Wokeshevism – Special Edition of the Western Australian Jurist – Now Available!

Established in 2010, The Western Australian Jurist, is the academic journal of the Western Australian Legal Theory Association (WALTA). The Association and its law journal are currently based at Sheridan Institute of Higher Education.

The Western Australian Jurist selects for publication high-quality papers on any topic related to legal theory, regardless of ideological perspectives. The journal is renowned for attracting high-calibre contributors who are the leaders in their respective fields.

We are delighted to announce the publication of Volume 12 of the Western Australian Jurist. In this special edition, various authors offer insights into the woke revolution sweeping Western nations, including the United States and Australia.  

AN OVERVIEW OF THIS SPECIAL EDITION

This volume of The Western Australian Jurist is split into three sections. The first section deals with the topic of Wokeshevism. The second section contains general articles. The third section contains a book review.

Here is an overview of the first section:

• Professor James Allan remarks that he is spoiled for choice when writing about Wokeshevism. However, he settles on discussing the High Court of Australia’s decision in Love v The Commonwealth, which he describes as ‘wokeness on steroids’. (We note that since Professor Allan wrote this article, the Coalition government under Prime Minister Scott Morrison sought to overturn Love. However, the new Labor government under Anthony Albanese dropped the case.)

• Dr Kevin Donnelly AM covers the impact of critical theory and cancel culture on higher education. Moves to ‘decolonise’ the curriculum have undermined the search for wisdom and truth that once characterised a liberal education. Fortunately, Dr Donnelly notes signs of resistance to this trend.

• Professor Anthony Gray examines the use of postmodern CRT to justify restrictions on freedom of speech. Noting that all sides of politics should support freedom of speech (but aren’t), he calls for strong speech to defend it.

• Peter Kurti argues that Critical Theory significantly influences public discourse in Australia, and that it threatens liberal traditions of tolerance and liberty. He examines the flaws in Critical Theory, and provides principles to guide responses to critics who condemn Australia as systemically racist, misogynistic, homophobic, and colonial.

• Michael McMahon traces the intellectual origins of ‘Cancel Culture’, noting the influence of Sigmund Freud, Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Marx, Antonio Gramsci, Michel Foucault and The Frankfurt School. He uses the concept of ‘vision’ to determine the vision that drives Critical Theory and Cancel Culture, and evaluates the latter’s effects on society.

• Alex Millard and John Steenhof examine the influence of Critical Theory on certain Australian vilification laws. They argue that these laws are strongly connected to core principles of Critical Theory. However, these principles are antithetical to a healthy democracy and a free exchange of ideas. Hence, vilification laws risk suppressing debate and eroding Australian democracy.

• Professor Gabriël Moens AM discusses two interrelated aspects of Wokeshevism, the Black Lives Matter (‘BLM’) Movement and CRT, in the context of the destruction of monuments and statues. He notes that the BLM Movement aims to eradicate endemic racism, and that CRT argues that non-white people experience systemic discrimination. However, both the BLM Movement and CRT reintroduce race as a defining characteristic to divide society.

• Professor Steven Alan Samson considers state of Western civilization in light of the decline of the Christian faith within it. Now that cultural revolutionaries have come to claim it, whether Western civilization endures depends on the mettle of those who inherited it.

• Professor Augusto Zimmermann examines the influence on Marx on Adolf Hitler and the Nazis. He argues that Marxism prepares the ideological mindset for state-sanctioned extermination of people on a massive scale. He notes the obvious similarities between Marxist class-warfare that destroys people because of social class, and Nazi race-warfare that destroys people because of ethnicity.

Here is an overview of the second section:

• Professor Robert P George addresses questions of natural law, natural law and human dignity, the natural law theory of human rights, the role that ideas and beliefs about God and divine will play in natural rights, and whether natural law theories are fundamentally concerned with rules or with virtues. He also addresses distinctions between new natural law theory and other natural law theories, and between new natural law theory and utilitarian and Kantian theories.

• Andrew Kulikovsky examines the assumptions and claims supporting legislation banning ‘conversion therapy’ in certain Australian jurisdictions. He argues that these assumptions and claims are without foundation, and those supporting such bans have become increasingly intolerant and authoritarian.

