The Australasian Law Teachers Association (ALTA) is a professional body which represents the interests of law teachers in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 and the South Pacific

Australasia

Australasia is a region of Oceania comprising Australia, New Zealand, the island of New Guinea, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term was coined by Charles de Brosses in Histoire des navigations aux terres australes...

. To promote excellence in legal academic teaching and research with particular emphasis on early career academics, throughout Australasia.

Activities

(a) Legal research and scholarship;

(b) Curriculum advancement of pedagogical improvements in view of national and international developments, including law reform;

(c) Government policies and practices that relate to legal education and research;

(d) Professional development opportunities for legal academics;

(e) Professional legal education and practices programs.

Membership is open to teachers of law and law librarians in tertiary institutions in the above countries.

ALTA supports the endeavours of Law Academics, in particular around Legal Education, Legal Research and career development. Members have the opportunity to join a number of Interest Groups which puts them in touch with other academics in their field(s). There are currently over 30 Interest Groups, and a list of groups and Interest Group Conveners can be found toward the end of booklet or online at http://www.alta.edu.au/convenors.html

Annual Conferences

ALTA holds an Annual Conference which is held at a different law school each year. Previous Conferences have been hosted by The University of Auckland (2010), The University of Western Sydney (2009), James Cook University (2008), The University of Western Australia (2007), Victoria University (2006), The University of Waikato (2005) as well as Charles Darwin University in 2004. The 2011 Conference was held at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane. The 2012 ALTA Conference will be hosted by the Faculty of Law, The University of Sydney from 1-4 July 2012 (http://sydney.edu.au/law/alta/index.shtml). The Conference theme is 'Legal Education for a Global Community'. The Conference provides a supportive environment for academics to present papers on their areas of research, and is also a great place to develop networks and friendships with other academics within Australasia.

Awards conferred

There are also a number of awards running which correspond with the conference such as the LexisNexis - Australasian Law Teachers Association Award for Excellence and Innovation in the Teaching of Law as well as the CCH-ALTA Best Conference Paper Awards which include a Major Category Award, Early Career Award and Best Paper presented in the Legal Education Interest Group Award. Further information about each of these awards can be found online at http://www.alta.edu.au/Awards.htm

Publications

Publications of the association are held in numerous libraries in Australia.

Legal Education Review: ALTA’s own Legal Education publication which publishes both General Articles and Practice Articles on Legal Education and is published annually. http://www.ler.edu.au

Journal of the Australasian Law Teachers Association: ALTA’s journal containing diverse areas of legal research as it is a collection of published ALTA conference papers. The papers can be from any interest group and are double-blind refereed before being accepted for publication in the journal. http://www.alta.edu.au/JALTA.htm

Legal Education Digest: Publication of the Centre for Legal Education, UTS, is published tri-annually and is a reviewof articles and other publications which focus on Legal Education. Over 200 journals, including working papers and research monographs, are kept under review. http://www.alta.edu.au/legal_education_digest.htm

ALTA Law Research Series: The ALTA Legal Research Series includes full text documents submitted by our members. The material is housed on the Austlii website and the text is fully searchable using Austlii's powerful search engines. http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/ALRS/

ALTA Newsletter: Published bi-annually and includes an update on what is happening at ALTA, as well as conference and publication updates and other articles of interest. http://www.alta.edu.au/alta_newsletters.html