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Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/
abstract=2766209
EXTENDING PUBLIC LAW: DIGITAL
ENGAGEMENT, EDUCATION AND
ACADEMIC IDENTITY
__________________________________________________________________________
MELISSA CASTAN AND KATE GALLOWAY
I INTRODUCTION
In Australian legal education, ‘public law’ is understood as an
umbrella concept,
1
covering both constitutional and administrative law
subjects. More expansively, public law is understood as the analysis and
evaluation of the state structures of power and control
2
between
governments and their people, and between governments, at both the
formal and substantive levels. Thus ‘public law’ readily accommodates
topics such as statutory construction, human rights, state sovereignty,
electoral law, legal philosophy, and the rule of law. While increasingly
observation is made of the weakening of the traditional distinction
between public and private law, that is probably a discussion best
ventilated elsewhere.
3
For current purposes, the traditional distinction is a
useful point of departure for a more expansive view of public law and
public law teaching – an idea that we seek to develop here.
The expansive view aligns with the broader conceptualisation of the
law curriculum ushered in by the Discipline Standards for Law,
4
while
retaining the law’s doctrinal integrity. The practice of public law
education in this mold requires a more critical and authentic approach,
giving scope for student engagement in the broader contexts of law.
5
Together these approaches represent a more contemporary and potentially
enlivened public law curriculum. The question is how this might be
achieved in a way that cohesively invokes the elements of academic
practice.
Senior Lecturer, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Senior Lecturer, James Cook University, Queensland, Australia
1
Graeme Orr, ‘Teaching Public Law: Content, Context and Coherence’ (2015) 25 Legal
Education Review (forthcoming).
2
Gabrielle Appleby, Alexander Reilly and Laura Grenfell, Australian Public Law
(Oxford, 2nd ed, 2014).
3
Dawn Oliver, Common Values and the Public-Private Divide (Butterworths, 1999) but
see also Darryn Jensen, ‘Keeping Public Law in its Place’ (2014) 33 University of
Queensland Law Journal 285, 285-8. See Orr’s very useful exploration in above n 1.
4
Sally Kift, Mark Israel and Rachael Field, ‘Bachelor of Laws Learning and Teaching
Academic Standards Statement’ (Australian Learning and Teaching Council, 2010).
5
Ibid, Threshold Learning Outcome (‘TLO’) 1.
Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/
abstract=2766209
332 LEGAL EDUCATION REVIEW ______________________________________________________________
In this article we explore the dimensions of digitally-mediated,
collaborative, academic practice in public law. We are interested in the
way in which the pursuit of education in public law reflects the domains
of academic practice. Notably, integral to our understanding of teaching is
broader community engagement and promotion of an ‘educated
citizenry’,
6
conscious of the operation of power within the structures of
the state. We therefore focus on the extent to which we engage diverse
audiences: colleagues in the academy and the profession, our students and
the general public.
7
As communicators of law we reflect on our methods
of communication through the prism of digital literacies as a means both
of modelling effective use of digital media and exploring its meaning and
potential in learning public law. This article is part of a wider series that
aims to advance discussion about the utility of social media as a
democratizing form of communication of scholarly work.
8
Accordingly,
this article offers a collaborative auto-ethnographic account,
9
explicitly
exposing how the authors have embraced social media as an extension of
scholarly work in the public law domain.
10
6
It is widely recognised that ‘[k]nowledge has become the currency of the new global
market, and a major determinant in assessing the wealth of nations.’ David T Gamage
and Elliot Mininberg, ‘The Australian and American Higher Education: Key Issues of
the First Decade of the 21st Century’ (2003) 45(2) Higher Education 183, 184. See also
Angela Brew, ‘Teaching and Research: New Relationships and their Implications for
Inquiry-Based Teaching and Learning in Higher Education’ (2003) 22(1) Higher
Education Research and Development 3. This idea is implicit within the so-called
Bradley Review of Higher Education: Denise Bradley et al, Review of Australian
Higher Education (Australian Government, 2008).
7
Chris Gibson and Leah Gibbs, ‘Social Media Experiments: Scholarly Practice and
Collegiality’ (2013) 3(1) Dialogues in Human Geography 87.
8
Kate Galloway, Kristoffer Greaves and Melissa Castan, ‘Gatecrashing the Research
Paradigm: Effective Integration of Online Technologies in Maximising Research Impact
and Engagement in Legal Education’ (2013) 6 Journal of the Australasian Law
Teachers Association 83; Kate Galloway, Kristoffer Greaves and Melissa Castan,
‘Interconnectedness, Multiplexity and the Global Student: The Role of Blogging and
Micro Blogging in Opening Students’ Horizons’ (2012) 5 Journal of the Australasian
Law Teachers Association 1; Kate Galloway, ‘The Future of Legal Education’, Curl:
Property Law, Women and Law, Contemporary Legal Issues (online), 6 June 2014
<http://katgallow.blogspot.com.au/2014/06/the-future-of-legal-education.html>; Kate
Galloway, ‘Legal Education in a Digital Context’, Curl: Property Law, Women and
Law, Contemporary Legal Issues (online), 15 June 2014
<http://katgallow.blogspot.com.au/2014/06/legal-education-in-digital-context.html>;
Kate Galloway, ‘Steps to Generate (Digitally Enhanced) Change in Legal Education’,
Curl: Property Law, Women and Law, Contemporary Legal Issues (online), 3 July 2014
<http://katgallow.blogspot.com.au/2014/07/steps-to-generate-change-in-legal.html>.
9
Auto-ethnography is ‘a qualitative research method that utilizes data about self and its
context to gain an understanding of the connectivity between self and others within the
same context.’ F Ngunjiri, K Hernandez, and H Chang, ‘Living Autoethnography:
Connecting Life and Research’ (2010) 6(1) Journal of Research Practice [editorial].
10
This discussion of the role of the legal academic is based upon research earlier
published in Galloway, Greaves and Castan, ‘Gatecrashing the Research Paradigm’,
above n 8.
Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/
abstract=2766209
_________________________________________________________________ EXTENDING PUBLIC LAW 333
II THE EXPANDED CONTEXT OF PUBLIC LAW
As the concept or category of ‘public law’ encompasses legal
principles and practices that govern the exercise of power by public
bodies, including parliaments and the executive, we can now expect that
in legal education we encounter public law and public law principles in a
much-expanded context. Wherever we describe, evaluate or critique the
exercise of public power, we are engaging public law concepts such as
sovereignty, rights and liberties, participatory democracy, the rule of law
and separation of power.
11
Public law anticipates judicial review of the
rules of governance,
12
but it is not fixed in its approaches or expressions.
