Professor Desmond Manderson
Areas of expertise
- Law 1801
- Legal Theory, Jurisprudence And Legal Interpretation 180122
- Law And Society 180119
- Poststructuralism 220317
- Literary Studies 2005
- Historical Studies Not Elsewhere Classified 210399
- Cultural Studies 2002
- Art Theory And Criticism 1901
Research interests
I undertake research across interdisciplinary studies in law and the humanities. I have been instrumental in developing a more sophisticated and ambitious conversation about law and culture, with a particular focus on questions of authority and legitimacy; justice, law and ethics; rules, interpretations, and judgment. And I have been in the forefront of expanding the field’s objects of study to encompass music, art, and popular culture. These interdisciplinary connections offer new imagination and insights into our thinking about law and justice.
Through this framework I have researched in a very wide variety of areas, including drug policy, music history, children’s literature, popular culture, animals, the ‘war on terror,’ tort law, refugees, and Indigenous peoples; and my theoretical work including articles on Derrida, Bourdieu, Butler, Foucault, Levinas, and Bakhtin has contributed to legal and social theory, legal education, aesthetics, ethical philosophy and legal history. My research uses detailed interdisciplinary case studies that often bring together surprising elements—a story, a legal problem, and a theoretical perspective, for example—in order to show how each facet illuminates the others. This scholarship has been pioneering both in its influence and in its restlessness. Yet beneath its diversity my work has consistently built new bridges and opened new dialogues in three dimensions: across disciplines; between critical theory and law; and with the wider community.
My current research interests include Bakhtin and Bourdieu, legal history and modernism in the early twentieth century (particularly through the work of DH Lawrence and Carl Schmitt), the rule of law, and the relationship between art and concepts of law and justice. My principal research project is The Sight of Justice: Art and the Rule of Law (see below).
Biography
Professor Desmond Manderson is an international leader in interdisciplinary scholarship in law and the humanities. He is the author of several books including From Mr Sin to Mr Big (1993); Songs Without Music: Aesthetic dimensions of law and justice (2000); Proximity, Levinas, and the Soul of Law (2006); and Kangaroo Courts and the Rule of Law—The legacy of modernism (2012). His work has led to essays, books, and lectures around the world in the fields of English literature, philosophy, ethics, history, cultural studies, music, human geography, and anthropology, as well as in law and legal theory. Throughout this work Manderson has articulated a vision in which law's connection to these humanist disciplines is critical to its functioning, its justice, and its social relevance. After ten years at McGill University in Montreal, where he held the Canada Research Chair in Law and Discourse, and was founding Director of the Institute for the Public Life of Arts and Ideas, he returned to Australia to take up a Future Fellowship in the colleges of law and the humanities at ANU.
Researcher's projects
Kangaroo Courts and the Rule of Law--The legacy of modernism explores the continuing legacy of modernism for the rule of law, the nature of legal judgment, and the relationship of law and literature. The research takes as its starting point the modernist movement and the intellectual crisis at the end of the first world war, addressing in particular modernist art and literature and connecting the work of D.H. Lawrence to contemporaries including Carl Schmitt and Mikhail Bakhtin. Manderson argues that in Lawrence we can trace the emergence of a modernist theory of law and justice which rejects both the positivist and romantic ideologies it confronted—and that we still face—and offers ‘a way forward, not a way round or a way back’. The research draws on sources in history, art, literature, law, and philosophy, showing their relationship and relevance to legal ideas and steadily weaving new ways of understanding legal judgment, of connecting literature and the humanities to the law, and of imagining the rule of law itself.
The Sight of Justice: Images and the Rule of Law will study the history, emergence, and modern debates around the rule of law through images. The rule of law is a critical set of ideas at the heart of global issues of legality and justice. Art and images have always been fundamental elements in the depiction, mediation, and transformation of public life. Bringing together these two research areas that have much to learn from each other, and yet have remained strikingly apart, the study aims to throw new light on the emergence and evolution of the rule of law, and on key issues and tensions within it. The project defends the role of the humanities in the study of law. It sets out a vision of the rule of law as part of the cultural and ethical discourse of society, invites a cross-cultural dialogue on law in new terms, and creates imaginative new avenues for social engagement with legal issues.
Publications
- Crawley, K & Manderson, D 2018, 'The Confessor: Oprah Winfrey, James Frey and the Spectacular Logic of Contemporary Confession', in Timothy D Peters and Karen Crawley (ed.), Envisioning Legality: Law, Culture and Representation, Routledge, London, London United Kingdom, pp. 161-180.
- Manderson, D, ed., 2018, Law and the visual: representations, technologies and critique, University of Toronto Press, Candada.
