People
Executive Group
Professor Jennifer Hill, Centre Director BA LLB (Hons) (U. Syd.) BCL (Oxford) Professor Jennifer Hill is the Inaugural Bob Baxt AO Chair of Corporate and Commercial Law and Director of CLARS. Her scholarship on comparative corporate law and governance is widely cited in judicial decisions and academic literature in Australia, the United States, Europe and Asia. Jennifer has received several ARC Discovery grants and held visiting teaching and research positions at leading international institutions, including Cambridge University; Cornell; NYU; University of Virginia, and Vanderbilt University. She is a Research Member of the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) and the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence on Sustainable Finance and EU Law (EUSFiL), University of Genoa, Italy. She is also a Life Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law. See Professor Hill’s academic profile and publications | |
Dr Steve Kourabas, Deputy Director LLB (Hons)/BIR (La Trobe), LLM (Cum Laude) SJD (Duke) Dr Steve Kourabas is a Lecturer at Monash University Law School. He works predominantly in the areas of financial regulation and corporate governance. Steve has a particular focus on prudential regulatory reform and the effects of technological innovations, such as equity crowdfunding, on corporations law and corporate governance. Steve obtained his doctoral degree from Duke Law School in the area of global financial regulation. He is the Deputy Chair of the Academic Committee of the Banking and Financial Services Law Association. Prior to entering academia, Steve held positions as counsel for the Victorian State Government and as Legal Counsel for Telstra. See Professor Kourabas’ academic profile and publications | |
Dr Tamara Wilkinson, Executive Group (Events) Arts Law (Hons) (Monash), PhD (Monash) Tamara Wilkinson is a Lecturer in the Faculty of Law, who researches and teaches in the areas of private investment law, tax law and corporations law. She is the author three books on venture capital and angel investment: Venture Capital Investment and Government Incentives: Law, Regulation, and Policy Design (Hart, 2024),Incentivising Angels: A Comparative Framework of Tax Incentives for Start-Up Investors (Springer, 2019) andInnovation and Venture Capital Law and Policy (Federation Press, 2016). Tamara completed her thesis on the topic of government venture capital incentives in 2022. See Dr Wilkinson’s academic profile and publications | |
Associate Professor Cheng-Yun Tsang, Executive Group (Industry Partnerships) BA in Diplomacy (NCCU), LLB(NCCU), MBA (NTU), LLM(Duke), SJD(Duke) Dr Cheng-Yun Tsang is an Associate Professor in the Law Faculty, a member of Monash Centre for Commercial Law and Regulatory Studies, and a Visiting Fellow at UNSW School of Private and Commercial Law. His research is focused on the regulaton of financial technology and international financial law, particularly emphasising innovation in regulatory thinking and strategies. His publications and research grants ranged from issue areas, including RegTech/SupTech, crypto assets, Central Bank Digital Currency, regulatory sandbox, open banking and data governance. He serves on the editorial board of Capital Markets Law Journal (OUP). He is now an independent director at Line Bank (Taiwan), a top-ranked digital bank in the APEC area. He has provided expert advice and consultation to legislators, regulators and industries regarding FinTech and regulatory reforms in various contexts. See Associate Professor Tsang's academic profile and publications | |
Professor Daniel Fitzpatrick BA (U. Syd.), LLB (U. Syd.), LLM (U. Syd.), PhD (ANU) Dr Daniel Fitzpatrick writes on property rights in contexts of climate change and natural disasters. A past winner of the UK Socio-Legal Association Hart Article Prize, Professor Fitzpatrick has published in the Yale Law Journal, Law and Society Review, Law and Social Inquiry, Regulation and Governance, and the American Journal of Comparative Law. He has been a Global Visiting Professor at New York University School of Law, a Visiting Professor at the National University of Singapore; and a Distinguished Visitor at the University of Toronto. From 2012 to 2016 Prof Fitzpatrick was an Australian Research Council Future Fellow. In 2021, he was awarded a Scholar-in-Residence position at the Woodrow Wilson Institute for International Scholars in Washington DC. See Professor Fitzpatrick’s academic profile and publications | |
Dr David Frydrych BA (Hons. with Distinction, U. Toronto), JD (Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law), LLM (U. Toronto), DPhil (Oxford)
Dr David Frydrych’s research concerns jurisprudence and trusts law. The jurisprudential scholarship to date focuses upon analytic accounts of rights. That sort of work lends itself well to analyses of international discretionary trusts and companies in offshore financial centres (OFCs) - particularly those relationships’ and entities’ robust and novel rights, powers, and duties. A Canadian, David is admitted to practice in the State of New York. He is also a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP). Prior to joining the Monash faculty, David was a postdoctoral fellow at both the National University of Singapore (NUS) Faculty of Law and the New York University (NYU) School of Law. See Dr Frydrych’s academic profile and publications | |
Dr Mel Marquis BA (University of Washington), JD (Seton Hall), LLM (European University Institute), PhD (Macerata, IT) Dr Mel Marquis’ scholarship focuses on competition law. Prior to his academic career he practised law in the US and Belgium. Since 2008, he has taught law at several universities including the Free University of Rome (LUMSA), Doshisha University in Kyoto, Renmin University and CUFE in Beijing, and the University of Melbourne. Between 2011 and 2019 he was Part-Time Professor of Law at the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence and Co-Director of the Competition Law and Policy Workshop. He is a Juror and Member of the Academic Steering Committee of the Concurrences Antitrust Writing Awards, and from October 2021 he is Special Editor for Competition Law of the online academic journal European Papers. See Dr Marquis’ academic profile and publications | |
