James Allan

Allan is a world-leading sceptic of bills of rights and critic of judicial supremacism and a forceful, vocal supporter of free speech. He has written and given keynote lectures on these topics, and on many others, in the US, Britain, Europe and Canada. He is often invited onto podcasts. He regularly delivers one of the invited talks to the Samuel Griffith Society annual conference in Australia. Allan’s most recent book is The Age of Foolishness: A Doubter’s Guide to Constitutionalism in a Modern Democracy (2022). Allan was also an international and well-known critic of lockdowns during Covid. He was published on the topic around the world, including in the American edited book Canary in the (Post) Covid World (2024), while also appearing regularly on TV, podcasts, radio and in the regular media on the topic throughout the two and a half years of government heavy-handedness. Allan has published well over a hundred peer-reviewed articles, forty-odd book chapters, six books and he has edited three other books. Allan was also commissioned in 2022 to write the ‘Report on He Puapua’ for a think tank in New Zealand. Allan worked hard for eighteen months to help defeat ‘The Voice’ proposed constitutional amendment in Australia, including being invited to author the main ‘No’ piece in the Australian Law Journal (2023) read by lawyers and judges. Allan is also a vocal critic of university governance in the anglosphere, especially in Australia and Canada. He is a founding board member of the Free Speech Union Australia, a founding member of Australians for Science and Freedom and has been invited to be on the inaugural board of the International Reagan-Thatcher society. Allan also has a weekly column in the Spectator Australia while writing regularly for the US’s Law & Liberty, Britain’s Daily Sceptic, and sporadically for other outlets around the Anglosphere.