Books by Margaret Thornton
For reasons of effectiveness, efficiency and equity, Australian law reform should be planned care... more For reasons of effectiveness, efficiency and equity, Australian law reform should be planned carefully. Academics can and should take the lead in this process. This book collects over 50 discrete law reform recommendations, encapsulated in short, digestible essays written by leading Australian scholars. It emerges from a major conference held at The Australian National University in 2016, which featured intensive discussion among participants from government, practice and the academy. The book is intended to serve as a national focal point for Australian legal innovation. It is divided into six main parts: commercial and corporate law, criminal law and evidence, environmental law, private law, public law, and legal practice and legal education. In addition, Indigenous perspectives on law reform are embedded throughout each part. This collective work—the first of its kind—will be of value to policy makers, media, law reform agencies, academics, practitioners and the judiciary. It provides a bird’s eye view of the current state and the future of law reform in Australia.
Papers by Margaret Thornton
Laws, Jun 24, 2015
There has been a marked shift away from social liberalism in many parts of the world which has pr... more There has been a marked shift away from social liberalism in many parts of the world which has profound ramifications for women, whose status remains contingent on the good graces of public institutions that remain resolutely masculinist. Neoliberalism, with its focus on the privatisation of public goods and promotion of the self within the market has become the dominant political ideology everywhere and is further undermining the interests of the majority of women. This essay will address the changing fortunes of sex discrimination legislation as a specific example of an initiative designed to improve the status of women. Australia will be used as a case study because of its passionate embrace of, first, social liberalism, and then, neoliberalism. Issues pertaining to affirmative action (positive action), intersection with human rights instruments, reporting requirements and incentives will also be addressed. Although Australia is a multi-jurisdictional federation, the essay will focus primarily on the federal arena in terms of legislative initiatives, policy and jurisprudence.
Feminist Review, Jul 1, 2010
Against the background of the political swing from social liberalism to neo-liberalism in Austral... more Against the background of the political swing from social liberalism to neo-liberalism in Australia, this paper considers the discomfiting relationship between feminism and the legal academy over the last three decades. It briefly traces the trajectory of the liaison, the course of the brief affair, the parting of the ways and the cold shoulder. In considering the reasons for the retreat from feminism, it is suggested that it has been engineered by neo-liberalism through the market's deployment of third-wave feminism, particularly the popular manifestation of girlpower. The focus on promotion of the self, consumerism, free choice and sexuality has deflected attention away from collective harms. Girlpower has also facilitated a revival of gendered binarisms on the social script, which does not bode well for the future of women in the legal profession. The proposition is illustrated by reference to the representation of women's breasts on the cover of a law students' magazine containing articles on sexed crime.
This paper considers the way in which neoliberalism has impacted on equal employment opportunity ... more This paper considers the way in which neoliberalism has impacted on equal employment opportunity (EEO) within the academy. Instead of a focus on the common good, there has been a shift to promotion of the self within the market. Higher education has not been immune from the contemporary imperative to commodify and privatise. Corporatisation has resulted in top-down managerialism, perennial auditing and the production of academics as neoliberal subjects. Within this context, identity politics have either moved to the periphery or disappeared altogether. Against the background of the ramifications of the socio-political shift and the transformation of the university, the paper considers the rise and fall of EEO and the emergence of new discourses, such as that of diversity, which better suit the market metanarrative. This has induced a shift away from staff to students, begging the question as to whether EEO is now passé.
Osgoode Hall Law Journal, Apr 1, 1998
Despite valiant endeavours by feminist, critical race, and Queer scholars to transform the legal ... more Despite valiant endeavours by feminist, critical race, and Queer scholars to transform the legal culture, the transformative project has been limited because of the power of corporatism, a phenomenon deemed marginal to the currently fashionable micropolitical sites of critical scholarship. However, liberal, as well as postmodern scholarship, has largely preferred to ignore the ramifications of the "new economy," which includes a marked political shift to the right, the contraction of the public sphere, the privatization of public goods, globalization, and a preoccupation with efficiency, economic rationalism, and profits. I argue that technical reasoning, or "technocentrism," has enabled corporatism to evade scrutiny. I explore the meaning of "technocentrism," with particular regard to legal education. Because corporate power does not operate from a unitary site, but is diffused, I show how it impacts upon legal education from multiple sites, from outside as well as inside the legal academy in a concerted endeavour to maintain the status quo.