Associate Professor Yee-Fui Ng B Com LLB (1st Class Hons) (U. Melb.), PhD in Law (Monash) Associate Professor Yee-Fui Ng’s research centres on strengthening political institutions and enhancing executive accountability. Yee-Fui was awarded a 2021-22 Fulbright Scholarship to undertake research on the digital welfare state at New York University. She is the author of The Rise of Political Advisors in the Westminster System (Routledge, 2018) and Ministerial Advisers in Australia: The Modern Legal Context (Federation Press, 2016), which was a finalist of the Holt Prize. She has publications in leading journals, including the Law Quarterly Review and Public Law. Yee-Fui previously worked as a Policy Adviser at the Australian Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, a Senior Legal Adviser at the Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet, as well as a Manager at the Victorian Department of Justice. See Associate Professor Ng’s academic profile and publications | |
Nick Sinanis BA LLB(Hons) (U. Adelaide), LLM (U. Melb.), PhD (UCL) (in progress) Nick Sinanis researches in Anglo-Australian private law, with a particular focus on the relationship between theory and history. Methodologically, he adopts a critical historical perspective, which seeks to use the methods of legal history to challenge and enrich other disciplinary perspectives on private law, theoretical perspectives in particular. His doctoral research, which he has undertaken at University College London, investigates the longer roots of the common law practice of juries awarding punitive monetary awards in actions of tort. In its critical dimension, his thesis seeks to challenge the leading corrective justice-based theories of modern tort practice. See Nick Sinanis’ academic profile and publications |
Centre Faculty Members
Dr Susan Barkehall Thomas BA LLB(Hons) (Monash), LLM (Monash), PhD (Monash) Dr Susan Barkehall Thomas has a wide ranging interest in equity, with a particular focus on the intersection between equity and property law. Her PhD thesis addressed private law responses to fiduciary fraud, including third party liability for participating in breaches of duty by fiduciaries, the overlap with restitution and tracing of misappropriated moneys. She has published on a wide variety of topics including remedies for stolen money, constructive trusts, voidable contracts, proprietary estoppel, family provision and electronic conveyancing. Susan is one of the authors of Equity and Trusts in Australia (Cambridge University Press). See Dr Thomas’ academic profile and publications | |
Professor Stephen Barkoczy BA LLB M Tax Law PhD (Monash) Professor Stephen Barkoczy has lectured, researched and practised widely in the areas of taxation, superannuation and investment law. He was previously a consultant with Blake Dawson (now Ashurst) and has served as Chairman of the Law Institute of Victoria's Tax and Revenue Committee. He has held appointments on numerous high level committees involving taxation, venture capital and innovation and currently sits on the Innovation and Investment Committee of Innovation and Science Australia. Stephen is the author/co-author of numerous major treatises such as: Foundations of Taxation Law, Australian Taxation Law and Innovation and Venture Capital Law and Policy. In 2008, he received the Prime Minister's Award for Australian University Teacher of the Year. See Professor Barkoczy’s academic profile and publications | |
Dr Tim Bowley LLB (Hons) (U. Adelaide, LLM (Cambridge), PhD (U. Syd.) Dr Tim Bowley is a corporate law researcher and experienced corporate lawyer. His research explores contemporary regulatory debates in corporate and securities law, with a focus on the role of shareholders in corporate governance. Tim’s PhD on shareholder activism was shortlisted for the Australian Legal Research Best PhD Award in 2020. Prior to commencing his academic career, Tim was a partner in a national Australian law firm and practised in London at one of the leading ‘Magic Circle’ firms. Tim is currently participating in several international research projects examining institutional investor stewardship, ESG activism by institutional investors, and legal rights for activist shareholders to access information regarding their target companies. See new specialist subjects taught by Dr Bowley here | |
Dr Paul Burgess B.Sc.(Hons.) (Aber.), J.D. (Qld.), LL.M. Legal Theory (N.Y.U.), PhD (Edin.) Dr Paul Burgess is interested in all things related to the concept of the Rule of Law. Paul spends a large amount of his time trying to figure out—exactly—what the Rule of Law is, and in trying to think about the way that the concept can most clearly and effectively be expressed, discussed, and used. In attempting to do this, he works within and is interested in legal theory, legal history, political theory, public law, economics, and constitutional theory. Notwithstanding this broadly theoretical and historical approach to research, he also has an interest in artificial intelligence and the ways in which the law and legal institutions will need to adapt in order to cater for, and understand, AI in all of its guises. See Dr Burgess' academic profile and publications | |
The Hon Clyde Croft AM SC
B. Ec. (Monash), LLB (Monash), LLM (Monash) PhD (Cambridge) The Hon Clyde Croft AM SC joined the Monash Law faculty in 2020, where he is leader of the Commercial Disputes Group and a University Mooting Fellow. He was a Commercial Court Judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria from 2009 to 2019, and prior to that, practised at the Bar, becoming a Senior Counsel in 2000. His academic writing is primarily in the areas of commercial law and commercial arbitration. Professor Croft is a Fellow or Member of several high profile national and international organisations, such as the Australian Academy of Law and the UNCITRAL Coordination Committee for Australia (UNCCA). In 2019, he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for service to the law and the judiciary. See Professor Croft’s academic profile and publications | |
