Find an expert

Dr Eve Massingham was a Senior Research Fellow with the School of Law, The University of Queensland looking at the diverse ways in which the law constrains or enables autonomous functions of military platforms, systems and weapons from September 2019 - August 2022. She is the co-editor of Ensuring Respect for International Humanitarian Law (Routledge, 2020) and she has published a number of book chapters and journal articles in the fields of international humanitarian law and international law and the use of force. Eve is currently the International Committee of the Red Cross' Regional Legal Adviser for the Pacific. Eve has also worked for the International Committee of the Red Cross as the Regional Legal Adviser for East Africa and as a Policy Adviser in the Legal Division in Geneva as well as for Australian Red Cross as an International Humanitarian Law officer. She began her career at (then) Freehills (admitted 2004) and was an Associate to Justice Collier at the Federal Court of Australia. Eve has also served as an Australian Army Reserve Officer. Eve holds a Bachelor of Law (Hons) from Queensland University of Technology, a Master of International and Community Development from Deakin University, an LLM (Distinction) from King's College London and a PhD from the University of Queensland.

Dr Tim McFarland is a Research Fellow at the TC Beirne School of Law, The University of Queensland. His current research focuses on the legal challenges connected with the defence and security applications of science and technology, with a particular focus on the impact of autonomous systems. His broader research interests include the law of armed conflict and international criminal law. He is the author of Autonomous Weapon Systems and the Law of Armed Conflict (Cambridge University Press, 2020). Before joining the University of Queensland, Tim researched the legal, ethical and social implications of military use of autonomous systems as a member of the Values in Defence & Security Technology group within the School of Engineering and Information Technology of the University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy. He completed his PhD studies at Melbourne Law School. He also holds degrees in Engineering and Economics, and has worked in the international humanitarian law department of the Australian Red Cross as well as in a variety of information technology roles.

Simon McKenzie is a Research Fellow at the University of Queensland School of Law. Simon's current research focuses on the legal challenges connected with the defence and security applications of science and technology, with a particular focus on the impact of autonomous systems. His broader research and teaching interests include the law of armed conflict, international criminal law, and domestic criminal law.

Prior to joining the University of Queensland, Simon was a policy officer in the Victorian Department of Justice and Community Safety, working in a team responsible for reforming the criminal justice system to better respond to family violence. He has held teaching roles at the Melbourne Law School and as a researcher at the Supreme Court of Victoria where he completed a major research project on the management of expert evidence in the Kilmore East Bushfire Proceedings, the largest class action in Victoria's history. He has also worked as a researcher at the International Criminal Court assisting the Special Advisor to the Prosecutor on international humanitarian law. He began his career in 2011 at a large commercial law firm in Melbourne.

Simon graduated in 2011 from the University of Tasmania with a combined Arts and Law Degree with First Class Honours in Law and was admitted to practice in Victoria later that year. He received his PhD in international criminal law from the University of Melbourne in 2018.

Blake joined the School of Psychology at UQ in 2007 having previously been a lecturer at Queensland University of Technology. Blake won a Faculty Teaching Excellence Award in 2010 and a University of Queensland Teaching Excellence Award in 2016. He led a team that won the AAUT Higher Education Teacher of the Year award in 2019, and received the edX Prize in 2018. He currently teaches a second year elective about psychology and law. His research focuses on jury decision-making including the influence of gender-based stereotypes and the influence of different modes of evidence presentation. He is also interested in group membership and attitude-behaviour relations and how group membership influences thinking about the self. He is a leading instructor of the award-winning course: CRIME101x and the PSYC1030x Introduction to Developmental, Social & Clinical Psychology XSeries Program of four courses on edX.org.

Associate Professor David Morrison's primary academic interests are in revenue law, corporate and insolvency law and economic analysis.

Associate Professor Morrison is an interdisciplinary researcher whose interests lie at the intersection of taxation law, corporate and insolvency law, bankruptcy, finance law and financial literacy as those interests apply to finance, the economy, social and policy framework and climate change. Associate Professor Morrison researches around law and finance especially as it applies to literacy and support for generational change. The recipient of three ARC research grants and a UQ Vice-Chancellors Research Excellence award, Associate Professor Morrison has held over 20 research grants and has published extensively including papers, conferences and as co-author of Voluntary Administration Thomson service. Associate Professor Morrison holds the degrees of BCom, LLB, MFM, LLM, GCEd and PhD (Qld), he holds the professional qualifications of Barrister-at-law, Chartered Accountant (CA), Fellow of the Financial Services Institute of Australia (FFin), and is a Chartered Tax Advisor of The Taxation Institute (CTA).

