Public Seminar in Law and Humanities
Civility and the Arts of Association: jurist-diplomats (Victoria, Australia)
Date: 26 May 2025 (Monday)
Time: 12 pm – 1 pm
Venue: Rm 901, Cheng Yu Tung Tower, The University of Hong Kong
This paper continues a series of studies that address the office of scholar and jurist in relation to the ‘conduct of lawful relations’ – under the pressure of conflict. Along with collaborators, I have addressed, some of the troubles of complicity, constancy, and moderation. This paper addresses civility and diplomacy as attributes of the office of jurist and as resources of an art of association that brings laws and peoples into relation.
Despite its continued presence in diplomatic and legal discourse, civility is not a term that carries much weight of meaning at present. In the negative, civility is often treated in the theatre of extremes as a mask of power and a weapon to ensure subordination. In the conduct of Empire and international ordering, civility is never far from the politics of civilisation. As a virtue, it said to diminish the importance of courage and tempers the indignation and shame appropriate to the acknowledgement and contest of injustice. On the positive side, civility has been considered as part of the formal values of association appropriate to civil society. Rather than contest this characterisation of civility directly, I want to invite consideration of the work that civility might continue to do within the office of the university jurist.
Taking the example of the conduct of treaty relations in the state of Victoria, Australia, this paper studies the ways in which civility might carry the weight of living well enough, or less harmfully, with conflict. In some respects this study covers ground of an old topic of diplomacy where civility (like courteousness) shapes a form of life and action. Civility, I argue, can be viewed not only as part of the character of the jurist but also as a part of the conduct of office of jurist in their work of concept formation and elaboration of the quality of lawful relations. I treat this study as part of the work of humanist re-education of the university jurist.
About the speaker
Shaun McVeigh joined the law school at Melbourne University in 2007. He previously researched and taught at Griffith University in Queensland as well as Keele and Middlesex Universities in the United Kingdom. He has a long time association with critical legal studies in Australia and the UK. More recently he has been involved in convening a symposium “Of the South” that develops an account of lawful existence within the South.
Shaun McVeigh has research interests in the fields of jurisprudence, health care, and legal ethics. His current research projects centre around three themes associated with refreshing a jurisprudence of jurisdiction: the development of accounts of a ‘lawful’ South; the importance of a civil prudence to thinking about the conduct of law (and lawyers); and, the continuing need to take account of the colonial legal inheritance of Australia and Britain.
Chaired by Dr Valeria Vázquez Guevara, Faculty of Law, HKU