CPICL Director of Public Law, Associate Professor Rebecca Ananian-Welsh, delivered a keynote address at the Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law’s annual Constitutional Law Conference in Sydney

On Friday 6 February 2026, CPICL Executive Director (Public Law), Associate Professor Rebecca Ananian-Welsh delivered a keynote address at the UNSW Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law annual Constitutional Law Conference.

In her address, A/Prof Ananian-Welsh adopted a lens of ‘Connectedness’ to revisit the High Court of Australia’s 2025 constitutional cases and to consider what they reveal about ‘who’ the Constitution is for.

Drawing together 13 cases, she highlighted the breadth of issues addressed in 2025, including Chapter III of the Australian Constitution, the implied freedom of political communication, acquisitions of property on just terms, and questions of judicial immunity. She also reflected on the Court’s extensive use of separate concurring opinions and on a number of striking decisions, including Yunupingu, Farmer, Russian Federation, Wojciechowska, Stradford, and Cherry.

Having attended the Conference for more than 15 years - initially as a PhD student - A/Prof Ananian-Welsh described delivering the keynote as a personal milestone, made all the more meaningful with her former supervisor and mentor, Professor Andrew Lynch, in the audience.