Robert Mullins holds a BPhil in Philosophy and a DPhil in Law from the University of Oxford. His research expertise is in legal philosophy and the theory of legal reasoning. Much of Robert's published work investigates the implications of different accounts of the meaning and use of deontic language developed by logicians and linguists for the understanding of legal rights, obligations, and authority relations. His most recent work focuses on logics of common law reasoning developed by scholars in Artificial Intelligence and Law.

Dr Mullins currently serves as Reviews Editor of the peer-reviewed professional journal, Law and Philosophy. He is an Associate Member of the ARC Centre for Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society.

The law of politics, in particular electoral law, is Professor Graeme Orr's primary research expertise. He has authored The Law of Politics (1st edn 2010, 2nd edn 2019) and Ritual and Rhythm in Electoral Systems (2015), co-authored The Law of Deliberative Democracy (2016), co-edited Realising Democracy (2003), Electoral Democracy: Australian Prospects (2011) and The Cambridge Handbook of Deliberative Constitutionalism (2018) and edited 3 symposia on the law of politics. His doctoral thesis explored the nature and regulation of electoral bribery. In the field of the law of politics, he does consultancy and pro bono work, and regular media commentary. Graeme has published over 100 commentary pieces in both the traditional press and online outlets.

Graeme has also published extensively in labour law, the law of negligence and on issues of language and law. Currently he is the legal adviser on the NSW Electoral Commission’s iVote panel and was recently part of the Australian Republican Movement’s Constitutional Advisory Board that drafted a model for an elected Head of State.

An Associate to two judges in the Federal Court of Australia and solicitor of the Queensland Supreme Court, prior to joining UQ Graeme was also an Associate Professor at Griffith University, where he taught for 13 years. In recent times he has been international editor of the Election Law Journal and board member of the Australian Journal of Labour Law. He was formerly managing editor of the Griffith Law Review, columnist with the Alternative Law Journal on sport's links to law, and employment law columnist with the Australian Journal of Administrative Law. He currently authors the entry on Australia for The Annual Register, a 257 year old almanac of world affairs.

He was a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law (2014-24) and has been an elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences since 2020.

Dr Shiralee Poed is an Associate Professor within the School of Education at the University of Queensland. Her career spans more than 30 years, and includes working as a teacher and leader in Australian state, Catholic and independent primary, secondary and special schools. She was awarded the 2023 International Positive Behaviour Leadership Award for her extensive leadership of Positive Behaviour for Learning in Australia, and internationally.

Javad Pool is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at The University of Queensland. He completed his PhD in Business Information Systems at UQ Business School in 2022, with a focus on data privacy and the effective use of information systems, specifically in the digital health context. By employing a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, Javad has conducted studies in a wide range of organizational and technological contexts, including healthcare, artificial intelligence, digital health, and social media. His work includes the development of inductive and theory-driven models, contributing to the existing body of knowledge on the effective use of information systems and health informatics research. Passionate about collaboration, Javad seeks to engage with diverse stakeholders, encompassing multidisciplinary researchers, industry professionals, and government partners, to advance research on information resilience and data protection practices. His research endeavors to better understand and address socio-technical challenges within information systems use, including data governance, privacy risks, cybersecurity, data breaches, data protection, misinformation, and responsible use of data.

Dr Melinda Rankin is the author of De facto International Prosecutors in a Global Era: With My Own Eyes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022; and The Political Life of Mary Kaldor: Ideas and Action in International Relations. Boulder CO: Lynne Rienner Publishing.

Currently, she is Honorary Research Fellow at the School of Political Science and International Studies, The University of Queensland. Prior to this, she was Postdoctoral Research Fellow at The University of Queensland; Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Global Constitutionalism, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB Social Science Centre Berlin); and Lecturer at The University of Sydney.

Rankin's current research program, titled Conceptualising De facto International Prosecutors in a Global Era, explores the role of ‘de facto international prosecutors’ as an emerging phenomenon. They are ‘private’ non-state actors (including witnesses and victims of core crimes), as well as state legal ‘officials’ in foreign courts, that adopt the practices of the offices of international prosecutors. The program examines the practices, innovations and strategies de facto international prosecutors adopt, and shows how witnesses and victims of core crimes emerge as key leaders in the accountability process. As a part of this broader program, Melinda also leads a project, titled ‘The Nuremberg Effect,’ supported by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung. This project investigates how non-state actors have historically drawn upon the Nuremberg Trials as a type of template to pursue those most responsible for core international crimes. In particular, it focuses on those non-state actors who pursue accountability in foreign courts exercising universal jurisdiction.

