Research degree theses in progress
This page provides information on the theses currently undertaken by enrolled research students in the Faculty of Law. The topics of these theses are grouped by research areas.
- Commercial and Contract Law
- Constitutional Law
- Corporation Law, Taxation Law, Competition Law, Finanical Regulations
- Criminal Law, Sentencing, Capital Punishment
- Dispute Resolution (including Litigation, Adjudication, Arbitrations and International Arbitrations)
- Environmental Law and Natural Resources
- Family Law
- Health Law
- Human Rights (including refugee law, forced migration, labour migration, human trafficking, indigenous rights)
- Intellectual Property Law
- International Law (including international criminal law and justice, international humanitarian law, international trade law, conflict of laws/private international law)
- Investment Law
- Legal Education, Legal Institutions
- Legal Philosophy, Legal Theory, Legal History
- Private Law, Equity, Civil Procedures
- Regulatory Studies
Commercial and Contract Law
Topics | Supervisors |
---|---|
A comparative study of the doctrine of anticipatory non-performance, with specific focus on UAE Laws | Dr Lisa Spagnolo and A/Prof Emmanuel Laryea |
Digital Matchmaking and the Law | A/Prof Normann Witzleb and A/Prof Janice Richardson |
Should therapeutic jurisprudence inform the allocation of risk in Australian construction contracts? | Prof Paula Gerber and Dr Lisa Spagnolo |
Is the franchise model broken? | Prof Daniel Fitzpatrick and Prof Ann Monotti |
Constitutional Law
Topics | Supervisors |
---|---|
Balancing religious constitutionalism: Islamic law and the constitutional rights in Indonesia | A/Prof Nadir Hosen and Prof Luke Beck |
Constitutionalization and Judicial Capacity in Common Law Asia | A/Prof Patrick Emerton, Prof HP Lee and Prof Po Jen Yap (HKG Chinese University) |
The moral origins of representative government in Australia | A/Prof Patrick Emerton and Prof Luke Beck |
Corporation Law, Taxation Law, Competition Law, Financial Regulations
Topics | Supervisors |
---|---|
A holistic view of emission trading scheme (ETS) in China: Challenges and solutions | Prof Stephen Barkoczy and A/Prof Gerry Nagtzaam |
A comparative study of the law concerning the ratification of director breaches by shareholders | A/Prof Normann Witzleb and Dr Susan Barkehall-Thomas |
Government venture capital incentives around the world: A technical analysis of international venture | Prof Stephen Barkoczy and Prof Bryan Horrigan |
What role does the corporate governance principle of independence play on Directors' duties? | Prof Daniel Fitzpatrick and Dr Tanjina Sharmin |
The impact of Future of Financial Advice reforms on the quality of financial product advice in Australia: a case study of how financial planner have responded to the new requirement to 'know your product in section 961B(2)(e) of the Corporations Act | Dr Weiping He and Prof Jennifer Hill |
Exploring avenues for an effective access to remedies for victims of business-related human rights abuses (BRHRA) in the Association of Southeast ASEAN Nations | Prof Daniel Fitzpatrick and Dr Caroline Henckels |
Are supervisors liable for failure of deposit taking institutions? | Dr Weiping He and Dr Steve Kourabas |
Regulation of financial products in Australia | Dr Weiping He and A/Prof Emmanuel Laryea |
The Volcker-Vickers Solution: An Elixir for the Safety of the Financial System? | Prof Stephen Barkoczy and Dr Steve Kourabas |
Should consumption taxes and the real GST be expanded in Australia? A normative review | Dr Kathryn James and A/Prof Janice Richardson |
The origins of Section 46 of the Competition and Consumer Act: Shifting foundations | Prof Mark Davison, Dr Colin Campbell and Dr Mel Marquis |
Criminal Law, Sentencing, Capital Punishment
Topics | Supervisors |
---|---|
Jury Directions: a new focus for improving criminal laws and ensuring fair trials | Prof Jonathan Clough and A/Prof Jacqui Horan |
Rights, autonomy and pregnancy | A/Prof Janice Richardson and Prof Bronwyn Naylor (external) |