In that context we witness renewed enthusiasm for the mythology of
Magna Carta.
13
It represents the keystone of public law precepts of
transparency, accountability and due process, and renewed expression of
the rule of law.
14
Further, its contemporary iteration has renewed
engagement in common law principles such as the doctrine of legality as
the basis for judicial review.
15
The contemporary iteration of other concepts such as globalisation,
civil society and political community are also part of the expanded
context of public law.
16
Consequently, we undertake public law analysis
when we evaluate issues of participatory democracy such as electoral
laws, the scope of ‘move on’ protest laws, or the validity of ‘law and
order’ developments. Justice Spigelman says that
[p]ublic law is, or should be, primarily concerned with the way the
institutionalised governance system generates power, rather than
focussing, as is often done, on the way in which power is constrained.
Constraints are an inextricable component of the conferral of
governmental power.
17
He goes on to endorse Loughlin’s observation that ‘in this sphere,
constraints on power generate power.’
18
Power is central to public law.
This brings us to the aspects of public law that often seem to motivate
law students (and perhaps some members of the general public): human
rights, civil liberties and the use of law to pursue social justice. All of
these involve the evaluation of constraints on government power, and the
expression of legal rights of the individual or a community. They often
also centre on issues of political debate. Recent contemporary public
11
For instance, see Orr, above n 1, 4-5.
12
See James Spigelman ‘Public Law and the Executive’ (2010) 34 Australian Bar Review
10, 13.
13
The Great Charter has taken on new resonance in this year, its 800th anniversary: Rule
of Law Institute Australia, Magna Carta Committee <http://www.magnacarta.org.au/>.
See also the discussion in David Allen Green, ‘The Myth of Magna Carta’ (16 June
2014) <http://blogs.ft.com/david-allen-green/2014/06/16/the-myth-of-magna-carta/>.
14
Lord Bingham, The Rule of Law (Penguin, 2011), Chapter 1.
15
Dan Meagher, ‘The Principle of Legality in the Age of Rights’ (2011) 35 Melbourne
University Law Review 449.
16
Ashley Crossland, ‘A New Public Law? Australian Constitutionalism in the Age of
Globalisation’ (2001) 24 (3) University of New South Wales Law Journal 817.
17
Spigelman, above n 12.
18
M Loughlin, Foundations of Public Law (Oxford University Press, 2010) 11.
334 LEGAL EDUCATION REVIEW ______________________________________________________________
debates have focused on the proper role of the President of the Australian
Human Rights Commission,
19
the scope of powers of anti-corruption
bodies,
20
the role of Legal Aid funding for community legal centre
advocacy for law reform,
21
and the various models for recognition of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians in the Constitution.
22
These issues go to the heart of our system of democracy. To the extent
that the citizen does not understand them, their participation in public
debate is limited. They are only a few examples of public law issues in
mainstream and online media and public debate, but all have recently
called on the contribution of public law educators to fill in the deficit in
community legal comprehension.
The apparent call for community legal education is, in a way, a call
for support of participatory democracy. It represents an opportunity for us
as public law academics to engage with a constituency beyond our own
student bodies. We have taken up this task as a component of what we see
as an expanded academic role. Moreover, we participate in community
legal education as an expression of public law lawyering, which includes
a strong tradition of public service.
23
We suggest that the role of
community legal education and public service is integral to an expanded
idea of public law teaching.
III THE EXPANDED CONTEXT OF TEACHING
To begin to explain an expanded role for the public law teacher, we
reflect on our own roles as legal educators. We situate our work with
reference to Boyer’s examination of the academic’s role. To better
19
One interesting manifestation of public law discourse was the ‘Open Letter in Support
of the Australian Human Rights Commission’, Castan Centre for Human Rights Law
(16 February 2015) <http://castancentre.com/2015/02/16/2717/>, which was reported in
‘Open letter to PM expresses dismay at personal attacks on HRC president Gillian
Triggs’, ABC News (online), 20 Feb 2015, <http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-
20/open-letter-to-pm-expresses-dismay-at-personal-attacks-triggs/6163918>.
20
Andrew Tiedt, ‘The High Court was Right to Rein in ICAC’, The Guardian (online), 21
April 2015, <http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/apr/21/unfortunately-
for-outraged-journalists-the-high-court-was-right-to-rein-in-icac>; Gabrielle Appleby,
‘High Court Forces ICAC to Drop Cunneen Inquiry and Review Others’, The
Conversation (online), 15 April 2015, <http://theconversation.com/high-court-forces-
icac-to-drop-cunneen-inquiry-and-review-others-40171>.
21
James Farrell, ‘Reversing Legal Aid Cuts Isn’t Enough to Ensure Access to Justice’,
The Conversation (online), 31 March 2015 <http://theconversation.com/reversing-legal-
aid-cuts-isnt-enough-to-ensure-access-to-justice-39463>.
22
Melissa Castan, ‘Explainer: What Indigenous Constitutional Recognition Means’, The
Conversation (online),18 September 2014 <http://theconversation.com/explainer-what-
indigenous-constitutional-recognition-means-31770>.
23
See eg Robert French, ‘Lawyers, Causes and Passion’ (Speech delivered at EDO New
South Wales 30th Anniversary Dinner, Sydney, 25 June 2015)
<http://www.hcourt.gov.au/assets/publications/speeches/current-
justices/frenchcj/frenchcj25June2015.pdf>; Mary Anne Noone and Stephen Tomsen,
‘Service Beyond Self-interest? Australian Lawyers, Legal Aid and Professionalism’
(2001) 8(3) International Journal of the Legal Profession 251; Deborah L Rhode, Pro
Bono in Principle and in Practice: Public Service and the Professions (Stanford
University Press, 2005).
_________________________________________________________________ EXTENDING PUBLIC LAW 335
understand the scope and diversity of the academic’s role Boyer
articulated four layers of scholarship: ‘the scholarship of discovery … of
integration … of application and … of teaching.’
24
Thus academic work
provides a flexible and varied career path for the individual academic,
while meeting the university’s obligation to serve society.
25
Boyer’s work is a useful articulation of the domains of the academic’s
role, and he suggested strategies for recognising each of these domains as
scholarly endeavour.
26
Importantly, his recognition of the ‘mosaic of
talent’ involved in scholarship implicitly acknowledges there will be
differently-skilled individuals within the institution.
27
This implies
perhaps variation in the relative emphasis for a single academic as
between, say, teaching and research activity. But for this discussion, we
see this also as contemplating differential skills in or attitudes towards the
uptake of social media as an integral part of academic practice.
Boyer also acknowledges the development and changes in academic
interests and focus over time as a necessary part of promoting faculty
renewal and, ultimately, creativity within the educational institution.