Rankin has published a range of refereed academic journal articles, as well as policy articles for Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi), Berlin; the Center for Global Constitutionalism at WZB, Berlin; and Lowy Institute for International Policy, Sydney.

In 2022, Melinda was the recipient of a Gerda Henkel Stiftung grant for the project, titled The Nuremberg Effect; and in 2018, she was the recipient of the Berlin Fellowship Award for the research program, titled Conceptualising De facto International Prosecutors in a Global Era. In the past, she has provided comment for media, including on SBS World News on the subject of Iran and US relations.

Rankin is a Member of the International Society of Public Law (ICON-S), New York; British International Studies Association (BISA); American Society of International Law (ASIL); and International Studies Association (ISA).

Prior to her academic career, Dr Rankin worked in projects, business operations, strategy consultancy, data governance, and policy for groups such as (in London) JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank, and Bank of New York; (in Sydney) MLC, Westpac and Genworth; and (in Melbourne) ANZ and NAB.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Single Authored Books

Rankin, Melinda (2022) De facto International Prosecutors in a Global Era: With My Own Eyes, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Rankin, Melinda (2017) The Political Life of Mary Kaldor: Ideas and Action in International Relations, London and Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishing.

Refereed Journal Articles

Rankin, Melinda (2019) ‘The ‘responsibility to prosecute’ core international crimes: German universal jurisdiction and suspected atrocities committed by the Syrian government.’ Global Responsibility to Protect, 11 (4): 394-410.

Rankin, Melinda (2018) ‘The future of international criminal evidence in New Wars: The Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA).’ Journal of Genocide Research 20(3): 392-411.

Rankin, Melinda (2017) ‘Investigating crimes against humanity in Syria and Iraq: The Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA).’ Global Responsibility to Protect 9 (4): 395-421.

Essays and Commentary Journal Articles

Hale, Kip and Melinda Rankin (2019) ‘ICC’s Decision on Myanmar: Extending the ‘system’ of ICL.’ Australian Journal of International Affairs 71 (3): 22-28.

Rankin, Melinda (2018) ‘Australia’s responsibility to prosecute? Bridging the international criminal law gap in Syria and Iraq.’ Australian Journal of International Affairs 72 (4): 322-328.

Publically Engaged Scholarship, Policy Articles, & Podcasts

Rankin, Melinda, (2023) ‘Russia in Ukraine: Accountability and global order on the precipice’, The Interpreter, Lowy Institute for International Policy, Sydney, 22 Feb.

Ireland-Piper, Danelle, and Melinda Rankin, (2022) Interview by Lauren Sanders: Universal Jurisdiction and Ukraine (University of Queensland Law and the Future of War podcast series): On Spotify , Brisbane, December.

Rankin, Melinda, (2022) ‘From Pinochet to Anwar R.’ Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law Perspective, Melbourne, 18 March.

Rankin, Melinda and Jacinta O'Hagan, (2020) 'Prosecution of alleged war crimes: need for Afghan voices in Australian judicial process', United Against Inhumanity, Lyon, 17 December.

Rankin, Melinda, (2019) ‘The looming international law paradox between the US and Iran’, The Interpreter, Lowy Institute for International Policy, Sydney, 13 May.

Rankin, Melinda, (2019) ‘Responsibility to Prosecute? The Case of German Universal Jurisdiction, CIJA, and the Arrest of Syrian Perpetrators.’ LawLog, Center for Global Constitutionalism, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung, WZB (Social Science Centre Berlin), Berlin. 13 March.

Rankin, Melinda, (2018) ‘A road map for Germany: Negotiating a path to accountability with Assad.’ PeaceLab, Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi), Berlin, 19 December.

Rankin, Melinda, (2018) ‘Jamal Khashoggi: Shifting law in a deadly turf war.’ The Interpreter, Lowy Institute for International Policy, Sydney, 29 October.

Rankin, Melinda, (2018) ’To Russia: A Plea of Caution on Syria.’ The Interpreter, Lowy Institute for International Policy, Sydney, 5 March.

Rankin, Melinda, (2018) ‘Australia’s Responsibility to Prosecute in Syria and Iraq,’ Australian Outlook, Australian Institute for International Affairs, Sydney, 19 February.

