News

Boundless Plains to Share?

Media Release, Tuesday 9 October 2001

Leading scholars and practitioners will take part in a seminar at the University of Melbourne on Thursday to discuss Australia's response to the MV Tampa asylum seekers.

The seminar will explore the legal issues surrounding the Australian Government's response to the MV Tampa asylum seekers and the implications for the future of Australian refugee policy and practice.

The MV Tampa asylum seekers have re-ignited Australia's immigration debate, raised issues of sovereignty and national security, prompted judicial scrutiny of executive action and drawn international criticism to a nation proud of its multicultural heritage and human rights record.

The Rt Hon Malcom Fraser will chair the event that will include presentations from eight speakers (each lasting 20 minutes):

In the Federal Court: A Presentation of the Commonwealth's Arguments;
Access to Justice, Access to Protection - Litigation on behalf of Asylum Seekers;
Constitutionalism, The Rule of Law and the MV Tampa;
Indonesian Perspectives on Asylum Seekers;
Sovereignty over Immigration Control? Australia and its Migration Act 1958;
MV Tampa and the 1951 Refugee Convention: Its Impact and Implications;
The Law of the Sea & the MV Tampa Incident: Location, Location, Location!, and
International Law Aspects of the Tampa Affair: A Legal Twilight Zone.
The seminar, which is being presented by the Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies and the Institute for Comparative and International Law, will be held:

When: Thursday 11 October, 2:00 - 6:15pm

Where: Laby Theatre, Ground Floor, School of Physics The University of Melbourne

Media representatives wishing to attend the seminar should contact Lisa Tickell on (03) 8344 0749.