Legal education review, 2007
This paper is part of a larger study of the impact of neoliberalism on the legal academy. I ackno... more This paper is part of a larger study of the impact of neoliberalism on the legal academy. I acknowledge the fi nancial support of the Australian Research Council, which enabled interviews to be conducted with a range of academics in all Australian and New Zealand public university law schools, together with selected law schools in the UK and Canada. Warm thanks are extended to Dr Jan Doust for assisting with the conduct of interviews and Dr Chris Atmore for research assistance. 1 Cf Robin Usher, 'Imposing Structure, Enabling Play: New Knowledge Production and the "Real World" University' in Colin Symes and John McIntyre (eds), Working Knowledge: The New Vocationalism and Higher Education (2000) 99. The greater prestige of vocational courses is by no means new. Dunbabin states that this was also the case as far back as the 13 th century. See Jean Dunbabin, 'Universities c. 1150-c. 1350' in David Smith and Anne Karin Langslow (eds), The Idea of a University (Higher Education Policy Series 51, 1999) 34. 2 The ramifi cations of consumerism in higher education are explored in Patty Kamvounias and Sally Varnham, 'Getting what they paid for: Consumer Rights of Students in Higher Education' (2006) 15 Griffi th Law Review 306.
Social Science Research Network, 2021
Social Science Research Network, 2016
The Australian Universities' Review (AUR, formerly Vestes) is published by the National Tertiary ... more The Australian Universities' Review (AUR, formerly Vestes) is published by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) to encourage debate and discussion about issues in higher education and its contribution to Australian public life, with an emphasis on those matters of concern to NTEU members. Editorial decisions are made by the Editor, assisted by the AUR Editorial Board. The views expressed in articles in this publication, unless otherwise stated, are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Editor, the Editorial Board or the publisher. Although some contributions are solicited by the Editor or the Editorial Board, AUR is anxious to receive contributions independently from staff and students in the higher education sector and other readers. AUR publishes articles and other contributions, including short commentary and satire. Articles will be assessed by independent referees before publication. Priority is given to contributions that are substantial, lively, original and have a broad appeal. Responses to previously published contributions are encouraged. AUR is listed on the DIISR (formerly DEEWR and DEST) register of refereed journals.
Laws, Jul 21, 2020
This editorial takes the form of a short postscript to a special issue of Laws published in 2019-... more This editorial takes the form of a short postscript to a special issue of Laws published in 2019-20. It shows how feminist legal theory (FLT), a corollary of second wave feminism, was initially embraced by law schools but soon subjected to a backlash. FLT was nevertheless able to turn around the negative discourse of post-feminism to show that the "post" can mean not just the end but a new beginning. The Special Issue attests to the resurgence of FLT in the 21st century.