Dr Lauren Sanders is a Senior Research Fellow with the TC Beirne School of Law, The University of Queensland in the Law and Future of War project. Lauren’s current research focus is on the application of export control, arms trade and sanctions regimes relevant to the export and brokering of trusted autonomous military systems and associated technology. Her broader research and teaching interests include international criminal law, international humanitarian law and domestic counter-terrorism law. She is the editor of UQ's Law and Future of War podcast where she interviews experts in the fields of law and emerging and disruptive technology, military strategy and military affairs.

She completed her initial law studies with The University of Queensland, along with a Bachelor of Arts in Peace and Conflict Studies. Her PhD studies were competed at the Australian National University focused on the practical application of universal jurisdiction. She holds an LLM in Legal Practice, Masters in Defence and Strategic Studies and numerous Graduate certificates in military law.

Before returning to The University of Queensland, Lauren spent twenty years as an Australian Army signals officer and legal officer, and has served in Iraq, Afghanistan and East Timor and on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations, a legal advisor to ADF domestic counter-terrorism operations, and an assistant Inspector-General of the ADF. She is a graduate of the Australian Command and Staff College, and was awarded a Conspicuous Service Cross for her work as the Command Legal Officer within Special Operations Command.

She supports the training of military legal officers with the University of Adelaide's Legal Training Module Level Three (Masters Law Course); and is a reserve legal officer, where she is a member of the Principal Writing Team for the Australian Defence Force’s Law of Armed Conflict Manual, and teaches at the Indo-Pacific Centre for Military Law and the ADF's Military Law Centre.

Andreas Schloenhardt is Professor of Criminal Law in the School of Law at The University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia and Honorary Professor for Foreign and International Criminal Law in the Faculty of Law, Department of Criminal Law and Criminology at the University of Vienna, Austria. P

Professor Schloenhardt is the convenor of the Transnational Organised Crime programme (https://toc.jura.uni-koeln.de/), a research and learning network with academic staff and students from the University of Vienna (Austria), the University of Zurich (Switzerland), the University of Cologne (Germany), the University of Ferrara (Italy), and the University of Queensland (Australia). Professor Schloenhardt holds a PhD in Law from The University of Adelaide. Prior to his position at The University of Queensland, he was a lecturer at The University of Adelaide Law School.

Professor Schloenhardt’s principal areas of research include criminal law, organised crime, smuggling of migrants, trafficking in persons, wildlife trafficking, narco-trafficking, terrorism, criminology, and immigration and refugee law. He is the author of many books and journal articles and his work is frequently cited by other scholars, in government reports, and judicial decisions, including the High Court of Australia and the Supreme Court of Austria.

Professor Schloenhardt has held adjunct appointments and visiting professorships at the University of Zurich, the University of St Gallen, the University of Ferrara, Bucerius Law School, Hamburg, the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law , The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, and the Monterey Institute of International Studies, Monterey, California. In 2011-2012, Professor Schloenhardt was a recipient of a Fellowship from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust.

Professor Schloenhardt is a member of the Austrian Society of Criminal Law and Criminology and he has worked extensively with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Council of Europe, the Global Initiative against Transnational Crime, the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) and a range of law enforcement agencies in Australia and Asia.

Brad Sherman is a Professor of Law at The University of Queensland. Professor Sherman's previous academic positions include posts at Griffith University, the London School of Economics, and the University of Cambridge. His research expertise encompasses many aspects of intellectual property law, with a particular emphasis on its historical, doctrinal and conceptual development. In 2015 Professor Sherman was awarded a highly prestigious Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship. His laureate project Harnessing Intellectual Property to Build Food Security looks at the role of intellectual property in relation to food security. The research will help to maximise the benefits while minimising the costs of using IP protection to improve agricultural productivity and food security in Australia and the Asia Pacific.

John Swinson's principal interests are intellectual property law, Internet law, privacy law, AI law, cybersecurity law and the application of law to new technologies.

John graduated from the T.C. Beirne School of Law in 1988 with a University Medal. He also has a Bachelor of Arts majoring in computer science from The University of Queensland and a Master of Laws from Harvard Law School where he studied as a Fulbright Fellow and a Frank Knox Scholar. In 1989, John worked as a judge's associate to Justice C W Pincus of the Federal Court of Australia. John is admitted to the NY Bar, and worked as an associate at Kenyon & Kenyon in NYC from September 1991 to January 1997. From 1999 until 2017, John was an adjunct professor at QUT.