Adjunct Professor Mark Davison LLB (Hons) (UQ) Dip of Legal Practice (QUT) Dip of Languages (Indonesian), LLM, PhD (Mon) Mark Davison's works on intellectual property and restrictive trade practices have been cited in hundreds of decisions of international tribunals, Australian and New Zealand courts and the Trade Mark Offices of both Australia and New Zealand. He was a member of the Australian government's Expert Advisory Group on Plain Packaging of Tobacco and the Australian legal team that successfully defended Australia's plain packaging laws. He was also a member of the Advisory Council on Intellectual Property. and he has been a member of the Intellectual Property Committee of the Law Council of Australia for many years. He has been a Chief Investigator on 6 ARC grants and engaged in many national and international training programs for judges, civil servants and non-government organisations." See Professor Davison’s academic profile and publications | |
Emeritus Professor Adrian Evans LLB B. Comm (U. Melb.); LLM, PhD (Monash) Emeritus Professor Adrian Evans is an academic and former solicitor, with teaching histories in legal systems, legal ethics and clinical case supervision. His commercial law focii have been on understanding and mitigating the risks of conflicts of interest in legal practice environments, and strengthening employee lawyers’ personal capacities to avoid and call out corrupt behaviour in organisational settings. Adrian has empirically examined and published in many areas, including approaches to monitoring and controlling defalcations and the ethical environment in which lawyers’ fidelity compensation is addressed locally and internationally, and the virtue ethics implications for legal practice in a struggling and conflicted global legal profession. See Emeritus Professor Evans’ academic profile and publications | |
Professor Paula Gerber LLB (QUT), M.Sc (Distinction) (King's College, London), LLM (Monash), PhD (Melb) Professor Paula Gerber has been a lawyer for over 25 years. She spent five years working as a construction lawyer in London, and five years in Los Angeles before returning to Australia, where she became a partner in a leading Melbourne law firm. Paula moved from private practise to academia, where she is now an internationally recognised expert in construction law, particularly in the areas of dispute avoidance processes (DAPs) and dispute resolution processes, such as ADR. Paula is the lead author of Best Practice in Construction Disputes: Avoidance, Management and Resolution (LexisNexis, 2013), which was a finalist in the prestigious Centenary Book Award. Paula is currently working on a new book – Contemporary Perspectives on Construction Law –to be published by LexisNexis, in 2022. See Professor Gerber’s academic profile and publications | |
Dr Weiping He LLB, LLM, and PhD Dr Weiping He's research interests primarily lie in the areas of comparative financial services regulation (securities markets and banking) and comparative studies in corporate law. She is interested in how regulatory regimes differ in terms of nature and dynamics as a result of varied historical, political and economic circumstances and in particular how western regulatory regimes are capable of informing Chinese law-making. Weiping's research also attempts to evaluate the proper role of government vis à vis the market, for example in assessing the efficiency of various regulatory regimes and the competence and effectiveness of regulators. See Dr He’s academic profile and publications | |
Dr Caroline Henckels LLB (Wellington), LLM (Melbourne), PhD (Cambridge) Dr Caroline Henckels is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law. She is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of International Economic Law, UNCTAD's Transnational Corporations journal, and the Alternative Law Journal, and is an Associate Editor of the Journal of World Investment and Trade. Caroline also serves as peer reviewer for numerous academic journals. She has taught law at the University of Cambridge and the University of Melbourne. Caroline is admitted to practice law in Australia (federal and Victoria) and New Zealand and runs the Faculty’s TradeLab clinical program. See Dr Henckels academic profile and publications | |
Professor Bryan Horrigan (Dean)
BA/LLB (Hons) (Qld), DPhil (Oxford)
Professor Bryan Horrigan was Dean of the Faculty of Law at Monash University from 2013 to 2024. He holds a doctorate in law from Oxford University under a Rhodes Scholarship. Bryan has academic expertise and professional experience in public and corporate law and governance from Australian, transnational, and cross-disciplinary perspectives. In his academic and professional roles, Bryan has spoken internationally and also advised commercial lawyers and their corporate and governmental clients in the fields of internationalisation of law, judicial decision-making, public sector governance, governmental liability, scrutiny of legislation, regulation and enforcement, personal and corporate guarantees, corporate social responsibility, business and human rights, unconscionable business conduct, and good faith in commercial transactions. See Professor Horrigan’s academic profile and publications | |
Dr Richard Joyce BA LLB (Hons) (Melbourne), PhD (University of London, Birkbeck College) Dr Richard Joyce is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Law at Monash University. His main research interests are in the history and theory of international law. He is currently leading an ARC-funded project entitled ‘International Law and the Challenge of Populism’, which explores populist politics in the context of the relationship between colonialism, neoliberalism and contemporary global legal ordering. This includes investigation of the relationship between the corporation and the state as sites of legal regulation and political agitation. Richard has a BA/LLB(Hons) from the University of Melbourne and a PhD from the University of London (Birkbeck College) and prior to commencing his PhD practised as a solicitor in the intellectual property group of a leading Australian law firm. Prior to joining Monash he taught at Reading University, Birkbeck College, King's College London and University College London. He currently serves as a member of the Global Faculty of the Institute for Global Law and Policy, Harvard Law School. See Dr Joyce’s academic profile and publications | |
