Issue 4 – November 2010

I am delighted to announce the appointment of Professor Carolyn Evans as the new Dean of Melbourne Law School. A former Rhodes Scholar and one of the world's leading experts on law and religion, Professor Evans will lead the school for the next five years.

It is an additional pleasure to add that Professor Evans is a current member of the academic staff and an alumna of Melbourne Law School. When she begins her term as the first female Dean of the Law School in February next year, she will bring the added insights of her shared experience as a teacher and a past student.

Professor Carolyn Evan's has been appointed the 15th Dean of Melbourne law School. Professor Evan's will take up her post from 1 February 2011.

The Hon Justice Richard Edmonds of the federal court delivered the annual tax lecture for 2010 at Melbourne Law School.

The chief justice of the United States, the Honourable John G. Roberts, JR, participated in a remarkable series of events at Melbourne Law School in July, culminating in the first-ever address by a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States to an Australian audience.

The significance of the relationship between Australian and American Jurisprudence was evident in July this Year during the historic visit to Melbourne Law School by the Chief Justice of the United States.

Corporate lawyer Zili Shao (LLM 1994) heads the Chinese operations at JPMorgan Chase & Co., the Second largest US bank by assets.

Displaced by poverty and conflict, unaccompanied refugee children are seeking help from the international community in growing numbers.

The diverse program offered by the Melbourne Law Masters gives students the opportunity to learn from leading scholars and practitioners from Australia and around the globe.

Almost 50 international visiting lecturers will be teaching in the Melbourne Law School Masters Program next year, across an extraordinary range of subjects.

These international experts join Law School teaching staff, leading scholars and industry professionals to bring new perspectives and the latest thinking on emerging and ongoing legal issues.

A broken leg proved to be a life-changing experience for our first Leith Trust Indigenous Scholar. Matthew Ferrari's unexpected accident set him on a path leading to Melbourne Law School and the beginning of a career in law.l

For two weeks during this year's winter break, a group of 25 students from Melbourne Law School studied a unique subject: Institutions in International Law. Taught in the institutional hub of Geneva, the subject was an incredible opportunity for students interested in public international law to see how key institutions work and interact in practice.

When Mr Jack T. Rush RFD QC, Victorian Bar, visited Melbourne Law School last month, he found an audience eager to hear about his experiences as counsel assisting the inquiry into Australia's worst bushfire disaster.

The Malcolm DH Smith Memorial Scholarship was launched this year in tribute to Professor Smith, a leading international figure in Asian legal studies and the Founding Director of the Asian Law Centre at the University of Melbourne.