Education CV
LLM (First) (LSE); Grad Dip Legal Practice (College of Law); LLB (Hons) (Melbourne); BA (First Class Hons average) (Melbourne)
PhD in Law, Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge (2017 - )
- Gates Cambridge Scholar
- Executive Commitee Member, Cambridge Pro Bono Project (2017-18)
- Learning for Purpose Co-Ordinator, Gates Cambridge Scholar Council (2017-18)
- Visiting Doctoral Candidate, Melbourne Law School (2018-19)
LLM, London School of Economics and Political Science (2015 - 2016)
- Specialising in Public International Law and Public Law
- ‘Georg Schwarzenberger Prize’ for outstanding performance in International Law (one recipient across the six University of London Law Schools)
- ‘Blackstone Chambers Prize’ for best performance in Public International Law
- Distinction overall, with Distinctions (equivalent to Australian High Distinction) in seven of eight courses
- Top student in four courses (Theory of Human Rights Law, Rethinking International Law, International Dispute Resolution and Use of Force)
- Other courses taken: Comparative Constitutional Law: Rights, UK Human Rights Law, Terrorism and the Rule of Law, Dissertation (on the topic of universal human rights jurisdiction, and supervised by Professor Gerry Simpson)
Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice, College of Law (2011)
- Admitted as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria (2011)
- Added to the Roll of the High Court of Australia (2012)
- Practising Certificate as Barrister and Solicitor, Northern Territory of Australia (2013 - 2014)
BA (Media and Communications); LLB (Hons), University of Melbourne (2005 - 2010)
- 1st Class Honours average in BA; Hons in LLB
- ‘Global Mobility Scholarship’ (2010): received funding for an internship at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
- ‘Corrs Chambers Westgarth Prize for Media Law’ (top student in Media Law course) (2009)
- ‘Global Mobility Scholarship’ (2007): received funding to study at University College Dublin, Ireland
- Editorial Member, Melbourne Journal of International Law (2009 - 2010)
Selected Legal Research Positions
- Legal Research Assistant to Dr Jason Pobjoy (Barrister, Blackstone Chambers, London) (2016 - 2017)
- Legal Research Assistant to Dr Devika Hovell (Associate Professor, International Law and Public Law Departments, LSE) (2015 - 2016)
- Legal Research Intern to Ms Jill Barrett (Senior Research Fellow in Public International Law, British Institute of International and Comparative Law, London) (2014)
- Volunteer Legal Research Assistant to Julian Burnside AO KC (Barrister, Melbourne) (2008 - 2010)
Legal Work
- Associate (Locum), Slaughter and May, London (2017; 2018; 2019)
- Associate (Locum), Herbet Smith Freehills, London (2015; 2016 - 2017)
- Judicial Assistant to The Rt Hon Lord Dyson MR, Supreme Court and Court of Appeal, London (2014 - 2015)
- Lawyer, Public Law Group, Government Legal Department, London (2013 - 2014)
- Solicitor Advocate, North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency, Darwin (2012 - 2013)
- Solicitor and Graduate Solicitor, Minter Ellison Lawyers, Melbourne (2011 - 2012)
- Legal Intern, UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Arusha (2010)
Fields of research
Public Law, Human Rights Law, Public International Law
'Australia's Common Law Constitution'
Summary
Australia remains one of the only democratic countries worldwide to lack a constitutional or statutory charter of rights at the national level. Despite this apparent lacuna of rights protection, the Australian legal framework is not impervious to personal rights infringements. One element of the legal order that plays an important role in the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms is the common law. The importance of the common law with regard to personal rights protections has led former High Court Chief Justice Robert French to state that the common law has a ‘constitutional dimension’; while others have gone as far as suggesting a ‘common law bill of rights’ now operates in Australia. My PhD thesis interrogates such comments, by considering what, how and why fundamental rights and freedoms are protected by the common law in Australia.
Supervisors
Professor Mark Elliott and Dr Stephanie Palmer
Representative Publications
- 'Indications of Inconsistency' (2019) 78 Cambridge Law Journal 612
- 'Public Functions and Private Bodies’ (2019) Law Institute of Victoria Journal (November) (with Kylie Evans)
- ‘De Leopoldo López’ (2016) 110 American Journal of International Law 781
- ‘Universal and/or Rival Jurisdictions: The López and Ceballos Decisions’ (Paper presented at ‘Interaction between Human Rights: 50 Years of the Covenants’ Conference at Aarhus University, September 2016)
- ‘Child Protection Matters in the Northern Territory’ (2014) 39 Alternative Law Journal 104 (with Louise Kruger)
- ‘Reforming the Remedy: Getting the Right Remedial Structure to Protect Personal Privacy’ (2012) 17 Deakin Law Review 121
- ‘Making a mockery of media law: Some implications from the rise of Twitter’, Media Law Newsletter, International Bar Association, October 2011