A workshop organised by the Law in Context Research Cluster (La Trobe Law School) and the Australian Centre for Justice Innovation (Monash Law)

Venue: La Trobe City Campus, 360 Collins Street, Melbourne
Dates: 5 - 6 December 2024

The late Kerry Petersen once wrote that socio-legality “is a ‘broad church’ of ideas with a critical element which challenges the assumption that law is a neutral, reasoned discipline” (2013, p 1). It harnesses, appropriates and borrows from a wide range of discourses, theories and methodologies from the social sciences to examine law in its myriad contexts. From law-in-action to legal ethnography, and qualitative research to participatory observations, socio-legality continues to provide an innovative intellectual home for studying the intersections of law and society.

This workshop, with a keynote address by Professor Sharyn Roach Anleu (Flinders University), invites socio-legal scholars to explore how we can do empirical research creatively and how we can continue to innovate the discipline by encompassing insights from the social sciences. We call for scholars to propose 20-minute presentations on creativity with methods in socio-legal studies. The call is open to a range of topics in law, but we ask scholars to think about how they do socio-legal research and focus their presentation on methodology, whether that may be law-in-action, legal ethnography, qualitative research or participatory observations. We are also keen to hear from scholars who have knowledge of conducting research with participants with lived experience of legal problems, the trials and tribulations of ethics committees and trauma-informed qualitative research.

The in-person workshop will have a limited number of participants. A small number of travel bursaries, generously funded by LSAANZ, will be available to support the participation at workshop of early career scholars based in Australia or New Zealand. The deadline for abstracts is 30 September 2024. We invite interested scholars to submit a 200 word abstract, 100 word biography and a 200 word request for financial support, if applying for a travel bursary, to: [email protected]