- Manderson, D 2018, 'Introduction: Imaginal Law', in Desmond Manderson (ed.), Law and the Visual: representations, technologies and critique, University of Toronto Press, Candada, pp. 3-20.
- Manderson, D 2018, 'Blindness Visible: Law, Time, and Bruegel's Justice', in Desmond Manderson (ed.), Law and the Visual: representations, technologies and critique, University of Toronto Press, Candada, pp. 23-50.
- Manderson, D 2018, 'Here and Now: From "Aestheticizing Politics" to "Politicizing Art"', in Mark Antaki, Stefan Huygenbaert, Angela Condello, Sarah Marusek (ed.), Sensing the Nation’s Law: Historical Inquiries into the Aesthetics of Democratic Legitimacy, Springer International Publishing, New York USA, pp. 175-190.
- Manderson, D 2017, 'Chronotopes in the scopic regime of sovereignty', Visual Studies, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 167-177.
- Manderson, D 2016, Klimt's Jurisprudence - Homo Sacer and the Body, pp. 29-32pp.
- Manderson, D & Martinez, C 2016, 'Justice and Art, Face to Face', Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities, vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 241-263.
- Manderson, D 2016, 'Here and Now: From 'Aestheticizing Politics' to 'Politicizing Art'', No foundations: an interdisciplinary journal of law and justice, vol. 13, pp. 1-16.
- Manderson, D 2016, 'The Other 1215', Magna Carta 800 Symposium, ed. Paula Waring, APH_Australian Parliament House_Parliamentary Services, Parliament House, Canberra, pp. 63-74pp.
- Manderson, D 2016, 'Athena's Way: The Jurisprudence of the Oresteia', Law, Culture and the Humanities, vol. 12, pp. 1-24.
- Manderson, D 2016, 'Not Drowning, Waving: Images, History, and the Representation of Asylum Seekers', in Marianne Dickie, Dorota Gozdecka and Sudrishti Reich (ed.), Unintended consequences - the impact of migration law and policy, ANU Press, Canberra, Australia, pp. 159-173.
- Manderson, D & Yachnin, P 2016, 'Treating HPHD disorder—Shakespeare, law, and public life', Cogent Arts & Humanities, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 1-7pp.
- Manderson, D 2015, Royal commissioner Justice Dyson Heydon 'must hold himself to the highest possible standards'.
- Manderson, D 2015, Citizenship bill's harmful consequences already apparent.
- Manderson, D 2015, Quietly un-signing the Magna Carta.
- Manderson, D 2015, The real vigilantes are in the Abbott government.
- Manderson, D 2015, Little things like 2000 returned letters magnify contempt for human rights.
- Manderson, D 2015, 'Klimt's Jurisprudence-Sovereign Violence and the Rule of Law', Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, vol. 35, no. 3, pp. 515-542.
- Manderson, D 2015, 'Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder', in R Janda, R Jukier, D Jutras (ed.), The Unbounded Level of the Mind: Rod Macdonald's Legal Imagination, McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal and Kingston, pp. 223-233.
- Manderson, D 2015, Malice in Wonderland, pp. 21-23.
- Manderson, D 2015, 'Bodies in the Water: On Reading Images More Sensibly', Law and Literature, vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 279-293.
- Manderson, D & van Rijswijk, H 2015, 'Introduction to Littoral Readings: Representations of Land and Sea in Law, Literature, and Geography', Law and Literature, vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 167-177.
- Manderson, D 2015, 'LITERATURE IN LAW - JUDICIAL METHOD, EPISTEMOLOGY, STRATEGY, AND DOCTRINE', University of New South Wales Law Journal, vol. 38, no. 4, pp. 1300-1315.
- Manderson, D 2015, 'The Metastases of Myth: Legal Images as Transitional Phenomena', Law and Critique, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 207-223.
- Manderson, D 2014, Cardinal George Pell just doesn't get it with child abuse, pp. 2pp.
- Manderson, D 2014, 'Like men possessed: what are illicit drug laws really for?', The Conversation, pp. 1-5.
- Manderson, D 2014, 'Towards Law and Music: Sara Ramshaw, Justice as Improvisation: The Law of the Extempore (Oxford: Routledge, 2013)', Law and Critique, vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 311-317.
- Manderson, D 2014, 'AD 2014: A Review of Eve Darian-Smith, Laws and Societies in Global Contexts-Contemporary Approaches (Cambridge University Press, 2013)', Law and Humanities, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 77-87.
- Manderson, D 2014, 'Memory and Echo: Pop cult, hi tech and the irony of tradition', in C Davies, S L Knox (ed.), Cultural Studies of Law, Routledge, London, pp. 11-29.
