The world’s leading authority on criminal justice ethics will join the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics (CAPPE), at Charles Sturt University. 

The appointment of Professor John Kleinig coincides with the announcement that the Australian National University (ANU) – recognised as having one of the world’s leading philosophy schools – will join CAPPE.

CSU Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Goulter said the incorporation of ANU, whose philosophy school is ranked in the top 14 in the English-speaking world by the respected Philosophical Gourmet Report, and the appointment of Professor Kleinig, further enhances the role of CAPPE. 

Professor Goulter announced that Professor John Kleinig will return to Australia as the inaugural Charles Sturt University Chair in Policing Ethics, based at CAPPE.

“Professor Kleinig is highly regarded not only in academic circles, but among criminal justice practitioners,” Professor Goulter said. 

The ANU will join CAPPE as a third partner in the Centre - together with Charles Sturt University as the host institution and the University of Melbourne – to form the largest centre of its kind in the English-speaking world.
 
ANU Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Chubb said the University looked forward to working in partnership with CSU to promote a culture of excellence at the Centre.

“The Australian National University has a long tradition of achieving excellence in its philosophy program and we are delighted to join with other Australian universities to establish this Centre,” he said.

CAPPE is funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC) under its Special Research Centre Program. The Centre undertakes research on key ethical problems facing Australia today. CAPPE also provides services to industry, most recently securing a competitive tender with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) to develop an ethics and fraud training program for ATO staff. 

Professor Kleinig has accepted a joint three-year appointment, under which he will spend six months of each year from 2004 at CAPPE, based in Canberra, and six months at his current appointment with the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. Professor Kleinig’s work is widely used in police ethics courses in police academies and universities in the USA, UK, Europe, Australasia and elsewhere. 

These two major announcements are a tribute to the work of CAPPE Director, Professor Seamus Miller, and his staff, Professor Goulter said. 

Over the next 12 months, CAPPE will host two major international conferences, both of which are being held in Australia for the first time. The International Computers and Philosophy Conference will be held at the ANU in Canberra from 31 October to 2 November 2003, while the World Congress on Business, Economics and Ethics will be held at the University of Melbourne from 14 to 17 July 2004.