Dr Joanna Kyriakakis BA LLB (Hons), SJD (Monash) Dr Joanna Kyriakakis is a Senior Lecturer at Monash University Law School. She works predominantly on accountability for serious human rights abuses that occur in the context of transnational corporate business activities. This involves research in the areas of business and human rights, international, transnational and comparative criminal law, tort law and transitional justice. She is the author of Corporations, Accountability and International Criminal Law: Industry and Atrocity (Edward Elgar, 2021) and has been involved in a number of international collaborative projects that focus on accountability for international crimes. She is a member of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology’s thematic group on Organisational Harms and Crimes, the Human Rights Team of the Olympic Compliance Task Force, and the Global Network for Human Rights and the Environment. See Dr Kyriakakis’s academic profile and publications | |
Associate Professor Emmanuel Laryea LLB (Hons), BL (Ghana, LLM (Glasgow), GCHE (Monash), PhD (Bond) Dr Emmanuel Laryea is an Associate Professor in the Law Faculty, and a member of the Monash Centre for Commercial Law and Regulatory studies. Emmanuel’s expertise is in International Economic Law (particularly, International Investment Law, International Banking and Finance Law, and International Commercial Law); Law and Development (including governance and institutions) in Africa; and Ecommerce Law. He has taught law in Ghana, the UK, the USA, and Australia. Emmanuel was a consultant for AUSAID’s funded project in Asia, was on UNCITRAL’s Panel of Experts on Electronic Transferable Records, and a Supervising Professor on UNCTAD’s IIAs Mapping project. See Associate Professor Laryea's academic profile and publications | |
Associate Professor Karinne Ludlow BSc (Monash), LLB (Hons) (Monash), PhD (Monash) Associate Professor Karinne Ludlow is an expert of international standing in regulation of innovative technologies, with interdisciplinary expertise in law and science. Karinne's research integrates science, commercialisation challenges and law, particularly around biotechnology and nanotechnology in applications including health, food and industry. Her research is supported by major external grant funding. Current projects include regulation of genome editing in food and agriculture, ARC Discovery grant funded research on inheritable genetic modification of human embryos, and a NHMRC funded project on genomics and mitochondrial disease under the Morrison Government’s Genomics Health Futures Mission, awarded ‘to Australia’s best and brightest researchers’. See Associate Professor Ludlow’s academic profile and publications | |
Professor Chris Marsden LLB, LLM, PhD (U. Essex) Chris Marsden @prof_marsden is Professor of Artificial Intelligence, Technology and the Law at Monash University and an expert on Internet and digital technology law, having researched and taught in the field since 1995. Chris researches regulation by code - whether legal, software or social code. He is author of five monographs including "Net neutrality" (2017), "Regulating Code" (2013 with Prof. Ian Brown), "Internet Co-regulation" (2011). He is author of many refereed articles, book chapters, professional articles, keynote addresses, and other scholarly contributions. He joins Monash from Sussex Law School, where he was Professor of Law (2013-22) and the founder and Director of the Centre for Information Governance Research (@SussCIGR) and Co-Investigator in the UK Trusted Autonomous Systems Governance and Regulation consortium (UKRI-EPSRC @tas_governance) and Centre for Inclusive Trade Policy (UKRI-ESRC @Centre4ITP). See Professor Marden's academic profile and publications | |
Professor Andrew Mitchell LLB (Hons), BCom (Hons), Grad Dip Intl L (U. Melb.), LLM (Harvard), PhD (Cambridge) Professor Andrew Mitchell is a leading scholar in the area of trade law and is a member of the Indicative List of Panelists to hear WTO disputes. He has previously practised law with Allens Arthur Robinson (now Allens Linklaters) and consults for States, international organisations and the private sector. Andrew has taught law in Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Singapore, and the US and is the recipient of five major grants from the Australian Research Council (including a Future Fellowship) and the Australian National Preventive Health Agency. He is a Series Editor of the Oxford University Press International Economic Law Series and an Editorial Board Member of the Journal of International Economic Law and the Journal of International Dispute Settlement. See Professor Mitchell’s academic profile and publications | |
Associate Professor Gerry Nagtzaam BA LLB (Monash), Master of Environmental Science (Monash), PhD (U. Melb) Associate Professor Gerry Nagtzaam is a leading environmental scholar. His research, which has been recognised in Australia and internationally, focuses on the intersections between environmental law, politics, history and economics. He has written a number of influential books on topics including international environmental treaties and their normative treatment, nuclear waste disposal in democratic states, and the development of radical environmental and animal liberation movements. He has also written extensively on the issues of climate law and policy, whaling and global biodiversity loss and is currently working on a book on the International Whaling Commission and the first book on the regulation of plastic pollution. See Associate Professor Nagtzaam’s academic profile and publications | |
