2025 Peter Brett Memorial Lecture

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Melbourne Law School

Climate protest, political dissent and the criminal law: The rise and fall (and rise again) of conspiracy

MLS Building, Woodward Conference Centre, Level 10

Free Public Lectures at the Melbourne Law School

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Please join us after the lecture for canapes and refreshments from 7pm - 8pm. <h3>2025 Peter Brett Memorial Lecture</h3> Climate protest, political dissent and the criminal law: The rise and fall (and rise again) of conspiracyA notable feature in the prosecutions of climate protesters across many common law jurisdictions is use of charges of conspiracy. These charges are used in conjunction with other offences, such as public nuisance or blocking critical infrastructure, and expose those convicted to severe penalties.In this lecture, Professor Lindsay Farmer will raise questions about the contemporary use of conspiracy law. First, he will look at the history of conspiracy, as English laws were routinely deployed to outlaw political dissent across the British empire. As the empire broke up, conspiracy laws survived almost untouched into the penal codes of the post-colonies, including Australia, to be used against new generations of radicals and dissenters. Second, Professor Farmer will look at how conspiracy law is being used now to see how this alternative genealogy can help us to understand contemporary developments. Finally, we will return to the use of conspiracy law against climate protestors to ask how we should respond to the deployment of conspiracy laws in legal or political terms.

<h3>About the presenter</h3> Lindsay Farmer is a Professor of Law at the University of Glasgow (Scotland). He has written extensively on the history and theory of the criminal law. His publications include Making the Modern Criminal Law. Criminalisation and Civil Order (2016) and (with Chloë Kennedy) Leading Works in Criminal Law (2024). He is Vice-President (Publications and Conferences) of the British Academy and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Image source (banner): Rush, Peter. XR Spring Rebellion, Brunswick Street, Fitzroy. 13 October 2019

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