28
Boyer argued for reformulating notions of what constitutes and is valued
in terms of academic life.
29
This process of reformulation is ongoing, and
evolves with the changing modes and tools of communication. As we
reflect on our own practice, we see Boyer’s articulation of academic
practice as sufficiently flexible to accommodate our own expanding
notion of teaching. Additionally, we consider that our expanded activities
as public law educators fall within his contemplated reformulation of
what is involved in academic life. Our engagement of new audiences and
our use of new communication technologies are examples of how we are
exploring the boundaries of existing concepts of academic work.
Applying this to teaching in particular, we suggest here that within
Boyer’s ‘mosaic of talent’, scholarship of teaching need not be limited to
the classroom of enrolled students. While universities themselves tend to
identify teaching, research and engagement as three domains of academic
practice,
30
increasingly there need be little differentiation between them.
Thus the role of the academic can – and we argue, should – involve
educating an audience far wider than their own class. The ‘qualitative
variations’ will exist from one academic to the next in terms of their own
24
Ernest Boyer, Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate (Carnegie
Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 1990) 16.
25
In the context of the legal academic, see eg Carel Stolker, Rethinking the Law School:
Education, Research, Outreach and Governance (Cambridge, 2014) 263-89. More
generally see Universities Australia, An Agenda for Australian Higher Education 2013-
2016 (2013).
26
Boyer, above n 24, 61.
27
Ibid, 27.
28
Ibid, 43.
29
Ibid, 43, 77.
30
See eg Alexandra Winter, John Wiseman and Bruce Muirhead, ‘University-Community
Engagement in Australia: Practice, Policy and Public Good’ (2006) 1(3) Education,
Citizenship and Social Justice 211. This is illustrated in university plans, eg James Cook
University, University Plan 2013-2017 (2013)
<http://www.jcu.edu.au/about/plan/index.htm>, 3: ‘Core Business: Learning and
Teaching, Research, and Engagement’.
336 LEGAL EDUCATION REVIEW ______________________________________________________________
interpretation of the bounds of any particular sphere of academic practice.
Aligned with our own reflection on the role of the public law academic,
there are reasons particular to the subject matter of the discipline that
demand that we consider an expanded notion of the role of teacher. That
is the premise of this article.
Our own perceptions of the evolution of academic work are informed
also by reformulation of academic work that is taking place through the
disruption caused by digital technologies. Technology is permitting
research – or the building blocks of research – to be fully integrated with
teaching and engagement, generating a seamless academic persona in the
online environment. For those fearful of the erasure of the embodied
academic, the digital footprint can be understood as enhancing and
expanding the academic’s live presence beyond the bounds of the bricks
and mortar institution.
As academics, we are interested in advancing a discussion about the
utility of social media as a democratising form of communication of
scholarly work – in this case, in public law. In our experience digital
technology affords a means by which to synthesise Boyer’s dimensions of
academic work. Social media allows us, as educators in public law, to
serve the public through a blend of discovery, interaction, application and
teaching. In the university’s more prosaic interpretation, in our experience
using social media has enhanced our armoury of tools for publication and
external scrutiny of our work. It also enables us to engage diverse
audiences in our academic work, furthering an educative purpose.
Engagement – or in our framework, public law education as an aspect
of participatory democracy – involves our own direct involvement in a
public law network, or community, which exists far beyond our
geographical location and whose horizon includes our own students and
the public at large. To do this requires understanding what is the right
(digital) tool for the job, and how to use it. This lies at the heart of digital
literacies.
IV DIGITAL LITERACY AND THE RIGHT TOOL FOR THE JOB
Digital literacy is known to be a ‘complex and contested term’
31
that is
difficult to pinpoint. It is regarded however as a ‘condition, not a
threshold’.
32
That means that digital literacy is an enabler of knowing and
doing, rather than an end in itself. For our purposes, digital literacy is
competency in ‘professional, social, cultural and personal communication
31
Cassie Hague, ‘It’s Not Chalk and Talk Any More: School Approaches to Developing
Students’ Digital Literacy’ on FutureLab (2010)
<http://www.futurelab.org.uk/sites/default/files/Digital_participation_strand_1_final_re
port.pdf>, 4.
32
D Bawden, ‘Information Problems, Digital Literacy Solutions’ (Paper presented at the
International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction and Information Services,
Prague, Czech Republic, October 2008) 6, citing A Martin, ‘Literacies for the Digital
Age’ in A Martin and D Madigan (eds), Digital Literacies for Learning (Facet
Publishing, 2006) 3.
_________________________________________________________________ EXTENDING PUBLIC LAW 337
practices appropriately utilising a variety of digital media.’
33
In the
context of academic work, the digitally literate legal educator meets the
conditions enabling communication practices through selection of
appropriate digital media. In our case, we use these professional
communication practices to serve the educational purpose of broad
engagement in public law. These practices enable us to meld ostensibly
separate domains of teaching, research and engagement. Importantly,
through digital media, we are able to give form to our conception of the
public purpose of public law, which we consider to be a pre-condition of
an educated and therefore empowered citizenry.
For the academic seeking to expand their horizon beyond the
classroom, academic digital literacy facilitates the expanded role beyond
traditional means of scholarly communications, namely teaching (to a
room of present people) and peer-reviewed research. As will be argued
here, through the use of blogs and supported by Twitter and Slideshare,
the academic has at their disposal a range of tools that enable effective
and indeed global scholarly communication. Importantly, however, these
are just some of the digital tools available to mediate contemporary
scholarly communication.
Part of the challenge for many academics in building digital literacy is
resistance to digitally mediated scholarship. Within the academy, despite
a growing acceptance of some forms of social media as a scholarly
endeavour, there remains scepticism of digital ‘outputs’ that principally
centre on quality. This largely occurs because social media genres, such
as blogging, are not ‘peer reviewed’ in the way it has been historically
understood.
34
The scholarly quality of an online post is, however, as with
any other resource, largely to be determined through the application of
information literacy. By this we mean ‘the ability to search for, select,
critically evaluate and use information for solving problems in various
contexts.’
35
The first hurdle for the academic encountering non-traditional
scholarly work is to accept the genre as at least potentially viable – and
the potential of digital genres is discussed below.
A Blogging
A blog is an online discussion or information site consisting of
individual articles or ‘posts’; the most recent appears at the front page.
Nearly a decade ago, Australian public law academic and early social
media adopter, Peter Black, provided a comprehensive description of the
evolution and nature of the blog:
33
Kate Galloway, ‘A Rationale and Framework for Digital Literacies in Legal Education’
(forthcoming).
