Love’s intersection with Australia’s legal system

Dr Alecia Simmonds has always been interested in the ways we govern intimate life. Here, she reflects on notable cases in Australia’s past that explored gender dynamics, emotion, love and relationships, and what is says about our legal frameworks. In this episode of The Lawyers Weekly Show, host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with UTS Faculty of Law associate professor Dr Alecia Simmonds about her academic work and interests, and the extent to which the legal battles that women have fought over the years have evolved.

Simmonds also discusses her recently released book – Courting: An Intimate History of Love and the Law – and how she came to pen it, the cases she covered that were of greatest personal and legal interest, how expectations and standards around the legalities of courtship have changed, the takeaways from those instances, whether Australian society has learnt the requisite lessons from such sociocultural proceedings, and how optimistic she is that we, as a nation, can ensure our legal frameworks can sufficiently govern love and relationships.

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If you have any questions about what you heard today, any topics of interest you have in mind, or if you'd like to lend your voice to the show, email editor@lawyersweekly.com.au for more insights!