The Law and Politics of Power and Control will be put in the spotlight at an international gathering of legal and policy experts being hosted by Bond University’s Law faculty on 26 & 27 May.
The two-day conference, organised by Bond’s Transnational, International, and Comparative Law and Policy Network (TICLPN) will focus on the issues of power and control in a wide range of settings – from refugees and migrants through to domestic violence and child sex tourism.
“Power and control usually go hand-in-glove but they can also interact in surprising ways,” said co-convenor Associate Professor Dr Danielle Ireland-Piper.
“Domestic violence, for instance, represents the abuse of physical, emotional or financial power of one spouse over another.
“In times past, the law was reluctant to intervene in what was regarded as ‘domestics’, but politics has brought intimate partner violence into the public domain and the law is now seeking to play a more central role in responding to this injustice.
“Similarly, community concerns over the rights of asylum seekers has impacted on populist politics, preventing Governments from ignoring or undermining those laws.”
Regarded as ‘Australia’s citizenship law expert’ and one of Westpac’s first ‘100 Women of Influence’, Professor Kim Rubenstein from the Australian National University will deliver the conference’s keynote address on Power, Control and Citizenship, looking at the imbalance of power that often exists between governments and their citizens.
A graduate of Harvard Law School and the author of several legal textbooks, Professor Rubenstein has won a number of awards for her work in public policy, including the inaugural Edna Ryan award for ‘leading feminist changes in the public sphere’.
Both the address from Professor Rubenstein and the evening panel on day one of the conference are free and open to the public.
Speaking on day two of the conference, Associate Professor Ireland-Piper will highlight headline issues by putting Donald Trump’s travel ban, Brexit and Australia’s Border Protection policy under the legal microscope in her presentation on Controlling Government Power: Contemporary Triumphs and Failures of Courts.
Other guest speakers from universities across Australia and the South Pacific will examine power and control in relation to trade partnerships, global politics, cyber security and animal rights.
“The researchers presenting at this conference are tackling the big issues that affect us all – from personal concerns of intimate partner violence and animal rights through to the global paradigms of asylum seekers and trade policy,” said co-convenor Associate Professor Leon Wolff.
“But perhaps most significantly, the presenters and attendees represent a broad cross-section of legal, psychology and diplomacy experts, bringing a unique interdisciplinary approach to the subject matter.”
The TICLP is an open network accessible to all interested scholars, practitioners, policy-makers and students from across Australia, the Asia-Pacific and the rest of the world, and hosts the TICLP Network Conference on a biennial basis.
The conference will be held in Theatre 2, Level 3 of the Faculty of Health Sciences & Medicine (Building 5) at Bond University on Friday 26 & Saturday 27 May.
Registration is $250 + GST or $150 + GST for students. Register now.