After distinguished records of public service, intellectual leadership and scholarly excellence, marked especially by collegiality and mentorship of immense generosity, UNSW Professors Andrew Byrnes and Andrea Durbach are taking up emeritus appointments and moving into new phases of their careers.
In celebration and appreciation of these remarkable scholars, the Australian Journal of Human Rights is inviting submissions for a festschrift in their honour.
Contributors writing in English from any part of the world, whether within or beyond the academy, are invited to propose articles, review essays or shorter reflective pieces engaging with any aspect of either Professor Byrnes’ or Professor Durbach’s respective scholarly, advocacy or pedagogic work.
Contributors should feel free to address any aspect of their legacies, and the following brief list of possible topics is intended to be indicative and not exhaustive, but possible contributions might engage with their work on: international law; national bills of rights and human rights; particular human rights issues such as the rights of women, persons with disabilities or of older people; public interest litigation; race/systemic racism, and reparations; Indigenous Australians; transitional justice and informal justice (e.g., people’s tribunals); and, institutional responses to sexual harassment and sexual violence.
Alternatively, contributors may wish to engage with Professor Byrnes’ or Professor Durbach’s many institutional contributions and explore what may be learned from their ongoing work about the university and the legal profession including their significant expertise and role in mentoring students and early career academics.
Abstracts of up to 300 words should be submitted by 31 January 2021. Decisions on whether authors will be encouraged to develop their abstract into a full submission will be communicated to authors by mid-February 2021. Final papers – articles of 7,000-10,000 words, review essays of 1,000-2,000, or reflections of 1,500-3,000 words – will be due by 30 June 2021.
The editors of the special issue are investigating the possibility of holding a conference in June 2021 at UNSW so that authors can present and receive feedback on their late stage drafts in time for submission by the 30 June deadline. At this stage, details about whether the event will be in-person or virtual (or a combination) remain to be confirmed.
Instructions for authors are available here. It is anticipated that the festschrift will be published as Issue 3 of Volume 27 of the Australian Journal of Human Rights in November 2021.
We are keen to involve a broad range of participation from the very senior to the emergent. To that end, we particularly want to encourage the work of junior and early career scholars, PhD scholars, those scholars working outside the academy and those scholars systematically un- and underrepresented within it.
Questions arising from this call for papers may be directed to any one of the Guest Editors: Ben Golder (b.golder@unsw.edu), Anna Hush (a.hush@unsw.edu.au), Fleur Johns (fleur.johns@unsw.edu.au), Regina Jefferies (r.jefferies@unsw.edu.au) and Justine Nolan (justine.nolan@unsw.edu.au).