John was a partner at the law firm King & Wood Mallesons from 1999 to 2021. He was also Chairman of the auDA Policy Review Panel, which made recommendations to the auDA Board to revise Australia's domain name policies in 2019.

Since 2000, John has been an arbitrator for the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in Geneva, and has decided over 720 disputes regarding the ownership of domain names.

John commenced as a professor at the T.C. Beirne School of Law in November 2017.

Dr Thea Voogt is an Associate Professor in the School of Law and the Director of Business Law.

She specialises in income tax law, agriculture tax policy tools, the impact of climate change on the financial fortitude of farming families, corporate governance and business structures.

Thea leverages her significant business experience in senior executive roles and her background as a chartered accountant in industry projects. She holds a Doctorate in Financial Management and Master of International Commercial Law (UQ).

Thea is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and an award-winning law teacher. She is the 2017 recipient of the prestigious UQ Business, Economics & Law Faculty Teaching Award. She also received the 2017 Inspired me to learn Award for Teaching Excellence in an undergraduate compulsory course, and the 2016 Award for Teaching Excellence in an undergraduate compulsory course from the UQ School of Law.

Prior to joining UQ, Thea was the CEO (Principal Officer) of the superannuation funds of the University of Johannesburg, a Professor in Accounting and managed large tenders for this institution. Over the course of her career in South Africa, she was closely involved with the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants as sought-after speaker, researcher and umpire for the national qualifying exams for chartered accountants. Thea also held a Ministerial appointment to the Board of the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA).

Rebecca Wallis is a Lecturer at the TC Beirne School of Law. Rebecca’s teaching and research interests fall broadly within the areas of criminal law and procedure, the law of evidence, and criminal justice system structure and operation. She is concerned with how criminal law theories and principles play out in policy and practice, and how these shape the operation of the criminal justice system in intended and unintended ways. In addition, she is currently working on a set of projects concerning the criminalisation of threats, particularly in the context of domestic and family violence.

Rebecca holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Queensland, a Master of Arts in Criminology and Criminal Justice (Hons) and PhD from Griffith University. She is admitted to the Supreme Court of Queensland and the High Court of Australia (non-practising).

Tamara Walsh is a Professor of Law and Director of the UQ Pro Bono Centre. She has degrees in both Law and Social Work, and her interest is in social welfare law and human rights. Her research examines the impact of the law on vulnerable people including children and young people, people experiencing homelessness, people on low incomes, people with disabilities, mothers and carers. Her research has spanned 20 years and has been widely published, both in Australia and internationally.

In 2008, Tamara designed and established the UQ Pro Bono Centre, along with Dr Paul O'Shea and Prof Ross Grantham. The UQ Pro Bono Centre facilitates student and staff participation in pro bono legal activities, particularly public interest research and law reform. It is now a flagship program of the UQ Law School.

In 2016, Tamara established the UQ Deaths in Custody Project, which she runs in partnership with Prisoners' Legal Service. This Project monitors deaths in custody across Australia, and administers a public website which is an important resource for researchers, coroners and members of the public: www.deaths-in-custody.project.uq.edu.au

In 2020, Tamara established the UQ/Caxton Human Rights Project, along with Bridget Burton at Caxton Legal Centre. This project is staffed by volunteer law students and makes information on every case that refers to the Human Rights Act 2019 (Qld) publicly available: https://law.uq.edu.au/human-rights-cases.

Tamara is currently undertaking an ARC Linkage project on human rights dispute resolution in Australia (2023-2025). She has recently completed an ARC Linkage project on the criminalisation of poverty and homelessness in Australia (2017-2021).

Tamara undertakes pro bono legal practice in the area of child protection, and she lectures in human rights law, and child and family law. Tamara also runs the UQ Law School's clinical legal education program.

Dr Matt Watson is a Lecturer in the TC Beirne School of Law, The University of Queensland. Dr Watson teaches Jurisprudence and Administrative Law. His research interests lie primarily in the fields of legal and political philosophy. Dr Watson’s core research areas include multiculturalism and minority rights (with an emphasis on minority language rights and language policy), constitutionalism, the intersection of law and politics, the liberal philosophical tradition, and all aspects of the philosophy of law. Dr Watson is currently working on a research project that enquires into the legal and moral permissibility of taking account of religious and cultural membership in refugee resettlement determinations.

Dr Watson completed his doctoral studies in law at the University of Oxford in 2016. His DPhil thesis, written under the supervision of Professor Leslie Green, inquired into the philosophical foundations of minority language rights. While at Oxford, Dr Watson led tutorials in Jurisprudence.