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Dr Fleur Johns

Profile

Degrees

B.A., LL.B. (Hons) Melb; LL.M. Harv; SJD Harv

Courses Taught

  • Advanced Financing Techniques - International Project Finance
  • Public & Private International Law
  • International Human Rights Law
  • Law, Lawyers & Justice
  • Legal Geographies

Areas of Research Interest:

  • International law
  • Legal theory
  • Jurisdiction/legal geography
  • Legal history

Brief Biographical Details

Fleur Johns is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Law, University of Sydney, teaching and conducting research mainly in public international law and legal theory. Fleur is a graduate of the University of Melbourne (BA (Fine Arts & English Literature major)), LLB (1st class Hons)) and Harvard Law School (LLM, SJD, Menzies Scholar, Laylin Prize). She is a member of the Editorial Boards of the Leiden Journal of International Law (co-editor, Articles), the Australian Journal of Human Rights, and the Sydney Law Review and a former Primary Editor of the Harvard Human Rights Journal. Fleur also serves (by election) on the Coordinating Committee of the International Legal Theory Interest Group within the European Society of International Law. Fleur is Director of the Public International Law Program within the Sydney Centre for International Law.

Current projects on which Fleur is working include a co-edited volume entitled Events: The Force of International Law, exploring unacknowledged legacies of, and paths not taken in, international law by reference to a selection of historical ‘events’. Fleur is also continuing work on a series of studies of domains perceived as lawless, pre-law or insufficiently regulated by international law, examining these by reference to the literature on governmentality and ethnographies of expertise (from aspects of the global market to the detention camp and the torture chamber). Fleur has an ongoing interest in geographic dimensions of international legal authority and spatial effects of international law, dating back to her doctoral work at Harvard.

Before commencing her academic career, Fleur practised as a corporate lawyer at the New York Bar for six years, specialising in international project finance in the Latin American region. Fleur remains a member of the New York bar. Earlier in her career, Fleur worked as a research assistant on an Australian federal government study assessing legal and political risk surrounding energy investment in the Asia Pacific region and conducted research for an AFI-sponsored documentary project on indigenous political activism in 19th and 20th century Australia. She also served as a research intern to the Australian delegation negotiating the implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention in The Hague.

Research grants of which Fleur has been recipient include: an Arts and Humanities Research Council Grant (UK, 2006-2007, with Prof. Peter Fitzpatrick et al.) and a Leverhulme Trust Visiting Fellowship (UK, 2005-2006).

Non-governmental and international organizations with which Fleur has worked on a voluntary basis include: the Refugee Advice and Casework Service (Sydney, Management Committee Member, 2003-2005); the International Law Association (Australian Branch, National Management Committee Member, 2005); the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs & Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies (Rapporteur, 1999); the American Civil Liberties Union (pro bono legal work, 1997); the Lawyers Alliance for New York (pro bono legal work, 1996-1998); the Environment Defenders Office (Melbourne, Non-Executive Director, 1993-1995); and the Esprit Cares Trust Fund (Melbourne, Advisory Board Member 1992-1994).

Publications

Books | Book Chapters | Edited Journal Issues | Articles in Refereed Journals | Reports | Book Reviews & Review Essays | Selected Conference/Workshop Presentations

Books

  • Fleur Johns (ed), International Legal Personality, Ashgate: London (forthcoming 2009).

Book Chapters

  • Fleur Johns, ‘Performing Power: The Deal, Corporate Rule, and the Constitution of Global Legal Order’ in Stewart Motha (ed.), Democracy’s Empire: Sovereignty, Law, and Violence,, Blackwell: Oxford (2007) pp. 116-138.
  • Fleur Johns, ‘The Globe and the Ghetto’, in Markus Lederer & Philipp Müller (eds), Criticizing Global Governance, Palgrave Macmillan: New York (2005) pp.69-102.
  • Fleur Johns, ‘International Law-National Law: Thinking through the Hyphen’, in Hilary Charlesworth, Madelaine Chiam, Devika Hovell & George Williams (eds), The Fluid State: International Law and National Legal Systems, Federation Press: Sydney (2005) pp. 188-209.

