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Beyond the pale: Sovereignty, Law and Indigenous peoples. The project contributes to understanding inequality in law and practice. It expands knowledge of the colonial dimensions of sovereignty, demonstrating how excluding Indigenous peoples from the ordinary operations of both international and domestic law helped constitute and transform sovereignty and produce racialised identities in settler societies. The research provides a new, more comprehensive conceptual framework for analysing front ....Beyond the pale: Sovereignty, Law and Indigenous peoples. The project contributes to understanding inequality in law and practice. It expands knowledge of the colonial dimensions of sovereignty, demonstrating how excluding Indigenous peoples from the ordinary operations of both international and domestic law helped constitute and transform sovereignty and produce racialised identities in settler societies. The research provides a new, more comprehensive conceptual framework for analysing frontier practices, ameliorating the polarising effects of recent debates surrounding this historiography. As the war on terrorism has again seen the suspension of the law in certain circumstances, investigations into the strengths and limits of the rule of law are opportune and timely.Read moreRead less
The impact of migrants on Australian public law: An historical and cultural study. Many leading cases in constitutional and administrative law since 1901 have involved migrants and non-citizens. This project explores their role in the development of public law in Australia. Selected cases will be interpreted from historical, cultural, political and legal doctrinal perspectives, to understand how migrants have shaped the public discourse on judicial review, power of the Executive and human righ ....The impact of migrants on Australian public law: An historical and cultural study. Many leading cases in constitutional and administrative law since 1901 have involved migrants and non-citizens. This project explores their role in the development of public law in Australia. Selected cases will be interpreted from historical, cultural, political and legal doctrinal perspectives, to understand how migrants have shaped the public discourse on judicial review, power of the Executive and human rights. In mapping the impact of migrants on Australian law and society (and, ultimately, national identity), it will contribute to current debates about public law, and assist understanding of citizenship, immigration, sovereignty, and the proper scope of judicial review.
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The Helping Court: Examining the Early History of the Family Court of Australia. This project will benefit the many Australian families involved in divorce by analysing the process by which the Family Court of Australia, designed to reduce the acrimony and costs associated with fault-based adversarial processes, so quickly became a focus for criticism and violence. By identifying continuity and change in both the issues underlying disputes in the family law system and the strategies adopted to o ....The Helping Court: Examining the Early History of the Family Court of Australia. This project will benefit the many Australian families involved in divorce by analysing the process by which the Family Court of Australia, designed to reduce the acrimony and costs associated with fault-based adversarial processes, so quickly became a focus for criticism and violence. By identifying continuity and change in both the issues underlying disputes in the family law system and the strategies adopted to overcome them it will help to stabilise dispute resolution policies and reduce the need for review and adjustment in the future.Read moreRead less
Civilizing Divorce: Social Change, Law and the Transformation of Parenthood. The project will leave policy-makers, professionals, law reformers, and parents and their children themselves, better equipped to navigate their way through a major process of transformation in the way our intimate lives are structured. It will help take some of the 'heat' out of the child custody debate, to see current changes as an integral part of a broader process of change in our emotional relationships, and to br ....Civilizing Divorce: Social Change, Law and the Transformation of Parenthood. The project will leave policy-makers, professionals, law reformers, and parents and their children themselves, better equipped to navigate their way through a major process of transformation in the way our intimate lives are structured. It will help take some of the 'heat' out of the child custody debate, to see current changes as an integral part of a broader process of change in our emotional relationships, and to broaden the conceptual resources available to policy-making and law reform concerning post-separation child custody.Read moreRead less
Understanding forms of violence and their regulation in Australian history. In contemporary Australia inter-personal violence (such as domestic violence, the abuse of children, Aboriginal deaths in custody, the Cronulla riots) occupies intense media and public interest. Governmental responses to violence (through policing or the courts) themselves rest on the exercise of authorised and regulated control which itself may be considered a form of violence. In examining the historical changes in vio ....Understanding forms of violence and their regulation in Australian history. In contemporary Australia inter-personal violence (such as domestic violence, the abuse of children, Aboriginal deaths in custody, the Cronulla riots) occupies intense media and public interest. Governmental responses to violence (through policing or the courts) themselves rest on the exercise of authorised and regulated control which itself may be considered a form of violence. In examining the historical changes in violence, its social impact and media resonances, and the public policy responses to it, this research seeks to contribute to contemporary understanding of these important questions on the basis of a greater appreciation of the specifically Australian history of these phenomena.Read moreRead less
HISTORICAL EXPERTS AND INDIGENOUS LITIGANTS: the role of Historical Expert Evidence in Federal Court Cases. Since Mabo, historians are increasingly being called as expert witnesses in cases involving indigenous litigants. Historians perceive serious difficulties in the Court's treatment of qualitative, historical material, resulting in a possible denial of access to justice. The project investigates this treatment, pursuing issues such as expert evidence generally, the specific relationship betw ....HISTORICAL EXPERTS AND INDIGENOUS LITIGANTS: the role of Historical Expert Evidence in Federal Court Cases. Since Mabo, historians are increasingly being called as expert witnesses in cases involving indigenous litigants. Historians perceive serious difficulties in the Court's treatment of qualitative, historical material, resulting in a possible denial of access to justice. The project investigates this treatment, pursuing issues such as expert evidence generally, the specific relationship between Law and History, and the particularity of cases involving indigenous claims. The investigation asks whether historians as expert witnesses can retain both their historical professionalism and adapt to the requirements of the courts, or whether the courts? rules of evidence themselves require adaptation.
