Professor Lee Godden

Overview

Professor Lee Godden’s research sits at the intersection of Environmental Law and Indigenous Peoples’ Law. Lee is the Acting Director of the Indigenous Law and Justice Hub at Melbourne Law School.

In 2023 her contribution to the evolution of Australian environmental law and water law was recognised by an Eminent Environmental Lawyer Award - Legal Practice Division, Australian Law Council (2023). Lee is a Fellow, The Australian Academy of Law (2016) and Fellow, Academy of Social Sciences in Australia (2017). From 2013-15, Lee was an Australian Law Reform Commissioner leading a review of the Native Title Act 1993 (C’th).

Her current research interests centre on climate change and energy transition, biodiversity protection, and disaster law and adaptation.  She has collaborated on a major reframing of property law to better give effect to habitat. A co-authored monograph on climate mitigation and sequestration was awarded the American Society of International Law, 2019 Certificate of Merit in a specialized Area of International Law.

Representative publications include:

1. L. Godden, ‘Native Title: Steps Toward a Decolonised Law Curriculum’ in N. Watson and H. Douglas (eds) Legal Education Through an Indigenous Lens: Decolonising the Law School Routledge 2024, ch 16.
2. G. Bellantuono, L. Godden, H. Mostert, H. Wiseman and H. Zhang (eds), Handbook of Energy Law in the Low-Carbon Transition (De Gruyter) 2023.
3. N. Graham, M. Davies and L. Godden (eds.) Routledge Handbook on Property, Law and Society (Routledge) 2022.
4. L. Godden. ‘Fragmentation in Urban Water Governance: Navigating Legal and Normative Modalities’ in T. Bolognesi, M. Farrelly, F. Silva Pinto (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Urban Water Governance (Routledge) 2022, ch 12.
5. L. Godden. ‘Recognizing’ Culture and Religion in State Transition: Confluence in the Indo-Pacific World’, in J. Taylor and R. de Silva-Wijeyeratne, (eds.) Re-Thinking Sovereignty: Religious Boundaries and Transgressions in South, Southeast Asia and Australasia (ChangMai University Press) 2022, 137.
6. E. O’Donnell, S. Jackson, M. Langton, and L. Godden, ‘Racialized water governance: the ‘hydrological frontier’ in the Northern Territory, Australia’ (2022) Australasian Journal of Water Resources
7. L. Shuijers and L. Godden, ‘Law and Litigation for the Conservation of Forest Communities’ (2022) 9(2) Griffith Journal of Law and Human Dignity 1-24.
8. M. Davies, L. Godden, and N. Graham. ‘Situating Property within Habitat: Reintegrating People, Place, and Law’ (2021) 6 Journal of Law, Property, and Society 1-50.
9. M. Tehan, L. Godden, M. Young and K. Gover, The Impact of Climate Change Mitigation on Indigenous and Forest Communities: International, National and Local Law Perspectives on REDD+ (Cambridge University Press) 2018.

Other School and University responsibilities

• Undergraduate Studies Committee 2004, Equal Opportunity Committee 2004
• Management Team Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute 2009-2010

Memberships and affiliations

• Environmental Law Division International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
• Academic Advisory Group, SEERIL International Bar Association