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SSAC research fellow Dr Kate Seear presented a paper at the Biopolitics of Science and Medicine Symposium, held on Friday November 29th 2013 at Monash University’s Caulfield Campus.

Dr Seear presented findings from a new national pilot study (being undertaken in conjunction with Associate Professor Suzanne Fraser) that explores legal approaches to addiction, especially those outside the criminal law. The paper, called ‘Making up addicts: Enacting addiction outside the criminal law’ comprises an introductory  overview of the main objectives of the project and some of the preliminary findings of the study. Seear argued that addiction figures in a far wider number of legal realms than we might ordinarily appreciate, but that addiction is often defined and conceptualised very differently as between different areas of the law. She also argued that there has been little research on these different legal realms to date.

Seear highlighted some of the potential practical and policy implications of this important new study, and areas that will be investigated in future research.