Kit Barker joined the TC Beirne School of Law in 2006. He was educated at Exeter College, Oxford, where he graduated with first class honours (in 1988) and subsequently completed the BCL (with distinction) in 1991. He was admitted to the Middle Temple Inn of Court as a Harmsworth Scholar and to the Bar of England and Wales in 1990. He is interested in private law as a whole, but specialises in the law of torts and unjust enrichment law and the law's doctrine, philosophical foundations and remedies. More recently, his work has explored the interface between private law and public law and public policy, with a focus on the tortious liability of government, misfeasance in public office and the use of private enforcement techniques in public law. He is a former Associate Dean (Research) at the TC Beirne School of Law and an assistant editor of the Torts Law Journal. He is co-author of three books - Unjust Enrichment (3rd ed, Sydney, Lexis Nexis, Butterworths, 2024, 1st ed, 2008), The Law of Torts in Australia (5th ed, 2011, OUP) and Remedies: Commentary and Materials (Thomson, 2015). He is also an editor and contributor to six essay collections: Life and Death in Private Law (Oxford, Hart Publishing, 2024), Private Law: Key Encounters with Public Law (Cambridge University Press, 2013), The Law of Misstatements (Hart Publishing, 2015); Private Law and Power (Hart Publishing, 2017) ; Private Law in the Twenty-First Century (Hart Publishing, 2017); Apportionment in Private Law (Hart Publishing, 2018) and the Research Handbook on Unjust Enrichment and Restitution (Edward Elgar, 2020).
He is a fellow of the Australian Academy of Law and current director of the Australian Centre of Private Law at the TC Beirne School of Law.
He is a Barrister of the High Court of Australia and the Supreme Court of Queensland.
A Rhodes Scholar, John has degrees in Arts and Law from the University of Queensland, and a Doctorate of Philosophy in Law from Magdalen College, Oxford University.
After an appointment as Lecturer in Law at Keble College Oxford University, John returned to Australia to work as a lawyer in a variety of contexts.
He has worked as a Defence Force Magistrate, a Barrister, as a consultant to a multi-national law firm, a Law Reform Commissioner for Queensland, a legal member of the Social Security Appeals Tribunal and the legal member of the Health Quality and Complaints Commission.
He currently serves as a member of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
John is a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. He serves as Deputy Chair of the Board of Aged and Disabilty Advocacy Australia.
He also serves on the Defence Force Retirement and Death Benefits Review Committee of the Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation, and the Military Superannuation and Benefits Scheme Review Committee of the Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation.
John has previously served on the Specialist Accreditation Board of the Queensland Law Society. Prior to working on the Board, John was a Member of the Personal Injuries Specialist Accredition Committee of the Queensland Law Society.
John has held academic appointments at Universities in Australia, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States.
In addition to teaching and research positions, John has worked as Deputy Dean, Head of School and Associate Vice Chancellor.
His work in tort law and medical law is internationally recognised.
John's research has been supported by over a million dollars in research grants.
John's work has been cited by the High Court and by Law Reform Commissions in Australia and abroad.
He is an Honorary Fellow of the Australasian College of Legal Medicine.
John was jointly awarded the Oscar Rivers Schmalzbach Prize by the Australian Academy of Forensic Sciences.
John has served with the Australian Defence Force in the Army (infantry) and in the Air Force.
He has seen active service in Iraq, and twice in Afghanistan.
John was awarded the Bronze Star by the United States of America.
I am a Lecturer in the TC Beirne School of Law. I teach Trusts and Equity, although I am interested in all areas of private law and private law theory.
My PhD research evaluated the High Court's reliance on the principle of 'coherence' in private law adjudication. Parts of this research have been published in leading journals, such as the Melbourne University Law Review and the University of Toronto Law Journal.
Iain is a Senior Lecturer in the TC Beirne School of Law and an Honorary Associate Professor at Bond University. His primary research and teaching interests lie in the area of tort law, with an emphasis on defences and damages. Iain's most recent work focusses on claimant accountability and consent in tort law, the nature of the compensatory principle, the relationship between remedial rules and rules of liability, and (more broadly) the intersection of public and private law and statutory interventions. Iain's earlier work examined statutory good faith protections in tort law and their connection with underlying theories of vicarious liability, and bereavement damages.
Iain’s work has been accepted for publication in leading law journals, including the Cambridge Law Journal, Modern Law Review, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Melbourne University Law Review, University of New South Wales Law Journal and Sydney Law Review. He has also co-authored articles with senior members of the judiciary and the academy and presented at both domestic and international legal conferences.
Iain was the recipient of a 2022 Australian Legal Research Award, in the category Article/Chapter (General), for his article 'The Problem with Provocation in Trespass' (Modern Law Review). He also recieved the 2017 Faculty of Law Emerging Research Excellence Award (Bond) for his work on Good Faith Defences.
Iain was also awarded the 2018 Law Students’ Association Teaching Award (Bond) and the 2015 Stanley Shaw Bond Prize for Teaching Excellence (Bond).
Iain is an editor of the University of Queensland Law Journal and editorial board member of the Torts Law Journal. He was the general editor of the Bond Law Review from 2015–2019.
Ruthie's teaching and research interests lie at the intersection of law and healthcare. She is particularly interested in voluntary assisted dying and the role of patients and family caregivers in shaping healthcare regulation. Ruthie teaches in the Ethics, Law and Professionalism stream of the Year 1 medical degree and is an active teacher and researcher in the School of Law, including tutoring in Law of Torts II.
Ruthie Jeanneret, BA, LLB (Hons), GradDipLegPrac, PhD, completed her PhD thesis at the Australian Centre for Health Law Research, QUT. Her empirical PhD thesis investigated patients' and family caregivers' perspectives and experiences of voluntary assisted dying regulation in Australia and Canada. Ruthie has been involved in writing the voluntary assisted dying mandatory training for participating practitioners in Queensland, Western Australia, and Victoria. She also has experience in teaching undergraduate law and nursing students.
From 2018 - 2020, Ruthie worked as a litigation lawyer in Queensland and Tasmania, practising primarily in commercial litigation.
