Laws Beyond Borders: Challenges and opportunities for implementing the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth)
About the event
The Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth) is the cornerstone of Australia’s legal framework on serious labour exploitation risks in corporate supply chains. It is a reporting regime that applies to large entities, both public and private, and to slavery risks that arise both in Australia and overseas. The scope and ambition of the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth) presents both opportunities and challenges for entities and for the people who work within them and seek to hold them accountable. In light of the current review of the Act, this panel brings academics together with other key stakeholders to discuss these challenges and opportunities, and to consider Australian modern slavery laws in their broader global context.
This Law Matters seminar is a joint initiative with the UQ Business School’s Trust, Ethics, and Governance Alliance. You are invited to network with speakers and guests over drinks and canapes after the panel discussion.
About the speakers
Dr Antal Berkes
The University of Liverpool
Dr Antal Berkes is lecturer in law at the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom. His expertise lies in the field of public international law and international human rights law. His current research develops third State responsibility in international law through the case study of eliminating modern forms of slavery.
Dr Joseph Lelliott
The University of Queensland
Dr Joseph Lelliott is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Queensland. He is an expert on criminal law and, in particular, the interrelated phenomena of trafficking in persons and migrant smuggling. Joseph has served as an expert consultant to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Vienna, Bangkok, and Dakar and, in this role, has authored numerous UNODC publications on these topics. He is a co-editor of a forthcoming commentary on the Organized Crime Convention and its Protocols on trafficking, smuggling, and firearms, published by Oxford University Press.
Dr Erin O'Brien
Queensland University of Technology
Dr Erin O’Brien is an ARC DECRA Fellow and Associate Professor in Policy and Politics in the School of Justice, Queensland University of Technology. Her research examines political advocacy, lobbying, and participation, with a particular focus on market-based activism. Her DECRA Fellowship project investigates the framing of responsibility between the state, civil society, and market actors for addressing complex multi-jurisdictional issues, specifically modern slavery. Prior to entering academia, Dr O’Brien worked in strategic communications in the government and not-for-profit sectors in Australia and the United Kingdom.
Professor Thomas Maak
The University of Queensland
Thomas Maak is the inaugural Professorial Chair in Ethics at the University of Queensland Business School. A business ethicist by training, he previously served as Director Centre for Workplace Leadership and Professor of Leadership at the University of Melbourne. Thomas is global authority in the field of responsible leadership, business ethics, and the micro-foundations of CSR. His research links the individual, group, and organizational levels, combining ethical theory, political philosophy, relational thinking and stakeholder theory. His research interests include ethical decision-making, political CSR, and organizational neuroscience.
Louise Hope
The University of Queensland
Louise Hope leads the Procurement & Payment Services function for UQ. Louise has come to procurement via the legal and insurance industries, having managed the University’s insurance portfolio and before that working as a legal advisor in the insurance commercial claims industry. Throughout her career she has thrived on learning and understanding new disciplines – a skill she has applied to strategic procurement at UQ.
Louise is an innovative problem solver, strategic thinker and manager, with a strong interest in risk management, conflict resolution and process improvement. She is motivated to improve commercial and social sustainability of UQ’s consumption. She has delivered the University’s programs to address modern slavery risks and a lift in engagement of Indigenous suppliers.
She is leading a five- year procurement maturity strategy at UQ. The next big leap forward will be the implementation of a digital source to contract platform.
Dr Radha Ivory (discussant)
The University of Queensland
Dr Radha Ivory is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Queensland, where she teaches company law and researches the transnational regulation of corruption and corporate crime. Her new work critically engages with domestic and international efforts to reform the law on these topics.