Peter Burdon

Dr Peter Burdon

Associate Professor

Adelaide Law School

Faculty of the Professions

Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD - email supervisor to discuss availability.

Peter Burdon is Associate Professor at the Adelaide Law School. He is the deputy chair of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, Ethics Specialist Group, deputy director of the Global Network for the Study of Human Rights and the Environment for Australasia and sits on the steering committee of the Ecological Law and Governance Association. Within the University, Peter sits on the University Student Matters Sub-Committee and the Faculty of Professions Diversity and Inclusion Committee. Peter is also a member of the ALLY Network which promotes an inclusive and respectful university environent for all who identify as LGBTIQ and a delegate for the NTEU.

Peter's research uses interdisciplinary materials from sociology, political science, economics, philosophy, history and environmental studies. Peter is a recognised leader in environmental theory and has written and edited books on Earth Jurisprudence and Earth Democracy. In 2017 he published a book on Hannah Arendt and the trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann. He is currently working on a project about the surveillance of environmental activists and on a commentary of Karl Marx's 'On the Jewish Question.'

In 2014 Peter was a visiting scholar at the University of California Berkeley, Center for Law and Society. In 2017 Peter was a visiting scholar at McGill University, Faculty of Law and a visiting professor at the McGill School of the Environment, Departments of Geography, and Natural Resource Sciences. In 2017 Peter was also a visiting professor at the Université de Montréal, Faculty of Law where he taught a course in legal theory for the inaugural LLD Innovation and Technology Program. Peter has also been invited to lecture at the University of Auckland, Faculty of Law; the University of Arizona, Faculty of Law and the School of Geography and Development; and San Francisco State University, Department of Political Science 

Peter publishes regularly in outlets such as the Sydney Review of Books, The Conversation, The Drum, Overland, New Matilda, Independent Australia and various state and national news papers.

Research Interests

  • Environmental Law and Theory
    • Earth Jurisprudence
    • Protest Law and Civil Disobedience
    • Climate Change Law and Policy
  • Political Theory
    • Hannah Arendt
    • Conservative Legal Thinking 
    • Marxist State Theory and Anarchist Political Philosophy
    • Classics - Greek and Roman Myth and History.
  • Legal Education
    • Critical Thinking and Democracy
    • Neoliberalism and the University

Orcid: 0000-0003-0967-4987
Scopus: 36503541200
Web of Science ResearcherID: N-6654-2017

University of Adelaide, Faculty of the Professions, Diversity and Inclusion Grant 2017, $2,000.

University of Adelaide, Faculty of the Professions and Adelaide Law School, Combined Cat 1 and Momentum Fund Grants 2013-2015, $20,000 for 'Psychology of Property' Pilot and ARC DP Projects.

University of Adelaide, Green Loan Fund 2014, $5,000.

University of Adelaide, Green Loan Fund 2013, $5,000.

My teaching style has been influenced by the educational writings of John Dewey, Paulo Freire, bell hooks, Mary Heath and Stephen Brookfield. I seek to create an educational space that is inclusive, democratic and which encourages critical thinking.

I teach the following courses:

LAW 1506 - Property Law

LAW 2526 - Legal Theory (Special Topic, Hannah Arendt & Eichmann in Jerusalem)

LAW 3505 - Aboriginal Peoples and the Law

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  • Current Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)
    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2018 Co-Supervisor Investing in 'Home': Theorising the State's Role in Distributing 'Home' Ownership. Is there a Just Distribution of 'Home' in Australia, and whose Responsibility is this? Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Samuel Paul Tyrer
    2017 Co-Supervisor Improving legal education in Australia: towards a new law school curriculum Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Joshua Krook
    2017 Principal Supervisor International Law, International Relations and Climate Change Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Geoffrey William George Leane
    2017 Co-Supervisor Opinion as Law: University Compliance with Ideo-Political Education Policy Regarding Pedagogy in Chinese Universities Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Mr Michael Shaun Patrick Hooper
    2014 Principal Supervisor Environmental Law: Ocean/Climate Science Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Claire Marie Williams

  • Past Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)
    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2017 - 2019 Co-Supervisor Posthuman Legal Subjectivity in the Anthropocene: Introducing the Cosmic Person Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Rev Jana Norman
    2015 - 2019 Co-Supervisor Demystifying Critical Legal Studies Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time James Gilchrist Stewart
    2014 - 2018 Principal Supervisor Lawful Cruelty: Six Ways in Which Australian Animal Welfare Laws Permit Cruelty Towards Nonhuman Animals Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Katherine Elizabeth Russell
  • Position: Associate Professor
  • Phone: 83134446
  • Email: peter.d.burdon@adelaide.edu.au
  • Campus: North Terrace
  • Building: Ligertwood Building, floor 3
  • Room: 3 28
  • Org Unit: Adelaide Law School
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