In our season finale, our 'big idea’ is ‘THE CONSTITUTION’: Joshua and Ryan offer a cruel and unusual discussion of constitutional change, foreign powers, the role of “random” unelected judges, and apologise to our French and Tasmanian listeners. 

Our reading for this week:

The 8th Amendment

Sue v Hill (1999)

Breyer and Scalia on Judicial Interpretation
 

Learn more about ANU Law here. Our thanks to the ANU College of Law and the ANU Centre for Learning and Teaching. The ANU acknowledges and celebrates the First Australians on whose traditional lands we meet, and pays our respect to elders past and present. 

This week’s ‘big idea’ is ‘SOVEREIGNTY’: Joshua and Ryan discuss Churchill, Guantanamo Bay, and Australian history.
Our reading for this week:

Churchill’s 'Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat' speech

Carl Schmitt in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
“Even two world wars could not stop Australians casting their ballots, whether at home or on the battlefield” (Australian War Memorial)

Learn more about ANU Law here. Our thanks to the ANU College of Law and the ANU Centre for Learning and Teaching. The ANU acknowledges and celebrates the First Australians on whose traditional lands we meet, and pays our respect to elders past and present. 

This week’s ‘big idea’ is ‘DEMOCRACY’: Joshua and Ryan discuss Ancient Athenian hillsides, marketing scams, Hare Clark with a Robson Rotation, and why Joshua doesn’t trust his neighbours. Our reading for this week:

The Gettysburg Address (1863) | Constitution Center (Lincoln)

How is the UK’s Brexit referendum different from Australian referendums? (Goss)

The Tally Room podcast (Raue)

Learn more about ANU Law here. Our thanks to the ANU College of Law and the ANU Centre for Learning and Teaching. The ANU acknowledges and celebrates the First Australians on whose traditional lands we meet, and pays our respect to elders past and present. 

This week’s ‘big idea’ is ‘The State’: Joshua and Ryan talk about mutual protection, whether states need territory, who is on the other side of the breathalyser, and what the French have to learn from giant sea monsters.

Our reading for this week:

Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan

Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State, and Utopia

Leviathan (Wikipedia)

Learn more about ANU Law here. Our thanks to the ANU College of Law and the ANU Centre for Learning and Teaching. The ANU acknowledges and celebrates the First Australians on whose traditional lands we meet, and pays our respect to elders past and present. 

This week’s ‘big idea’ is ‘The Rule of Law’: Joshua and Ryan thinking about chickens and ducks, the laws of cricket, and the mafia; and Joshua offers a few gratuitous reflections on the French.

Further reading for this week:

• Waldron on the rule of law
• Lisa Burton Crawford on the rule of law
• Lon Fuller on King Rex
• Remembering Prof Gardner (1965-2019)

Learn more about ANU Law here. Our thanks to the ANU College of Law and the ANU Centre for Learning and Teaching. The ANU acknowledges and celebrates the First Australians on whose traditional lands we meet, and pays our respect to elders past and present. 

Secondary Rules returns for a new season! This week, our ‘big idea’ is ‘The People’: Joshua and Ryan thinking about revolutions in France, the US and beyond; why it’s a bad idea to make big decisions on an empty stomach; and how everything comes back to the Parting of the Red Sea.

For more, check out:

Hannah Arendt (1963) 

Independence National Historic Park, Pennsylvania 

Learn more about ANU Law here. Our thanks to the ANU College of Law and the ANU Centre for Learning and Teaching. The ANU acknowledges and celebrates the First Australians on whose traditional lands we meet, and pays our respect to elders past and present. 

Here’s the long-awaited trailer for the third season of ANU Law’s Secondary Rules podcast — coming soon!

Make sure you’re following or subscribed so you get the new episodes as soon as they land. Catch up on our back catalogue at https://secondary-rules.simplecast.com

Secondary Rules is hosted by ANU Law's Joshua Neoh and Ryan Goss. Learn more about ANU Law here. Our thanks to the ANU College of Law and the ANU Centre for Learning and Teaching. The ANU acknowledges and celebrates the First Australians on whose traditional lands we meet, and pays our respect to elders past and present. 

How a conversation at James Cook University led to the most momentous decision in Australian legal history.

• Read the judgment
• Watch the movie (only accessible via ABC iView in Australia)
• Read an interview with Mabo counsel, Ron Castan

Learn more about the ANU College of Law here. Our thanks to the ANU College of Law Marketing and Communications team. ANU acknowledges and celebrates the First Australians on whose traditional lands we meet, and pays our respect to elders past and present. 

Water under the bridge, and judges kissing babies, in this episode of Secondary Rules. What business do Courts have thinking about socio-economic rights? Can a Constitution transform a society, and can litigation safeguard a democracy? All this and more as we consider the right to water in the Constitutional Court of South Africa.

• Mazibuko  v City of Johannesburg [2009] ZACC 28
• Constitution of the Republic of South Africa(1996)
• Couzens, ‘Avoiding Mazibuko’(2016)
• Dugard and Mohlakoana ‘More work for women : a rights-based analysis of women's access to basic services in South Africa’(2009)

Learn more about the ANU College of Law here. Our thanks to the ANU College of Law Marketing and Communications team. ANU acknowledges and celebrates the First Australians on whose traditional lands we meet, and pays our respect to elders past and present. 

The trial that changed the world. A Jewish rabble-rouser came face-to-face with a provincial Roman governor. He was hanged. But his death was not the end. It was just the beginning. Spikenard not included.

• For a cosmic interpretation, see Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ (2004).
• For a comic interpretation, see Monty Python’s Life of Brian(1979).

Learn more about the ANU College of Law here. Our thanks to the ANU College of Law Marketing and Communications team. ANU acknowledges and celebrates the First Australians on whose traditional lands we meet, and pays our respect to elders past and present.