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Centre for Law as Protection
Using legal tools to protect people, animals and the environment
How our research enhances protection
Australia and the world experience many threats, from inequality and biased decision-making to war and hunger. The Centre for Law as Protection undertakes theoretical, doctrinal and socio-legal research to identify what protection from these diverse threats means. We bring together scholars, policymakers, civil society and governments, to develop the legal tools that protection requires.
Our research streams
Our research is organised across four thematic streams. Each stream addresses the scope and meaning of protection from a significant cluster of existing threats and develops concrete legal tools tailored to these threats. Together, the four research streams build a conceptual and practical infrastructure of law as a crucial means of protection.
- Protecting from organised violence and abuse of governmental power.
- Protecting from technology-based harms.
- Protecting from economic harm and abuse of corporate power.
- Protecting from inequality, marginality and deprivation.
Make a positive impact on society
Study a PhD at Deakin Law School and contribute to research that enhances the protection of people, animals and the environment.
Military violence threatens our lives across the globe. Reducing this threat requires placing protection at the centre of government decision-making and limiting arbitrariness. It is crucial to identify new and creative ways that law can be used to save lives and quash violence.
Co-director of the Centre for Law as Protection and co-lead of research stream one
Featured projects
Our research is focused on the promises and functions of the law as a tool for protection. We drive real-world impact through diverse engagement activities like legal submissions, training and engagement with office-holders, and advising international organisations.
Regulating predictive technologies for preventive counterterrorism
We work with governments in several countries to improve the legal regulation of predictive technologies for preventive counterterrorism measures. The project conceptualises the idea of protection in the context of counterterrorism law. We collect data on the United Nations Security Council’s resolutions to examine how they influence security and human rights in Australia and globally.
Our co-directors
The Centre for Law as Protection brings together multidisciplinary expertise from a variety of actors, including researchers and scholars, government bodies, civil society organisations and society members.
Professor Shiri Krebs is a professor in the Deakin Law School and a co-director of the Centre for Law as Protection. She is the elected chair of the Lieber Society for the Law of Armed Conflict and an affiliated scholar at Stanford University Center for International Security and Cooperation, researching in the intersection of law, science and technology.
Professor Kate Seear is a professor of Law and an Australian Research Council Industry Fellow in the Deakin Law School. She was previously an Australian Research Council Future Fellow (2021-2025), as well as an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow (2016-2019). Kate is also a qualified solicitor, with experience working in family and sexual violence, personal injury law and community law. She is the Deputy Chair of Victoria's landmark Inquiry into Women's Pain, and an invited member of the Victorian Women's Health Advisory Council. She is also the co-editor of the journal Contemporary Drug Problems (with Professor kylie valentine of UNSW) and co-convenes the journal's international conference, held every two years.
Artwork: 'Target' by Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox