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Australia's Post World War II War Crimes Trials: A systemic and comprehensive Law Reports Series. The publication of the project's Law Reports Series will, in effect, constitute the official history of this extensive Australian war crimes trial experience - in itself, an important national benefit. However, ready access to the previously buried historical primary source material also has profound potential for contemporary application. The proliferation of new international criminal tribunals ....Australia's Post World War II War Crimes Trials: A systemic and comprehensive Law Reports Series. The publication of the project's Law Reports Series will, in effect, constitute the official history of this extensive Australian war crimes trial experience - in itself, an important national benefit. However, ready access to the previously buried historical primary source material also has profound potential for contemporary application. The proliferation of new international criminal tribunals with a concomitant explosion of case law has created a hunger for access to past judicial precedent. Reliance on the results of this project in war crimes trials around the world is guaranteed.Read moreRead less
The Reception of Aboriginal Art in the Twentieth Century. The investigation will analyse:
* the reception of Aboriginal art during the twentieth century, and will demonstrate the extent of national investment in this reception;
* the subtle and often ambivalent relationship between the disciplines of anthropology and art (including art historians, artists or curators) in the reception of Aboriginal art, as well as being alert to other factors (eg Aboriginal activism and political processes);
....The Reception of Aboriginal Art in the Twentieth Century. The investigation will analyse:
* the reception of Aboriginal art during the twentieth century, and will demonstrate the extent of national investment in this reception;
* the subtle and often ambivalent relationship between the disciplines of anthropology and art (including art historians, artists or curators) in the reception of Aboriginal art, as well as being alert to other factors (eg Aboriginal activism and political processes);
* the historical importance of discourses of identity and nationhood in the reception of Aboriginal art;
* the possibilities for re-thinking the received histories of Australian art in light of shifts in the reception of Aboriginal art.
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Light, place and presence in the history of Australian photography. Photography is central to Australian history and national identity. It is a powerful tool through which our identities are forged, and through photography our understanding of our place in relation to our environments, each other and the world are made visible. By grounding this research in the unique status of light as a physical agent in photography and a key symbol of identity and place in Australia, this project will develop ....Light, place and presence in the history of Australian photography. Photography is central to Australian history and national identity. It is a powerful tool through which our identities are forged, and through photography our understanding of our place in relation to our environments, each other and the world are made visible. By grounding this research in the unique status of light as a physical agent in photography and a key symbol of identity and place in Australia, this project will develop a new approach to photography that enriches our social and cultural imagination, and propels Australian scholarship onto the international agenda. Read moreRead less
A Non-National History of Australian Art. With their emphasis on national identity, the existing accounts of Australian art remain stuck in the 19th century. In a time of increased globalisation and international co-operation, it is worth remembering that Australian art has long been part of the wider community. This new history of Australian art seeks to recount a long and confident history of artistic collaboration between Australia and the rest of the world. It thus seeks to provide a new und ....A Non-National History of Australian Art. With their emphasis on national identity, the existing accounts of Australian art remain stuck in the 19th century. In a time of increased globalisation and international co-operation, it is worth remembering that Australian art has long been part of the wider community. This new history of Australian art seeks to recount a long and confident history of artistic collaboration between Australia and the rest of the world. It thus seeks to provide a new understanding of ourselves and a refutation of the long-running notion of cultural cringe, which can only be maintained -- in the visual arts, at least -- in denial of the historical record.Read moreRead less