Understanding the interaction of language, law, literature and culture
Who are we?
The Law and Literature Association of Australia is an unincorporated association with members throughout Australia.
Our primary object is to increase understanding of how language, law, literature and culture interact. We aim to encourage research into law, literature and language. We also aim to provide forums for discussing law, literature and language.
Our target audiences include the legal profession, academia and the community generally. Our members come from the legal profession, the arts, educational institutions and the community. Our institutional members include law firms, libraries, university faculties and departments. Our executive consists of lawyers and non-lawyers.
What do we do?
Each year, we run the Australian Law and Literature conference together with a university. Our conferences include forums on public interest issues, and continuing legal education seminars.
Throughout the year, we run smaller-scale functions for members such as symposia or informal salons. At these, writers, lawyers, academics and performers gather to share, learn and enjoy talks and readings of works on themes of law and literature.
We also publish, intermittently, our newsletter, LLAA Lines, to inform members about these activities. We assist in producing and distributing journals and books on law, literature and language. Members are involved in the journal Law/Text/Culture and the book The Happy Couple.
We develop connections with individuals and groups working in these interdisciplinary fields in other countries.
Law and Literature courses are run at the universities of Flinders, Monash, Sydney and Wollongong. They have often been developed and taught by our members. Literary interpretive methods in the teaching of more mainstream areas of legal practice have been undertaken by some of our members. Taxation law, equity, constitutional law are among the areas of law in which a literary focus has generated considerable interest in the language, law, literature and culture connections.
We develop connections with individuals and groups working in these interdisciplinary fields in other countries. We have been developing informal links with the US Law and Humanities Institute to benefit members, and we held a joint conference with the Institute in 1995.
History
The Association formed in Sydney in 1990 after the first and extremely successful Australian Law and Literature conference. The conference was a joint enterprise of the Department of English at the University of Sydney and the Faculty of Law at Monash University.
Our founding executive included Dr. Simon Petch as president, with Fran¨ois Kunc, Penelope Pether, John Taberner and Dr. Leonie Star.
Our patron is the Hon Justice L.J. Priestley of the NSW Court of Appeal.
Our current executive includes Judith Grbich, School of Law and Legal Studies, La Trobe University, as president, with Richard Hale, Peter Hutchings, Jonathan Morrow, Brendan Scott, and Alison Young.
Conference details
| 1991 conference | Monash University, Law School |
| 1992 conference | University of Sydney, English Department |
| 1993 conference | Wollongong University, Law School |
| 1994 conference | Queensland University of Technology, School of Humanities |
| 1995 conference | Boalt Hall (Law School of the University of California, Berkeley) |
| 1996 conference | Northern Territory University and Central Queensland University |
| 1997 conference | Griffith University, Law School |
| 1999 conference | La Trobe University, School of Law and Legal Studies |
Keynote speakers have included the writer and lawyer John Bryson, as well as leading US law and literature scholars James Boyd White, Richard Weisberg and Brook Thomas. Keynote speakers at the 1997 conference included Professor Dragan Milovanovic, Professor of Criminal Justice in the Department of Criminal Justice, Sociology and Social Work, Northeastern Illinois University, Dr Alison Young of the Department of Criminology at Melbourne University, Dr Peter Rush of the School of Law at Deakin University, Sam Watson and Ian Callinan QC. Keynote speakers at the 1999 conference included Professor Costas Douzinas, Head of Dept, Birkbeck College, University of London, Professor Austin Sarat, Department of Political Science and Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought, Amherst College, Terry Threadgold and Chief Justice John Harber Phillips. We have also featured leading Australian scholars such as Regina Graycar and Terry Threadgold, and members of the Australian judiciary including Justice Asche, Justice Gaudron, Justice Kirby and Justice O'Connor. We encourage postgraduate students to present papers at these conferences.
Papers from the conferences have appeared in journals including Quadrant, the Law Institute Journal (Vic), the Law Society Journal (NSW), the Australian Bar Review, Cardozo Studies in Law and Literature, and the two special Law and Literature editions of the Australian Journal of Law and Society. A Special Issue on Law and Literature was published as volume 7 of the Australian Feminist Law Journal. Papers from the Feminisms Panel at the Berkeley Symposium on Law and Literature were published in (1996) 7 Australian Feminist Law Journal.
How can you join?
Membership forms are available from the executive (or e-mail Richard.Hale@msj.com.au). There are three kinds of membership: ordinary, student, and corporate. A membership year runs from 1 July to 30 June. Please send the completed membership form and the annual membership fee to the address on the form. Welcome!