Principal speaker
Dr Dylan Lino
Abstract
Among the legal projects pursued by progressive Australians, the protection of individual human rights has long enjoyed a hallowed status. At the pinnacle of the progressive rights agenda is to subject the political branches of government to judicial review for their human rights compliance, ideally through a national bill of rights. But advocacy for constitutional rights in Australia has not always been an exclusively progressive cause, nor have constitutional rights always captured the highest aspirations for progressive law reform. This seminar will explore the politics of rights in Australia in the 1940s and '50s, when debates over a bill of rights first emerged to political prominence. In this era, advocacy for the constitutional protection of individual rights was as much a conservative project as a progressive one. For the progressive side of politics, particularly the Australian Labor Party, its grand legal project was not to impose limits on governmental power through legally enforceable rights. On the contrary, Labor's overriding constitutional goal was to enlarge governmental power, especially at the national level, to enable an expansion of central planning, public ownership and social services, all in the name of civilising capitalism. This history prompts reflection on whether the legal imagination and political ambition of Australian progressives has been stunted by an undue fixation on rights protection as the ultimate legal embodiment of social justice.
About the speaker
Dylan Lino is a Lecturer at the University of Western Australia Law School. His research focuses on constitutional law and theory, Indigenous peoples' rights, imperialism and legal history.
About the seminar
Dr Dylan Lino will present his Law Futures Seminar at the Griffith Law School (G36) Gold Coast campus with a videolink to the Griffith Law School (N61) Nathan campus. When registering for this seminar, please indicate in your email which campus you will attend.
Event categories
RSVP
RSVP on or before Wednesday 3 July 2019 , by email lawfutures@griffith.edu.au