Law School

Professor William MacNeil

FAAL
Professor, Honorary
TC Beirne School of Law
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Researcher biography

Professor William MacNeil, FAAL, is an Honorary Professor at the TC Beirne School of Law, University of Queensland, as well as a Visiting Professor, Faculty of Business and Law, Birkbeck, University of London, Distinguished Fellow of the Law and Theory Lab, University of Westminster and an Adjunct Professor of Law, University of the Sunshine Coast.

A former dean of law at Southern Cross and Griffith Universities, he held professorial chairs at each – notably as The Honourable John Dowd Chair in Law at the former – as well as academic appointments at Victoria University, the University of Hong Kong and the London School of Economics.

Trained in literature (Toronto) and law (Dalhousie, London, Columbia), his most recent book, Novel Judgements; Legal Theory as Fiction, won the Penny Pether Prize for Scholarship in Law, Literature and the Humanities. He is a founding editor of the book series, 'Edinburgh Critical Studies in Law, Literature and the Humanities', the Co-Managing Editor of Pòlemos: Journal of Law, Literature and Culture and Senior Editorial Consultant for Legalities: The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Law and Society.

He has held visiting appointments at Amherst, Helsinki, Hong Kong Shue Yan, IDC/Reichman Herzliya, Ljubljana, McGill, Erasmus Rotterdam, Sydney, Texas at Austin, and Tsinghua. Professor MacNeil is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law and a former Chair of the Council of Australian Law Deans.

Publications

BOOKS

  • Novel Judgements: Legal Theory as Fiction, London: Routledge, 2012.
  • Lex Populi: The Jurisprudence of Popular Culture, Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2007

