What's on
Dear Postgraduates,
The PLSA would like to invite you to drinks, nibbles and a jazz performance by the Ron Romeo Quartet, held at the Paris Cat in the city from 6pm this Friday (See the Drinks Night Flyer!).
Do come along to relax with your colleagues, and we look forward to seeing you there!
On behalf of the PLSA,
Yoriko Otomo
Current events
1. Indigenous Health and Reconciliation Display January - March 2008
The current PLSA display on the ground floor is on the highly topical issues of reconciliation and Indigenous health. This display is using posters from Oxfam's current "Close the Gap" campaign and includes information on the meaning of reconciliation and Aboriginal health and history.
The PLSA would like to express its unequivocal and wholehearted support for the apology by the Australian Government to Aboriginal peoples. Thank you Mr Rudd
2. Research Associate Positions -- Court of Appeal
The Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Victoria is currently seeking applications for three Research Associate positions in 2009. This is a year long position targeted at graduating students in an undergraduate or graduate law degree.
We have attached the advertisement for the position. We will also be holding an information session at 6:00 pm in the Green Court, at the Court of Appeal, 459 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne on Wednesday 7 May 2008.
Research Associate Positions
Forthcoming events
1. International Student Welcome 2008
This international student welcome event will feature food from Ethiopia, Pakistan and Malaysia with music from Kenya. It will be held on Thursday 21st February starting at 5.00pm in the Graduate Common Room area on level 6 of the Law School.
All post-graduate law students are very welcome.
2. Welcome event for post-graduate law students and address by the new Dean
The new Dean of the Law School, Professor James Hathaway will address post-graduate law students at a casual lunch in the post-graduate common room on level 6 of the Law School at 1.00pm on Tuesday 26th February.
3. Exhibition of Afghanistan photographs
Time: 6.00pm-9.00pm
Date: Thursday 28th February
Venue: Brunswick Street Gallery
Level 2, 322 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy (opp. Bar Open)
Contact: Krista Green
RSVP: law-plsa@unimelb.edu.au
http://brunswickstreetgallery.com.au/
The PLSA is sponsoring an exhibition of photographs taken by Azlan Petra (a University of Melbourne Post-Grad student). The photographs depict a humanitarian's view of the social conditions of Afghan people taken soon after the most recent War in Afghanistan began. All the photographs on display are of Afghan people and places and were taken by Azlan while he was a humanitarian worker in Afghanistan during 2002. Proceeds from any additional prints sold will go, along with previous proceeds, to the Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) to provide assistance to Afghani women and girls in the areas of health care and education.
Presentations will be made by Azlan Petra and Ms Gulghotai Bezlan, an Afghani refugee who was seeking asylum around the time the photographs were taken and who now works in Melbourne in Community Development and runs a support group for Afghani women. The bar will be open and a light supper will be provided.
4. Film and discussion
The film "We Will Be Remembered For This" will be shown on Tuesday March 11th beginning at 6.00pm in lecture theatre G08 in the Law School. Jessie Taylor, the writer and director of the film, will introduce the film, and Dr Michelle Foster (Senior Lecturer, International Refugee Law) will then chair a discussion. A light supper will be served after the discussion.
"In 2006, a group of young people with different nationalities, backgrounds, attitudes and political views traveled to the Baxter Immigration Detention Centre in South Australia. The stories of the people they met behind the razor wire surprised, moved and challenged them. The film documents their journey."
Jessie made the film while an undergraduate law student at Monash University. She studied for a Masters degree in Europe in 2007 and is returning to Australia in 2008 to work in Melbourne.
Contact: Clancy Kelly
RSVP: law-plsa@unimelb.edu.au
5. PLSA General meeting for constitutional changes
A sub-committee of the PLSA has prepared a number of Constitutional changes which has been the subject of an initial Committee review. A "general" meeting will be called to vote on these changes prior to the AGM. All post-graduate law students will receive a copy of the proposed changes prior to the meeting and are able to attend this meeting and vote on the proposed changes. As the proposed changes include a number of new Committee positions, nominations for positions on the 2008/2009 PLSA Committee will be called for after this general meeting. The date of the general meeting is to be advised.
6. PLSA Annual General Meeting March 2008
The PLSA Annual General Meeting will be held at 5.30pm on Tuesday March 18th in the graduate common room on level 6 of the Law School. Reports on the PLSA's activities over the year and elections for positions on the 2008/2009 PLSA Committee will take place. A light supper will be provided.
Past events
International PLSA Students Please come along to The PLSA International Students Social Event
Indonesian food will be served along with non-alcoholic and alcoholic drinks.
