Building on 25 years of learning: Construction law at Melbourne Law School
November 2024 marks the 25th anniversary of the foundation of the construction law program at Melbourne Law School.
When the program was launched at a reception at the then-new Melbourne Museum, its founders had high hopes that it would make a meaningful contribution to raising and sharing knowledge of the evolving role of law and regulation across construction practice.
A quarter of a century on, the program comprises more than 20 construction law specific subjects taught each year across the University’s Juris Doctor, Melbourne Law Masters and construction management programs. These subjects offer cross-disciplinary learning opportunities to hundreds of students each year, and result in the graduation of dozens of students with Graduate Diplomas and Masters degrees in Construction Law.
Whilst the program has expanded in its breadth and depth, the guiding principle remains to contribute to greater understanding across the construction disciplines and rational reform of the legal aspects of construction. This contribution extends beyond our classrooms into world-leading research, including the publication of more than a hundred articles based on student research papers, several landmark research reports, a podcast featuring our teachers, and access for our students to an unrivalled range of research resources.
We have also fostered reform and education through deep links with organisations including the Societies of Construction Law in Australia and around the world. Our program has forged strong and collegial relationships with construction law programs at universities in the UK, Hong Kong, Latin America, North America, Aotearoa New Zealand and the UAE.
The program at Melbourne Law School began as an initiative of a visionary group of construction law professionals, many of whom have gone on to teach and research in the program or contribute to its development via the Construction Law Advisory Board. We have been fortunate to have harnessed the goodwill and experience of dozens of the world’s leading construction law scholars and practitioners within our teaching program as teachers. That teaching team is enhanced each year by more than a hundred guest lecturers and the generosity of our wider construction law community (including alumni) who make site visits and other special events possible for our students.
Thanks to the ongoing support of the international construction law community and colleagues across Melbourne Law School, the future of our construction law program looks bright. Indeed, in 2025 we are looking forward to welcoming several new international lecturers to our teaching team and to the publication of a text exploring the interface between private law and building safety as the result of a multi-year research project between MLS and colleagues at the University of Oxford.
The 25th anniversary of the construction law program provides us with an opportunity to thank the many colleagues who have made its continued success possible. These include:
- The program’s founding Directors of Studies, Professor Paula Gerber and Professor Ian Bailey AM SC
- Our Professorial Fellows Doug Jones AO and John Sharkey AM and Enterprise Fellow Phillip Greenham
- Patron of the program, The Hon David Byrne KC
- Chair of the Construction Law Advisory Board David M Bennett KC
- Successive Deans of MLS and Associate Deans for the Melbourne Law Masters
- Our extraordinary colleagues within the MLS Academic Support Office, Ian Malkin Centre for Legal Academic Skills, and Melbourne Law Library
For more information about our construction law program, including how to enrol, click here
Associate Professor Matthew Bell and Associate Professor Wayne Jocic
Directors of Studies for Construction Law