Transnational Criminal Law Group prioritises HDR students and Early Career Academics
A priority for the Transnational Criminal Law Group (TCLG) in 2023 has been to build a strong and vibrant research culture with Higher Degree Research (HDR) students and early career academics, while cultivating national and international research links. This has been achieved through TCLG member contributions to research, law reform and knowledge sharing.
Throughout the year we also continued to build on Monash Law's research strengths in comparative and cross-border criminal law. Our research is focussed on the themes of:
- corporate criminal liability and accountability,
- transnational enforcement,
- the criminal trial, and
- criminal law and technology.
Funding Success for Transnational Criminal Law Group
Professor Jonathan Clough was awarded an ARC Discover Project Grant on Improving Legal Frameworks to Support Online Child Sex Abuse Prosecutions ($227,412.00). This project aims to gain a deeper understanding of the nature and extent of online child sexual abuse prosecutions in Australia. He is working on this with Associate Professors Campbell Wilson (Faculty of IT) and Lennon Chang (Deakin). This was one of only five Law Discover Project Grants awarded nationally in 2023.
Dr Stephen Gray is part of a multi-faculty Monash University team which was awarded a tender of over $800,000 from the Victorian Department of Justice and Community Safety, on the ‘Evaluation of the Justice-based Impacts of the Public Intoxication Reform’.
Law Reform Achievements by the Transnational Criminal Law Group
This year, the Group’s members have continued their involvement in law reform initiatives. Dr Natalia Antolak-Saper made submissions to the Parliament of Australia in their Inquiry into Current and proposed sexual consent laws in Australia. She was then invited in July to give evidence at the public hearings held by the Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee.
Academic Appointments for Transnational Criminal Law Group Members
Dr Natalia Antolak-Saper undertook her prestigious Churchill Fellowship to find innovative solutions to assist unrepresented accused in criminal matters. The Fellowship funded travel to Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States to conduct interviews and observations of various initiatives in place in those jurisdictions. Dr Monique Cormier spent the month of October visiting the National University of Singapore as an Asian Law Institute Fellow. Prof Liz Campbell was appointed as a member of the Law Council of Australia’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Working Party.
Transnational Criminal Law Group Events in 2023
Associate Prof Jacqui Horan organised a one-day conference on ‘Emerging Challenges In The Management Of Sexual Assault Trials’ in June 2023, supported by the TCLG, in conjunction with the Victorian Juries Commissioner's Office and the Court of the Future Network. The perspectives of complainants, witnesses, investigators, practitioners and judges were listened to throughout the extensive program, which provided a timely critique of sexual assault trial processes. New ideas for improving the system were explored. Over 70 people attended this event, including several victim survivors and law students from around Australia.
The Monash Network of Excellence on Enhancing Corporate Accountability at the Monash Centre in Prato, Italy.
In September, Prof Liz Campbell organised and hosted the inaugural in-person workshop of the Monash Network of Excellence on Enhancing Corporate Accountability at the Monash Centre in Prato, with Group members Prof Jonathan Clough and Dr Natalia Antolak Saper. This Network of Excellence was formed in 2019 by Liz Campbell with co-conveners Profs Jonathan Clough, Jennifer Hill and Michelle Welsh. With institutional partners Manchester, NUS and KCL, the Network brings together experts in law and criminology specialising in corporate and white-collar crime, financial regulation and corporate law and corporate governance. Prof Campbell and Dr Antolak Saper are co-editing a special issue in the Griffith Law Review in 2024 of the academic papers delivered at the Prato workshop.
Dr Natalia Antolak Saper organised an online seminar in November, on Unrepresented Accused in Criminal Matters: Global Perspectives. In this presentation, Dr Antolak Saper identified key initiatives in seeking to improve justice access from a qualitative study of stakeholders in Australia, Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom.
Dr Joanna Kyriakakis and Dr Monique Cormier are hosting the 9th Annual Australian International Criminal Law Workshop at Monash in early December. This hybrid event involves a range of experienced and early-career academics, looking at national mechanisms of ICL, the crimes of aggression and atrocity, and the theme of mercy.