34
For a discussion of online, public commenting as review, see Sabine Hossenfelder,
‘Open Peer Review and its Discontents: Criticism is an Integral Part of Science –
Essential for Progress and Cohesion’ on LSE Impact Blog (23 February 2015)
<http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2015/02/23/open-peer-review-and-its-
discontents/>.
35
Louise Limberg, Olof Sundin and Sanna Talja, ‘Three Theoretical Perspectives on
Information Literacy’ (2012) 11(2) Human IT 93, 96.
338 LEGAL EDUCATION REVIEW ______________________________________________________________
A blog is a website where regular entries are made (such as in a journal or
diary) and presented in reverse chronological order. They often comment
on the news or on a particular subject, such as food, politics, or music.
Some are personal online diaries.
36
With free blogging platforms available to be personalised, blogs now
require little technical expertise; a new one can be established in a couple
of hours.
37
Blogs differ from regular static websites as they allow public
feedback, through ‘comments’, which give authors the ability to build
relations with their readers and with other bloggers. The use of
microblogging (such as Twitter) assists in integrating blogs within social
news streams. Blogs are therefore regarded as social media.
38
The ‘social’ element of social media and the blog’s history of use for
non-scholarly pursuits have probably damaged its reputation as a
legitimate form of scholarly expression.
39
However, despite the contested
worth of blogging, there is a wealth of examples that suggest it to be a
legitimate mode of scholarly communication. The well-regarded LSE
Social Science Impact Blog maintains that
[a] new paradigm of research communications has grown up - one that de-
emphasizes the traditional journals route, and re-prioritizes faster, real-
time academic communication. Blogs play a critical intermediate role.
They link to research reports and articles on the one hand, and they are
linked to from Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr and Google+ news-
streams and communities. So in research terms blogging is quite simply,
one of the most important things that an academic should be doing right
now.
40
Of interest here is the law blog. Peoples points out that (in the United
States context), ‘[b]logs are used by lawyers, scholars, and others who
want to have an impact in judicial decision making.’
41
Both he and
Volokh cite the reach of legal blogging, though in different ways. Volokh
examines the broad intellectual engagement he experiences via his own
posts (the social element of social media),
42
while Peoples has
36
Peter Black, ‘Uses of Blogs in Legal Education’ (2006) 13 JCU Law Review 8. Our
focus here is on public law blogs. There is an online compendium of Australian legal
blogs on Amicae Curiae: Girlfriends of the Court <http:amicaecuriae.com>.
37
See, for example, Wordpress <wordpress.com>. More lately, Medium
<www.medium.com> provides a simplified publishing interface, though not on a unique
web page.
38
For a detailed explanation of blogging and microblogging, see, for example, Galloway,
Greaves and Castan, ‘Interconnectedness, Multiplexity and the Global Student’, above n
8.
39
Asit Biswas and Julian Kirchherr, ‘Citations are Not Enough: Academic Promotion
Panels Must Take Into Account a Scholar’s Presence in Popular Media’ on LSE Social
Science Impact Blog (9 April 2015) <http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/
2015/04/09/academic-promotion-scholars-popular-media/>.
40
See eg ‘Shorter, Better, Faster, Free’ on Writing for Research (11 September 2014)
<https://medium.com/advice-and-help-in-authoring-a-phd-or-non-fiction/shorter-better-
faster-free-fb74bddaec03>. This is part of the LSE Impact of Social Science Blog.
41
Lee F Peoples, ‘The Citation of Blogs in Judicial Opinions’ (2010) 13 Tulane Journal of
Technology & Intellectual Property 39, 40.
42
Eugene Volokh, ‘Scholarship, Blogging and Tradeoffs: On Discovering, Disseminating
and Doing’ (2006) 84 Washington University Law Review 1089.
_________________________________________________________________ EXTENDING PUBLIC LAW 339
‘exhaustively’ examined the extent to which legal blogs are cited in the
United States courts as one facet of the scholarly element.
43
According to
Peoples, law blogs ‘have been heralded as a replacement for law review
case commentary, as a vast amicus brief, and have even been compared
with the Federalist Papers.’
44
In support of Peoples’ contention, Justice Kennedy of the United
States Supreme Court has praised the legal blog, contrasting its utility to
that of law reviews (or journals):
Professors are back in the act with the blogs… The professors within 72
hours have a comment on the court opinion, which is helpful, and they are
beginning to comment on when the certs are granted. And I like that.
45
Apart from a recent overview by Blackham and Williams of
Australian courts’ use of social media,
46
there is little (if any) systematic
review of judicial use of blogs in Australia. The predictions made in the
United States context that law blogs will have a ‘growing influence with
the courts’ is not yet apparent in the Australian context. Perhaps the
experience in Australia reflects Justice Posner’s observation that ‘the web
is an incredible compendium of data and a potentially invaluable resource
for lawyers and judges that is underutilised by them.’
47
Importantly for
this discussion, the potential for the blog – just one aspect of Posner’s
‘incredible compendium’ – lies in the genre itself.
The first observation for the public law academic is that scholarly
public law blogs are written by known experts in this field.
48
The genre
43
Peoples, above n 41. See also J Robert Brown, ‘Law Faculty Blogs and Disruptive
Innovation’ (2012) 2(3) Journal of Law 525. Canadian courts have also started to cite
blogs: see Nate Russell, ‘Law Blogs: The Refuge of Compulsive Exhibitionists No
More’ on The Stream: Courthouse Libraries BC Blog (16 May 2013)
<http://www.courthouselibrary.ca/training/stream/13-05-16/Law_blogs_the_refuge_of_
compulsive_exhibitionists_no_more.aspx>.
44
Peoples, above n 41. References omitted.
45
Kevin O’Keefe, ‘Supreme Court Justice Kennedy on the Value of Law Blogs’ on Kevin
O’Keefe’s Real Lawyers Have Blogs (10 October 2013)
<http://kevin.lexblog.com/2013/10/10/supreme-court-justice-kennedy-on-the-value-of-
law-blogs/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+
KevinOKeefe%2FRealLawyersHaveBlogs+%28Real+Lawyers+Have+Blogs%29>.
46
Alysia Blackham and George Williams, ‘Australian Courts and Social Media’ (2013) 38
(3) Alternative Law Journal 175. See also Judge Judith Gibson ‘Judges, Cyberspace
And Social Media’ on AIJA Speech (4 June 2014) <http://www.aija.org.au/Quick%20
Links/Judges%20and%20Social%20Media%202014.pdf>.
47
Richard Posner, Reflections on Judging (Harvard, 2013) 134.
