Peter Rush

Peter Rush is an Associate Professor in the Law Faculty and Director of the International Criminal Justice programme in the Institute for International Law and the Humanities at the University of Melbourne. His research is an interdisciplinary contribution to jurisprudence and the humanities, criminal law (domestic, comparative and international), and trauma and transitional justice. His work has ranged across the prose of academia, as well as filmic and photographic works.

Relevant to this network, his research engages questions of the places of law in Australia and in transitional societies. This is approached as a matter of the presentation of legal places, and the aesthetics of authority and responsibility in response to trauma and mass atrocity. Specific projects include a visual and graphic jurisography of the formation of legal precincts since the late 1980s (forensic precincts); the plural jurisdictions of affective justice in the aftermath of conflict (transitional places); and a study of the drama and experience of the interiors of contemporary court architecture (interior courts).

related publications

‘The forensic precinct: notes on the public address of law’ in Law, Text, Culture (forthcoming, 2016)

The Arts of Transitional Justice: Culture, Memory and Activism After Atrocity (ed. with O. Simic, 2014)

‘Dirty War Crimes: Jurisdictions of Memory and International Criminal Justice’ in G. Simpson and K. Heller (eds) The Hidden Histories of War Crimes Trials (2013).

‘Deathbound Doctrine: Scenes of Murder and its Inheritance’ Studies in Law, Politics and Society 16 (1997).

Film: Thick Skin.