2025 Kirby Seminar List

Professor Mark Nolan, Faculty of Business, Justice and Behavioural Sciences at Charles Sturt University.

In-person and online: 9:30 AM AEDT Thursday 27 February 2025

Lewis Seminar Room, Room 30, Building WO38, UNE School of Law

In this seminar presented by Professor Mark Nolan, in the wake of a recent spate of anti-Semitic attacks in Australia, the Federal Opposition announced on 20 Jan 2025 a willingness, if elected at the next Federal election, to introduce mandatory sentences for anti-Semitic acts.  What we know to date about three specific proposals announced by Peter Dutton and colleagues for legislative reform will be analysed. Three possible reactions to these announced proposals will be discussed. Firstly, if the proposal of a mandatory minimum term of 6 years imprisonment for all acts of terrorism as announced by the Opposition were enacted once in office, what could be the (un)intended consequence on the actual length of minimum terms served before potential release when compared with what he have seen in past federal sentences for terrorism offences which already include mandatory minimum terms. Secondly, how well a fit, anyway, are mandatory minimum terms or mandatory sentencing with Australian sentencing principles of individualised justice, judicial discretion and judicial independence in Australia? Thirdly, is there a reluctance legislate for and prosecute extremist acts of anti-Semitism as terrorism? Could this related to existing legal definitions of terrorist acts as currently being reviewed by the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor? Does any reluctance mean that prosecution for hate crime, and not for terrorism, is less appropriate? Does it treat violent anti-Semites differently to other convicted terrorists, both pre- and post- arrest, trial, and conviction, for example, subjecting one but not both to existing regimes of post-sentence detention and monitoring. Consideration of these reactions may suggest that the announced possible reforms may hinder offender rehabilitation and disengagement, especially for young offenders, when judged from the perspective of legal psychological understandings of pathways in and out of extremism.

Professor Mark Nolan is an interdisciplinary scholar in law and psychology, with additional training in Asian Studies. He holds a doctorate in social psychology, a law degree, and a Master’s in Asia Pacific Studies from ANU. From 2002 to 2020, he worked at the ANU College of Law, where he held various leadership roles before becoming a Professor.

In 2020, Mark was appointed Director of the Centre for Law and Justice at Charles Sturt University, overseeing campuses in Canberra, Bathurst, and Port Macquarie. He also began his ongoing role as Editor-in-Chief of Psychiatry, Psychology and Law. Active in the Council of Australian Law Deans (CALD), he co-chaired the First Peoples Partnership in 2024, working to embed Indigenous content in Australian law degrees and supporting First Nations students and staff. He collaborated with Wiradyuri Elders-in-Residence and co-organised the 2024 Dhuluny Conference, marking the bicentenary of the martial law declaration against First Nations people.

Honoured to deliver the first UNE Kirby Lecture in 2025, Mark hosted Michael Kirby and Johan van Vloten at Charles Sturt in 2024, where Kirby gave public addresses and received an Honorary Doctorate. After concluding his term as Director in December 2024, Mark returned to teaching and research in criminal law, criminology, legal psychology, and counter-terrorism at Charles Sturt. He has contributed extensively to law reform, providing research to parliamentary and law reform bodies, including the Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security and the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

The second edition of Legal Psychology in Australia (Thompson Reuters Lawbook), co-authored by Mark, is set for release in 2026.

Professor Jonathan Crowe, Head of School and Dean, School of Law and Justice at the University of Southern Queensland.

In-person and online: 12:00 PM AEST Thursday 30 April 2025

Lewis Seminar Room, Room 30, Building WO38, UNE School of Law

Register for the Zoom webinar

Climate change is a defining moral challenge of our time. Moral traditions must respond to this challenge to remain relevant. This paper considers how the natural law tradition might do so. I argue that natural law ethics and political theory affords a rich and versatile framework for responding to social challenges such as climate change. It provides a robust explanation for why we have a duty to combat climate change in our individual lives and through our communities. Natural law theorists may differ on whether the scope of natural law ethics is restricted to human goods or should be expanded to recognise the goods of other natural entities, but they can nonetheless converge on the conclusion that damage to the natural environment is a serious harm demanding a moral response. The notion of the common good provides a framework for explaining how and why people should do their part for this objective.

Jonathan Crowe is Head of School and Dean of the School of Law and Justice at the University of Southern Queensland, where he also holds a Research Chair in Law and Justice. He previously taught at Bond University and the University of Queensland and has held visiting positions at Georgetown University and the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author or editor of eleven books and more than 120 book chapters and journal articles.