The Deliberative Governance and Law Project bridges the gap between the theory and real-world practice of democratic deliberation. The project connects a network of scholars, lawyers and members of governments working in the area, enabling them to share results and collaborate to provide practical reform proposals to improve deliberation in democracies around the world. Uniquely, we focus on the roles of law and legal practice in enabling, inhibiting or shaping democratic deliberation.
Deliberative Democracy
The discipline of deliberative democracy emerges from a concern for resolving tensions between the ideals of democracy and the growing number of issues confronting public governance. In an era of increasing political and legal complexity, deliberative democracy focuses on finding solutions to how citizens can remain meaningfully engaged and involved in democratic decision-making.
With its ambitious aims and an impressive emerging track-record of real-world application, deliberative democracy is arguably the most important movement in political theory and institutional design of the past two decades. Yet most research in the area lacks sustained analyses of laws as critical, and qualitatively distinct, features of the deliberative democratic institutional landscape.
The use of statute and judge-made law to regulate political process has burgeoned in many democracies, reflecting attempts to grapple with corruption, electoral inequality and concentrations of official power. These fields are now well-established, yet they have often developed around a limited class of theories about ‘politics’ that omits discussion of deliberative democracy.
The Project
The Deliberative Governance and Law Project aims to address this gap through the dissemination of research, engagement with political decision-makers, and popular discourse. A principal aim is to help lead an international conversation about how law – and law reform – can affect deliberation.
The project sits within the Centre for International and Public Law, at the ANU College of Law and the Peter A. Allard School of Law, at the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver, Canada.
The Co-Directors are Dr Ron Levy of The Australian National University, ANU College of LAW, Canberra, Australia, and Dr Hoi Kong, who is the Rt. Hon. Beverley McLachlin, P.C., UBC Professor in Constitutional Law at the Peter A. Allard School of Law, Vancouver, Canada. The Associate Director is Dr Dominique Dalla-Pozza, also of the ANU College of Law.