Edited Journal Issues

  • Fleur Johns, Thomas Skouteris and Wouter Werner (eds.), Special Issue: Alejandro Álvarez (Periphery Series), (2006) 19(4) Leiden Journal of International Law 875-1040
  • Fleur Johns & Mary Crock, (Guest Editors), 'Special Issue: Migration, Mental Health and Human Rights' (2004) 27(6) International Journal of Law & Psychiatry 505-679.

Articles in Refereed Journals

  • Fleur Johns, ‘Performing Party Autonomy’ in K Knop, R Michaels & A Riles (eds), Special Issue: Rethinking the Private in Private International Law, Law & Contemporary Problems (forthcoming 2007).
  • Fleur Johns & Steven Freeland, ‘Teaching International Law Across an Urban Divide: Reflections on an Improvisation’ (2007) 57:4 Journal of Legal Education 539-561
  • Fleur Johns, ‘Performing Power: The Deal, Corporate Rule, and the Constitution of Global Legal Order’ (2007) 34 Journal of Law and Society 116-138
  • Fleur Johns, 'Private law, public landscape: troubling the grid' (2005) 9 Law Text Culture 60-90.
  • Fleur Johns, 'Guantanamo Bay and the Annihilation of the Exception' (2005) 16(4) European Journal of International Law 613-635.
  • Fleur Johns, 'Human Rights in the High Court of Australia, 1976-2003: The Righting of Australian Law?' (2005) 33(2) Federal Law Review 287-331.
  • Fleur Johns, 'Global Governance: An heretical history play' (2004) 4(2) Global Jurist Advances 3 (see: http://www.bepress.com/gj/advances/vol4/iss2/art3/).
  • Fleur Johns, ‘The Madness of Migration? Disquiet in the International Law Relation to Refugees’ (2004) 27(6) International Journal of Law & Psychiatry 587-607.
  • Fleur Johns, ‘Address: On Writing Dangerously’ (2004) 26(4) Sydney Law Review 473-480.
  • Fleur Johns, ‘Portrait of the Artist as a White Man: The International Law of Human Rights and Aboriginal Culture’ (1994) 16 Australian Yearbook of International Law 173-197.
  • Fleur Johns, ‘The Invisibility of the Transnational Corporation: An Analysis of International Law and Legal Theory’ (1995) 19 Melbourne University Law Review 893-923.

Reports

  • Fleur Johns, Report of the Inter-Agency Expert Consultation on Protected Areas, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs & Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, 23-24 February, 1999 (7 April, 1999).
  • Fleur Johns & Claude Bruderlein, Inter-Agency Expert Consultation on Protected Areas: Review of Literature (1999)

Book Reviews & Review Essays

  • Fleur Johns, 'Review: International Law and its Others' (2007) 8(2) Melbourne Journal of International Law 516-535
  • Fleur Johns, 'Critical Beings: Taking a Critical Bearing' (2005) 30 Australian Journal of Legal Philosophy 160-170.
  • Fleur Johns, ‘Review Essay: Diversity and Self-Determination in International Law’ (2003) 16(3) Leiden Journal of International Law 656-669.
  • Fleur Johns, ‘Review Essay: Citymaking’ (2000) 32 Urban Lawyer 349-360.

