TC Beirne School of Law - University of Queensland

ENGAGEMENT
Q150 Conference
The Q150 Constitutional Conference,
Queensland Constitution at 150: Origins
and Evolution, co-hosted by the School
of Law’s Centre for Public, International
and Comparative Law (CIPCL) and the
Supreme Court of Queensland Library,
was held at the Queensland Parliament
House, Brisbane on 29 May 2009.
The Conference took a close look at the
origins, historical development and the
possible future reform of the Queensland
Constitution, with legal experts
considering possible constitutional
reforms to increase the responsiveness
and accountability of the executive
government in Queensland.
Opened by Her Excellency Ms Penelope
Wensley AO, Governor of Queensland,
the speakers at the Q150 Conference
included practitioners, members of the
judiciary, leading scholars and members
of Parliament.
Fulbright Symposium
The 2009 Fulbright Symposium, The US-
Australia Free Trade Agreement: the Last
5 Years, the Next 5 Years, hosted by the
TC Beirne School of Law and supported
by the Australian-American Fulbright
Commission, was held in Canberra from
24 to 25 August, 2009.
The Symposium brought together
academics, policy-makers, industry
leaders and commentators to review
the economic and political impact of the
Agreement and to consider the future
of the trade and political relationships
between the two countries. The
Symposium format was a mixture of
broad-theme plenary sessions and
specific-topic parallel sessions which
sought to identify what has been learnt
from the Agreement, its impact to
date, what problems remain, and how
these lessons can be applied in trade
negotiations with other countries.
Opened by UQ’s Vice-Chancellor
Professor Paul Greenfield AO and Mr
Daniel Clune, Charge d’Affaires, Embassy
of the United States of America, the
Symposium featured a diverse range of
speakers from both sides of the Atlantic
including the original negotiators of the
US-Australia Agreement, Mark Vaile and
Stephen Deady, and representatives from
the US Peterson Institute, the Australian
Lowy Institute and the US Studies Centre.
Page 0 | TC Beirne School of Law Biennial Report 2008-2009
Public Forum: Perspectives on
Muslim Life
The School of Law hosted a free public
forum in April 2009 to discuss the areas
of Queensland law that present difficulties
for Muslims living in Queensland.
Organised by Senior Lecturer Dr Ann
Black, the forum comprised a panel of
local and interstate lawyers and Muslim
community leaders who shared their
perspectives and reflected on ways in
which Muslim and non-Muslim Australians
can harmonise both sets of laws. The
forum focused on family law; religious
practice and education; inheritance;
finance and commerce; and adjustments
for refugees and migrants.
The forum was prompted by the findings
of a research project funded by a Legal
Practitioner Interest on Trust Accounts
Fund (LPITAF) Grant. As part of the
research project, a series of interviews
was conducted with Queensland Imams,
Islamic leaders and advisors to their
mosque communities. The findings
indicated that whilst understanding of,
and compliance with, the Australian legal
system was high, there were some areas
of law that, at times, presented added
difficulties for Muslims.
Sri Lankan Judges Seminars
Twelve judges of the Supreme Court and
Court of Appeal of Sri Lanka took part
in a program of educational and training
seminars at UQ during August 2009.
Organised by the TC Beirne School of
Law’s Centre for Public, International and
Comparative Law, the program aimed to
enhance knowledge in emerging areas
of law, such as information technology,
intellectual property, and banking and
finance.
The visiting justices attending the
seminars were among the most senior
and distinguished judges in the Sri
Lankan judiciary. In addition to providing
education and training, the program also
served as a medium for the exchange of
views between Sri Lankan and Australian
judges, lawyers and academics and
to strengthen existing historical and
legal cultural links between the two
jurisdictions.
The program was funded by grants from
the World Bank and the government of
Sri Lanka and was a joint collaboration
between CPICL and UniQuest Pty Ltd,
the fully owned commercial arm of The
University of Queensland.
Participants in the 2009 Fulbright Symposium included (from left): Dr Joe
Hlubucek, Executive Director, Australian-American Fulbright Commission; coorganisers
of the Symposium Ms Kimberlee Weatherall and Associate Professor
Robert Burrell from the TC Beirne School of Law; The Hon. Mark Vaile, former
Member for Lyne and former Deputy Prime Minister & Minister for Trade; and
Professor Paul Greenfield AO, Vice-Chancellor, The University of Queensland.