The Road Ahead: Doctoral Research in Law

Today, I officially commenced the Doctor of Philosophy in Law at Macquarie University, with a full scholarship and stipend. For the next three years, I will be researching the relationship between international law and nationalism. I am excited and eager to be starting my doctorate, but also nervous and a little overwhelmed.

‘Peoples, Places and Power: Nationalism and the Limits of International Law’

That’s a good title, isn’t it? ‘Peoples, Places and Power’ came to me quite early on in developing my research proposal. It seemed a neat phrase to sum up the topic. Nationalism is about nations, their homelands, and their political ambitions; international law is about states, their territory, and their sovereignty.

The idea of researching nationalism in an international law context emerged from my Master of Research thesis. I was writing about naturalised citizens and the right to stand for public office. Many countries prohibit people who were not born citizens from holding certain public offices. In the United States, for example, ‘No Person except a natural born Citizen … shall be … President.’¹

In my thesis, I argued that such prohibitions are inconsistent with international human rights norms against discrimination because they unjustifiably exclude migrant citizens from fully participating in political life.

While researching, I was intrigued by the notion of controlling participation in public culture more broadly. I discovered that the Constitution of Liberia provides that, ‘[i]n order to preserve, foster and maintain the positive Liberian culture, values and character, only persons who are Negroes or of Negro descent shall qualify by birth or by naturalization to be citizens of Liberia.’² This was outside the scope of my master’s thesis, but I took mental note of it.

Restricting citizenship based on race seems obviously inconsistent with current human rights norms against discrimination,³ and it made me think about how countries control the identities of their population. That led me to contemplate the nation-state: a country whose population is ethnically homogenous. Is such an entity sustainable in light of international human rights expectations?

It seemed to me that maintaining ethnic homogeneity would be difficult without discrimination, ethnic cleansing or genocide. Such policies would constitute human rights violations and crimes against humanity under international law. Deliberately preserving a nation-state would therefore be problematic.

At the same time, international law strongly favours existing states’ territorial integrity. An ethnic group that wanted to establish a new nation-state by breaking away from an existing state would challenge that norm.

As I dug into the literature, I found that the situation was more complicated than I’d initially thought. There was some evidence that human rights norms accommodate states’ efforts to preserve national identity to the detriment of ethnic minorities,⁴ and suggestion that territorial integrity can protect the nation-state if the population of a state is assumed to constitute a single nation defined by political rather than ethnic identity.⁵ However, research in this area seemed often dated and inconsistent.

Coincidentally, while thinking about this, I received a bundle of documents relating to my grandfather’s experience of the Second World War. They revealed that he had been transported from Poland to work as a forced labourer in Austria in 1940. Two years later he was arrested for fathering a child with an ethnic German. Instead of being executed, he was sent to a concentration camp for ‘Germanisation’ — transformation from subhuman Pole to German superman. In order to better understand, I read a number of articles and books about Nazi Germany’s subjugation and intended genocide of the Polish nation, and the postwar trials of those responsible.

At the centre of these issues is a political doctrine: nationalism. This doctrine emphasises the importance of the nation in political affairs. It underpins movements to maintain and establish new nation-states, including by force, and it can fuel war when the boundaries, existence and legitimacy of nations are disputed. Nationalism thus challenges the international legal order’s commitment to peace, security and human rights.

All of this pointed me towards researching nationalism and the limits of international law.

‘The Great Crusade’

You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months … Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely.⁶

Writing a thesis is a challenge. The enormity of the undertaking is something I admit that I am struggling to accept. I’ve described my situation as ‘being paid to write a book over three years.’ I’ve never written a book. The closest I’ve come is a little under 20,000 words in 11 months.

People have tried to reassure me. It hasn’t really worked. I’m not a very confident person. I wasn’t even sure that I would be offered a place at Macquarie. Although I’m a good researcher and writer, my research experience is limited, and I’m yet to be published. My master’s thesis earnt me the university medal, but I had to take some time off and haven’t really capitalised on that achievement.

This is just nervousness. I know that I’m clever and talented and not the first to be going through this. Yet it’s hard not to feel that over the next three years I have to cross a great dark chasm, and I’m waiting to be given a rope and a torch. I just have to trust that they will come.

Calendar

My calendar has started to fill up. Tomorrow — Monday — I am meeting with my supervisor and associate supervisor on campus. Fortunately, Sarah, who supervised my MRes, was willing and able to supervise me through the PhD. I think we both realised that, while I am self-directed, I tend to work in bursts rather than making steady, consistent progress. Sarah will be a firm hand on the tiller to help ensure I meet targets and deadlines.

Then, on Wednesday, I have a welcome afternoon tea for higher degree research candidates at Macquarie Law School. This will be an opportunity to meet the staff and my fellow candidates. Because I completed both of my master’s degrees during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, and law is often a solitary discipline anyway, I didn’t get much of an opportunity to socialise or network with my peers. I’m looking forward to changing that this time around and getting out of my comfort zone.

In early March there is also a general welcome morning tea for PhD and MPhil candidates, where I’ll meet my fellow research candidates, the graduate research leadership team, and key contacts in the Faculty of Arts (to which the Law School belongs), as well as learn about available resources and support.

Before that, though, there are a bunch of ‘researcher development’ events. I intend to hit the ground running and have signed up for a few. Beginning in mid-February is a 10-week series of intensive writing workshops. I am a fairly good writer already, but I struggle with things like literature reviews and don’t have much experience in presenting research. There’s also a session in mid-March that explains the thesis examination process. Although that’s a long way off, if it’s never too early to think about it.

More to come

In addition to writing a thesis, I have three priorities: publishing, teaching, and studying abroad.

My research needs to be published or it will go to waste. This is something of a mystery to me. I have no idea how people get published, and have received no help in my academic career to make it happen, so I’ll be speaking with my supervisor(s) about it as soon as possible.

Several people have suggested that I would be good at teaching, and there’s only one way to find out. While I haven’t taught anyone yet, I do enjoy going over legal concepts with students. Teaching has always been a serious option for me — I would have become a history teacher if I hadn’t studied music, and I would have become a music teacher if I hadn’t studied law.

Studying abroad has long been an ambition of mine, but my efforts have been thwarted by administrative problems and pandemics. Macquarie has a good joint PhD programme with several partner institutions, and my supervisor says she has a contact at one of them.

Fingers crossed!

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