REFEREED JOURNAL ARTICLES

  • '"A Wilderness of Monkeys": Value, Love and the Law of the Father's Will in The Merchant of Venice', 2024 18 Law and Humanities, 2, pp. 1-13.
  • '"She would get all of them. Every last one": Carrie and the Jouissance of Revenge', 2024 19 Pólemos: Journal of Law, Literature and Cultures 2, pp 317-328.
  • Introduction, 'The Last of Us? Law and the Virus', 2023 Legalities: The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Law and Society, vol.3, no. 1, pp. 1-4.
  • 'Introduction: Law in End Times: A North/South Collaboration', 2021 15 Pólemos: Journal of Law, Literature and Culture 1, pp. 1-3.
  • 'Waldo's Beautiful Things: Possession and Possessing in Otto Preminger's Laura' 2021 Crime Fiction Studies, vol. 2, issue 1, pp. 1-14.
  • 'Boundary, Crossing, Pathway: Margaret Davies' Province of Jurisprudence Un-Determined', Book Symposium on Margaret Davies' Law UnLimited: Materialism, Pluralism and Legal Theory in Australian Journal of Legal Philosophy 2018 43, pp. 135-140.
  • 'Lacanian ink and leather "down under": Queensland's "bikie" legislation and its crimes of fashion', 2017 Griffith Law Review 26:4, pp. 615-631, published on-line, January 2019 and appeared in print March 2019.
  • 'The Litigating Dead: Zombie Jurisprudence in Contemporary Popular Culture', 2017 NoFo: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Law and Justice 14: pp. 108-123.
  • 'His Dark Legalities: Intellectual Property's Psychomachia in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials Trilogy', Liverpool Law Review (2017) 38: pp. 11-31.
  • 'Let the Right Law In: True Blood, the Twilight Saga and The Passage as Lex Vampirica', in 2016 Fables of Law: Fairy Tales in a Modern Context, eds. D. Carpi & M. Leiboff in Law and Literature, eds. D. Carpi & K Stierstorfer, vol. 13, Berlin: De Gruyter, pp. 331-354.
  • 'Brokeback's Bareback: Queering Lex Populi' 2015, Law, Text, Culture, vol. 19, pp. 194-230. 'Troubling Waters: Speaking (of) Forbidden (Legal) Subjects: Symposium in Honour of Penny Pether', eds., J. Pugliese & J. Kramer.
  • 'Machiavellian Fantasy and the Game of Laws' 2015, Critical Quarterly, vol. 57, issue 1, April, pp. 34-48.
  • 'From Rites to Realities (and Back Again): The Spectacle of Human Rights in the Hunger Games' 2015 UCIrvine Law Review, vol. 5, pp. 483-498.
  • (with Salecl, Renata) 'Waxing Lacanian', 2013 Griffith Law Review, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 269 - 274
  • 'Taryn' with the Negative: Simon, Hypervisibility and the Photography of Judgement' 2010 Eyeline: Contemporary Visual Arts, vol.72, pp. 50-53.
  • (with Davies, Lynda & Black, Christine), 'Galactic Jurisprudence: In Space, No One can Hear you Litigate', 2007 Law, Culture and the Humanities, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 358 - 360
  • 'PreCrime Never Pays! Law and Economics in Minority Report' 2005 Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies vol. 9, issue 2, Spring, pp. 201-221.
  • 'One Recht to Rule Them All! Law's Empire in the Age of Empire' 2004 The Aesthetics of Law and Culture: Text, Images, Screens, eds. Peter Rush and Andrew Kenyon in Studies in Law, Politics and Society, vol. 34, eds. A. Sarat, P. Ewick Elsevier Science Ltd., Oxford, pp. 279-303.
  • 'You Slay Me! Buffy as Jurisprude of Desire' 2003 Cardozo Law Review, vol. 24, issue 6, pp. 2421-2440.
  • 'Kidlit as Law and Literature: Harry Potter and the Scales of Justice' 2002, Law andLiterature, vol. 14, issue 3, pp. 545-564.
  • 'A Tale of Two Trials: Revolutionary Enjoyment, Liberal Legalism and the Sacrifice of Critique in Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities' 2000, 22 Studies in Law, Politics and Society, eds. A. Sarat & P. Ewick, Elsevier Science Ltd., Oxford, pp.77-102.
  • 'Beyond Governmentality: Retributive, Distributive and Deconstructive Justice inGreat Expectations' 1999 Australian Feminist Law Journal, vol. 12, pp. 98-117.
  • 'Taking Rights Symptomatically: Jouissance, coupure, object petit a' 1999 Griffith Law Review, vol. 8, issue1, pp. 134-151.
  • 'The Monstrous Body of the Law: Wollstonecraft vs Shelley' 1999 Australian Feminist Law Journal, vol. 12, pp. 21-41.
  • 'John Austin or Jane Austen? The Province of Jurisprudence Determined in Pride and Prejudice' 1998 Law, Text, Culture vol. 4, issue 2, pp. 1-35.
  • 'Law's Corpus Delicti: The Fantasmatic Body of Rights Discourse' 1998 Law and Critique, vol. 9, pp. 37-57.
  • 'Enjoy Your Rights! Three Cases from the Postcolonial Commonwealth', 1997 Public Culture, vol. 9, pp. 377 – 393.
  • 'Living On: Borderlines - Law/History' 1995 Law and Critique, vol. 6, pp. 167-191.

BOOK CHAPTERS

  • 'Promethean Longing: Ridley Scott's Speculative Legalism', 2019, Law and the Humanities: Cultural Perspectives, eds., C.Battisti & S. Fiorato, DeGruyter, Berlin, pp. 523-36.
  • 'The Litigating Dead: Zombie Jurisprudence in The Walking Dead, World War Z and The Rising', 2019, in Law and the New Media: West of Everything, eds., C. Delage, P. Goodrich & M. Wan, EUP, Edinburgh, pp. 138-155.
  • 'Machiavellian Fantasy and the Game of Laws: Rex, Sex and Lex in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire' in K. Crawley & TD. Peters, eds., 2017, Envisioning Legality: Law, Culture and Representation, Routledge, London, pp. 96-118.
  • 'Popular Culture's Lex Vampirica: The Law of the Undead in True Blood, the 'Twilight' saga and The Passage' 2015, Cultural Legal Studies: Law's Popular Cultures and the Metamorphosis of the Law, eds., M. Leiboff & C. Sharp, Routledge, London, pp. 231-251.
  • 'Popular Culture and Jurisprudence' 2015, Law and Popular Culture in Australia, eds M. de Zwart, B. Richards, S. LeMire, Lexis-Nexis, Sydney.
  • 'PreCrime Never Pays! Law and Economics in Minority Report' 2014, Legal Theory and the Humanities, vol. 5, eds. P Goodrich & M del Mar in Ashgate Library of Essays in Contemporary Legal Theory: Second Series.
  • '"No sacrifice is too great for the Cause!": Cause(less) Lawyering and the Legal Trials and Tribulations of Gone with the Wind' 2008, The Cultural Lives of Cause Lawyering, eds A. Sarat and S. Scheingold, Cambridge UP, pp. 27-55.
  • '"It's the vibe": The Common Law Imaginary Down Under' 2004, Law's Moving Image, eds. L. Moran, I. Christie, E. Sandon, E. Loizidou, Cavendish, London, pp. 30-44.
  • 'Righting and Difference' 1992, Human Rights in Hong Kong, ed. R. Wacks Oxford University Press, Hong Kong, pp. 86-118.

