Secrecy, Law and Society

Commentators have shown how a ‘culture of security’ ushered in after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 has involved exceptional legal measures and increased recourse to secrecy on the basis of protecting public safety and safeguarding national security. In this context, scholars have largely been preoccupied with the ways that increased security impinges upon civil liberties. While secrecy is justified on public interest grounds, there remains a tension between the need for secrecy and calls for openness, transparency and disclosure.

In law, secrecy has implications for the separation of powers, due process, and the rule of law, raising fundamental concerns about open justice, procedural fairness and human rights. Beyond the counterterrorism and legal context, scholarly interest in secrecy has been concerned with the credibility of public and private institutions, as well as the legacies of secrecy across a range of institutional and cultural settings.

By exploring the intersections between secrecy, law and society, this volume is a timely and critical intervention in secrecy debates traversing various fields of legal and social inquiry. It will be a useful resource for academic researchers, university teachers and students, as well as law practitioners and policymakers interested in the legal and socio-legal dimensions of secrecy.

Greg Martin is a Senior Lecturer in Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Sydney. Among other things, his research interests are currently in: secret evidence and criminal law; social movements, law and policing; and cultural criminology. He is author of several titles including Understanding Social Movements (Routledge 2015).

Rebecca Scott Bray is Co-Director, Institute of Criminology, Sydney Law School, and Senior Lecturer in Socio-Legal Studies, Department of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Sydney. Her research interests lie at the intersections of law, criminology and culture, with a specific focus on issues around the dead.

Miiko Kumar is a Barrister at Jack Shand Chambers and a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the University of Sydney, teaching both compulsory and elective courses in Evidence and Procedure. Miiko was admitted as a solicitor in 1996 and called to the Bar in 2001.