Dr Richard Naughton B. Juris (Hons) LLB (UWA), B.A. (Hons) (UWA), LLB (U Melb), PhD (Monash) Dr Richard Naughton is an expert in labour law and a sports historian. He has practised in the areas of employment and industrial law at a number of Melbourne's national law firms, including Allens Arthur Robinson (now Allens Linklaters), PWC Legal, and Norton Rose. Prior to moving into private legal practice, Richard was a senior lecturer at the University of Melbourne. Since 2005, he has taught a range of labour law units in the Monash Law School’s postgraduate program, covering employment law, bargaining, discrimination law and workplace investigations. | |
Adjunct Professor Moira Paterson BEc (Monash), LLB (Hons) (U. Melb.), LLM(KCL), PhD (Monash) Adjunct Professor Moira Paterson researches in freedom of information, privacy, health records and public records law. Moira has been a Chief Investigator on eight major research projects, including five funded by the Australian Research Council, and has completed research consultancies and contracts for several government and private organisations. Her publications include Freedom of Information and Privacy in Australia: Information Access 2.0 (LexisNexis, 2015), two co-edited privacy-related books and numerous book chapters and journal articles. She was the FOI Editor of the Australian Administrative Law Service until 2018 and was member of the former Privacy Advisory Committee to the Australian Information. See Adjunct Professor Paterson’s academic profile and publications | |
Professor Marilyn Pittard
Professor Marilyn Pittard was appointed Interim Dean of the of the Faculty of Law at Monash University in February 2024. Marilyn researches and teaches in the areas of labour and employment law. Her published books address business innovation and the law (with perspectives from labour, competition, IP and corporations), Australian labour law, and the judiciary in the Asia-Pacific. Marilyn is a founding and current member of the Australian Labour Law Journal’s Editorial Committee. She has worked on several ARC research funded projects and has undertaken a range of leadership roles at Monash Law School. She is President of the Australian Labour Law Association and is a member of the Victorian Cancer Council Research Ethics Committee. See Professor Pittard’s academic profile and publications | |
Dr Sharon Rodrick BA LLB (Hons) (U. Melb), LLM (U. Melb.), PhD (Monash), Grad. Dip. Christian Studies (Australian College of Theology). Dr Sharon Rodrick teaches andresearches in the areas of property and media law. Her Masters by thesis was on the topic of ownership and licensing of pay television (which was yet to be introduced at the time of her thesis). Her PhD dealt with open justice and the media, an area in which she has published extensively. She is co-author of Australian Media Law. Her research in the property area has been focused on issues relating to the Torrens system of land registration. See Dr Rodrick’s academic profile and publications | |
Dr Tanjina Sharmin LLB (1st class Hons) (U. Dhaka), LLM (1st class, U. Dhaka), LLM (Cambridge) (specialising in Commercial Laws), PhD (Monash) Dr Tanjina Sharmin’s research broadly concerns international economic law and commercial laws. Her work explores the interconnection of international investment law and domestic corporation law. In line with her interest, she has undertaken research on the jurisdiction and admissibility of cases in investor-state arbitration, rule of law in international investment law, and regulation of foreign investment during the COVID-19 pandemic. Tanjina is currently developing new projects on human rights, sustainable development, and international investment law. Prior to joining the Monash law faculty, she practised law at the Supreme Court of Bangladesh and lectured at a Bangladeshi law school for several years. She has also undertaken research work for the United Nations Development Programme and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. See Dr Sharmin’s academic profile and publications | |
Dr Elizabeth Sheargold Dr Elizabeth Sheargold is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Law. Her research is primarily in the field of international economic law, with a particular interest in the intersection between international trade and investment agreements and environmental policy, including climate policy and natural resource management. In addition, she is currently working on a project funded by the Department of Defence titled Australia and Weaponised Trade: Threats and Responses. See Dr Sheargold's academic profile and publications | |
Dr Drossos Stamboulakis B.Com, LLB (Hons) (Monash); LLM (EMLE); PhD (U. Melb.); SFHEA Dr Drossos Stamboulakis’ research interests span international private law, focusing on comparative commercial dispute resolution (including arbitration and litigation), private international law, and environmental regulation and governance. His thesis, which analysed the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments and arbitral awards from a comparative perspective, is forthcoming in a book, Comparative Recognition and Enforcement (Oxford University Press, 2021). Drossos is also a co-author of Australian and International Commercial Arbitration (LexisNexis, 2021). He has published widely on using private law tools to achieve sustainability and biodiversity goals, and on comparative law methods. See Dr Stamboulakis’ academic profile and publications | |
Dr Eric Windholz
B. Ec. (Monash) LLB (1st Class Hons) (Monash) Grad. Dip. Company Secretarial Practice (Company Secretaries Australia) Graduate Certificate in Academic Practice (Monash) M.B.A. (U. Melb.) PhD. (Monash) Dr Eric Windholz’s scholarship focuses on regulatory theory, exploring how public policy and the law intersect to inform regulatory regime design and implementation. Eric's research has been applied to the examination of regulatory regimes in a range of important economic and social domains, including occupational health and safety, disability services, the environment, consumer protection, the media and most recently sports’ transnational regulatory and legal orders. Eric has published widely in leading law and non-law journals (reflecting the multi-disciplinary perspective he brings to his research), presented at national and international conferences, and consulted to government. See Dr Windholz’s academic profile and publications | |
