Addressing key legal priorities that reflect critical global issues
Our research vision at the Law Futures Centre is to conceive of the future of law, legal institutions, and legal education in the face of 21st Century change so that we can help society effectively address and adapt to the shocks caused by global shifts, environmental threats, and the rapid innovation of technology. We aim to conduct outstanding research—often interdisciplinary—that is responsive to domestic and global change, and harnesses the law and legal institutions as key tools for shaping the future.
We seek to extend the impact of our research by developing and sustaining mutually supportive relationships with the community, industry, and government. The Centre strives to explore variegated ways in which to progressively reform law and legal institutions with innovative and collaborative approaches that transcend state boundaries, legal jurisdictions and academic disciplinary categories.
Our research focuses on
- Exploring the relationships between humans, the natural environment and biological diversity
- Developing and improving the law’s effectiveness in meeting emerging global problems
- Exploring the rapid innovation of the modern world and how the law, legal institutions and the legal profession should adapt
- Achieving practical impact with our research, particularly in law reform
Our areas of expertise include
- Biodiversity
- Health Law
- Human Rights
- International Law
- International Family Law
- Intellectual Property
- Land Law
- Legal Theory
- Taxation
Australian Repair Network
The inability to repair our modern digitally enhanced consumer goods is increasingly and globally important as countries transition to Circular Economies. The inability of Australians to repair their smart goods or to access repair or service information is having a significant impact on not only the Australian economy, but also its environmental future.
Law Future’s member, Professor Leanne Wiseman is currently examining how Intellectual Property law can facilitate better access to digital goods and services that are 'locked up' by digital technologies.
Human Rights and COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has detrimentally affected all recognised human rights in every country. Professor Sarah Joseph has been working on the human rights implications of COVID-19 since April 2020, with one published paper, an earlier free access version of that paper, several media outputs and presentations to audiences in Indonesia, Turkey, the Australian National University, Bond University and a forum under the auspices of the Australian Human Rights Commission. Her current work is on the crucial issue of equitable global access to COVID-19 vaccines, without which the pandemic will not finish.
Modern Slavery
Kate van Doore's PhD research started with a shocking discovery. Children in orphanages sponsored by her charity had been recruited and posed as orphans for funding. After winding up the orphanages and reuniting children with their families, she discovered how commonplace these schemes were. Parents were being promised an education for their children, often for a fee, but in reality these children were being sold into orphanages to meet the demand of volunteer tourists and their donations.
Kate's research has been instrumental in the Australian government's world-first recognition of orphanage trafficking as a form of modern slavery through the Modern Slavery Act 2018. Internationally she has worked with the United States Department of State on the Trafficking in Persons Report to recognise the links between orphanages and trafficking, and the Dutch and United Kingdom governments on the same issues.
Publications
We are committed to disseminating our research as widely as possible, through our diverse range of paper series.