Professor Shirley Veronica Scott

My Expertise

Politics of International law, international relations, international institutions, international security, diplomacy

Biography

Shirley Scott is a Professor of International Law and International Relations in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at UNSW Canberra.

Professor Scott's internationally-recognised research at the intersection of International Law and International Relations is especially relevant in light of current geopolitical and environmental challenges. One of her most significant contributions to scholarship has been her theory of international law as ideology. She has also contributed widely to scholarly understanding of theoretical questions arising in relation to the political operation of international law and of topics including the nature of US engagement with international law, the importance of international law to Australian security, Antarctic governance and non-militarization, international dispute resolution, and climate security governance. Professor Scott is contributing to contemporary analysis of threats to the international rules based order, how that order operated in the past, and the nature and significance of change to international law at a systemic level. She is also at the forefront of international debate regarding what constructive role the UN Security Council could play in addressing climate insecurity.

Professor Scott has held visiting fellowships and appointments including at Beasley School of Law, China Foreign Affairs University and the University of Hamburg. In 2020 she was a Senior Visiting Fellow with the Berlin-Potsdam Research Group on International Law, Rise or Decline at the Freie Universität. In 2023 Professor Scott was an academic observer in Helsinki with the Australian delegation to the 45th Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting and meeting of the Committee for Environmental Protection.

Professor Scott is co-chair of the Editorial Board of the Asian Journal of International Law and was President of the Asian Society of International Law from 2019-2021. She is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of International Affairs and of the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia. She has also made significant contributions to the International Law Section of the International Studies Association, including as Programme Chair and Section Chair.

Research areas

Politics of international law and the operation of the rules based global order, climate security governance and the scope for the UN Security Council to play a constructive role in addressing the climate and environmental crisis, Antarctic and ocean governance, Australia's foreign relations

Postgraduate Research Supervision

Professor Scott is available to supervise HDR candidates on a range of topics including those pertaining to the political operation of international law, national engagement with international law (on the part of the US, Australia, China, etc), international regimes and institutions, norms, the rules-based global order, Australia and international security, International Relations, Australia's foreign relations, Antarctica including its non-militarization, maritime security, and global climate governance.

Teaching areas

International Law and the Politics of international law; Cyberwar; Global governance and security; International Relations

For her Engagement story please click

My Research Activities

Current Projects include:

1) International Law as Ideology: Theorising international cooperation during the US era in international law and beyond

This project integrates and further develops my body of theoretical scholarship on International Law as Ideology (ILI Theory) to account for the processes and structures by which international law has facilitated international cooperation during the era of US dominance. Integral to ILI Theory, the Cognitive Structure of Cooperation (CSC) is an heuristic device for analysing international cooperation. It has been applied, inter alia, to the negotiation and implementation of multilateral treaties and the establishment, effectiveness, robustness and interaction of multilateral treaty regimes and international institutions. The CSC can also be used to assess changing structures and processes of international law and international cooperation being conducted in other institutions and forms. ILI Theory enables us to analyse contemporary developments in international law and to assess the potential impact of a challenge to the international law-based global order.

2) Antarctica and Geopolitical Change

This edited volume, to be published by Springer in 2024, is the capstone product of an ARC Discovery project led by Professor Marcus Haward, University of Tasmania. I am editing the volume together with Jeff McGee (UTas) and Tim Stephens (USyd). The project aims to analyse current and emerging geopolitical tensions within the Antarctic Treaty System. Geopolitical tension was a key factor in the formation of the 1959 Antarctic Treaty and continues to shape the evolution of the wider Antarctic Treaty System. The volume examines critical moments in the history of the Antarctic Treaty System and identifies key indicators of geopolitical tension in order to to draw lessons on successful management of these geopolitical tensions through institutional adaptation.

3) Global Climate Change Governance

The UN Security Council and Climate Change

A 2018 volume co-edited with Charlotte Ku was at that time the most extensive treatment of the scope for the UN Security Council to play a constructive role in global climate change governance. At that time debate was centred on whether the Council could or should address climate change. Our volume was future-oriented insofar as it looked at the potential value of various existing Council tools to make a constructive contribution and examined the legal and political issues involved. We are continuing to work on forward-thinking contributions to the international debate on this subject.

4) The Law of the Sea and the Planetary Crisis

This project, joint with Assoc. Prof. Nengue Liu of Singapore Management University, examines whether and how the law of the sea can address planetary uncertainties and contribute to a peaceful and sustainable future for the oceans.

The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) built a new legal order for the oceans. Nevertheless, 40 years after the adoption of the UNCLOS, we are again at a critical period of developing global ocean regimes.

We held a workshop in Singapore in 2023 with several of the authors, and we plan for this to be published in 2024.

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