How are race, crime and sovereignty connected? By using the foundational legal fiction of terra nullius as the starting point, this topic proceeds to examine contemporary 'legal fiction' in order to bring into focus a number of politically charged, socio-legal issues in the area of Australian race relations. The mythological meanings surrounding a range of traditional legal concepts such as 'equality before the law', the 'rule of law', 'racial equality' and 'sovereignty' will be examined by situating these legal ideas within the context of debates around the 'refugee crisis', 'ethnic crime'.
We will be examining the increasing racialisation of punishment in civil as well as criminal contexts. These subject areas will be examined through critical and discursive analysis of primary legal texts as well as through social and cultural theory in order to disclose the interconnections between race, crime and sovereignty.
This topic aims to:
Timetable details for 2021 are no longer published.