The acclaimed Nepalese film "The Himalaya" (formerly entitled "Caravan") will be shown from 5.15pm in one of the adjoining seminar rooms for anyone who is interested.
- Time and date: 5.00pm-7.00pm Thursday November 22nd
- Venue: Post-Graduate Common Room, Level 6, Melbourne Law School.
- Everyone is welcome
Photographic display
We have printed a number of photographs taken in Afghanistan by Azlan Petra, a Melbourne University post-graduate student. These beautiful photographs will be available for sale with all proceeds going to the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan(RAWA) for the provision of education and health care to women and girls in Afghanistan.
Prices are as follows:
A1 - $40/students and $50/others
A2 - $30/students and $40/others
A3 - $20/students and $30/others
A4 - $10/students and $20/others
Orders can be made by contacting Krista Green (kagre@deakin.edu.au) or Ben Copeland (PLSA Gender Officer) b.copeland@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au
Second semester dinner
The dinner will be held at the iconic Provincial Hotel in the first floor function room, Starting at 7.00pm on Friday 12th October. Waleed Aly, author of “People Like Us: How arrogance is dividing Islam and the West” will be speaking.
Please contact Alex Lata (Vice-Pres for JDs) for any enquiries on this dinner. Tickets - $25 students/$35 others are available from Clancy Kelly (Pres and PhD) (c.kelly@unimelb.edu.au or ph: 0437 695 197) and Alex Lata (a.lata@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au).
Forum: "Knowledge transfer and the right to education: An examination of open-source models"
Thu 11/10/2007
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
Speaker Stephen Carson (Mass Institute of Technology) & David Brennan (Melbourne Law School)
Description: In this forum, the speakers will discuss current practices and issues in the use of open-source models.
Steve Carson, the External Relations Director of the OpenCourseWare Consortium, will outline what is happening at MIT while David Brennan will discuss copyright issues at Melbourne University. Steve will speak via video-link from Boston, US.
Venue Moot Court
Address Melbourne Law School 5th Floor, 185 Pelham Street Carlton
Contact Person Aron Ping D'Souza
Contact Details a.d'souza2@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au
RSVP Contact law-rsvp@unimelb.edu.au
Debate: 'Is George W Bush guilty of war crimes?'
Thu 18/10/2007
6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Debaters: Julian Burnside, Peter Morrissey, Alison Duxbury
Mr Julian Burnside QC will presenting the case for the 'prosecution' and Mr Peter Morrissey will be presenting the case for the 'defence' in this debate on the culpability of the US President under international humanitarian & criminal law for Iraq's invasion by the 'coalition of the willing' & treatment of civilians by occupying forces. Ms Alison Duxbury will moderate.
Mr Julian Burnside QC joined the Bar in 1976 and took silk in 1989. Mr Burnside acted for the Ok Tedi natives against BHP, for Alan Bond in fraud trials, for Rose Porteous in numerous actions against Gina Rinehart, and for the Maritime Union of Australia in the 1998 waterfront dispute against Patrick Stevedores. He was the Senior Counsel assisting the Australian Broadcasting Authority in the "Cash for Comment" inquiry and was Senior Counsel for Liberty Victoria in the Tampa litigation. While specialising in commercial litigation, Mr Burnside has acted pro bono in many human rights cases, in particular concerning the treatment of refugees.
Mr Peter Morrisey is a Melbourne barrister specialising in criminal defence work at home and abroad. He has been at the Bar since 1994. Mr Morrisey has appeared in numerous major Supreme Court trials, and many Court of Appeal matters. He successfully defended Sefer Halilovic in a lengthy trial before the International Criminal Tribunal of the Former Yugoslavia in 2005 in The Hague. His client was charged with war crimes. Mr Morrisey was Lead Counsel in this trial, managing a support team of 5.
Ms Alison Duxbury, Senior Lecturer, Melbourne Law School
Venue: GM15 Melbourne Law School
Address: 185 Pelham Street Carlton
Contact Person: Ms Clancy Kelly
RSVP Contact: law-plsa@unimelb.edu.au
The audio recording is now available.
Guantanamo Bay: The David Hicks Case
Fri 20/04/2007
7:00 PM
Speakers: Terry Hicks & Prof. Tim McCormack
Description: A free public presentation by Terry Hicks, father of Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks and Prof. Tim McCormack (Melbourne Law School), adviser to the Hicks defence counsel.
Professor Tim McCormack is the Foundation Australian Red Cross Professor of International Humanitarian Law at the Melbourne Law School. Since December 2003 he has been an expert consultant on international humanitarian law issues to the David Hicks defence team. He has recently returned from the Hicks trial by the U.S. Military Commission at Guantanamo Bay.