48
See eg: Cheryl Saunders, ‘Reflections on the Local Government Referendum That
Wasn’t’ on Opinions on High (23 September 2013) <http://blogs.unimelb.edu.au/
opinionsonhigh/2013/09/23/saunders-local-government-referendum>; Sarah Joseph,
‘Ticking Down to a Possible Date with Executioners’ on Castan Centre for Human
Rights Blog (19 January 2015) <http://castancentre.com/2015/01/19/ticking-down-to-a-
possible-date-with-executioners/>; Graham Orr, ‘Can Julian Assange be Elected to
Australia’s Parliament and Can Craig Thompson Stay There?’ on Castan Centre for
Human Rights Blog (5 February 2013) <http://castancentre.com/2013/02/05/can-julian-
assange-be-elected-to-australias-parliament-and-can-craig-thompson-stay-there/>;
Helen Irving, ‘Knocking on the Door of Cabinet? The Shortage of Women in
Australia’s New Government’ on A Woman’s Constitution (24 September 2013)
<http://blogs.usyd.edu.au/womansconstitution/2013/09//knocking_on_the_door_of_cabi
ne.html>; Anne Twomey, ‘Déjà vu: The Commonwealth’s Response to the Williams
340 LEGAL EDUCATION REVIEW ______________________________________________________________
allows for immediate publication, capturing the zeitgeist of any current
issue. For an example of this, see Opinions on High, a multi-author blog
published by the Melbourne Law School.
49
The blog features summaries
of High Court decisions, often on the day they are published, in posts
written by leading scholars in the field. More recently, AusPubLaw has
joined the field, with the aim of providing ‘expert commentary and
analysis on recent cases and legislative change as well as updates on the
latest research and scholarship in Australian public law’.
50
These resources are not necessarily longer, more considered or
targeted analyses, but they do represent an immediate expert source of
information about what must be the key issues in weighty judgments. In
this respect, the genre is a new one that complements the traditional
armoury of journal articles, conferences and books.
Blog posts allow scholars to work through contemporary issues or
ideas as short-form writing. In this sense too, the blog post is a different
genre from the refereed journal. Thinking of the law blog in this way
opens the possibility for its use as a scholarly work, recognizing the
boundaries of the genre itself.
For the educator, free and fast access to scholarly views is a valuable
resource that can effectively be put to educational use – or in Peoples’
analysis, put to work before the court.
51
In this sense, blogs are a
democratic approach to scholarship. The scholarship is not locked in
subscription databases or tied up in lengthy reviewing and publishing
processes, but can instead become immediately accessible to the general
public. O’Keeffe observes that ‘legal commentary has been democratized
with open publishing available to practicing (sic) lawyers. Blogs don’t
have the gatekeepers law reviews do that limit commentary to primarily
law professors and law students.’
52
Additionally, and relevant to the
public law scholar, ‘public legal information is part of the common
heritage … and its access promotes justice and the rule of law.’
53
Thirdly, while not peer reviewed in the generally understood sense,
blogs are in the public domain and therefore subject to considerable
scrutiny, including by one’s peers. When supported by a Twitter account,
the discussion with a broad spectrum of experts and the general public
can be extensive – more so than a journal article. Recent analysis has
identified that some 50 per cent of journal articles are likely to be read
only by the author, editor and reviewer.
54
In contrast, the ‘social’ aspect
Case’ on Constitutional Critique (3 July 2014)
<http://blogs.usyd.edu.au/cru/2014/07/deja_vu_the_commonwealths_resp_1.html>.
49
Melbourne Law School, Opinions On High
<http://blogs.unimelb.edu.au/opinionsonhigh/>.
50
Gilbert and Tobin Centre of Public Law, University of New South Wales, AusPubLaw
<http://auspublaw.org/about/>.
51
Peoples, above n 41.
52
O’Keefe, above n 45.
53
Daniel Poulin, ‘“Free Access to Law” and “Open Data”: Similarities and Differences’
(Paper presented at Austlii Seminars, Sydney, 19 November 2013)
<http://www.austlii.edu.au/austlii/seminars/2013/5_slides.pdf>.
54
Lokman I Meho, ‘The Rise and Rise of Citation Analysis’ (2007) Physics World
<arXiv:physics/0701012>. Furthermore, only 20 per cent of citers are likely to have
_________________________________________________________________ EXTENDING PUBLIC LAW 341
of the online medium is the capacity for comment and further exchange of
ideas. Ideas expressed on a blog are available for discussion, feedback
and instruction with any reader.
Finally, blogs involve direct involvement in a network or community
that exists far beyond any geographical location, but one that also
includes our own students. The genre is a source of law, analysis and
critique for students, modelling discipline thinking
55
on topics that might
be a long way from reaching the journal or the textbook. They break
down the barrier between student (or member of the public) and the
academic, through the ‘comment’ function, further rendering academic
expertise available to the public. In the German constitutional law blog
Verfassungsblog, American academic Jack Balkin writes that ‘blogging is
a way of changing the relations of authority in the public sphere’.
56
In
other words, the medium itself moves beyond simply a mode of
communication, to an act emblematic of the democratising purpose
implicit in the expanded notion of the practice and teaching of public law.
Through the features particular to this medium, blogging integrates the
domains of academic scholarship into a seamless scholarly work. Volokh
calls this ‘discovering, disseminating and doing’ – another version of
Boyer’s domains and representative again of the ‘triad of work on which
academics are evaluated.’
57
Blogs can embody the text of the academic’s
research and reach globally to educate and engage an interested public.
As each blog post is published, the author or the institution publishing
the blog can integrate the post with other social media – for example, by
sending a link out via Twitter. This promotes ‘traffic’ to the blog post and
discussion both on Twitter and via comments on the blog itself, thus
enhancing engagement in the ideas presented, and expanding the
geographic and demographic reach.
read the original paper: M V Simkin and V P Roychowdhury, ‘Read Before You Cite!’
(2003) 14 Complex Systems 269.
55
In this respect it is useful to consider the range of ‘thinking skills’ articulated in the
Discipline Standards for Law. See Kift, Israel and Field, above n 4; Nick James, Good
Practice Guide (Bachelor of Laws) Thinking Skills (ALTC, 2011).
56
Jack Balkin, Hannah Birkenkitter, Maximilian Steinbeis, ‘Focus: Legal Blogging: How?
What for? For Whom?’ on Verfassungsblog (2 June 2014)
<http://www.verfassungsblog.de/en/blogging-way-changing-relations-authority-public-
sphere-interview-professor-jack-balkin-founder-balkinization-2/#VSultBceYwE>.
