Presented by Associate Professor Jonathan Liljeblad (ANU)
Thursday 30 April 2026
Co-hosted by the Institute for International Law and the Humanities and the Asian Law Centre. Presented by Associate Professor Jonathan Liljeblad (Australian National University) and chaired by Professor Sarah Biddulph (Director, Asian Law Centre).
In this seminar, Associate Professor Jonathan Liljeblad outlined an ongoing project promoting Indigenous perspectives of international law, with an edited volume scheduled for publication in 2027. The project follows Indigenous Studies discourses that assert the existence of Indigenous ‘inter-nations’ legal orders which exist concurrent to the prevailing state-based international legal system. The seminar proposed an approach for understanding such legal orders, highlighting literature on Indigenous knowledge systems as offering a means for clarifying 1) Indigenous perspectives of ‘inter-nations’ law and 2) their implications for the current international legal system. Associate Professor Liljeblad reviewed the current status of the project, with a survey of publications that include the Australian Journal of Asian Law and the Proceedings of the American Society of International Law. The seminar finished with a summary of the project’s wider call for a dedicated research agenda to advance Indigenous conceptions of international law.
Recording coming soon!
Photo by Eugene Golovesov on Unsplash
About the speaker
Jonathan Liljeblad is Associate Professor at the Australian National University College of Law, Governance, and Policy. His research explores the intersections of Indigenous rights, human rights, and environmental issues, drawing upon field work in South and Southeast Asia. His current research focuses on transnational Indigenous movements in international law. He is a Trustee for the Law and Society Association (LSA) and Co-Chair of the LSA Indigenous Peoples and the Law Collaborative Research Network (CRN34), as well as Co-Chair of the Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities Committee for LAWASIA. His work has been supported by international organisations such as the International Work Group of Indigenous Affairs, Asia Development Bank, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, and Danish Institute of Human Rights. He is a member of the Indigenous Pao’Oh peoples of Shan State, Myanmar.
