A/Prof Shirley Scott

Research Summary

Current projects:
International law and the rise of the United States
International law in the era of climate change (together with Prof. Rayfuse)

Research Areas

Dr Shirley Scott is at the forefront of interdisciplinary scholarship on International Law and International Relations. Dr Scott has published widely on aspects of international law including the use of force, climate change, international law and Australian foreign policy, and the nature of US engagement with international law. She has also undertaken theoretical work on the place of international law in world politics. Dr Scott is the author of a leading textbook in the field: International Law in World Politics: an Introduction and its companion, International Law and Politics: Key Documents. She has worked collaboratively with scholars of both disciplines in Australia, North America and the United Kingdom and is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of International Law and International Relations.

In a narrow sense, Dr. Scott's research areas are the politics of international law, Antarctica in world politics, and some dimensions of Australia's foreign relations. More broadly, there are many aspects of International Relations that Dr. Scott would be very keen to supervise.

Teaching

Postgraduate Research Supervision
*The interactions between Interwar Naval Arms Control, and Naval
*The role of NGOs in reconstruction work in Aceh and Timor Leste
*The United Nations and the Promotion of Women's Human Rights in Thailand
A Political Interpretation of Nuclear Weapons Conventions

Publications

RECENT PUBLICATIONS (2001-2010)

Scott, S.V. (2010) International Law in World Politics. An Introduction. 2nd ed. Lynne Rienner.

Scott, S.V., A. Billingsley and C. Michaelsen (2010) International Law and the Use of Force: A Documentary and Reference Guide. Praeger Security.

Scott, S.V. (2010 forthcoming) `International Law’ in Bertrand Badie, Dirk Berg-Schlosser, and Leonardo Morlino, eds. Encyclopedia of Political Science, Sage.

Scott, S.V. (2010) `International Law and Developing Countries’ in Robert Denemark, ed. The International Studies Encyclopedia (and online version entitled International Studies Online) vol. 7 Wiley Blackwell, 2010, 4098-4114.

Scott, S.V. (2009) `Whose Security is it and how much of it do we want? The US Influence on the International Law against Maritime Terrorism’ in Natalie Klein, Joanna Mossop and Donald Rothwell, eds. Maritime Security: International Law and Policy Perspectives from Australia and New Zealand, Routledge, 76-93.

Scott, S.V. (2008) `The Nature of US Engagement with International Law: Making Sense of Apparent Inconsistencies’ in David Armstrong, ed. Handbook of International Law Routledge, 210-221.

Scott, S.V. (2008) `Climate Change and Peak Oil as Threats to International Peace and Security: Is it Time for the Security Council to legislate?’ Melbourne Journal of International Law 9:2, 495-514.

Scott, S.V. (2008) `Is the Crisis of Climate Change a crisis for International Law: Is International Law too Democratic, too capitalist and too fearful to cope with the crisis of climate change?’ Australian International Law Journal 14, 31-44.

Scott, S.V. (2008) `Securitizing climate change: international legal implications and obstacles’ Cambridge Review of International Affairs 21:4, 603-619.

Scott, S.V. (2008) `The Problem of Unequal Treaties in Contemporary International Law: How the Most Powerful have reneged on the political compacts within which Five Cornerstone Treaties of Global Governance are Situated’ Journal of International Law and International Relations 4:2, 101-126.

Scott, S. and R. Rayfuse, `Australia’s Climate Change Law and Diplomacy’, Editorial for R.Rayfuse and S.Scott, eds. Special issue of Asia Pacific Journal of Environmental Law 11:1 (2008), 1-11.

Scott, S.V. (2008) `Intergovernmental Organizations as Disseminators, Legitimators, and Disguisers of Hegemonic Policy Preferences: The United States, the International Whaling Commission, and the Introduction of a Moratorium on Commercial Whaling’ Leiden Journal of International Law 21, 1-20.

Scott, S.V. (2007) `'The Political Life of Public International Lawyers: Granting the Imprimatur' International Relations 21:4, 411-426.

Scott, S.V. (2007) `The Participation of the Australian Government in International Debate on Security Council Reform, 1945-2005’ Australian Year Book of International Law 26, 119-147.

Scott, S.V. (2007) `The Question of UN Charter Amendment, 1945-1965: Appeasing “the Peoples”' Journal of the History of International Law 9:1, 83-108.

Scott, S.V. and O. Ambler (2007) `Does Legality Really Matter? Accounting for the Decline in US Foreign Policy Legitimacy following the 2003 Invasion of Iraq’ European Journal of International Relations 16:1, 67-87.

Scott, S.V. (2007) `The Political Interpretation of Multilateral Treaties: The
Case of CEDAW’ New Zealand Journal of Public and International Law, 103-119.