57
Eugene Volokh, ‘Scholarship, Blogging and Tradeoffs: On Discovering, Disseminating
and Doing’ (2006) 84 Washington University Law Review 1089, 1090. The field of
altmetrics is presently developing means of measuring impact of scholarly blogging and
social media. See eg Jason Priem, Heather A Piwowar and Bradley M Hemminger,
‘Altmetrics in the Wild: Using Social Media to Explore Scholarly Impact’
<arXiv:1203.4745v1> [cs.DL] (20 Mar 2012). As a sign of the increasing relevance of
social media in academia, Altmetrics (the company) announced in 2015 that ‘over 20
world-leading research institutions [were] using its platform’ to measure research
impact., ‘Over 20 Research Institutions Now Using Altmetrics Platform’ on Altmetric
(20 January 2015) <https://www.altmetric.com/pressreleases/altmetric-for-institutions-
adoption.php>.
342 LEGAL EDUCATION REVIEW ______________________________________________________________
B Twitter
Twitter is a form of microblogging: by subscribing to Twitter, the
subscriber can send information in the form of a 140-character message
known as a ‘tweet’. The subscriber can elect to ‘follow’ other accounts,
and others can follow the subscriber.
58
Through following accounts, or
searching the platform on a particular topic, the user can view a ‘stream’
of tweets. Importantly, the user can embed a link in a tweet. The
academic might wish to provide links to published articles either direct or
via a repository,
59
to Amazon to purchase a book, to blogs, or to other
scholarly resources.
There is an active public law community on Twitter, tweeting under
#auslaw, #auscon, #auspublaw and #humanrights. These ‘hashtags’ allow
readers to follow this topic exclusively in addition to (or instead of)
selecting their own list of tweeters. Using hashtags enables a targeted
discussion on public law topics within an interested community,
capitalising on the ‘social’ aspects of social media. In the Australian
public law context, this community includes public law professors such as
Cheryl Saunders, George Williams, Megan Davis, Sarah Joseph and
Graeme Orr,
60
all of whose expertise is readily available via the medium.
We have written previously on the use of Twitter to develop a
community – of scholars, academics, professionals and members of the
public.
61
This community is receptive to reading work published in blogs
and in journal articles. Twitter – whether the academic’s own account or a
Faculty or University account – is an ideal medium for communicating
ideas and research. While Twitter has been described derogatively as an
‘echo chamber’
62
and ‘electronic graffiti’,
63
the medium can be used to
58
For a comprehensive overview of subscribing and functions, see Amy Mollett, Danielle
Moran and Patrick Dunleavy, Using Twitter in University Research, Teaching and
Impact Activities: A Guide for Academics and Researchers (London School of
Economics Public Policy Group, 2011).
59
See eg Galloway, Greaves and Castan, ‘Gatecrashing the Research Paradigm’, above n
8.
60
See @CherylSaunders1, @ProfGWilliams, @Mdavisqlder, @ProfSarahJ,
@Graeme_Orr respectively. There are of course many more.
61
Galloway, Greaves and Castan, ‘Interconnectedness, Multiplexity and the Global
Student’, above n 8. See also James Farrell ‘Social Media for Social Change Lawyers:
An Australian Housing Rights Lawyer’s Experience’ (2013) 20 (2) International
Journal of the Legal Profession 209; Liesel Spencer and Elen Seymor, ‘Reading Law:
Motivating Digital Natives To “Do The Reading”’ (2013) Legal Education Review 177,
193.
62
Jordan Stephen, ‘Warning: This is How Twitter Can Trap You in a Political Echo
Chamber’ (21 November 2014) <http://dcinno.streetwise.co/2014/11/21/twitter-
political-discussions-dangers/>; Chris Kenny, ‘Why the Unbearable Darkness of the
Twitsphere has Made me Quit Twitter’ on The Australian Opinion (22 March 2014)
<http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/why-the-unbearable-darkness-of-
the-twitsphere-has-made-me-quit-twitter/story-fn8qlm5e-1226861618055>; Tom
Westland, ‘The Neverending Echo Chamber of Chris Kenny’s Prolonged Twitter
Farewell Tour’ on Crikey (11 August 2014)
<http://www.crikey.com.au/2014/08/11/the-neverending-echo-chamber-of-chris-
kennys-prolonged-twitter-farewell-tour/>.
_________________________________________________________________ EXTENDING PUBLIC LAW 343
the advantage of an academic wishing to engage in scholarly thinking and
grassroots engagement in contemporary issues, with a broad and
interested audience: in other words, for teaching and research to have
impact beyond the scholarly community of the academic’s institution.
64
That is, after all, the goal of engagement. For the public law academic,
this includes the educative process and a commitment to broad
educational aims.
To illustrate the way in which social media can be used to engage a
broad audience in learning about public law issues, we use two case
studies based on our own experience. In each case, we used our presence
on social media platforms to enter into conversation with a diverse
audience on topical issues. We harnessed our knowledge of legal issues,
disseminated via social media, to promote public understanding of
pressing issues of social justice. These case studies represent an activist
approach to public legal education that serves our broader
conceptualisation of teaching and public engagement. In short, they
showcase an aspect of contemporary scholarly activity.
C ‘Hacking’ the Queensland Election: Case Study
By way of background, the Queensland Electoral Act 1992 was
amended in 2014 to require voters to present identification before
voting.
65
The rationale was stated to be preventing voter fraud, despite an
apparent paucity of evidence as to voter fraud in Queensland.
66
As public lawyers would appreciate, voter identification laws are
known to disenfranchise particular groups, notably the elderly and the
young, people in remote and rural Australia, people with disabilities,
63
Lucy Battersby, ‘Tony Abbott Dismisses Social Media as Electronic Graffiti. Again’,
The Age (online), 26 January 2015 <http://www.theage.com.au/it-pro/government-
it/tony-abbott-dismisses-social-media-as-electronic-graffiti-again-20150126-
12yg26.html>; Collette Snowdon, ‘No Tony Abbott, You Can’t Dismiss Social Media
as Electronic Graffiti’ on The Conversation (28 January 2015)
<http://theconversation.com/no-tony-abbott-you-cant-dismiss-social-media-as-
electronic-graffiti-36819>.
64
Tweets have been cited into Hansard. For example: ‘CHAIR: … I am going to add into
the mix a Tweet from Melissa Castan before I hand over to Mr Waterford. Her Tweet
question is: Williams & Pape cases disturbed the ‘common assumption’. Is it HCA’s
proper role to impose novel constraints on Cth?’. ‘Standing Committee on Social Policy
and Legal Affairs - 20/06/2013 - Constitutional reform’
<http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;adv=yes;orderBy=date-
eFirst;page=0;query=Content%3A%22melissa%20castan%20%22%20Dataset%3Ahans
ardr,hansardr80,hansards,hansards80,estimate,comSen,comJoint,comRep;rec=0;resCou
nt=Default>.
