PUBLIC LECTURE: Picking up the Pieces: Democracy and Justice after Conflict

Abstract: The past four years have provided many dramatic cases of attempts at democracy-building: for example, Afghanistan, Bougainville, Iraq, the Solomons. While there have been some useful studies of these countries individually, there has been less attention paid to general trends in the project of democracy-building and ensuring justice:

*What have been its successes and what have been its problems?

*What are the 'democracy' and the 'justice' that we are trying to build?

*Can we devise general principles to guide this ambitious task? *Should we?

*What role, if any, can international law play in this area?



Biographical note: Hilary Charlesworth is Professor in the Regulatory Institutions Network in the Research School of Social Sciences and Professor of International Law and Human Rights in the Law Faculty, ANU. She was awarded a Federation Fellowship by the Australian Research Council in 2005. Her research interests are in theories of international law, human rights law and democracy promotion. She chaired the ACT government's consultation on the introduction of a bill of rights. She has taught at the Universities of Melbourne and Adelaide and has been a visiting professor at Washington & Lee School of Law, Harvard Law School and New York University Global Law School. In January 2005, she was the 24th Wayne Morse Professor at the University of Oregon. She has been awarded (with Christine Chinkin of the LSE) the American Society of International Law's 2006 Goler T Butcher Medal for contributions to international human rights law.

This lecture is the second in the Institute of Advanced Studies' lecture series by distinguished Australians advocating for further discussion of the Australian human rights landscape.

This event is supported by the International Commission of Jurists (WA Branch) and the Faculty of Law at The University of Western Australia.

ALL WELCOME. NO RESERVATION REQUIRED.