- Manderson, D 2014, 'Prelude: senses and symbols in aesthetic experience, Legal Theory and the Humanities', in M Del Mar, P Goodrich (ed.), Legal Theory and the Humanities Volume V, Ashgate Publishing Ltd., Farnham, UK and Burlington, VT, USA, pp. 451-483.
- Manderson, D 2013, Wave the regulatory wand but brace for a bad spell, pp. 2pp.
- Manderson, D 2013, Stop the Boats? Change Tack, pp. 2pp.
- Manderson, D 2008, 'Response: 'and it really was a kitten, after all'', Australian Journal of Legal Philosophy, vol. 33, pp. 173-178.
- Manderson, D 2008, 'Semiotics and law', in Peter Cane and Joanne Conaghan (ed.), New Oxford Companion to Law, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 1071-1072.
- Manderson, D 2007, 'La Gourmandise Leftovers: The End of Private Law', in Veronique Fortin, Myriam Jezequel & Nicholas Kasirer (ed.), Les sept peches capitaux et le droit civil, Les Éditions Thémis , Montreal.
- Manderson, D 2000, Songs without Music: Aesthetic Dimensions of Law and Justice, University of California Press, Berkely California.
- Manderson, D 2013, 'MEMORY AND ECHO Pop cult, hi tech and the irony of tradition', Cultural Studies, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 11-29.
- Manderson, D 2013, 'Judgment in law and the humanities', Revista Forumul Judecatorilor, vol. 1, pp. 43-62.
- Manderson, D 2013, 'Bodies in the Water', Art Monthly Australia (AMA), vol. 264, pp. 9-12.
- Manderson, D 2013, 'Kangaroo Courts and The Rule of Law. The Legacy of Modernism', EunomÃa: Revista en Cultura de la Legalidad, vol. 5, pp. 296-300.
- Manderson, D 2013, 'Beyond the magic bullet: Why the asylum-seeker problem is like the drug problem', in Bob Douglas and Jo Wodak (ed.), Refugees and asylum seekers: Finding a better way, Australia21 Limited, Australia, pp. 80-84.
- Manderson, D 2013, 'Groundhog Day: Why the asylum problem is like the drug problem', Griffith Review, no. 41, pp. 84-110.
- Manderson, D 2016, 'Making a Point and Making a Noise: A Punk Prayer', Law, Culture and the Humanities, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 17-28.
- Manderson, D 2013, 'From Zero Tolerance to Harm Reduction: The 'Asylum Problem Problem'', Refugee Survey Quarterly, vol. 32, no. 4, pp. 1-21.
- Manderson, D 2013, Allowing Guns in National Parks A Sign of Policy Poverty, pp. 1pp.
- Manderson, D 2013, Medical marijuana a sensible step back from past paranoia, pp. 2pp.
- Manderson, D 2012, 'FOREWORD SOCIAL INJUSTICE', University of New South Wales Law Journal, vol. 35, no. 2, pp. 408-416.
- Manderson, D 2012, 'The Law of the Image and the Image of the Law: Colonial Representations of the Rule of Law', New York Law School Law Review, vol. 57, no. 2012/13, pp. 153-168.
- Manderson, D 2012, 'Modernism, Polarity, and the Rule of Law', Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities, vol. 24, pp. 475-505.
- Manderson, D 2012, 'Law, Ethics and the Unbounded Duty of Care', in Scott Davidson and Diane Perpich (ed.), Totality and Infinity at 50, Duquesne University Press, Pittsburgh, USA, pp. 153-170.
- Manderson, D 2012, Kangaroo Courts and the Rule of Law - the Legacy of Modernism, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK.
- Manderson, D 2012, Crocodile Tears: the arrogant paternalism of Stronger Futures, pp. 24-26.
- Manderson, D 2012, 'Crocodile Tears', Indigenous Law Bulletin, vol. 7, no. 30, pp. 8-11.
- Manderson, D 2012, 'Between the Nihilism of the Young and the Positivism of the Old - Justice and the Novel in D.H. Lawrence', Law and Humanities, vol. 5.
- Manderson, D 2012, 'Mikhail Bakhtin and the Field of Law and Literature', Law, Culture and the Humanities, vol. 8.
- Manderson, D 2011, 'Possessed: The Unconscious Law of Drugs', in Suzanne Fraser and David Moore (ed.), The Drug Effect: Health, crime and society, Cambridge University Press, New York USA, pp. 225-239.
- Manderson, D 2011, 'Trust Us Justice: 24, Popular Culture and the Law', in Austin Sarat (ed.), Imagining Legality: Where Law Meets Popular Culture, University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, pp. 22-52.
