ARC Laureate Fellowships

Project Title

The corporate challenge to democracy: Harnessing international law

Grant Scheme

ARC Laureate Fellowship

Project Summary

The rising power of global corporations is a serious challenge to Australian democracy. Corporations have gone global, but the mechanisms to ensure they serve the public interest, pay tax and comply with national laws have not. So far, international law has not been able to help. This project will develop a new theoretical account of the relationship between states and corporations and identify reforms to international law and institutions to remedy the current imbalance. This project, and the new generation of researchers it will train, will enhance Australia’s capacity to hold global corporations to democratic standards, legal accountability and taxation, and establish Australia as a world leader in maintaining that balance going forward.

Commencement Year

2021

Project Title

Balancing diversity and social cohesion in democratic constitution

Grant Scheme

ARC Laureate Fellowship

Project Summary

This fellowship project aims to address the need to reconcile the tensions between the pursuit of diversity and the promotion of social cohesion. This critical problem becomes increasingly urgent as nations grapple with the challenges of highly diverse multi-cultural societies. The project aims to build a team of researchers who draw on the experience of constitutionalism throughout the world to investigate how constitutions, in their design and in their application, can unify while nurturing the diversity appropriate for a complex, modern society. This project is intended to help governments, judiciaries and the public resolve intense controversies over ideals.

Commencement Year

2016

Project Title

Civil War, Intervention, and International Law

Grant Scheme

ARC Laureate Fellowship

Project Summary

The research itself will address one of the most significant problems in international relations for the 21st century – whether and under what conditions foreign actors can intervene in civil wars. The intensity of debates about the legality of US intervention in Iraq and Syria on the one hand, and Russian intervention in Ukraine on the other, illustrates the urgency of this question and the difficulty of finding general principles to address it. The project will offer new ways of understanding how changing patterns and practices of intervention have reshaped fundamental principles of international law. The outcomes will make a significant contribution to ongoing public debates about the legality of intervention.

Commencement Year

2015

Project Title

Law for the public's health: the impact of medico-legal institutions on public health

Grant Scheme

ARC Laureate Fellowship

Project Summary

This project aims to transform the role medico-legal institutions, such as health complaints commissions and coroners, play in advancing population health. Through a series of research partnerships with these institutions, the project will strive to design reforms that improve the quality of health services, reduce costs, and enhance the ability of medico-legal institutions to meet the needs of families who turn to them for help.

Commencement Year

2011