Canadian Journal of Women and The Law, Oct 1, 2009
En poursuivant le the`me du 50 e anniversaire de l'Universite´York, soit «Knowledge Reconsidered:... more En poursuivant le the`me du 50 e anniversaire de l'Universite´York, soit «Knowledge Reconsidered: Feminism in the Academy at York» (Le savoir re´examine´: le fe´minisme dans les e´tudes universitaires a`York), le pre´sent article examine la re´volution du savoir qui a lieu pre´sentement a`l'universite´. Au lieu d'adhe´rer au mode`le de la science pour la science, comme l'a fait Newman, les universite´s partout jouent un roˆle cle´dans la production de nouveaux savoirs exige´s par les E´tats-nations. L'article traite aussi de l'effet de ces tendances globales sur la «marchandisation» du savoir ainsi que sur le transfert de la science. A`la lumie`re de ces phe´nome`nes surgit une question capitale : reste-t-il de la place, au sein de ce nouveau paradigme, pour la poursuite de recherches fe´ministes, critiques et the´oriques qui n'ont aucune valeur marchande? Engaging with the fiftieth anniversary theme of ''Knowledge Reconsidered: Feminism in the Academy at York,'' this presentation will consider the knowledge revolution that is presently occurring in the academy. Instead of pursuing knowledge for its own sake, a`la Newman, universities everywhere are playing a key role in the production of new knowledge as required by nation states. The effect of global trends such as the commodification of knowledge and knowledge transfer will be addressed. The key question in light of these phenomena is what space is there within the new paradigm for the pursuit of feminist, critical, and theoretical knowledge that lacks market value? This article is based on a public lecture presented as the Barbara Betcherman Distinguished Visitor 2008, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto, 15 October 2008. I express my gratitude for the generosity of the Betcherman family in funding the visitorship. I would like to thank Mary Jane Mossman for her exceptional hospitality and the Institute for Feminist Legal Studies at Osgoode Hall for hosting my visit. I also thank Trish Luker for research assistance. 1. Financial Review (
The Australian Universities' review, 2020
law schools have been beset with a sense of schizophrenia ever since first established in the 19t... more law schools have been beset with a sense of schizophrenia ever since first established in the 19th century. They were unsure as to whether they were free to teach and research in the same way as the humanities or whether they were constrained by the presuppositions of legal practice. More recently, this tension has been overshadowed by the impact of the neoliberal turn and disinvestment by the state in higher education. Ironically, as government has provided less money to universities, it has arrogated to itself increased control over teaching standards and research productivity. At the same time, the mastery of the legal profession continues to be exercised through the specification of 11 subjects required for admission to legal practice, known as the 'Priestley 11'. Drawing on Foucault's idea of the self as a kind of enterprise, it is argued that law students have also assumed an element of mastery over what is taught and how it is taught. It is suggested that all elements of mastery are imbricated with one another so as to reify enterprise and capital accumulation within the neoliberal economy.
Griffith Journal of Law & Human Dignity, 2018
In accordance with the prevailing market ideology, research is now an 'investment' opportunity, r... more In accordance with the prevailing market ideology, research is now an 'investment' opportunity, rather than a social good.
Sydney Law Review, Jun 15, 2016
'Work-life balance' ('WLB') emerged as the catchcry of workers everywhere in the late 20 th centu... more 'Work-life balance' ('WLB') emerged as the catchcry of workers everywhere in the late 20 th century. It was particularly appealing to women lawyers as it was thought that if a balance could be effected between work and life, satisfying careers and the raising of children could be combined. The key to effecting this balance, it was believed, was flexible work. Technology has facilitated this flexibility as all that is required is a computer, or other device with internet connection, and a mobile phone. Provided that the firm is agreeable, the lawyer would have a degree of autonomy in determining when and where the work is carried out. However, flexible work has not always proved to be the boon that it was hoped, for the shift from face-to-face time to virtual time has blurred the boundary between work and life, insidiously extending the hours of work and impinging on the realm of intimacy. Drawing on a web-based survey and interviews with lawyers Australia-wide, this article considers the ramifications of perpetual connectivity for lawyers in private practice, with particular regard to its gender significance.
Proceedings of the 2021 AERA Annual Meeting
Proceedings of the 2021 AERA Annual Meeting
Journal of Educational Administration and History
Letter from Margaret Thornton to her cousin Emma (Shaw) describes effect of a spring and summer w... more Letter from Margaret Thornton to her cousin Emma (Shaw) describes effect of a spring and summer weather on crops. She says that the coming election should “be the death of the Radicals.” 4pp
The Hispanic American Historical Review, 1972
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Books by Margaret Thornton
Papers by Margaret Thornton