Adjunct Associate Professor Normann Witzleb Assr. Iur (Berlin), Dr Iur (EUV Frankf-O), LLB (1st Class Merit Hons, Murdoch), GDLP (ANU) Normann Witzleb is an Associate Professor at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, where he chairs the Obligations Lab Asia, and an Adjunct Associate Professor at Monash Faculty of Law. His research focus is on privacy and data protection law, the law of torts and remedies, as well as comparative law. His recent book publications include Big Data, Political Campaigning and the Law: Democracy and Privacy in the Age of Micro-Targeting (Routledge, 2020), with M Paterson & J Richardson (eds), and Remedies: Commentary and Materials, 7th ed (Thomson Reuters, 2020), with E Bant, S Degeling & K Barker. Normann is admitted to practice in the Australian Capital Territory, a barrister of the High Court of Australia and a fully qualified German lawyer. In 2019 and 2020, he consulted with the Australian Attorney-General’s Department and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner on law reform projects in privacy and information law. See Associate Professor Witzleb’s academic profile and publications. Some of his recent research is also available from SSRN and ResearchGate. |
Affiliates
Dr Adefolake Adeyeye LLB (Hons) (University of Buckingham), LLM (Cambridge), PhD (National University of Singapore) Dr Adefolake Adeyeye is an Assistant Professor in Commercial Law at Durham University Law School, UK. Prior to this, she was a lecturer at the Monash University Law School, Melbourne. She researches and publishes in the area of corporate law and governance, corporate social responsibility and sustainable development. Her monograph, Corporate Social Responsibility of Multinational Corporations in Developing Countries: Perspectives on Anti-Corruption was published by Cambridge University Press in 2012. She is attorney at law, New York State, associate member of the Corporate Governance Institute, UK, member of the Institute for Commercial Law and Corporate Law, Durham Law school and member of the Society of Legal Scholars. | |
Emeritus Professor Stephen Bottomley FAAL Stephen Bottomley is an Emeritus Professor of Commercial Law and former Dean ANU Law School. He is an expert in corporate law, and his research focuses on corporate governance, regulation and government-owned enterprises. His 2008 book, The Constitutional Corporation: Rethinking Corporate Governance was awarded the Hart Socio-Legal Book Prize for outstanding piece of socio-legal scholarship and his article “The Notional Legislator: The Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s Role as a Law-Maker” (2011) 39 Federal Law Review 1received the 2011 Zines Prize for Excellence in Legal Research. He was awarded the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Legal Research Medal in the 2020 Australian Legal Research Awards. | |
Dr Vivien Chen Vivien Chen is a senior lecturer who teaches corporations law at Monash Business School. Her PhD examined the implications of political economy for the effectiveness of Malaysian shareholder protection, and she continues to investigate corporate accountability mechanisms with colleagues at Monash and internationally. She is currently engaged in research on harmful financial products and legal frameworks that protect vulnerable consumers in financial stress. As part of an inter-disciplinary project, she explores the impact of the New Silk Road with the China, Law and Development team. | |
Dr Penelope Crossley B Ec(SocSci)(Hons)/LLB(Hons) (Sydney), Grad. Dip. Legal Practice (Col. of Law), PhD (Sydney) Associate Professor Penelope Crossley is an Associate Professor of Commercial Energy and Resources Law and a SOAR Fellow at the University of Sydney Law School. She researches the complex legal issues associated with the energy transition, with a particular interest in renewable energy law and the regulation of emerging energy technologies, as well as electricity market governance. Penelope is the Editor in Chief of the Australian Resources and Energy Law Journal, Chairs the independent quasi-regulatory Product Listing Review Panel, and serves on a number of industry and government boards and working groups. | |
Dr Olivia Dixon
Olivia Dixon is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Sydney Law School, which she joined in 2013 as Lecturer in the Regulation of Investment and Financial Markets. She teaches and researches in corporate law, with a particular interest in regulation and corporate crime. She has an LLM and JSD from New York University (NYU), where her doctoral dissertation was an empirical study examining the role of mutual funds as corporate governance monitors. Prior to entering academia, Olivia practised as a corporate finance attorney in Sydney and New York, and also worked as an analyst for a corporate finance company and with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). | |
Dr. Zehra G. Kavame Eroglu Zehra Eroglu is a Lecturer (Corporate Law and Finance Law) and Director of the Master of Professional Accounting and Law at Deakin Law School. Before moving to Australia, she was located in New York where she completed her LLM (Columbia Law School) and SJD (Fordham Law School) in addition to working as a Postdoctoral Research Scholar (Columbia Law School). She taught Comparative Corporate Law and Comparative Financial Reporting (Fordham Law School) and Corporate Law (Swiss International Law School). | |
