Whitlam's Magnificent Obsession: Why International Law Still Matters

The Whitlam Institute invites you to the 2026 Whitlam Oration, Whitlam’s Magnificent Obsession: Why International Law Still Matters, to be delivered by Professor the Hon Gareth Evans AC KC.

Professor Evans will argue that, at a time when the world’s great powers are too often treating with contempt long-established global rules, norms and institutions, it has never been more important to reassert the indispensability of the international law system that Gough Whitlam so relentlessly championed.

Professor Evans served as a Cabinet Minister throughout the Hawke and Keating Governments as Attorney-General (1983-84), Minister for Resources and Energy (1984-87), Minister for Transport and Communications (1987-88), and Foreign Minister (1988-96) and as Leader of the Government in the Senate (1993-96). After leaving politics, he led the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (2000-09) and served as Chancellor of the Australian National University (2010-19), where he is now Distinguished Honorary Professor.

Photo: Gareth Evans with Gough Whitlam and Lionel Murphy at Admiralty House, 1983.
Copyright: Ray Strange/Newspix.

Contact the host of 2026 Whitlam Oration