Winter Law School

9am - 1pm, 22 - 25 July 2020, Online

Addresses the evolution of the legal regimes in international trade and development. Examines the basic legal structure of World Trade Organization (WTO), including the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and other agreements, and will consider the development of regional trade agreements, including the European Union (EU) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and the USA-Australian free trade agreement. Students will consider dispute settlement mechanisms under these regimes. The course will also examine the legal structures of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Students will consider financial market, policy and legal changes that have altered the mandate and effectiveness of these institutions in recent decades.

Read unit information on International Trade and Development Law.

Presenter: Associate Professor Pornchai Wisuttisak, Chiang Mai University, Thailand

Associate Professor Pornchai Wisuttisak is Dean of the Faculty of Law, Chiang Mai University, Thailand. He completed his PhD in Business Law and Taxation from the University of New South Wales and obtained his Master of Commercial Law from Macquarie University, Australia. He also graduated BA in Political Science in Government from Thammasat University, Thailand.

His research focus relates to competition law, international trade and investment law, and energy law. He has worked with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF) on training courses for competition law and policy in Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos. He is also involved with Asian Development Bank Institute’s projects on reforming state enterprises in Central Asian countries. His current research involves the business development and Investment for of Provincial Electricity Authority of Thailand(PEA). Dr. Wisuttisak is also a member of the National Committee of Justice Development, Thailand.

2pm - 6pm, 22 - 25 July 2020, Online

This unit will explore the mythical foundations of modern law and illustrate how science fiction, and more specifically climate fiction, may represent a new "mythology for the future". Students will be asked to read a selection of contemporary works of climate fiction and discuss their possible relevance in the legal realm, with particular reference to environmental law and Earth Jurisprudence.

Read unit information on Myths for the Future: Law and Climate Fiction in the 21st Century

Presenter: Dr Valentina Adami, University of Verona, Italy

Dr Valentina Adami is a Post-Doc Research Assistant of English literature at the University of Verona, Italy, and Adjunct Professor of English Language at the Free University of Bolzano/Bozen, Italy. She holds a PhD in English Studies (University of Verona, 2010). Her fields of research are literature and trauma; law, literature and culture; ecolinguistics and ecocriticism.

Among her publications, the monographs Trauma Studies and Literature: Martin Amis’s Time’s Arrow (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2008); Bioethics through Literature: Margaret Atwood’s Cautionary Tales (Trier: WVT, 2011). She is Assistant Editor of Pólemos: A Journal of Law, Literature and Culture (De Gruyter).

9am - 1pm, 26-29 July 2020, Online 

Introduces students to the fundamentals of Chinese Business law.  The main framework of the Chinese Judicial system is introduced. Various aspects of the system are reviewed including contract and agency, consumer protection and bankruptcy laws.  Students explore the difference between Australian and Chinese business law. New developments in law are also discussed.

Read unit information on Introduction to Chinese Business Law

Presenter:
Dr Hui Li, Dalian University, China
LLB(Hunan College of Finance and Economics College), LLM(Hunan University), JSD(Dalian Maritime University)

Dr. Hui Li is a scholar of economic law and business law, a part-time lawyer. Before becoming a lecturer in Dalian University, she had worked in system of People’s Bank of China for four years. She had three times of experiences of overseas visiting, including visiting scholar in Tilburg University of Netherland from Jan. to Oct. 2008, visiting scholar in IPFW (Indiana-Purdue University Fort Wayne, America) from 2011-2012, and, had been a visiting fellow in Southern Cross University, Australia from 2018-2019. She has been undertaking projects separately supported by the National Social Science Foundation of China and Humanities and Social Science Foundation for Young Scholars, Ministry of Education of China, and has published several papers concerning both projects in recent years.

2pm - 6pm, 26-29 July 2020, Online

Explores the discursive conventions of Law, a discipline predicated on powerful narratives and solid rhetorical practices while simultaneously denying that it is anything other than the simple application of known and certain rules.

As Wetlaufer notes “Rhetoric offers us a set of tools for thinking about the discursive conventions within which we work”.  Students will have the opportunity to explore Law’s rhetoric and the stories it tells about itself while developing their own rhetorical toolboxes, drawing upon classical traditions from Plato, Quintillian and Socrates to the new rhetoric identified by Chaim Perelman.

Read unit information on  The Rhetoric of Law

Presenter: Dr Merran Lawler

Merran Lawler is the current Kaiarahi & National Advocate of Te Kupenga Whakaoti Mahi Patunga/National Network of Family Violence Services in Aotearoa/New Zealand. She holds a BJuris and LLB from Monash University, Victoria, Australia and worked as a lawyer in community legal centres for over two decades, including seven years as the Director of Caxton Legal Centre in Brisbane and four years at the Convenor of the National Association of Community Legal Centres.

Merran formerly held the position of lecturer with Griffith University School of Law where she taught Introduction to Legal Writing, a course on Legal Rhetoric and a variety of other courses including. In 2011, she was the winner of the LexisNexis-ALTA Award for Excellence and Innovation in the Teaching of Law (Early Career category).

Merran is passionate about the power of words and the ways in which law both constructs and denies the fictional narratives it tells about itself.