First 2021 Thematic: ‘Rights Protection amidst COVID-19’

The UNSW Law Journal is currently welcoming submissions for Issue 44(1). The Issue will comprise of both a general component and a thematic component, with articles directed to the theme ‘Rights Protection amidst COVID-19’.

COVID-19 is mounting an unprecedented challenge to the Australian legal system. The virus is of a scale unseen in the last century – since the Spanish Influenza – during which sweeping advancements in technology, science, global politics and globalisation have fundamentally reshaped our legal system. Whilst media coverage and online legal advice are available in abundance, accurate, rigorous and peer reviewed information is scarce. Academic discourse is necessary to ensure the novel legal issues raised by COVID-19 are thoroughly and critically discussed.

Australia, like the rest of the world, faces what Scott Morrison has labelled a ‘twin crisis’ – ‘a crisis on a health front, which is also causing a crisis in the economy’. As the Government rushes to contain and eliminate COVID-19, legal and moral rights face the possibility of being invoked or undermined. Issue 44(1) aims to focus on the accessibility of individual rights and their tension with the broader public’s interests in light of COVID-19.

The submission deadline for the thematic Issue 44(1) is 5 September 2020, with publication of Issue 44(1) set for late March 2021. Articles must be between 7000 and 13 000 words in length (excluding footnotes). The style guide for the Journal is the current edition of the Australian Guide to Legal Citation, as supplemented by the latest edition of the Journal’s ‘Additions’. Please visit our submissions page here for further submissions guidelines and to submit.

If you have any queries about submitting for Issue 44(1), please contact the Journal at law.journal@unsw.edu.au.