65
Electoral Reform Amendment Bill 2013 (Qld), clause 9.
66
No rationale was offered for the change in, for example, the Attorney-General’s second
reading speech, nor in the recommendations for reform. See Hon Jarrod Bleijie,
Hansard (21 November 2013) 4226-30. There was no debate on the Electoral Reform
Amendment Bill 2013. See also Queensland Government, Electoral Reforms:
Queensland Electoral Review Outcomes (July 2013)
<http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_
Library/pubs/rp/rp1415/VoterID>.
344 LEGAL EDUCATION REVIEW ______________________________________________________________
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians and the homeless.
67
The
laws were criticised by human rights groups, and there was an active
grassroots public education campaign in the lead up to the 2015
Queensland election to ensure voters were informed about their rights.
68
On Twitter, this ran under the hashtags #QldEnroll and #Qldvotes.
Twitter proved to be a useful vehicle for the dissemination of information
about enrolment and voting, through both the grassroots campaign and
blogs such as those of Antony Green, the ABC’s psephologist.
69
The new ID requirements were operational for the Stafford by-
election in 2014, and no problems were reported. However social media
reports on the day of the Queensland election, on 31 January 2015,
indicated state-wide issues with the implementation of the requirements.
By mid-morning on election day, Twitter and Facebook users (including
the authors) were reporting that voters were being turned away for want
of identification: voters were being told to go home and return with ID
before being eligible to vote. However s121 of the Electoral Act 1992
provides for voting by declaration: it is sufficient that the voter declare
their identity to be eligible to vote. According to reports, it appears that at
many booths, electoral workers failed to offer the voter the opportunity to
make a declaration vote.
Not only was Twitter used to report these alleged breaches, but the
platform was used to broadcast the correct legal information. The issue
had become sufficiently widespread that some tweeters started to ‘trend’
nationally towards the close of the polls. (‘Trending’ means that either a
person’s tweets or a hashtag have been so widely shared that they were
among the most shared topics for that time period, nationwide.)
In contrast to the information being shared online, the Queensland
Electoral Commission representative on the evening’s election coverage
67
Human Rights Law Centre, ‘Queensland Passes First Australian Voter ID Laws as
Liberal Party Flags Reforms at National Level’ (22 May 2014)
<http://hrlc.org.au/queensland-passes-first-australian-voter-id-laws-as-liberal-party-
flags-reforms-at-national-level/>. The majority of scholarship in this regard has
occurred in the US. See eg Spencer Overton, ‘Voter Identification’ (2007) 105(4)
Michigan Law Review 631; Samuel Issacharoff, ‘Beyond the Discrimination Model on
Voting’ (2013) 127 Harvard Law Review 95. In the Australian context, see Graeme Orr,
‘Submission to Queensland Parliament Legal Affairs and Community Safety
Committee, Electoral and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2015, Submission 530’
<https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/documents/committees/LACSC/2015/01-
ElectoralOLAB15/submissions/530.pdf>; Paula Gerber, ‘Submission to the Queensland
Legal Affairs and Community Safety Committee on the Electoral Reform Amendment
Bill 2013, Submission 010’
<https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/documents/committees/LACSC/2013/ElectoralRef
orm2013/submissions/010.pdf>.
68
See eg Queensland Association of Independent Legal Services and Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander Legal Service, ‘Submission to the Queensland Parliament Legal
Affairs and Community Safety Committee on the Electoral Reform Amendment Bill
2013’ (21 January 2013); Queensland Association of Independent Legal Services,
Factsheet: You Need to Show ID to Vote at this Election (7 January 2015). For a history
of dissemination of the information, see Kate Galloway, ‘Grassroots Public Law: The
Queensland Election 2015’ on @katgallow Storify
<https://storify.com/katgallow/grassroots-public-law-the-qld-election-2015>.
69
Antony Green’s Election Blog <http://blogs.abc.net.au/antonygreen/>.
_________________________________________________________________ EXTENDING PUBLIC LAW 345
indicated that there were ‘no reports’ of any problems.
70
Subsequently, on
an interview on Brisbane’s 4BC Radio, a representative of the
Queensland Electoral Commission admitted that there had been ‘some
reports’ and that the Commission was investigating.
71
The accounts of voting collected on Twitter have been borne out by
subsequent analysis. Orr, observing a drop in voter turnout at the 2015
Queensland election, has since identified a correlation between electorates
with higher ‘ID-less votes’ and their community demographics – places
remote from metropolitan areas, with a less bureaucratic culture and high
numbers of Indigenous voters.
72
This case study demonstrates that the medium of Twitter can facilitate
grassroots public law engagement. It is a participatory medium that
exemplifies the democratic aims of an expanded public law practice.
Through participation in online networks, the public law academic can
reach out to members of the public, to non-government organisations, to
media and to other experts to share expertise and enact public law
consciousness in the form of community legal education.
This account also shows how the public law academic can reach out to
their students. Not only are students able to engage in the same public
discussion facilitated by the academic, but the academic models for
students one means of public engagement on behalf of the vulnerable.
Through additional social media such as Storify,
73
which enable the
collection of tweets into a story, the academic can provide students with
an authentic account of public law practice.
For the authors, broad engagement with the public on contemporary
public law issues was further demonstrated in the days following the
Prime Minister’s comments about the plans for the forced closure of
remote Aboriginal communities in Western Australia.
D ‘Lifestyle’ Comments: Case Study
For the academic seeking to engage in public debate, the journal
article (and certainly the book) is a slow vehicle. As Liptak quipped, the
journal publication process ‘feel[s] as ancient as telegrams, but slower.’
74
Online media, on the other hand, facilitate nimble engagement in the
public sphere. For example, on more than one occasion, Prime Minister
Abbott has made reference to Australia being ‘unsettled … barely settled’.
A key finding of the leading High Court decision in Mabo v Queensland
was that Australia was a territory that was settled (by the English), but
inhabited.
75
A factually and legally incorrect statement, too much to bear
for the academic lawyer, can be almost instantly corrected through a blog
70
ABC Television, Election Coverage, 31 January 2015.
71
4BC Radio, Drive Program, 6 February 2015 (Ben Davis).
72
Orr, above n 67, 2-4.
73
See <http://www.storify.com>.
74
Adam Liptak, ‘When Rendering Decisions, Judges Are Finding Law Reviews
Irrelevant’, New York Times (New York) 19 March 2007, cited in Peoples, above n 41,
40.
75
Mabo v Queensland (No 2) (1992) 175 CLR 1.