ENCYCLOPAEDIA & DICTIONARY ENTRIES

  • Encyclopaedia entry on 'Law on Television', 2025, Elgar Concise Encyclopaedia of Law and Literature, eds Robert Spoo & Simon Stern, Edward Elgar, pp. 291-294.
  • Encyclopaedia entries on 'Literature and Law' (pp. 739-740); 'Film and Law' (pp. 459-460), 'Television Images of Law' (pp. 1159-1160)' 2008, The Oxford Companion to Law, eds, P. Cane & J. Conaghan, Oxford UP.
  • Dictionary entries on 'Constitution' and 'Constitutional Convention', 2003, Canadian Law Dictionary, ed John Yogis, Barrons.

BOOK REVIEWS

  • All of Us Strangers, 2023, film, Blueprint Pictures/Film 4/Searchlight, Directed by Andrew Haigh, 2024 Legalities: The Australian Journal of Law and Society, vol. 4, no 1.
  • Law's Documents: Authority, Materiality, Aesthetics (Routledge, 2020), eds Katherine Biber, Trish Luker, Priti Vaughan, 2023 Legalities: The Australian Journal of Law and Society, vol. 3, no 1.
  • The Last of Us, 2023, TV series, Naughty Dog, Written by Craig Mazin and Neil Druckerman, 2023 Legalities: The Australian Journal of Law and Society, vol. 3, no 1.
  • Bianca Elkington, Moana Jackson, Rebecca Kiddle, Ocean Ripeka Mercier, Mike Ross, Jennie Smeaton, Amanda Thomas Imagining Decolonisation (Wellington, NZ: Bridget Williams Books, 2020)', 2022 Legalities: The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Law & Society vol 2, issue 1.
  • Honni van Rijswijk, Breeder (Ashland, Ore, USA: Blackstone Publishing, 2021)', 2021 Legalities: The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Law & Society vol 1, issue 2.
  • 'Ghostbusting Crime's Phantasms: A Review of Peter Hutchings' 2007, "The Criminal Spectre in Law, Literature and Aesthetics: Incriminating Subjects 'Media & Arts LR, vol. 7, issue 1, 81-85.

EDITED WORKS

Journals

  • Special Issue on 'Law and the Virus' of (2023) Legalities: The Australian Journal of Law and Society, co-ed, Chiu Man-chung. vol 3, issue 1.
  • Co-Managing Editor, 'Law in End Times: A North/South Collaboration', (2021) 15 Polemos: Journal of Law, Literature and Culture 1.
  • Co-editor, Special Issue 'Galactic Jurisprudence: The Law and Science Fiction' (2007) Law, Culture & the Humanities: An Interdisciplinary Journal, co-eds., L. Davies & C. Morris, vol. 2, issue 3.
  • Co-editor Special Issue 'Law's Cultural Mediations' (2002), Griffith Law Review, co-ed., P. Hutchings, vol. 10, issue 2.
  • General Issue, 2000, Griffith Law Review, vol. 9. issue 1.