• Laurie Stewart compares four major worldviews and their impact on laws regarding the treatment of women. These worldviews are Islam, Atheist, Hindu, and Christian. She argues that Christianity is the only worldview that offers the best hope for recognising the value, dignity, worth and equality of women.

In the book review section, Joshua Forrester returns to the subject of Wokeshevism by reviewing Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity – and Why This Harms Everyone, and Counter Wokecraft: A Field Manual for Combatting the Woke in the University and Beyond.

CONTENTS

Introduction

Augusto Zimmermann (Editor-in-Chief) & Joshua Forrester (Academic Editor)

1 – Wokery and High Court “Otherness”

James Allan

2 – The Origins and Impact of Neo-Marxist Ideology and Cancel Culture on the Academy

Kevin Donnelly AM

3 – Freedom of Speech in the Woke Era: The Swastika Ban, Critical Race Theory and State Neutrality

Anthony Gray

4 – Critical Theory, Wokeshevism and The Chasm of Incoherence

Peter Kurti

5 – The Genesis of Critical Theory and Cancel Culture

Michael McMahon

6 – Vilification Laws: Tools for Tyranny

Alexander Millard & John Steenhof

7 – Being Awake to Woke

Gabriël A Moens AM

8 – Cultural Vandalism: Lust to Rule, Road to Ruin

Steven Alan Samson

9 – “Get Your Own Marx, Statue Topplers!” The Links Between Marxism, Racism and Genocide

Augusto Zimmermann

10 – Natural Law, God, and Human Dignity

Robert P George

11 – Psychological Harm and the Prohibition of “Conversion Therapy”

Andrew S Kulikovsky

12 – A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Women, Religion and the Law

Laurie Anne Stewart

Book Review: Heart of Wokeness: A Review of Cynical Theories and Counter Wokecraft

Joshua Forrester

THE EDITORS

Augusto Zimmermann LLB (Hons.), LLM cum laude, PhD (Monash), DipEd, CIArb is Professor and Head of Law at Sheridan Institute of Higher Education in Perth, Western Australia. He is also the Founder and President of the Western Australian Legal Theory Association, the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Western Australian Jurist, an Elected Fellow at the International Academy for the Study of the Jurisprudence of the Family, and a former Vice-President of the Australasian Society of Legal Philosophy. From 2012 to 2017 Professor Zimmermann served as a Law Reform Commissioner with the Law Reform Commission of Western Australia. Professor Zimmermann was also the Murdoch University Law School’s Associate Dean for Research (2009-2012). While working at that university, he was awarded the 2012 Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research, and two Law School Dean’s Research Awards, in 2010 and 2011. He served on numerous academic bodies at Murdoch, including: the Research Degree and Scholarships Committee; the Vice Chancellor’s Awards and Citations Committee; the Academic Council’s Freedom of Speech in Policies and Procedures Advisory Group; and the Academic Staff Promotions Advisory Committee. In January 2015, Professor Zimmermann was invited by the Tasmanian Chief Justice to address the ‘Opening of the Legal Year’ in that state. He is the author/co-author/editor/co-editor of numerous academic books, including Foundations of the Australian Legal System: History, Theory and Practice (LexisNexis, 2023); Christian Foundations of the Common Law, 3 Volumes (Connor Court Publishing, 2018); No Offence Intended: Why 18c is Wrong (Connor Court Publishing, 2016); Global Perspectives on Subsidiarity (Springer, 2014); and Western Legal Theory: History, Concepts and Perspectives (LexisNexis, 2013).

Joshua Forrester is a lecturer at the Sheridan Institute of Higher Education and the Editor of The Western Australian Jurist. He graduated with First Class Honours in Politics and International Studies from Murdoch University in 1999. Joshua practiced in commercial litigation and has taught a number of law units. In 2008, he was awarded a Vice-Chancellor’s Commendation for Teaching at the University of Notre Dame Australia. Joshua is the lead author of No Offence Intended: Why 18C is Wrong, which is listed as one of The Spectator’s best books of 2016. A solely-authored chapter of his appears in Freedom of Religion or Belief: Creating the Constitutional Space for Fundamental Freedoms, published by Edward Elgar Publishing. His shorter words have appeared in The Conversation, Policy, and Quadrant. Joshua has appeared before various parliamentary inquiries, including the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights inquiry into s 18c, and the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Human Rights Sub-Committee inquiry into freedom of religion and belief. 

