Professor Hélène Lambert

Overview

Professor Hélène Lambert joined Melbourne Law School as the Director of the Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness in December 2024.

Professor Lambert joins the Centre following time at the University of Technology in Sydney, and three decades of international scholarship, and consultancy work for the UNHCR and the European Commission.

Professor Lambert’s research has focussed on the areas of asylum, refugees and migration; statelessness and issues of nationality; international law and international relations; and transnational law and comparative approaches to law. She has made a major contribution to refugee law and statelessness law through her scholarship on the comparative analysis of national law and practice, and on the application of human rights standards. Specifically, her scholarship on statelessness and refugee law has honed in on  the comparative analysis of national law and practice, and on the application of human rights standards.

Professor Lambert graduated from the University of Exeter in 1992 with a PhD in Comparative Asylum Law, and from the University of Strasbourg with a Licence en Droit and a Maitrise de Droit Public in 1987 and 1988, respectively. She has worked as a Protection (Legal) Officer for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and was a stagiaire ad hoc at the Council of Europe (Strasbourg), visiting fellow at the Refugee Studies Centre (Oxford), and Dyason Fellow at Melbourne Law School. She has also acted as a consultant for the UNHCR, the Council of Europe, and the European Commission on numerous occasions.

Previously Hélène Lambert was Professor of Law at UTS (2019-23) and Professor of Law at the University of Wollongong (2017-19). Before moving to Australia in 2017, she was Professor of International Law (and Research Director) at the University of Westminster in London (2010-20); Associate Professor at the University of Westminster (2007-10), Senior Lecturer at Brunel University (2005-07) and Lecturer at the University of Exeter (1993-2005) and the University of the West of England (1991-93).