Selected Conference/Workshop Presentations

  • Fleur Johns, ‘Performing Power: The Deal, Corporate Rule, and the Constitution of Global Legal Order’, Meeting of the Law and Society Association and the Research Committee on Sociology of Law, Humboldt-Universität, Berlin, 25 July, 2007
  • Fleur Johns, ‘Living in International Law’, Festschrift for Professor Peter Fitzpatrick, Berlin, 24 July 2007
  • Fleur Johns, ‘The Gift of Realism: Julius Stone and the International Legal Academy in Australia, 1954-1994’, Julius Stone Centenary Conference, University of Sydney, 7 July 2007
  • Fleur Johns, ‘Teeming Voids: The International Law of Lawlessness’, Sydney Law School Staff Seminar/Sydney Centre for International and Global Law Seminar Series, Sydney, 8 March 2007
  • Fleur Johns, ‘International Legal Authority, Torture and the Claim to Conscience’, ANU Staff Seminar/Centre for International and Public Law Seminar Series, Canberra, 21 February 2007
  • Fleur Johns, ‘Teeming Voids: Sovereignty, the Deal, and the Empty Places of International Law’, Staff Seminar Series, Kent Law School, Canterbury, UK, 8 March 2006
  • Fleur Johns, ‘Teeming Voids: Sovereignty, Subjection, and the Convention on Choice of Court Agreements 2005, 3rd Workshop on Critical Approaches to International Law – The Force of International Law, Birkbeck School of Law, London, UK, 15-17 May 2006
  • Fleur Johns, ‘Teeming Voids: Sovereignty, Subjectivity, and the Empty Place of International Law’, Workshop – Popular Sovereignty and the Rule of Law in Divided Societies, Centre for Law and Society, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, 22-24 May 2006.
  • Fleur Johns, 'Global Governance: An Heretical History Play', Griffith University Socio-Legal Research Centre Seminar Series, Brisbane, Australia, 11 April 2005 and at Macquarie University Lunchtime Staff Seminar Series: 'Customs in Common ­ Law, Culture, Memory', Sydney, Australia, 7 April 2005.
  • Fleur Johns, 'Camp X-Ray and the Annihilation of the Exception', Recollections: Official Knowledge and the Memory of Unofficial Practices, The 22nd Annual Law & Society Conference, Brisbane, Australia, 12-15 December 2004.
  • Fleur Johns, 'The Courts and the Human Rights Act', Afternoon Seminar convened by the Gilbert + Tobin Centre for Public Law at the University of NSW and the Sydney Centre for Global and International Law on The ACT Human Rights Act 2004: Australia's First Bill of Rights, Sydney, 29 October 2004.
  • Fleur Johns, 'Thinking Through the Hyphen', Expert Workshop - International Challenges to the Australian Legal System, Australian National University, Canberra, 12-13 August 2004.
  • Fleur Johns, '‘À La Carte Sovereignty’: Rewriting the Menu', Workshop of the Lowy Institute for International Policy, New Voices 2004: À La Carte Sovereignty: Australia's Transforming Borders, Sydney, 28 May 2004 (proceedings available at: http://www.lowyinstitute.org/Publication.asp?pid=158).
  • Fleur Johns, 'Public Spaces; Private Law: Troubling the Grid', presented at an Invitation-Only Workshop, Law, Landscapes and Ethics, at the International Institute for the Sociology of Law, Oñati, Spain, 9-11 June 2004 (edited book arising from these proceedings to be published by Hart, 2005).
  • Fleur Johns, 'The Laws of the Camp', Joint Workshop of Birkbeck Law School and the Foundation for New Research in International Law, London, UK, 9-11 May 2004, and at the European Society of International Law Meeting, Florence, Italy, 13-15 May 2004.
  • Fleur Johns, ‘On Writing Dangerously’, Keynote Address, Annual Australia Postgraduate Law Students’ Conference, Sydney, 31 October 2003.
  • Fleur Johns, Invited Participant, Workshop: Reflecting Critically on Global Governance, Harvard University European Law Research Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, 3-4 October 2003.
  • Fleur Johns, ‘Thoughts for the Times on Xenophobia’, Australian Society of Legal Philosophy/Julius Stone Institute Annual Conference, Sydney, 18-20 July 2003.
  • Fleur Johns, ‘Rights as Wrongs? And Other Awkward Questions’, Australia and New Zealand Society of International Law Annual Conference, Wellington, New Zealand, 4-6 July 2003.
  • Fleur Johns, Invited Participant (Alternate Presenter), Law & Humanities Junior Scholar Workshop, Columbia Law School, New York, 1-2 June 2003, joint initiative of Columbia, Georgetown, UCLA & USC.
  • Fleur Johns, ‘The Globe and the Ghetto’, Reflecting Critically on Global Governance Conference, Berlin, 6-7 January 2003, a joint initiative of research centres at the Free University, Berlin; the Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich and Harvard University, Cambridge.
  • Fleur Johns, ‘The Globe and the Ghetto: Spaces of Global Governance and the Work of Distinction’, Critical Perspectives on Global Governance Workshop, Amerang, Germany, 1-3 November 2002, see above for sponsoring institutions.