- Manderson, D 2011, 'Modernism and the Critique of Law and Literature', The Australian Feminist Law Journal, vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 107-125.
- Manderson, D 2011, 'Governor Arthur's Proclamation: Images of the rule of law', in Oren Ben-Dor (ed.), Law and Art: Justice, Ethics and Aesthetics, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, Abingdon, UK and New York, USA, pp. 288-304.
- Manderson, D 2010, 'Two Turns of the Screw', in Peter Cane (ed.), The Hart-Fuller Debate in the 21st Century, Hart Publishing, UK, pp. 197-217.
- Manderson, D 2010, 'HLA Hart, Lon Fuller and the Ghosts of Legal Interpretation', Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice, vol. 28, pp. 81-110.
- Manderson, D 2010, 'Fission & Fusion: From improvisation to formalism in law and music', Critical Studies in Improvisation (Etudes critiques en improvisation), vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 1-10.
- Manderson, D & Yachnin, P 2010, 'Shakespeare and Judgment: The Renewal of Law and Literature', European Legacy, The, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 195-213.
- Manderson, D 2009, 'Judgment in Law and the Humanities', in Austin Sarat, Matthew Anderson, Cathrine O. Frank (ed.), Law and the Humanities: An Introduction, Cambridge University Press, New York, USA, pp. 496-516.
- Manderson, D 2009, Mosaic: Essays on Levinas and Law, Palgrave Macmillan Ltd, Basingstoke, UK.
- Manderson, D 2008, 'Author's introduction: Legal Theory in Wonderland', Australian Journal of Legal Philosophy, vol. 33, pp. 134-144.
- Yachnin, P, Manderson, D, Goodrich, P et al 2008, 'Not Drowning, Waiving: Responsibility to Others in the Court of Shakespeare', Law, Culture and the Humanities, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 20-69.
- Manderson, D 2008, 'Not Yet: Aboriginal People and the Deferral of the Rule of Law', Arena Journal, vol. 29, no. 30, pp. 219-272.
- Manderson, D 2008, ''As if' - The Court of Shakespeare & the Relationship of Law and Literature', Law, Culture and the Humanities, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 3-19.
- Manderson, D 2008, 'Desert Island Discs (Ten reveries on pedagogy in law and the humanities)', Law and Humanities, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 255-270.
- Manderson, D 2008, 'Desert Island Disks (Ten Reveries in Interdisciplinary Pedagogy)', Public Space: the Journal of Law and Social Justice, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. A1-19pp.
- Turner, S & Manderson, D 2007, 'Socialisation in a space of law: student performativity at 'Coffee House' in a university law faculty', Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, vol. 25, no. 5, pp. 761-782.
- Manderson, D 2006, Proximity, Levinas, and the Soul of Law, McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal, Canada.
- Manderson, D & Turner, S 2006, 'Coffee House: Habitus and Performance Among Law Students', Law and Social Inquiry, vol. 31, no. 3, pp. 649-676.
- Manderson, D 2006, 'Tortologies', Australian Journal of Legal Philosophy, vol. 31, pp. 14-49.
- Manderson, D 2005, 'Possessed: Drug policy, witchcraft and belief', Cultural Studies, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 36-63.
- Manderson, D 2003, 'From Hunger to Love: Myths of the source, interpretation, and constitution of law in children's literature', Law and Literature, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 87-141.
- Manderson, D 2001, 'Apocryphal Jurisprudence', Australian Journal of Legal Philosophy, vol. 26, pp. 27-59.
- Manderson, D 1999, 'Formalism and Narrative in Law and Medicine', Journal of Drug Issues, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 121-134.
- Manderson, D 1999, 'Et Lex Perpetua: Dying Declarations & Mozart's Requiem', Cardozo Law Review, vol. 20, pp. 1621-1647.
- Manderson, D 1999, 'Introduction: Tales from the Crypt - A Metaphor, An Image, A Story', in Desmond Manderson (ed.), Courting Death: The Law of Mortality, Pluto Press, London.
- Manderson, D 1998, 'Symbolism and Racism in Drug History & Policy', Drug and Alcohol Review, vol. 18, pp. 179-186.
- Manderson, D 1998, 'Unutterable Shame/Unuttered Guilt: Semantics, Aporia, & the Possibility of Mabo', Law Text Culture, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 234-244.
- Manderson, D 1997, 'FAQ: Initial Questions about Thesis Supervision in Law', Legal Education Review, vol. 8, pp. 121-140.
Projects and Grants
Grants information is drawn from ARIES. To add or update Projects or Grants information please contact your College Research Office.
- The Sight of Justice: Images and the Rule of Law (Primary Investigator)