A 1-day colloquium at the Menzies Centre for Australian StudiesSaturday, 5 October 2002.

Notions of popular sovereignty and the rights of free-born Britons were one of Britain’s most important and enduring exports during the long nineteenth century. Competing interpretations of a British heritage shaped political institutions and informed countless struggles in the self-governing colonies. Later in the century notions of British rights underpinned optimistic assessments of the antipodean colonies as worker’s paradises. This conference will present papers on notions of rights, popular sovereignty, and understandings of ‘the people’ in the British world since 1790. Speakers include scholars from England, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

Speakers include: Carl Bridge, Dorothy Thompson, Miles Taylor,Mark McKenna, Paul Pickering, John Williams, Neville Kirk, Kerry Taylor, and Phil Buckner.