What's On

Associate Professor Ann Black was an invited speaker at the 2022 Indonesian Constitutional Court International Symposium in Bali (October 5-7).

Australia is now 39th in Reporters Sans Frontiers’ World Press Freedom Index, a staggering decline of 20 places since 2018. This reflects a fact acknowledged by both the Morrison and Albanese governments: Australia has a press freedom problem.

Journalists may face decades in prison for ‘foreign interference’ offences unless urgent changes are made to Australia’s national security laws, according to a University of Queensland researcher.

THE CONVERSATION | Can courts ensure political parties' powerbrokers abide by the party rules that they, by and large, write? It’s a simple question, but the answer to it is a mess.

The threat of foreign donations and disinformation was addressed in the new Electoral Amendment Bill, but Professor Graeme Orr argues these issues are largely being ignored when the problematic influences are domestic in origin.

PhD candidate Sarah Kendall questions if Australia's anti-spy laws are strong enough, with espionage set to overtake terrorism as Australia’s top security concern.

Boeing announced it would design and build a new military aircraft, the Loyal Wingman, in Queensland. Dr Eve Massingham asks whether our laws are adequate to protect us from potential health, safety and data concerns when autonomous aircraft are in the skies.

​The Common Article 1 obligation to “ensure respect” for international humanitarian law (IHL) has become a topic of considerable reflection and debate.

The Australian Defence Department has identified “trusted autonomous systems” as a priority area of work for strategic research, but Dr Eve Massingham says there are many international and domestic legal questions yet unanswered.

This post attempts to survey the legal standards relevant to the development, acquisition, and use of an AWS in armed conflict and highlights some of the particular challenges that autonomy in weapon systems can pose to States and to those who set the standards and are responsible for compliance.