346 LEGAL EDUCATION REVIEW ______________________________________________________________
post
76
and via Twitter.
77
The blog post and Twitter conversations can thus
become useful contextual teaching tools for an audience broader than
enrolled students – in this case, on issues surrounding sovereignty and
land law.
Early in 2015, the Prime Minister again stepped into Indigenous
affairs, endorsing the West Australian government’s proposal to exercise
its power to close remote Aboriginal communities. The Prime Minister
said: ‘What we can’t do is endlessly subsidise lifestyle choices if those
lifestyle choices are not conducive to the kind of full participation in
Australian society that everyone should have.’
78
Interest on Twitter was
intense, and the comment spawned a significant number of opinion pieces
in the mainstream and online media – including internationally. More
particularly, for the public law academic, the statement became a teaching
moment, and the conduit for that, at a grassroots level, was social media.
For those encouraging critical thinking and including Indigenous
perspectives in their teaching, the Prime Minister’s comment is a useful
way of framing a discussion about issues of sovereignty and citizenship –
key elements of public law discourse. The question arises, however, how
best to express the complex history of colonisation that resulted in the
‘lifestyle choices’ comment. Blogs – and their close relation, online
opinion pieces – are one source, but the history is a long one to retell.
In this case, for one of us, the comments were made in the week of
teaching about colonisation in a foundation law subject introducing public
law. Reframing the lecture through the ‘lifestyle choices’ comments
aligned with the zeitgeist in the online environment. The PowerPoint
presentation was updated and shared using the Slideshare tool.
79
By
signing up to Slideshare, an author can share PowerPoint presentations,
including embedding them in learning management systems and blogs,
and by tweeting a link. Slideshare is a medium that lends itself to both
scholarly and populist audiences. In this case, not only did first year
public law students view the presentation, but the Slideshare attracted
over 500 views in the first 24 hours. It was the ‘most talked about
Slideshare on Twitter’ during that time.
80
Since that week, a public
campaign against exclusions of Aboriginal people from their lands has
76
See eg Kate Galloway, ‘Unsettled Great South Land? Umm Indeed’ on Curl: Property
Law, Women and Law, Contemporary Legal Issues (4 July 2014)
<http://katgallow.blogspot.com.au/2014/07/unsettled-great-south-land-um-
indeed.html>.
77
See eg @mdavisqlder (Megan Davis) ‘@PPDaley is right. This is an opportunity for
those confused about unsettled/um scarcely-settled to read Bill Gammage’, 3 July 2014,
9:58pm <https://twitter.com/mdavisunsw/status/484924209466855424>.
78
Myles Morgan, ‘Abbott’s “Lifestyle Choice” Gaffe Shows Ignorance But Let’s Be
More Than Angry’ on SBS (11 March 2015)
<http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2015/03/11/comment-abbotts-lifestyle-choice-
gaffe-shows-ignorance-lets-be-more-angry>.
79
Kate Galloway, ‘Conquest and Colonization: The Challenge for Australia of Sustainable
Governance’ on Slideshare <http://www.slideshare.net/Katgallow/conquest-
colonisation-in-australia>.
80
Email from Slideshare to the author, ‘Hot on Twitter’ (16 March 2015).
_________________________________________________________________ EXTENDING PUBLIC LAW 347
evolved, a number of public rallies have occurred,
81
and widespread
public political debate has ensued.
82
The public law academic in their practice – in the extended sense –
critiques power and the dominant discourse. This example illustrates a
critique of the dominant paradigm of sovereignty and the distribution of
power in a constitutional system. Closely aligned with teaching, and
reflective of ongoing research in the field, the critique in this instance was
more than simply dissemination of scholarly information – although this
did occur. A simple feeding of information to one’s students in the
traditional lecture format is not unlike the ‘banking’ model of education
described (and criticised) by Freire.
83
Instead, the choice of media in this
case allowed for a greatly expanded conceptualisation of education and
scholarship. It was active engagement in public debate, giving immediacy
and authenticity to the educational context. That it spoke to a broad
audience to promote justice and equality through the lens of the law again
models for students the ethical and critical practice of the socially aware
lawyer. Additionally and importantly, it is the democratising medium of
digital technologies that itself destabilises the discourse of power
embedded in our political processes and also often in our academic
practice.
In these two case studies, we have illustrated aspects of our scholarly
engagement of a broad community, extended and enhanced through a
variety of social digital tools, to serve the purpose of grassroots public
law practice.
V CONCLUSION
Despite the division of contemporary academic practice into
ostensibly discrete areas of teaching, research and engagement, Boyer’s
framework recognises the possibility of shifting boundaries and scope for
creative interpretation of the academic’s work. For the authors, the advent
of digital technologies has facilitated a means of mediating these domains,
to draw together elements of academic work into a cohesive and
expanded vision of academic practice.
For the public law academic, this expanded practice comes at the right
time. Far from existing in an ivory tower, our mission as public law
academics exists now in its own expanded context. Not only does this
exist beyond the perceived boundaries of constitutional and
administrative law but also extends to citizen-government relations as a
81
‘Thousands Rally in Melbourne in Support of Remote Aboriginal Communities’ on
ABC News (11 April 2015) <http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-10/rally-in-
melbourne-in-support-of-remote-aboriginal-communities/6384826>. On Twitter, the
campaign continues under the hashtag #SOSBlakAustralia and #lifestylechoices.
82
Sabra Lane, ‘PM’s Lifestyle Comments Wrong But Highlight Important Debate, Says
Chief Adviser’ on 7:30 (11 March, 2015)
<http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2015/s4195873.htm>; Bill Shorten MP, ‘Matter of
Public Importance: Indigenous Affairs’, Speech to House of Representatives (19 March
2015) <http://billshorten.com.au/matter-of-public-importance-indigenous-affairs>.
83
Paolo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (Myra Bergman Ramos Trans) (Penguin,
1972).
348 LEGAL EDUCATION REVIEW ______________________________________________________________
representation of power. For us, the expanded role of the public law
academic, aligning with contemporary iterations of academic work, is to
engage the public imagination promoting understanding of contemporary
legal issues. In doing so, the public law academic not only enacts the
democratising contexts of public law, but carries out scholarly work
within its broadest construction.
Relevantly here, broad public law engagement can be mediated
through the use of digital technologies – in particular through various
social media. Diverse media can streamline what might be considered
different domains of scholarship, providing access to an existing scholarly
community while simultaneously reaching far beyond. The digitally
literate public law scholar thus has at their disposal a variety of tools with
which to undertake their scholarly tasks, functioning to open the
academic’s horizons while engaging with the global community.