John Fast John Fast is a lawyer and economist. He is currently Executive Chairman of Seawick Pty Ltd, an international specialist advisory firm. Before taking on that role, he was the Founder and Joint Managing Director of the advisory company, Dragoman Pty Ltd and, prior to that, a senior executive with BHP, where he acted in the executive role as Chief Legal Counsel and member of the Policy Committee. John was one of the architects and chief strategists in the formation of the dual listing with Billiton Ltd. He is an alumnus of Monash Law School and began his career as Senior Commercial Partner at Arnold Bloch Leibler, specialising in mergers and acquisitions, corporate law, governance, taxation, trusts and financial planning advice. | |
Ray Finkelstein AO QC Ray Finkelstein obtained a law degree from Monash University Faculty of Law in 1970 and was admitted to practice in 1971. In 1975, he was called to the Bar, where he specialised in equity, commercial and corporate law. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1986; acting Solicitor General for the State of Victoria during 1992; Federal Court judge in 1997; President of the Australian Competition Tribunal in 2008. He retired as a Federal Court judge and as President of the Competition Tribunal in 2011, returning to private practice at the Victorian Bar. In 2011, he was appointed as an Adjunct Professor at Monash University Faculty of Law, and was selected by the Commonwealth Government to chair the Independent Inquiry into Aspects of the Media. | |
Honorary Professor Brent Fisse Honorary Professor Brent Fisse runs his own competition and consumer law practice (Brent Fisse Lawyers, Sydney). He was a partner of Gilbert + Tobin in Sydney from 1995-2003. He is a consultant to the Asian Development Bank on competition law and policy in Pacific Island economies including Fiji and PNG. Brent is an honorary professor of law at the University of Sydney. His publications include Australian Cartel Regulation (CUP, 2011) ((with Caron Beaton-Wells) and Corporations, Crime and Accountability (CUP, 1993) (with John Braithwaite), and “Australian Cartel Law: Recent Developments” (2023) Australian Business Law Review (forthcoming). | |
Sergio Alberto Gramitto Ricci Sergio Alberto Gramitto Ricci is the Jacobson Fellow at NYU Law School. He specialises in corporate law. Sergio’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in the Australian Journal of Corporate Law, the Cornell Law Review, the Mississippi Law Journal, the Nevada Law Journal, and the Seattle Law Review. It has also been featured in blogs and magazines, including the Columbia Law School's Blog on Corporations and Capital Markets, TheCorporateCounsel.net, Forbes, the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, and the Oxford Business Law Blog. Sergio co-authored the book Citizen Capitalism: How a Universal Fund Can Provide Influence and Income to All. In addition, Sergio is the organizer of the Collaborative Research Network 46 of the Law and Society Association. | |
Professor Michael Mintrom BA, MA(Hons), University of Canterbury, MA, PhD, State University of New York - Stony Brook Professor Michael Mintrom is a Professor of Public Policy in the School of Social Sciences at Monash University. He also serves as the Director of Better Governance and Policy, a cross-university research initiative. He began his career as an economic analyst in the New Zealand Treasury. In his various academic roles, spanning three countries, Michael has contributed to the literature on policy design and policy advocacy. He has written extensively on regulation. His current research on regulation considers effective means to create public value through effective adoption of RegTech by regulatory agencies. He has also been collaborating with Monash designers and roboticists to consider appropriate regulation to guide the growing presence of robots in public spaces. As well as being an Affiliate of CLARS, Michael is an Affiliate of the Monash Date Futures Institute and a Fellow of the Australia and New Zealand School of Government. | |
Adjunct Professor Rowan Russell BA LLB (Hons) (Monash) Rowan Russell was a partner for more than 25 years of Mallesons Stephen Jaques (now King & Wood Mallesons), where he was a leading specialist in banking and finance law and capital markets. He has practised as a lawyer in Melbourne, Sydney, and London. When he retired at the end of 2011, Rowan became an Adjunct Professor of Law and a Sessional teacher for the Faculty. Rowan continued in those roles until the end of 2021. Rowan has taught several courses for the Faculty over many years in both Melbourne and Prato. The courses have been in the areas of corporate finance, debt capital markets and securities law. Rowan has published papers and contributed chapters in published books on many topics including debt capital markets, banking regulation, the liability of directors and of credit rating agencies and also in relation to the internationalisation of legal education. Rowan has been a member of the Securities Committee of the International Bar Association and the Academic Committee of the Banking & Financial Services Law Association. | |
Dr Lisa Spagnolo B.Com LLB (Supreme Court Prize) (Deakin), PhD (Law)(Mollie Holman Medal) (Monash) Dr Lisa Spagnolo previously practised at Minter Ellison. She now researches comparative and international contract and property law, has published with Kluwer, Cambridge University Press and Elgar, lectures in Property Law, Contracts and Advanced Commercial Contracts at Monash University, and has been cited by judges and government papers. Lisa was Rapporteur for CISG Advisory Council, expert advisor to the New York State Bar Association, is a Fellow of UN Coordination Committee of Australia, has consulted for law firms, and is currently a chief investigator on an ARC Linkage Grant. See Dr Spagnolo's academic profile and publications | |
Professor Peta Spender Peta Spender is an Emeritus Professor at ANU and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law. She has published widely in the areas of corporations/financial markets law and made submissions to various law reform bodies including the James Hardie Special Commission of Inquiry. Her scholarship has for many years also explored the role of women in corporations, and she has recently argued that the current salience of gender as a political issue may favour the introduction of gender quotas for corporate boards. Her corporate law research has been cited by the Australian High Court and in amicus briefs filed in the US Supreme Court. | |
