Welcome to new MLS Staff

By Professor Carolyn Evans

Every year we search the world to bring the best teachers and researchers to Melbourne Law School. In 2016 we welcome another talented group of people to MLS who bring a diversity of experiences and backgrounds.

Professor Hilary Charlesworth: Hilary will be well known to many of you as she is a graduate and former teacher at Melbourne and Harvard, and one of the world’s leading experts on international law. She chaired the Australian Capital Territory government’s inquiry into an ACT bill of rights and was appointed as a judge of the International Court of Justice in 2011 for the Whaling in the Antarctic case. We are excited to have Hilary back on staff and teaching in human rights and international law.

Professor Christine Parker: Christine is a graduate of ANU and returns to Melbourne after teaching at Monash for several years. She works on the way that business responds to legal regulation and social responsibility, also on legal ethics. Her recent projects have included research in the areas of the United Nation’s Respect, Protect and Remedy Framework for business and human rights.

Associate Professor Jason N E Varuhas: Jason is a graduate of the University of Cambridge, University College London, and Victoria University of Wellington, where he completed undergraduate degrees in Law and Economics. He works on both private and public law and has previously been a Fox Visiting International Fellow at Yale and Associate to Justice O’Regan of the New Zealand Court of Appeal.

Dr Alysia Blackman: Alysia graduated from Melbourne also Cambridge, where she was a fellow at Clare College. Alysia’s research focuses on labour and discrimination law and her thesis looks at age discrimination and employment security from a socio-legal perspective. She previously worked as a lawyer at national law firm Freehills and in Sydney Law School. Dr Olivia Barr: Olivia is a graduate of the University of Western Australia and the University of British Columbia and holds a PhD from Melbourne. She is a highly regarded teacher who teaches in Property and Administrative Law as well as several other areas. Her research combines law and geography studies and she works with Indigenous communities on issues around property and culture.

Dr Anna Arstein-Kerslake: Anna is a graduate of National University of Ireland, Galway, City University of New York and San Diego State University. She researches and teaches in the area of disability human rights and runs a clinic on disability rights. She has provided consultation and worked closely with domestic and international organisations, including the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disability, among others.

Dr Rebecca Nelson: Rebecca has degrees in law and engineering from Melbourne and has a Master of Science and a PhD in Law from Stanford. She formerly worked as a lawyer at the Murray-Darling Basin Authority and in private practice in Australia. In 2014 she was named the Law Council of Australia’s Young Environmental Lawyer of the Year.

Dr James Parker: James is a graduate of Oxford, McGill and Melbourne. His research focuses on the relations between law and sound, with a particular emphasis on international criminal law and the law of sound. He is currently a junior faculty member at the Harvard Law School Institute for Global Law and Policy.

Dr Wendy Ng: Wendy is a graduate of Melbourne and Columbia. She researches and teaches in competition law and Chinese law more generally. In 2012, she was awarded a prestigious Prime Minister’s Australia Asia Award to support her fieldwork activities in China and she works as a consultant to the ACCC on competition law in the region. She had substantial experience as a lawyer in Australia and New York before joining the academy.

Banner image: Overlooking Melbourne Law School
Image credit: Peter Casamento photography

This article originally appeared in MLS News, Issue 15, June 2016.