Editors’ preface: The Public Law of Gender

As explained in the Series Editors’ Preface, this series is a result of workshops bringing together public and international lawyers. From the second volume onwards, the topics revolve around the International Association of Research Universities (IARU) thematic research topics. When Kim Rubenstein took on the role of Inaugural Convenor of the Australian National University (ANU) Gender Institute in 2011 at the same time as continuing as Director of the Centre for International and Public Law, the impetus for holding a sixth workshop in what had been originally planned as a five-part series arose. The idea was enthusiastically endorsed by the ANU Gender Institute management committee together with colleagues at the ANU College of Law, and we thank both bodies for their financial support of the workshop. Dr. Katharine Young, who was then Associate Professor at the ANU College of Law, worked with Kim Rubenstein to develop a call for papers and actively joined with Kim to organise and develop and frame the workshop. This sixth workshop was originally titled ‘En/gendering Governance: From the Local to the Global’, and was held 6-8 August 2012 at ANU. We thank Professor Jacqueline Lo, Director of ANU’s Centre for European Studies, for providing us with a dynamic venue. The thirty-one paper presenters and a further group of participants, including Dr. Fiona Jenkins and Professor Hilary Charlesworth as ANU Gender Institute representatives, read all the papers and enjoyed vigorous discussion, engaging fully with each other and the material. We thank each of the authors in this volume, as well as Deborah Brennan, at the University of New South Wales; Astghik Mavishakalayan, then at ANU; Fiona Mackay, the University of Edinburgh; Gabrielle Simm, then at ANU; Margaret Thornton, ANU; Heidi Matthews, then at Harvard Law School; and John Morss, Deakin University, for presenting stimulating papers at the workshop. We thank Judith Resnik, of Yale Law School, and Vicki Jackson, of Harvard Law School, for their help in conceptualising the questions posed to workshop participants. We also thank the ANU’s Centre for International Governance and Justice and its Director, Hilary Charlesworth, for supporting the visit of Dr. Sari Kouvo at the workshop, and Janet Hatch, then Coordinator of the Committee on Australian Studies at Harvard University, for facilitating and supporting Vicki Jackson’s visit to participate in the workshop.