Call for Submissions to the University of New South Wales Law Journal Issue 50(2)

The UNSW Law Journal (‘Journal’) is currently welcoming submissions for the thematic component of Issue 50(2). The topic for this thematic is ‘Owning, Creating, Performing: Contemporary Challenges in Entertainment and the Arts’.

Although the Australian public generally enjoys their leisure time, the pace of social, commercial and technological developments in the entertainment and leisure sectors has given rise to a myriad of legal and regulatory issues. To give some examples, affected subsectors include fashion, professional sport, television, film, and social media.

However, while the chosen topic comprises many relevant subtopics, the intent behind this thematic is to shed new light on the leisure and entertainment industries specifically in Australia and to make focused, original contributions to the academic landscape. Accordingly, in writing submissions, authors may wish to explore the following issues.

Intellectual Property and Entertainment

·      Whether the individualised application of intellectual property law to specific entertainment industries (such as the film, music, and video game industries) aligns with broader historical trends in intellectual property law.

·      The application of critical economic theories to intellectual property law as applicable to specific entertainment industries within Australia.

·      How social and technology studies and cultural studies intersect with Australian intellectual property law in the context of entertainment.

·      Whether specific sectors of the cultural industries ought to be subject to altered intellectual property regimes.

Sport, Entertainment, and the Law

·      Whether the rights of professional athletes are adequately protected by existing regulatory models that seek to balance such rights with entertainment.

·      Whether legal mechanisms for ensuring ethical governance in professional sport are sufficient.

·      The legal obligations of professional sporting leagues as per human rights frameworks.

·      The role of professional sporting tribunals in responding to shifting societal standards of misconduct and acceptability, and how such tribunals ought to respond.

·      Whether court-ordered blocking of illegal sports streaming is an effective model in Australia.

·      How Australian lawmakers should approach foreign investment in domestic sporting leagues from a human rights perspective.

Artificial Intelligence in Entertainment

·      Whether transparency regarding media creators’ use of artificial intelligence (‘AI’) is adequately upheld in the entertainment industry.

·      Whether foreign legal regimes regarding fair use and copyright sufficiently protect the rights and intellectual properties of Australian media creators.

·      Issues regarding AI models that are trained on copyrighted data and produce audiovisual material (such as in the film industry).

·      How the law should regulate entertainment generated by AI models.

·      The need for new legal provisions to address the challenges posed by AI in the realm of intellectual property.

Online Media and the Law

·      Whether and how existing regulatory regimes within Australia adequately hold social media platforms responsible for unethical behaviour.

·      Whether ‘astroturfing’ via social media requires a regulatory response.

·      Whether specific vulnerable groups are adequately protected by existing laws regarding online forums and content.

·      How the law should approach the inclusion of vulnerable groups in privately controlled online forums.

However, authors are not limited to these topics and are encouraged to draw upon their own interests and expertise in relation to Australian law. The Journal welcomes inter-disciplinary approaches to these issues and questions.

The submission deadline for the thematic Issue 50(2) is 15 November 2026, with publication set for late July 2027. Any changes to these deadlines will be updated on the Journal’s website.

Submissions should be between 7,000 and 13,000 words in length, excluding footnotes. The style guide for the Journal is the fourth edition of the Australian Guide to Legal Citation, as supplemented by the latest edition of the Journal’s ‘Additions’, which is available on our website.

The Journal is an independent, peer-reviewed publication. While publication is subject to peer review, publication decisions remain at the Editor’s discretion, in counsel with the Executive Committee of the Journal. The Journal does not publish articles that have been, or will be, published elsewhere, either in identical or substantially similar form. Please contact the Journal at law.journal@unsw.edu.au if you are interested or have queries about submitting for Issue 50(2).

If you intend to submit an article, it would be greatly appreciated if you could please provide some early indication of your proposed topic or area of research. We strongly encourage you to pass this call for submissions to any colleagues, research networks or organisations who may be interested in making a submission.

Yours sincerely,

Nathan Choi
Editor, Issue 50(2)