The 45th Annual Conference of the Australian and New Zealand Law and History Society, themed 'Oral sources and non-traditional legal sources', runs 3–5 December 2026 at the University of Canterbury.
The 45th Annual Conference of the Australian and New Zealand Law and History Society (ANZLHS) runs from Thursday 3 to Saturday 5 December 2026 at the University of Canterbury in Ōtautahi Christchurch. The 2026 meeting, co-hosted by the University of Canterbury and Monash University, is themed "Oral sources and non-traditional legal sources" and gathers legal historians from across Australia and New Zealand in the South Island's largest city.
The conference is the flagship annual meeting of the Australian and New Zealand Law and History Society, a learned society founded in 1993 whose membership spans academic and professional historians and lawyers on both sides of the Tasman. Organising an annual legal history conference is the Society's principal activity, alongside its e-Journal.
The 2026 edition is co-hosted by the University of Canterbury and Monash University. Announced keynote speakers are Professor Te Maire Tau (University of Canterbury), Distinguished Professor Shaunnagh Dorsett (University of Technology Sydney) and Emeritus Professor Jeremy Finn (University of Canterbury). Abstracts were due by 20 July 2026, with acceptances communicated by 17 August 2026; presenters must be ANZLHS members, and registration is handled through Humanitix.
The meeting is aimed at legal historians, academics, lawyers and graduate students working on law and history. The 2026 theme invites papers on oral testimony, oral history, memory, storytelling and intergenerational transmission, on tikanga Māori and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander customary law, and on non-traditional sources such as newspapers, petitions, archival records and socio-economic data; papers from any period, jurisdiction, discipline or method are welcome. A dedicated Early Career Researcher session runs on Thursday 3 December, and the Kercher Scholarship supports graduate-student participation.
The conference is held at the University of Canterbury's Ilam campus, in the northwest of Christchurch a short distance from the central city. Christchurch is served by Christchurch International Airport, which sits close to the Ilam area and connects the city to the rest of New Zealand and to trans-Tasman routes, and the city is linked by the Metro public bus network. As the largest city in the South Island, Christchurch offers a concentration of academic, accommodation and conference infrastructure; the early-December timing falls in the early New Zealand summer.
The ANZLHS conference is a rotating trans-Tasman academic meeting, and its 2026 return to New Zealand brings an international scholarly delegation to Christchurch for a three-day programme. Hosting a long-running Australasian society conference on a South Island university campus underlines Christchurch's role in attracting academic and association business events, drawing cross-Tasman delegates to the region at the start of the summer season.
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