Скачать или смотреть 2025 James Merralls Fellowship in Law lecture

The Case for Cancelling Cancel Culture, presented by Sue Chrysanthou SC.

Cancel culture is the antithesis of reasoned, structured persuasion, she argues.

Unlike legal argument, and unlike traditional academic discourse, it seeks to traduce rather than to debate. It is a substantially modern phenomenon which infiltrates and undermines public and academic discussion and learning.

Cancel culture is not merely immature but infantile; it eschews rationality in favour of the mentality of the mob, using modern technology to do so. In contrast to historical punishments like ostracism and exile, it proceeds in an uncontrolled way, and often mistakes mere allegation for proved guilt.

It is fundamentally corrosive and ought to have no place in academic or public life.

This lecture series is named in honour of the late James Merralls AM QC, an alumnus of Melbourne Law School, who graduated LLB (Hons) in 1958. In addition to an illustrious practice at the Victorian Bar, Mr. Merralls was a reporter for the Commonwealth Law Reports between 1960 and 1969 and was the editor from 1969 to 2016.