how and why certain forms of sexual behaviour sparked public concern and provoked legal responses and public inquiries from the 1880s to the 1980s. The systematic examination of these patterns through archival and published documents is intended to test the relation between shifting community and political concerns and the conduct of criminal trials.Read moreRead less
Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR200200683
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$247,923.00
Summary
Rethinking Medico-Legal Borders: From international to internal histories . The response to coronavirus has starkly revealed the significance of internal movement and its regulation. Yet the focus of scholarship on medico-legal border control remains almost exclusively on international movement. This project addresses that major gap by researching the regulation of internal movement in past and present pandemic times, with a focus on plague, influenza, SARS and coronavirus in Australia, and in c ....Rethinking Medico-Legal Borders: From international to internal histories . The response to coronavirus has starkly revealed the significance of internal movement and its regulation. Yet the focus of scholarship on medico-legal border control remains almost exclusively on international movement. This project addresses that major gap by researching the regulation of internal movement in past and present pandemic times, with a focus on plague, influenza, SARS and coronavirus in Australia, and in comparison with Hong Kong. It will interrogate the ambiguous internal/international borders of ships in quarantine in the past and in the coronavirus present. Bringing law and history together, this project will clarify how internal movement has been, and can best be, lawfully restricted. Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE120100062
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$330,000.00
Summary
The Australasian Legal History Library: Creating historical depth in legal data on AustLII, to improve all legal research. The Australasian Legal History Library, to be located for free access on AustLII, will provide comprehensive legislation and case law from all colonies (subsequently Australian States, Territories or New Zealand) up to 1950. Its citator will show how these historical materials are used in current legal decisions. It will be a revolution for legal history research.
Optimising access to the Law Reports Series of Australia's war crimes trials, 1945-51. The forthcoming Law Reports Series on Australia’s war crimes trials held in 1945-51 will be, in effect, the official history of the trials. It is vital, therefore, that all users, particularly the Australian public, are provided with the necessary tools to optimally access the Series and thus obtain a comprehensive understanding of the trials.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE140100283
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$356,247.00
Summary
From War Crimes Investigator to War Crimes Jurist: Sir William Flood Webb KBE and his impact on international criminal law in the twentieth century. Sir William Flood Webb KBE (1887-1972) is little known but was Australia's most prominent jurist on war crimes in the mid-twentieth century. This project is a legal-historical study that investigates and examines Webb's extraordinary impact on the development and transformation of international criminal law through his roles as a war crimes investig ....From War Crimes Investigator to War Crimes Jurist: Sir William Flood Webb KBE and his impact on international criminal law in the twentieth century. Sir William Flood Webb KBE (1887-1972) is little known but was Australia's most prominent jurist on war crimes in the mid-twentieth century. This project is a legal-historical study that investigates and examines Webb's extraordinary impact on the development and transformation of international criminal law through his roles as a war crimes investigator, consultant and jurist and, in particular, as President of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. The project will shed light on historical views of war crimes, the legal actions taken and institutions created in response and the judicial and procedural precedents that were established, not only within Australia but internationally.Read moreRead less
The sight of justice: images and the rule of law. The rule of law is a key issue in global and national governance, which this project will study in a novel way: through the images and art that have helped us make sense of it. This will give new insights into its history, evolution and current challenges, and new ways of encouraging public understanding and engagement with the law.
The potential and limits of international adjudication. This project aims to analyse the place of adjudication in international affairs, using a case study of Australia’s extensive engagement with the International Court of Justice. The project will provide a detailed account of the context and impact of the cases in which Australia has been involved before the Court, and will assess the complex roles that adjudication and advisory opinions can play in the resolution of international disputes mo ....The potential and limits of international adjudication. This project aims to analyse the place of adjudication in international affairs, using a case study of Australia’s extensive engagement with the International Court of Justice. The project will provide a detailed account of the context and impact of the cases in which Australia has been involved before the Court, and will assess the complex roles that adjudication and advisory opinions can play in the resolution of international disputes more generally. This project will document an historic set of engagements spanning 70 years and provide guidance on when international adjudication may be productive for Australia, the Asia-Pacific region and the international legal order. This will provide deeper knowledge of the capacities of international judicial institutions to resolve disputes relating to economic, health, social, cultural and environmental issues.Read moreRead less