Books and Book Series

  • Series Editor, Edinburgh Critical Studies in Law, Literature and Humanities: J.G. Stewart, The Rise and Fall of Critical Legal Studies: Law, Politics, Culture (Edinburgh: EUP, 2024)
  • Series Editor, Edinburgh Critical Studies in Law, Literature and Humanities: E. Bikundo, The Faustian Pact in International Law: Literature, Jurisprudence and Giorgio Agamben's Critical Theory (Edinburgh: EUP, 2024)
  • Series Editor, Edinburgh Critical Studies in Law, Literature and Humanities: C. Clark & J. Page, The Lawful Forest: A Critical History of Property, Protest and Spatial Justice (Edinburgh: EUP, 2022) (Winner of 2024 Penny Pether Prize for Scholarship in Law, Literature and the Humanities, Conference of the Law, Literature and the Humanities Association of Australasia, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia)
  • Series Editor, Edinburgh Critical Studies in Law, Literature and Humanities: C.O. Frank, Character, Writing, and Reputation in Victorian Law and Literature (Edinburgh: EUP, 2022)
  • Series Editor, Edinburgh Critical Studies in Law, Literature and Humanities: T. Peters, A Theological Jurisprudence of Speculative Cinema: Superheroes, Science Fictions and Fantasies of Modern Law (Edinburgh UP, 2021) (Honourable Mention, 2024 Penny Pether Prize for Scholarship in Law, Literature and the Humanities, Conference of the Law, Literature and the Humanities Association of Australasia, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia)
  • Series Editor, Edinburgh Critical Studies in Law, Literature and Humanities: D. Matthews, Earthbound: The Aesthetics of Sovereignty in the Anthropocene (Edinburgh: EUP, 2021) (Winner of 2022 Penny Pether Prize for Scholarship in Law, Literature and the Humanities, Conference of the Law, Literature and the Humanities Association of Australasia, University of the Sunshine Coast, Sippy Downs QLD Australia)
  • Series Editor, Edinburgh Critical Studies in Law, Literature and Humanities: M. Lopez-Lerma, Sensing Justice through Contemporary Spanish Cinema (Edinburgh: EUP, 2021).
  • Series Editor, Edinburgh Critical Studies in Law, Literature and Humanities: I. Ward, The Play of Law in Modern British Theatre (Edinburgh: EUP, 2021)
  • Series Editor, Edinburgh Critical Studies in Law, Literature and Humanities:C. McCarthy, Outlaws and Spies: Legal Exclusions in Law and Literature (Edinburgh: EUP, 2020).
  • Series Editor, Edinburgh Critical Studies in Law, Literature and Humanities: E. Sheley, Criminality and the Common Law Imagination in the 18th and 19thCentury (Edinburgh: EUP, 2020).
  • Series Editor, Edinburgh Critical Studies in Law, Literature and Humanities: K.I. Baxter, Imagined States: Law and Literature in Nigeria (Edinburgh: EUP, 2019).
  • Series Editor, Edinburgh Critical Studies in Law, Literature and Humanities: J. Gaakeer, Judging from Experience: Law, Praxis, Humanities (Edinburgh: EUP, 2019).
  • Series Editor, Edinburgh Critical Studies in Law, Literature and Humanities: P. Goodrich, Schreber's Law: Jurisprudence and Judgment in Transition (Edinburgh: EUP, 2018).
  • Series Editor, Edinburgh Critical Studies in Law, Literature and Humanities, K. Tranter, Living in Technical Legality: Science Fiction and Law as Technology(Edinburgh: EUP, 2018)

STUDENT PUBLICATIONS

  • ''Rape, Sexual Assault and Bill C-53' 1982, The Ansul, 10-13, Dalhousie Law Students Association, 1981; reprinted, Crown Counsels' Review Saskatchewan.

OTHER

  • 'Tribute by William MacNeil: Vale Peter Fitzpatrick', 2020 Law, Culture and the Humanities vol.16, issue 3, p. 350.

WRITING IN PROGRESS

  • (journal article) 'Remembering a (Queer) Life Never Lived: The Invention of Memory in Andrew Haigh's All of Us Strangers'
  • (journal article) 'Theologising with a Hammer: Deicide, the W/Hole of Creation and Christian Nihilism in Thor: Love and Thunder'
  • (journal article) '"Life in Plastic, It's Ph/Fantastic': Barbie, the Death Drive and the Law of Desire"
  • (monograph) Speculative Legalism: Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy as Jurisprudence