International Law

This week on Thursday 1 May I'll be participating in a Roundtable Seminar on Reforming the Constitution at Parliament House in Canberra.  This is the media release:

Committee roundtable to discuss constitutional reform 
Federal-State relations, a constitutional preamble and issues of citizenship will be on the agenda at a roundtable on constitutional reform on Thursday 1 May 2008 at Parliament House, Canberra. 

Chair of the House of Representative?s Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee, Mark Dreyfus QC, said the aim of the roundtable is to explore the current debates surrounding constitutional reform.

?The need for reform of the Australian Constitution is a persistent theme in academic, political and public debate, and some good ideas were produced by the governance group at the 2020 summit last weekend,? Mr Dreyfus said. ?The Committee is hoping to build on some of these ideas through the roundtable, giving us a clearer idea on areas in which change is feasible in the near future?.

Issues to be discussed on the day include:

• the process for amending the constitution;
• election terms and qualifications of parliamentarians;
• federal-state relations in relation to constitutional powers; and
• the inclusion of a constitutional preamble.

As well as the Committee Members, participants will include Professor Larissa Behrendt, Peter Black, Professor Tony Blackshield, Professor Hilary Charlesworth, Professor Greg Craven, Professor David Flint AM, Peter Hanks QC, Professor Michael Lavarch, Professor Kim Rubenstein, Professor Cheryl Saunders, Ms Khatija Thomas, Ms Anne Twomey, Professor George Williams, and Professor Leslie Zines.

The roundtable will be held in Committee Room 1R4, 1st floor, Parliament House, Canberra on Thursday 1 May 2008 from 9.00am - 5.05pm.

Members of the public are welcome to attend the roundtable discussions, or listen to the broadcast on FM 97.1 in Parliament House, and via webcast on the APH website: http://webcast.aph.gov.au/livebroadcasting/

More details, including the Roundtable program and the focus questions that will be guide the discussion, is available here.  If you have any thoughts on these issues or the focus questions, let me know by leaving a comment or send me an email: p2.black@qut.edu.au.