About the conference

The Law and Culture Conference 2025—which is kindly supported by the Michael and Suzanne Borrin Foundation—will bring together Pacific scholars, legal experts, and community leaders to explore how Pacific legal systems can adapt to post-pandemic challenges while preserving cultural integrity and strengthening regional resilience.

The 2025 conference theme, ‘Navigating New Horizons - Pacific Legal Resilience in the Post-Pandemic Era’, draws inspiration from the rich Pacific tradition of navigation— a practice that combines ancestral knowledge with adaptability to changing conditions. Just as traditional navigators read the stars, winds, and ocean currents to chart new journeys, Pacific legal systems must now navigate the transformed post-pandemic landscape while staying true to their cultural foundations.

In the Pacific context, resilience is not merely about recovery or returning to a pre-existing state. Rather, it encompasses the capacity of legal systems to absorb shocks while preserving cultural integrity; the ability to adapt traditional governance approaches to meet emerging challenges; the strength derived from maintaining connections between law, culture, and community; and the wisdom to transform vulnerabilities into opportunities for innovation.

This conference seeks to explore how Pacific legal resilience manifests across multiple dimensions—from community-level responses to regional cooperation frameworks—and how these experiences can inform more culturally appropriate and effective legal approaches.

Register Now

Call for Submissions: Pasifika Law and Culture Conference 2025

The 9th Pasifika Law and Culture Conference invites submissions for individual papers and themed sessions. Selected papers may be considered for publication following the Conference.

Students, Academics, and early career researchers from across the University are particularly encouraged to participate.

• Abstract Deadline: Thursday, 1 May 2025 (300 words)
• Submissions: Email your abstract to admin@plcconference.com with the subject line “PLCC2025 Submission”
• Please include: Title, author name(s), institutional affiliation(s), and contact details

PLSS welcomes submissions that explore the following key themes:

Legal Resilience Indicators

• Cultural resilience and legal systems, which speak directly to adaptive legal frameworks.
• Intergenerational knowledge transfer, representing resilience through continuity.
• Culturally appropriate economic recovery approaches, reflecting pandemic-era adaptability.

Navigating New Horizons

• Digital sovereignty, addressing technological shifts post-pandemic.
• Virtual justice paradigms, representing innovative legal responses.
• Migration and external policy influences, highlighting emerging challenges.

Post-Pandemic Contextual Relevance

• Environmental and maritime governance, emphasising systemic vulnerabilities exposed during and since the pandemic.
• Sovereignty discussions, underscoring the need for robust, independent legal mechanisms.

Pacific legal resilience

• Post-pandemic navigation that centres on Pacific ways of knowing and being.