Institute for Ethics, Governance and Law research

The Institute for Ethics, Governance and Law (IEGL) conducts research across a broad range of issues and fields with a key focus on areas where ethics, governance and law intersect. This juncture is often underexplored, and IEGL’s research elucidates this relationship with the purpose of providing theoretical grounding as well as practical recommendations or frameworks for communities, industry, and governments.

IEGL members have been involved in a wide range of governance research and related issues, including research into:

  • sovereignty and the rule of law
  • protection of civilians
  • public sector governance
  • health governance
  • building the international rule of law
  • climate change and reconceiving the ‘good life’
  • intellectual property
  • global financial crisis
  • integrity systems
  • social licence to operate
  • rebuilding trust in the construction industry
  • ethics and values in the Blue Economy

Construction Building Integrity

This project investigates the role of professions in rebuilding trust in residential building construction in Australia. Led by Prof Charles Sampford, this research is supported by an ARC Linkage Grant – Construction Building Integrity: Raising standards through professionalism.

Blue Economy Research

This research explores the role of ethical and policy decision making in the Blue Economy. This research program has been undertaken in partnership with the Blue Economy Cooperative Research Centre and spans a number of projects including Integrating Blue Economy Governance Integrity Research; Ethics, values and social licence in the Blue Economy; and most recently Pre-conditions for the Development of Offshore Wind Energy in Australia.

Other research

Responsibility to Protect

The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) and the Protection of Civilians (PoC) Policy Guide  is a resource for policy makers and practitioners. Our guide contributes to efforts to protect civilians from conflict-related harm and mass atrocity crimes. Our guide explains and compares the twin principles of R2P and PoC in their normative, institutional and operational dimensions. We focus on the principle’s different actors and methods and set out the situations where the two principles come together for specific actors and organisations.

Recent Research Highlights

Rethinking blue economy governance – A blue economy equity model as an approach to operationalise equity (1 May 2024) Environmental Science and Policy 155 Croft F, Breakey H, et.al.

Why is the Gaza war tearing us apart? (28 May 2024) The Conversation Breakey, H

Breakey, Hugh (2023) ‘Is Rational Manipulation Permissible?” Ethical Theory and Moral Practice.

Aquaculture ethics: A systematic quantitative review and critical analysis of aquaculture ethics scholarship (2023) Fish and Fisheries 24(2) Cooper K, Breakey H, Lewis M, Marshallsay R, Naraniecki A, Sampford C

Government's Response to Ethical Dilemmas in Autonomous Vehicle Accidents: An Australian Policy Evaluation (2024) 16th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence (ICAART 2024) Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Agents and Artificial Intelligence (ICAART 2024) Rafiee A, Breakey H, Wu Y, Sattar A