A critical comparative examination of youth justice conferencing programs in Victoria, NSW, SA & NT | A/Prof Paula Gerber and Dr Stephen Gray |
Sufficiently serious behaviour - when should cyberbullying by young people be criminal? | Prof Jonathan Clough and A/Prof Normann Witzleb |
Addiction and the Law: How Addiction Features in the Criminal Law | A/Prof Kate Seear, Dr Jamie Walvisch and Dr Claire Spivakovsky (Arts Faculty) |
The prosecutor's role in ensuring a fair criminal justice system | Prof Jonathan Clough and Prof Liz Campbell |
A critical analysis of capital punishment in Islamic & Western legal systems and criminal law reform | A/Prof Nadir Hosen and Prof Liz Campbell |
Dispute Resolution
(including Litigation, Adjudication, Arbitrations and International Arbitrations)
Topics | Supervisors |
---|---|
The impacts of instituionalizaion of mediation: The changing faces of the Victorian mediator | A/Prof Becky Batagol, Prof Jeff Giddings, A/Prof Genevieve Grant and Prof John Zeleznikow (external)) |
Confidentiality in International Arbitrations: Is it an inherent attribute of international arbitration and, if so, how far does it extend? | Dr Lisa Spagnolo and Dr Caroline Henckels |
Security for costs in international arbitration: sources of power and factors in their exercise | Prof Jeff Giddings, Prof Clyde Croft and Dr Ben Hayward (Business Law and Taxation) |
Environmental Law and Natural Resources
Topics | Supervisors |
---|---|
A Global Imperative: The Need for New International Conventions and Institutions governing Oceanic Phytoplankton and Climate Change | A/Prof Gerry Nagtzaam |
A holistic view of emission trading scheme (ETS) in China: Challenges and solutions |
Family Law
Topics | Supervisors |
---|---|
Weeding and Tilling the Sissinghurst Gardens: an evaluation of the distribution of property pursuant the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) | A/Prof Adiva Sifris and Dr Renata Alexander |
Health Law
Topics | Supervisors |
---|---|
Medical treatment decision making for the seriously ill: Clinical realities, ethics and the law | A/Prof Genevieve Grant and Prof Anne-Maree Farrell (external) |
Problem Solving after Death: Designing Processes to assist Families in Coronial Investigations | A/Prof Genevieve Grant and Dr Jamie Walvisch |
Human Rights
(including refugee law, forced migration, labour migration, human trafficking, indigenous rights)
Topics | Supervisors |
---|---|
An analysis of the application of women's rights within Persian courtship rituals | Prof Paula Gerber and Prof Jacqueline True (Arts Faculty) |
Questions of fact and degree: a study of slavery and people trafficking prosecutions in Australia | Dr Stephen Gray, Prof Jean Allain, and A/Prof Heli Askola |
The Koori Court of Victoria: An answer to cultural and language disadvantage for indigenous offenders in the criminal justice system? | Prof Melissa Castan and Prof Kathryn Burridge (Arts Faculty) |
A rule of law model for protection status determination by the Refugee Review Tribunal | Dr Maria O'Sullivan and Prof Susan Kneebone (external) |
The right to seek asylum in an age of extra-territorialisation: The legality of Australia's deterrence and disruption activities beyond its borders | Dr Maria O'Sullivan, Prof Jean Allain and Dr Antje Missbach (external) |
Taking racial vilification seriously: a proposed new regulatory framework | Dr Colin Campbell and A/Prof Patrick Emerton |
Enforcing indigenous rights: International law mechanisms and the right to life with dignity | Dr Richard Joyce, Prof Melissa Castan and Dr Katie O'Bryan |
Human rights, gender, and development - A rights-based approach to examining the Asian Development Bank | A/Prof Heli Askola and Dr Joanna Kyriakakis |
Child-protective rationales as an illegitimate justification for restricting LGBT advocacy | Prof Paula Gerber and Dr Tania Penovic |
Removing politics from human rights: Attitudes and policies of the international community towards human rights development in De Factor States | Prof Jean Allain and Dr Ronli Sifris |
