One of the greatest joys of academic work is the opportunity to discuss big ideas with colleagues. To really get into the details of another person’s work, think through the issues together, and receive critique on our own work – all in a supportive, engaged group.

For nine years, the ADR Research Network has offered precisely that opportunity to established academics and early career researchers from around Australia. Since that first meeting, our membership and scope has expanded, and this year we welcomed participants from Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. And for the first time, the Roundtable was combined with another established research and teaching conference, the Civil Justice Research and Teaching conference, which has been the main meeting of academics who teach and research in what is sometimes known as ‘civ pro’ (civil procedure) – or more commonly these days ‘civil justice’ or ‘civil dispute resolution’.

We look forward to the 10th Research Network meeting, which is scheduled for February 2022 at Bond University on the Gold Coast. As always, we invite early career researchers and especially PhD students to take part, and encourage any readers who are also supervisors to extend that invitation to their students. A call for papers will be made on this site towards the end of 2021.

In the meantime, here’s the conference program from the 9th meeting, which provides an insight into the range of topics covered this year, together with the abstracts of the papers and the bios of the presenters. Keep an eye out for much of this excellent work coming out in journal articles and other formats throughout 2021.