Terry Hicks is the father of David Hicks, an Australian citizen who has been detained in Guantanamo Bay since December 2001. In March of this year, David Hicks pleaded guilty to a charge of 'providing material support to a terrorist organisation'.
Venue: GM15 Lecture Theatre
Address: Melbourne Law School 185 Pelham Street, Carlton
Contact Person: Mr. Dylan Tromp
Contact Details: dylantromp@hotmail.com
Perspectives on Iraq
Speaker: Matt Howard (Branch: United States Marine Corps (USMC) Rank: Cpl)
Description: In this seminar Matt Howard, a member of an antiwar group known as Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), will provide a first hand account of the entry into Iraq by US forces and subsequent events. This case-study will be contextualized by Gerry Simpson, an international lawyer, with reference to the rules of war and occupation.
Matt Howard served with 1st Tank Battalion 1st Marine Division during the initial invasion from Basra to Baghdad. A year later he was involved in transferring equipment from Kuwait to Fallujah. A group of antiwar vets who served in Iraq and Afghanistan have been making their presence known for the past couple of years in the US and, like their predecessors that organized Vietnam Veterans Against the War, these men and women have formed an antiwar group known as Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW). According to an article in a publication titled North Carolina at War published by the Institute for Southern Studies, IVAW has members in at least 41 states and on some military bases overseas.
Gerry Simpson is a Professor of International Law at the London School of Economics. His latest book, Law, War and Crime has just been published by Polity Press http://www.amazon.com/War-Crimes-Trials-Law-Crime/dp/0745630235.
The audio recording is now available.
Date: Thurs 23/08/2007 06:30 PM – 8:00 PM
Venue: GM15, Level 1
Address: Melbourne Law School
Contact Person: Clancy Kelly
Contact Details: 03 8344 1072
RSVP Contact: law-plsa@unimelb.edu.au
Trade and right to health series 2007
- Public lecture by Jamie Love (Director of Knowledge Ecology International) speaking on: An alternative research and development framework to the World Trade Organization TRIPS regime.
This public lecture will be live via inter-active video from Washington D.C. USA
The video recording is now available.
9.00-10.15am Tuesday 17th July
Lecture Theatre GM15
The Melbourne Law School
185 Pelham St Carlton
Breakfast will be served on level 1 from 8.15am
Contact: Clancy Kelly c.kelly@unimelb.edu.au
RSVP: law-plsa@unimelb.edu.au - Public lecture by Dr Thomas Faunce (ANU) "The Australia-US Free Trade Agreement and Reference Pricing: Beginning of the End for the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme?
Date: Monday May 28, 2007
Venue: Melbourne Law School
View Recording.
2007 Committee Members Announced
Find out who's who on the committee in 2007.
2007 Postgraduate Law Welcome Drinks
The Post-graduate Law Students' Association (PLSA) invites you to join Masters, Research Higher Degree and Juris Doctor students for drinks to kick off a new year of study. This is a great way to meet new friends and socialise in a non-academic environment.
Date: Thursday 8 March
Time: from 6pm
Venue: Prince Alfred Hotel, 191 Grattan Street (corner Bouverie Street)Carlton
Cost: Free
Drinks and finger food provided
PLSA Annual General Meeting
The PLSA's AGM is where the old committee reports on the previous year of activity, and a new committee will be elected for 2007. All post-graduate law students are welcome to attend, especially if you don't know anything about the PLSA!
Date: Thursday 15 March 2007
Time: 5:30pm for 6:00pm start
Venue: Graduate Common Room, Level 6, Law School
Cost: Free
Drinks and finger food provided
Regular PLSA Events and Activities
- PLSA welcoming dinners. The PLSA organises dinner each semester to welcome new students
- Thursday Drinks and Food for Thought – The PLSA provides free drinks and an informal speaker every Thursday evening in the Graduate Lounge, Level 6, Law School. All postgraduate students and staff are welcome. In the past we have had presentations on the International Criminal Court, human rights in the Philippines, Australia's refugee policy, comparative law, intellectual property, the Timor Gap arrangements and mining and human rights. Email your suggestions for future speakers.
- Other social events – the PLSA organises other social events, such as an end of year social event, movie nights etc. Contact us with your ideas!
- Work-in-progress seminars - we can organise work in progress seminars for students wishing to discuss their work with peers and colleagues. Contact us by email or by phone 8344 1072
Details of activities and other news are sent to members in regular emails. Make sure you have activated your university email account. Visit the email accounts webpage to set up your account.