An analysis of the human rights of older persons: The need for social inclusion in Australian aged care | A/Prof Heli Askola and Dr Tania Penovic |
The idea(l) of 'Citizenship' for the protection and well-being of refugees in India | Dr Maria O'Sullivan and A/Prof Heli Askola |
Intellectual Property Law
Topics | Supervisors |
---|---|
Big Data: Opportunities, Risks and Regulation | Prof Moira Paterson and Prof Casanovas Pompeu (external) |
Back to the Start: Re-Envisioning the Role of Reversion in Australia's Copyright Regime | A/Prof Rebecca Giblin, Prof Mark Davison and Prof Martin Kretschmer (external) |
Rethinking Public Lending Rights | A/Prof Rebecca Giblin and Prof Kimberlee Weatherall (external) |
International Law
(including international criminal law and justice, international humanitarian law, international trade law, conflict of laws/private international law)
Topics | Supervisors |
---|---|
Enforcing indigenous rights: International law mechanisms and the right to life with dignity | Dr Richard Joyce, Prof Melissa Castan and Dr Katie O'Bryan |
Removing politics from human rights: Attitudes and policies of the international community towards human rights development in De Factor States | Prof Jean Allain and Dr Ronli Sifris |
Investment Law
Topics | Supervisors |
---|---|
Land grabbing, sustainable development and foreign Investment: Nigeria as a case study | Dr Emmanuel Laryea and Dr Gerry Nagtzaam |
From "Investor" through "Host State" to "Host People's" legitimate expectations? |
Legal Education, Legal Institutions
Topics | Supervisors |
---|---|
Clear legal writing education. An examination of how well Australian tertiary legal writing education develops law students’ ability to write clearly | A/Prof Becky Batagol and Prof Jeff Giddings |
Promoting well-being through clinical legal education | A/Prof Kate Seear, Prof Jeff Giddings and A/Prof Ross Hyams |
Legal Philosophy, Legal Theory, Legal History
Topics | Supervisors |
---|---|
Theorising collective resistance | A/Prof Patrick Emerton and Prof Toby Handfield (Arts Faculty) |
The western legal response to sorcery in colonial Papua New Guinea | Prof Melissa Castan and Dr Stephen Gray |
An investigation of the nature of the legal relationship between shareholders and the corporation, and the extent this relationship is comparable - legally and morally - to the relationship between a master and a slave | A/Prof Patrick Emerton and Dr Julian Sempil (external) |
Private Law, Equity, Civil Procedures
Topics | Supervisors |
---|---|
The role and importance of Parens Patriae principles in the superior Civil Courts of Australia | Dr Susan Barkehall-Thomas and Prof Luke Beck |
Nature of metadata and the implications of metadata retention scheme on privacy | Prof Moira Paterson and Dr Joanna Kyriakakis |
Regulatory Studies
Topics | Supervisors |
---|---|
Regulatory responses to address climate change risks: an assessment | Prof Graeme Hodge and Prof Arie Freiberg |
Administrative Law and Public-Private Partnerships: A Comparative Analysis of India and the UK | Prof Moira Paterson and Dr Colin Campbell |
Taking racial vilification seriously: a proposed new regulatory framework | Dr Colin Campbell and A/Prof Patrick Emerton |
Public Private Partnerships: Policies, Politics and Practices | Prof Graeme Hodge and A/Prof Paul Strangio (Arts Faculty) |
Legal services use in road traffic injury compensation claims | A/Prof Genevieve Grant, A/Prof Becky Batagol, A/Prof Janneke Berecki-Gisolf (Monash University Accident Research Centre) and Prof Luke Connelly (external) |
Regulation of equity crowdfunding in Australia: Lessons to be learned from bookbuilding and secondary markets for traditional securities | Prof Ann Monotti and Prof Mark Davison |
The interface between infrastructure regulation, funding and procurement: What can public utility regulation and long term infrastructure contracts learn from each other? | Prof Graeme Hodge and Dr Eric Windholz |
Regulating and preventing fraud and corruption within government systems and structures | Prof Liz Campbell and Prof Graeme Hodge |