The Charter at 20: Promise, Practice and Prospect

About the panel

Jason N E Varuhas is Harrison Moore Professor of Public Law at the University of Melbourne and Director of the Centre of Comparative Constitutional Studies. He is also Director of the international Public Law Conference series. Professor Varuhas has published widely in the fields of administrative law, human rights, constitutional law, the law of torts, the law of remedies, and the intersection of public and private law. His scholarship has been cited by higher courts across the common law world including the High Court of Australia, New Zealand Supreme Court, UK Supreme Court and Canadian Supreme Court. He has made significant contributions to law reform, including remedial reforms to the English judicial review, and to the public understanding of law, including leading Melbourne Law School’s series of public engagement events on The Voice referendum. He has appeared as counsel on a range of significant human rights and public law matters at first instance and in the appellate courts.

Kylie Evans KC is a leading expert in human rights law having published three texts in the area and holds an academic position at the Melbourne Law School as a Senior Fellow. Kylie is a member of the Queensland Parliament’s human rights advisory panel. In March 2025, she was awarded the Public Interest/Justice Innovation Award by the Victorian Bar as part of the 2025 Victorian Bar Pro Bono Awards.

She holds first class honours degrees in Law from the University of Melbourne and the University of Cambridge (Masters of Law) and a first class Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Melbourne. She was Associate to the late Honourable Justice David Hunt AO QC at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in 1999 and a Research Fellow for the late Honourable Professor James Crawford AC SC FBA (formerly a Justice of the International Court of Justice) from 2002-2005.

Thomas Wood practices at the Victorian Bar in all areas of law, with a focus on public law (constitutional law, administrative law and statutory construction). He also has expertise in complex appeals, including in commercial law and criminal law.

He has appeared in a number of matters raising the Charter, most recently for the successful plaintiffs in Marrogi v Secretary, Department of Justice and Community Safety [2026] VSC 4 (“open air” right for prisoners under the Corrections Act 1986 (Vic)) and in Browne v Assistant Commissioner of Police, North West Metro Region [2026] FCA 15 (“designated area” declaration over the Melbourne CBD under the Control of Weapons Act 1990 (Vic)).
He is also one of the co-authors of Constitutional Law in Australia (5th ed, 2024, with P Hanks KC, F Gordon KC and G Hill SC).

Adrienne Stone is Melbourne Laureate Professor at the University of Melbourne and Director of the Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies.

^{Photo by Colin Lloyd on Unsplash}