Law Commons^™

Which World, And Why Do We Worry About It?, Paul Sharrad

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

The paper looks at various meanings of ‘World Literature’ (widely read books; great works of transcultural influence; a disciplinary structure and practice), assessing Australia’s place in each and what might underlie a wish to belong to any.

In particular, it locates the last focus of scholarly discussion in French and US sites and the drive to reform Comparative Literature studies, examining possible factors leading Australian universities to engage with such debates and possible effects on local practice.

The paper notes how Postcolonial literary studies called for this kind of reform of comparative literature and pushed towards a ‘world literature’ under …

Responding To Genocide: Australian Parliamentary Discussions About The Crisis In Darfur, Deborah Mayersen, Thomas Galloway

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

‘Australia’s response [to the crisis in Darfur] has been slow, it has been hesitant, and, I regret to say, it has been inadequate’, remarked Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs Kevin Rudd in February 2005 (House of Representatives Hansard: 47). Since 2003, genocide in Darfur has claimed more than 300,000 lives, with 2.6 million more displaced by the conflict (Degomme and Guha-Sapir 2010: 294-300; Reeves 2012). The international response to the crisis has been slow and lacklustre, and while the intensity of the conflict has fluctuated in the past nine years, the situation remains dire. The Australian government’s policy response to …

Great Big Hairy Bees! Regulating The European Bumblebee, 'Bombus Terrestris L'. What Does It Say About The Precautionary Principle?, Cameron Moore, Caroline Gross

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

The previous Commonwealth Minister for the Environment, Mr Garrett, rejected a request to allow the importation of live bumblebees (Bombus terrestris L.) to mainland Australia. New South Wales and Victoria had already listed the introduction of bumblebees as, respectively, a key threatening process and a potentially threatening process. The Commonwealth, however, had previously declined an application to list the introduction of bumblebees as a key threatening process, although its Threatened Species Scientific Committee urged 'that extreme caution be shown in considering any proposal to introduce this species to the mainland.' The potential threat from bumblebees would appear to beg the …

Bullshit: An Australian Perspective, Or, What Can An Organisational Change Impact Statement Tell Us About Higher Education In Australia?, Katherine Bode, Leigh Dale

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

In the last few years, a scholarly critique of current forms and directions of higher education has become increasingly prominent. This work, often but not exclusively focussed on the American and British systems, and on humanities disciplines, laments the transformation of the university into ‘a fast-food outlet that sells only those ideas that its managers believe will sell [and] treats its employees as if they were too devious or stupid to be trusted’ (Parker and Jary 335). Topics include the proliferation of courses and subject areas seen as profitable, particularly for overseas students;1 the commensurate diminution or dissolution of ‘unprofitable’ …

Speech Acts And Performances Of Scientific Citizenship: Examining How Scientists Talk About Therapeutic Cloning, Nicola J. Marks

Faculty of Law, Humanities and the Arts - Papers (Archive)

Scientists play an important role in framing public engagement with science. Their language can facilitate or impede particular interactions taking place with particular citizens: scientists’ “speech acts” can “perform” different types of “scientific citizenship”. This paper examines how scientists in Australia talked about therapeutic cloning during interviews and during the 2006 parliamentary debates on stem cell research. Some avoided complex labels, thereby facilitating public examination of this field. Others drew on language that only opens a space for publics to become educated, not to participate in a more meaningful way. Importantly, public utterances made by scientists here contrast with common …