Scott, S.V. and Donald Rothwell (2007) `Sovereignty’ in Alan Hemmings, Julia Jabour, and Lorne Kriwoken, eds. Looking South, Federation Press,7-20.

Scott, S.V. (2007) `International Law’ in Richard Devetak, Anthony Burke and Jim George, eds. Introduction to International Relations: Australian Perspectives Cambridge University Press), 290-200.

Scott, S.V. (2007) `UN Security Council Resolution 1540 and Political
Legitimacy' in Agata Fijalkowski, ed. International Institutional Reform.
Proceedings of the Seventh Hague Joint Conference held in The Hague, The
Netherlands 30 June - 2 July 2005 (The Hague: TMC Asser Press, 2007), 63-68.

Scott, S.V (2006) 'Revolution, Or “Business As Usual”? International Law And The Foreign Policy Of The Bush Administration’ in C. David and D. Grondin, eds. US Hegemony Revisited: The Redefinition of American Power Under George W. Bush. Ashgate, 67-85.

Scott, S.V., ed.(2006) International Law and Politics: Key Documents. (Boulder: Lynne Rienner).

Scott, S.V (2005) 'Identifying the Source and Nature of a State’Political
Obligation Towards International Law’ Journal of International Law and
International Relations 1 (2005), 49-60.

Scott, S.V (2005)`The LOS Convention as a Constitutional Regime for the Oceans’ in Alex G. Oude Elferink, ed. Stability and Change in the Law of the Sea: The Role of the LOS Convention. Martinus Nijhoff, (2005), 9-38.

Scott, S.V (2004) ‘The Contribution of the UNCLOS Organizations to the
Harmonious Implementation of the Convention’ in Donald R. Rothwell and Alex G. Oude Elferink, eds. Oceans Management in the Twenty-First Century, Martinus Nijhoff, (2004), 313-327.

Scott, S.V (2004)‘International law as litigation strategy for Indigenous
Australians: A comparison of the Mabo and Nulyarimma Cases’ in S. Roach Anleu and W. Prest, eds. Litigation: Past and Present, Sydney: UNSW Press, (2004), 186-205.

Scott, S.V (2004) 'The Political Interpretation of Multilateral Treaties' (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers).

Scott, S.V. (2004) International Law in World Politics: An Introduction
(Boulder: Lynne Rienner).

Scott, S.V (2004) 'Why wasn't genocide a crime in Australia? Accounting for the half century delay in Australia implementing the Genocide Convention in
Australian' in Australian Journal of Human Rights, 159-178.

Scott, S.V. (2004) ‘Is there room for International law in Realpolitik?: accounting for the US ‘attitude’ towards international law’, Review of
International Studies, 71-88.

Scott, S.V. (2003) ‘The Impact on International Law of US Non-Compliance’ in M. Byers and G. Nolte, eds. United States Hegemony and the Foundations of International Law. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp427-455.

Scott, S.V. (2003)`The implications for international law of the illegality of
the war against Iraq’, Dialogue, 22(2) pp. 30-33.

Scott, S.V. (2003) `Assessing the Significance for International Law of the Use of Force against Iraq: The Contribution of Inter-disciplinary Theorising’. Paper presented to the Australian Political Science Association Conference.

Scott, S.V. (2002) 'Legalization: Interpreting the Empirical Evidence', American Society of International Law: Proceedings of the 96th Annual Meeting, Washington, DC. 291-293.

Scott, S.V. (2002) ‘Beyond Self-Defense: The Implications of September 11 for International Law’ in New Challenges and New States: What Role for International Law? Proceedings of the Tenth Annual Meeting of the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law, pp213-218.

Scott, S.V. (2001)` How Cautious is Precautious?: Antarctic Tourism and the
Precautionary Principle’, International and Comparative Law Quarterly, 50(4)
pp963-971.

OTHER MAIN PUBLICATIONS

Scott, S.V. and A. Bergin, eds, (1997) International Law and Australian Security (Canberra, Australian Defence Studies Centre).

Scott, S.V. (1999) `The Academic as Service Provider: Is the Customer “Always Right”?’ Journal of Higher Education and Management,21(2) pp193-202.

Scott, S.V. (1998)`Beyond Compliance: Reconceiving the International Law-Foreign Policy Dynamic’, The Australian Year Book of International Law 1998, pp35-48.

Scott, S.V. (1994)`International Law as Ideology: Theorising the Relationship
between International Law and International Politics' European Journal of
International Law, 5 pp313-325.

Affiliations and Memberships

Director of Learning and Teaching, FASS
Member, UNSW Human Research Ethics Committee
Member of Executive Council, Asian Society of International Law
Research Chair and Member of National Executive, Australian Institute of International Affairs