Rights, Relationality, Resilience, Reciprocity: LSAANZ Conference 2025

More than 200 scholars, practitioners and researchers came together at the University of Canterbury for the Law and Society Association of Australia and New Zealand (LSAANZ) Conference 2025.

Held over three days, the conference explored rights, relationality, resilience and reciprocity, creating space for critical discussion about law, society and the role of socio-legal scholarship in responding to contemporary challenges.

The programme brought together perspectives from across Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific, with a strong focus on Indigenous leadership, community engagement and relational approaches to research.

The conference featured more than 150 participant presentations across seven themed parallel streams, alongside keynote panels, workshops, book launches and networking events.

Highlights included:

• an Early Career Researcher workshop exploring research impact and approaches to undertaking socio-legal research with communities 
• the Relationality and Reciprocity keynote panel, featuring Māori and First Nations leaders and scholars 
• the Rights and Resilience keynote panel, examining contemporary legal, social and environmental challenges 
• two book launch sessions focused on ecological law and workers’ rights 
• a conference reception and prizegiving 
• a conference dinner featuring a keynote address from barrister Rachael Jones on tikanga and the practice of law and society 
• kapa haka and Pacific performances by UC students. 

Seven early career researchers were also supported to attend the conference through travel grants.

A central feature of the conference was the prominence of Māori, Pacific and First Nations leadership and scholarship.

Keynote discussions explored issues including climate change, water governance, justice and community accountability, challenging participants to consider how legal institutions, universities and researchers can better support Indigenous and community-led futures.

Across the programme, the conference encouraged participants to consider socio-legal scholarship as relational, place-based and accountable to the communities it engages with.

The conference has led to a range of resources and collaborations that continue its impact beyond the event itself.

A two-part special edition of the Law at the End of the World podcast captures discussions, reflections and insights from keynote speakers, organisers, participants and early career researchers.

Further work emerging from the conference includes:

• professional recordings of keynote panel sessions 
• an opinion piece being developed with e-Tangata and conference keynote speakers 
• a special issue of the journal Legalities 
• ongoing academic research and collaboration across Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific 
• further work on climate litigation, Indigenous water governance and community-engaged research. 

The LSAANZ Conference 2025 was supported by the Michael and Suzanne Borrin Foundation.