Assistant Professor Jennifer Varzarly Dr Jenifer Varzaly is an Assistant Professor in Commercial and Corporate Law at Durham Law School. Prior to this, Jenifer was Director of Studies and Bye-Fellow in Law at Downing College, Cambridge University. She completed her PhD at Cambridge University and her M.Phil at Oxford University. Jenifer has been a visiting academic at Columbia University and Stanford University, and has consulted in the areas of corporate law and finance in the US, Australia, and the UK. She has presented at a range of international forums, including the Oxford Commercial Law Centre, UNCITRAL, UNIDROIT, and the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission. Jenifer is admitted to practice as a barrister and solicitor in Australia, and has served as a director and chair of the governance committee on a public company board. | |
Professor Susan Watson Professor Susan Watson is Dean of the University of Auckland Business School and also holds a chair in the Faculty of Law. She researches how the corporate form developed, why it is so successful, and the economic and societal impact of corporations . Susan was joint editor of the New Zealand Business Law Quarterly (2007-2014) and won the Legal Research Foundation Award for the best article or book chapter published in 2015. She was elected president of the Society of Corporate Law Academics (SCoLa), formerly CLTA, at the beginning of 2020 and is a Research Member of the European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI). | |
Professor Michelle Welsh Michelle Welsh is the Senior Deputy Dean, Faculty Operations, Monash Business School. She undertakes research in the public enforcement of corporate law, the role of the public regulator and the impact of enforcement on corporate compliance. She is a former President of the Australasian Corporate Law Teachers Association and was a chief investigator on an ARC Discovery Project with colleagues from the Melbourne Law School titled Phoenix Activity: Regulating Fraudulent Use of the Corporate Form'. Currently, Michelle is a member of a Monash University Network of Excellence (NoE) project: “Enhancing Corporate Accountability” (with researchers from Monash Law School, the National University of Singapore and Manchester University). She is also working on a project that investigates optimal methods of regulating Debt Management Firms. | |
Yu Zhang Yu specialises in derivatives, financial market infrastructure and regulatory changes and banking and finance transactions. Yu's experience in derivatives and financial market transactions have included acting for domestic banks, leading investment banks and super funds on a range of structured finance transactions involving derivatives and in relation to regulatory changes and requirements. He has also advised a number of ASX 100 companies as end-users. Yu's work in financial market infrastructure and regulatory changes has included advising market participants, exchanges, clearing and payment systems, regulators and governments in Australia and Asia. He is known for his expertise in LIBOR transition. He has lectured in Corporations Law. |
PhD Candidates
Visit the PhD Student Achievements page for a list of PhD Candidates. |
2024 Interns
Daniella Cosentino Daniella is in her final year studying a double degree of Bachelor of Laws (Honours) and Bachelor of Commerce. She has a keen interest in commercial law, particularly in consumer, regulatory, insolvency, directors’ duties and corporate crime issues. Daniella has experience working at the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, and currently is a paralegal at a global commercial law firm in the Dispute Resolution practice. She recently returned from studying in Prato, Italy and enjoyed the opportunity to learn about law in a different cultural context. | |
Ellie Nigro Ellie is a penultimate Bachelor of Laws/Arts (Psychology) student at Monash University. She has a strong interest in competition and consumer law, intellectual property law, international trade law and international arbitration law. She has pursued these interests throughout university, legal clerkships and studies abroad. She participated in the Duke-Leiden Institute in Global and Transnational Law in 2023 and sat on the Monash University Law Review editorial board. | |
Pranjal Pokehalekar Pranjal is currently in her final year at Monash, studying a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) and Bachelor of Criminology. Throughout the course of her studies, she has developed a keen interest in corporate and commercial law and is drawn to the transactional, governance and regulatory matters that arise within this area of law. Pranjal hopes to continue pursuing this interest and establish a career as a corporate lawyer in Australia. She also has two years’ experience working as an Associate at an industrial relations firm that specialises in employment law matters. Outside work and university, Pranjal is a competitive swimmer and has kept up her love for the aquatic industry by working as a swimming instructor and supervisor at her local sports and recreation centre. | |
Phoebe Gray Phoebe Gray is a final year Bachelor of Laws (Honours)/Bachelor of Science (Mathematics) student at Monash University. As the legal assistant of a barrister, Phoebe undertakes research in the fields of commercial litigation and insolvency law. She is particularly interested in competition law, intellectual property, and transnational commercial law. Phoebe has undertaken clerkships at commercial law firms in Melbourne and London, excelled in multiple international moot competitions, and studied US and EU law through Duke University. She is eager to broaden her legal capabilities and commercial acumen. | |
Visit the Past Interns page for a list of previous CLARS Interns. |