CONTRIBUTORS

James Allan is the Garrick Professor of Law at the University of Queensland. He has degrees from Queen’s University, the London School of Economics and the University of Hong Kong. Before arriving in Australia in February of 2005, he spent 11 years teaching law in New Zealand at the University of Otago and before that lectured law in Hong Kong. Professor Allan has had sabbaticals at the Cornell Law School, at the Dalhousie Law School in Canada as the Bertha Wilson Visiting Professor in Human Rights, and at the University of San Diego School of Law. His main areas of interest are legal and moral philosophy, constitutional law and bills of rights. He has published widely in these areas, including in all the top English language legal philosophy journals in the U.S., the U.K., Canada and Australia, much the same being true of constitutional law journals as well. He writes regularly for The Spectator Australia, Quadrant and The Australian. His latest book is entitled The Age of Foolishness: A Doubter’s Guide to Constitutionalism in a Modern Democracy (Academica Press, 2022).

Kevin Donnelly AM is a Senior Research Fellow at the PM Glynn Institute at the Australian Catholic University.  His PhD thesis (La Trobe University 1994) was entitled: “The New Orthodoxy in English Teaching: A Critque”. Kevin is one of Australia’s leading conservative education authors and cultural critics.  Books include: Dumbing Down, How Political Correctness is Destroying Australia, The Culture of Freedom, A Politically Correct Dictionary and Guide and Cancel Culture and the Left’s Long March.  Kevin also writes for the daily print media and the London based The Conservative Woman.Since first warning about the destructive impact of neo-Marxist inspired critical theory and political correctness in the mid-90s Dr Donnelly has staunchly defended Western Civilisation, Judeo-Christianity and a liberal view of education committed to the pursuit of rationality, truth and wisdom.  Kevin taught for 18 years in Victorian government and non-government secondary schools.  During that time he was a member of state and national curriculum bodies, including the Victorian Board of Studies, the Year 12 English Panel of Examiners, the Commonwealth funded Discovering Democracy Programme and the Inquiry into the Australian Certificate of Education.In 2014 Kevin was appointed to co-chair a review of the Australian National Curriculum and in 2016 he received an Order of Australia for services to education.  Kevin’s website is kevindonnelly.com.au.

Robert P. George is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. He is also frequently a Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School. In addition to his academic service, Professor George has served as Chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. He has also served on the President’s Council on Bioethics, as a presidential appointee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights, and as the U.S. member of UNESCO’s World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology. He is a former Judicial Fellow at the Supreme Court of the United States, where he received the Justice Tom C. Clark Award. He serves on the boards of the Templeton Religion Trust, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Ethics and Public Policy Center, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, and the Center for Individual Rights, among others. Professor George is author of Making Men Moral:  Civil Liberties and Public Morality (Oxford University Press, 1993), In Defense of Natural Law (Oxford University Press, 1999), The Clash of Orthodoxies (ISI, 2001) and Conscience and Its Enemies (ISI, 2013). He is co-author of Conjugal Union: What Marriage Is (Cambridge University Press, 2014), Embryo: A Defense of Human Life (2^nd edition, Doubleday, 2011), Body-Self Dualism in Contemporary Ethics and Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2008), and What is Marriage? (Encounter, 2012). He is editor of several volumes, including Natural Law Theory: Contemporary Essays (Oxford University Press, 1992), The Autonomy of Law: Essays on Legal Positivism (Oxford University Press, 1996), Natural Law, Liberalism, and Morality (Oxford University Press, 1996), and Great Cases in Constitutional Law (Princeton University Press, 2000), and co-editor of the Cambridge Companion to Natural Law (Cambridge University Press, 2017). Professor George’s articles and review essays have appeared in the Harvard Law Review, the Yale Law Journal, the Columbia Law Review, the University of Chicago Law Review, the Review of Politics, the Review of Metaphysics, and the American Journal of Jurisprudence.  He has also written for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, First Things, the Boston Review, and the Times Literary Supplement. A graduate of Swarthmore College, Professor George holds M.T.S. and J.D. degrees from Harvard University and the degrees of D.Phil., B.C.L., D.C.L., and D.Litt. from Oxford University. He holds twenty-two honorary degrees, including doctorates of law, letters, ethics, science, divinity, humane letters, civil law, law and moral values, humanities, and juridical science. He is a recipient of the United States Presidential Citizens Medal, the Honorific Medal for the Defense of Human Rights of the Republic of Poland, the Bradley Prize for Intellectual and Civic Achievement, the Philip Merrill Award of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, the Paul Bator Award of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy, the Sidney Hook Award of the National Association of Scholars, a Silver Gavel Award of the American Bar Association, the Charles Fried Award of the Harvard Law School Federalist Society, the Irving Kristol Award of the American Enterprise Institute, and Princeton University’s President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching.

