Dr Caroline Kelly

Overview

Caroline is a Lecturer at Melbourne Law School. She researches in labour law and administrative law, with a particular interest in the public/private divide in the employment sphere and the common law contract of employment.

Caroline holds a PhD from Melbourne Law School, an LLM with distinction from University College London and a BA/LLB (Hons) from the University of Melbourne. Her doctoral research examined the reflection of administrative law principles in the regulation of employer power. Caroline has published in the Australian Journal of Labour Law and the Sydney Law Review. With Professor Joo-Cheong Tham, she co-edited and contributed to Democracy, Social Justice and the Role of Trade Unions: We the Working People (Anthem Press, 2021). She served as Associate Editor of the Australian Journal of Labour Law between 2023 and 2025.

Prior to joining Melbourne Law School, Caroline worked as a sessional academic at the University of Sydney and ANU, Researcher to the NSW Court of Appeal, as Associate to The Hon Justice Richard Tracey AM RFD at the Federal Court of Australia and as a Research Intern at the International Trade Union Confederation in Brussels. She also practised as a solicitor in commercial dispute resolution.