GLSA Lunch Hour with Professor James Hathaway

Doug Porteous
Volume 3, Issue 9, (Originally Published on Monday 6 May 2013)
 
On Monday, 29 April the GLSA held a lunchtime discussion with Professor James Hathaway, international refugee and human rights lawyer and former Dean of the Melbourne Law School.
 
The discussion covered legal aspects of refugee and human rights law, including non-refoulement, non-discrimination and process obligations, as well as the Australian approach to ‘boat people’.
 
Professor Hathaway outlined his proposal to handle asylum-seekers: a burden (cost) and responsibility sharing arrangement amongst states that more fairly balances refugee intakes across the developed and developing world.
 
He also presented a compelling view of a progressive kind of conservatism in international law – that the best way of securing rights in international law is to argue gradually from ‘hard’ law rather than from a highly-stated humanitarianism.
 
As the chief instigator of the Melbourne JD model, Professor Hathaway was also interested to hear from students about their experience of the course – Was the postgraduate model worth the wait? Was it fun? Sitting at a heavy-set conference table on the 10th floor with free food and an international law heavyweight, attendees agreed the JD wasn’t all bad.
 
The GLSA’s next event is on Wednesday, 8 May, from 1 – 2 pm, in Room G08. Lieutenant Colonel Dan Mori (Ret.) will present a lecture, ‘Reflections on the War on Terror and the Mainstreaming of Executive Directed Killings’, followed by light refreshments.
 
Doug Porteous