Anthony Gray is a Professor of Law and Associate Head – Research at the School of Law and Justice at the University of Southern Queensland.  He has published more than 130 sole-authored refereed articles, and has authored numerous research monographs, including ‘Evolution from Strict Liability to Fault in Law of Torts’ (Hart, 2021), ‘Freedom of Speech in Practice: Controversial Applications of Law and Theory’ (Lexington, 2019), and ‘Freedom of Speech in the West: Comparison and Critique’ (Lexington, 2019). He specialises in constitutional law and human rights, including freedom of speech.  He is a former Director at the Queensland Law Society, and former consultant with Engineering Education Australia.

Andrew S. Kulikovsky LLB, BAppSc (Hons), MA is the author of numerous academic articles and the book entitled Creation, Fall, Restoration: A Biblical Theology of Creation (Mentor Press, 2009), which provides a case for the authority of Scripture in all areas it discusses, in particular in the area of origins. Andrew is a PhD candidate at Charles Sturt University in the areas of public policy and theology, specifically in the application of Thomas Sowell’s A Conflict of Visions.

Peter Kurti is Director of the Culture, Prosperity & Civil Society program at the Centre of Independent Studies (‘CIS’), in Sydney. He is also Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Law at the University of Notre Dame Australia, and Adjunct Research Fellow at the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture at Charles Sturt University. He has written extensively about issues of religion, liberty, and civil society in Australia, and appears frequently as a commentator on television and radio. In addition to having written many newspaper articles, he is also the author of The Tyranny of Tolerance: Threats to Religious Liberty in Australia; Euthanasia: Putting the Culture to Death?; and Sacred & Profane: Faith and Belief in a Secular Society, published by Connor Court Publishing. Peter is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and an ordained minister in the Anglican Church of Australia.

Fr Michael McMahon OMI holds a BA (Hons.) in Philosophy from the University College Dublin, and a MA in Psychoanalysis from Deakin University. He is specialised in EMDR and trauma therapy. Presently lecturing in Literature, English and Religious Education at Mazenod and St Brigid’s Colleges Lesmurdie, Fr Michael worked for over 40 years as a psychotherapist and family therapist in Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth. He has trained counsellors and therapists in Papua New Guinea, Brisbane and Perth.

Alexander Millard is a solicitor at the Human Rights Law Alliance (‘HRLA’). He graduated with First Class Honours in International and Global Studies from the University of Sydney in 2014, his honours thesis exploring the institutional development of the European Union. He then graduated with a Juris Doctor in Law from the University of Sydney in 2018. After several years at a private consultancy, Alexander joined the legal team at HRLA to work for the protection of religious freedom rights of Christians and other religious groups in Australia.

