The Australian and New Zealand Law and History Society was formed in 1993.  It is an interdisciplinary group of scholars who share an interest in the connnections between law and history.  The society grew out of the annual Law in History Conferences, which have been running since 1982.  Members of the society include historians, lawyers, academics and others interested in the area.  Most of the members live in Australia or New Zealand, but their areas of interest are not confined to the law in those places.

The Society publishes a bulletin twice each year, which contains details of the annual conferences and meetings, and lists publications which members might find interesting. 

If you wish to join the Society, click here.  For the email addresses of the members of the Society's Committee, click here.

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29th Annual Australian and New Zealand Law and History Conference

Conference Theme = Owning the Past: Whose Past? Whose Present?

The use and study of the past is constantly being refashioned and reinterpreted to construct meaning in the present, imparting understandings of a common but chaotic humanity. Because everyone and no one ‘owns’ history, the ownership of historical events and the right to speak of them remains deeply contested. What are the outcomes and practical challenges surrounding the construction of historical consciousness through and about law? Whose past is told and by whom? How does law’s past influence history’s present? And is there any such thing as the orderly evolution of legal ideas? This conference invites papers on the subject of ownership in history and law, and may include contributions on any of several broad themes: the contestation of memory; the ethics of representation and remembrance; the commoditization and consumption of traumatic pasts; transcultural and transgenerational trauma; new technologies of historical documentation; testimony and bearing witness; Indigenous knowledge; identity politics; citizenship; the ethics of reproducing historical narratives; colonialism and hegemony; ‘dark’ tourism and artefacts of law; and new legal imaginings and the contest with the legal past.

This is an interdisciplinary conference and papers are invited from scholars across a broad range of disciplines, as well as chronological and geographical contexts.

13-15 December 2010, Melbourne Austrailia

Abstracts due 1 May 2010

Conference Website Click here