Gabriël A. Moens AM is Emeritus Professor of Law, The University of Queensland. He served as Pro Vice Chancellor, Dean and Professor of Law, Murdoch University. He also served as Head, Graduate School of Law, The University of Notre Dame Australia; Garrick Professor of Law, The University of Queensland; and Professor of Law, Curtin University. In 1999, Professor Moens received the Australian Award for University Teaching in Law and Legal Studies. In 2003, the Prime Minister of Australia awarded him the Australian Centenary Medal for services to education. He was named the “International Alumnus of the Year” by the Pritzker Law School of Northwestern University, Chicago in 2019. In June 2019 he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for services to the law and higher education. Professor Moens is a Membre Titulaire, International Academy of Comparative Law, Paris; a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management (WA); a Fellow of the College of Law; a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law, and a Fellow of the Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (ACICA). He is author/co-author/editor/co-editor of Enduring Ideas, Connor Court Publishing 2020; The Himalaya Clause, Connor Court Publishing, 2020; Law of International Business in Australasia (2nd  ed), The Federation Press, 2019; The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia Annotated (9th  ed, LexisNexis Butterworths, 2016); Arbitration and Dispute Resolution in the Resources Sector: An Australian Perspective (Springer, 2015); Jurisprudence of Liberty (2nd ed, LexisNexis, 2011); Commercial Law of the European Union (Springer, 2010); and International Trade and Business: Law, Policy and Ethics (2nd ed, Routledge/Cavendish, 2006). His debut novel A Twisted Choice, a thriller exploring the origins of Covid-19, was published in 2020 by Boolarong Press. A short story, entitled ‘The Greedy Prospector’, appeared in an anthology of short stories, The Outback, in 2021.

Steven Alan Samson is a retired Professor of Government and former Department Chairman with the Helms School of Government at Liberty University who also has taught history, geography, and humanities since 1977.  His research and writing focus on the European and American intellectual, cultural, and constitutional traditions, giving particular attention to the influence of Christianity and its ideological challengers.  Dr Samson holds the B.A. and M.A. degrees in political science from the University of Colorado and the Ph.D. from the University of Oregon.  He is a member of the Philadelphia Society, the Academy of Philosophy and Letters.  He was also a board member of University Professors for Academic Order and a Salvatori Fellow with the Heritage Foundation.  A resident of Washington State, he pursues research and educational projects, occasionally gives guest lectures, and writes for such publications as The Market for Ideas, Townhall Finance, and Review of Social and Economic Issues.

John Steenhof is the principal lawyer at the Human Rights Law Alliance (‘HRLA’). HRLA is an independent, not-for-profit Australian law firm that specialises in protecting the religious freedoms of Australians. John graduated from the University of Otago in 2000 with degrees in law and science and has over twenty years commercial practice experience that includes starting his own successful firm in Western Australia. In 2019 John started HRLA and since then has been regularly acting for clients in religious freedom cases, advising Christians and religious groups on how to preserve their legal rights to act in accordance with their beliefs. John also appears at numerous parliamentary committee review hearings, advocating at Federal and State level for laws that protect fundamental religious freedoms.

Laurie Anne Stewart earned her Juris Doctor degree from Chapman University School of Law in Orange, California; her M.A. in Christian Apologetics from the Talbot School of Theology (Biola University) in La Mirada, CA; and her B.A. from California State University Fullerton. Laurie is licensed to practice law in California and in Iowa. Trained in conflict coaching, mediation, and arbitration, Laurie assists parties in negotiating to resolve disputes. In Iowa, she served as President for Iowa Association of Mediators and on the Council for the ADR section of the Iowa State Bar Association. Laurie had the privilege of serving on the Iowa Supreme Court Family Law Task Force ADR Work Group. As a trial attorney, Laurie has represented plaintiffs and defendants in a wide variety of civil matters, including defending religious liberty and traditional family values. In 2006, she received the C. William Carlson award from Pacific Justice Institute for her “exceptional level of integrity and commitment.” In California, Laurie has served on the board of Women in Apologetics, the Orange County chapter of the Federalist Society, Orange County Women’s Lawyers, and Marketplace Women of Orange County. She currently serves on the board of Ratio Christi, Peacemaker Ministries, and Intelligent Faith. Laurie is also an Adjunct Professor at Trinity Law School. 

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