People
A/Prof Rebecca Nelson
Dr Alice Palmer
Christine Parker
Dr Cait Storr
Dr Erin O'Donnell
Dr Brad Jessup
Kate Jama
Dr Ellycia Harrould-Kolieb
Prof Jacqueline Peel
Jayani Nadarajalingam
Prof Kirsty Gover
Dr Lily O'Neill
Lulu Weiss
Prof Margaret Young
Maureen Tehan
Prof Emeritus Professor Michael Crommelin AO
Prof Miranda Stewart
Dr Olivia Barr
Shaun McVeigh
Sophie Lamond
Prof Sundhya Pahuja
PhD Candidate, Melbourne Law School. Topic: Zoorisprudence: How Should the Law treat Animals? Supervisors: Professor Christine Parker and Professor K. Jones PhD Candidate, Melbourne Law School. Topic: Climate Finance and the Philippines: A Legal and Critical analysis of rules, Institutions and Structures Supervisors: Professor Margaret Young and Professor Sundhya Pahuja PhD Candidate, Melbourne Law School. Topic: Directors' Liability for Corporate Responses to Climate Change: A Comparative Study of Australian, US and UK Law. Supervisors: Professor Jacqueline Peel and Ms Judith Marychurch. PhD Candidate, Melbourne Law School. Topic: Animals, Disasters and Legal Status: Contributing to and Correcting Vulnerability Supervisors: Professor Christine Parker and Professor Lee Godden PhD Candidate, Melbourne Law School. Topic: Australian Farm Animal Welfare Regulation: Preventing Unnecessary Suffering, Providing Animals with a Life Worth Living, or Neither? Supervisors: Professor Christine Parker and Professor Tess Hardy PhD Candidate, Melbourne Law School. Topic: Coastal Management, Community Resilience, and the Law: A Comparative Analysis of Shandong Province in China and the State of Victoria in Australia Supervisors: Professor Margaret Young and Professor Sarah Biddulph PhD Candidate, Melbourne Law School. Topic: The Imperial Sea: Imaginaries of ocean rule of law and development Supervisors: Professor Sundhya Pahuja and Professor Margaret Young PhD Candidate, Melbourne Law School. Topic: Renewable Energies in International Trade and Investment Law Supervisors: Professor Jurgen Kurtz and Professor Margaret Young PhD Candidate, Melbourne Law Schoo. Topic: Protection for the Rivers of Bangladesh: In-depth Analysis of the Current legal and Institutional Frameworks related to rivers in Bangladesh Supervisors: Associate Professor Rebecca Nelson and Dr Erin O'Donnell PhD Candidate, Melbourne Law School. Topic: Campus Food Revolutions: Investigating Policy and Projects for Food System Transformation in US Universities Supervisors: Professor Christine Parker and Professor John Howe PhD Candidate, Melbourne Law School. Topic: Tax instruments and water rights protection: a compared policy analysis Supervisors: Professor Miranda Stewart and Dr Erin O'Donnell PhD Candidate, Melbourne Law School. Topic: Procedures of the International Court: Theory, Function and Practice Supervisors: Professor Hillary Charlesworth and Professor Margaret Young PhD Candidate, Melbourne Law School. Topic: Rights to Water or Rights of Water? Examining the use of the Human Right to Water and Rights for Rivers at the local level Supervisors: Professor Lee Godden and A/Professor Rebecca Nelson PhD Candidate, Melbourne Law School. Topic: Scattered laws, scattered lives: a regimes analysis of legal and policy responses to climate change-related displacement, migration and relocation in Oceania Supervisors: Professor Margaret Young and Professor Michelle Foster PhD Candidate, Melbourne Law School. Topic: Shareholder Power and the Public Interest Supervisors: Professor Christine Parker and Professor R Langford PhD Candidate, Melbourne Law School. Topic: Eco-Justice for Environmental Crimes During Peacetime: Examining Alternative Pathways for the Recognition of Ecocide Under International Law Supervisors: Professor Alison Duxbury and A/Professor Rebecca Nelson PhD Candidate, Melbourne Law School. Topic: Pollution of the Marine Environment by Plastic: Comparative Approach in International, European and Comparative Law Supervisors: Professor Margaret Young and Professor S. Maljean-Dubois PhD Candidate, Melbourne Law School. Topic: At the Coalface: Legal Constraints on Coal Mining After the Paris Agreement Supervisors: Professor Jacqueline Peel and Professor Margaret YoungCurrent Graduate Researchers
Nicholas Ampt
Ma. Niña Blesilda Araneta-Alana
Sarah Barker
Ashleigh Best
Lev Bromberg
Xiaoxuan Chen
Alexis Ian Dela Cruz
Philip Hainbach
Ishrat Jahan
Sophie Lamond
Elliot Legendre
Juliette McIntyre
Roanna McClelland
Vernon Rive
Samantha Tang
Michael Uche Ukponu
Daria Vasilevska
Ella Vines
Past Graduate Researchers
James Bond
Divergent Risk Perspectives in Environmental Management. Supervisors: Dr Brian Cook (School of Geography and Resource Management) and Professor Lee Godden.
Mohammad Islam
Crafting Legal and Institutional Frameworks for groundwater resources of Bangladesh: From Overexploitation to Sustainable Abstraction. Supervisors: Professor Lee Godden and Associate Professor Rebecca Nelson
Sebastian Rioseco
The Influence of Conferences of the Parties of the Content and the Implementation of Their Parent-Treaties. Supervisors: Professor Margaret Young and Professor Hilary Charlesworth
Alice Palmer
Reimagining international environmental law. Supervisors: Professor Lee Godden and Associate Professor Shaun McVeigh. Read more about Alice Palmer.
Penelope Gleeson
Dope, Drugs, and Devices: The Political Legitimacy of Therapeutic Goods Regulation in Australia. Supervisors: Professor Christine Parker and Associate Professor M. Taylor Sands
Kobi Leins
International Law Applicable to the Use of Nanomaterials in War. Supervisors: Professor Christine Parker and Professor Alison Duxbury
Timothy Baxter
Justiciability and the environment – Challenging current conceptions of separation of powers in light of existential environmental threats. Supervisors: Professor Lee Godden and Associate Professor Jason Varuhas.
Josi Khatarina
Decentralisation, Law, and the Failure of Palm Oil Licensing in Indonesia. Supervisors: Professor Tim Lindsey and Professor Margaret Young
Laura Schuijers
The effective regulation of environmental impact assessment: A case study on hydraulic fracturing. Supervisors: Associate Professor Margaret Young and Professor Jacqueline Peel.
The Hon. Philip Cummins
PhD Candidate, Melbourne Law School. Topic: Of Judicial Office. Supervisors: Professor Michael Crommelin AO and Laureate Professor Emeritus Cheryl Saunders AO. Read more about The Hon. Philip Cummins.
Elizabeth Macpherson
PhD Candidate, Melbourne Law School. Topic: The Indigenous Water Market: Commercial Indigenous Water Rights in Australia and Chile. Supervisors: Associate Professor Kirsty Gover and Adjunct Associate Professor Maureen Tehan.
Carlo Morris
PhD Candidate, Engineering. Topic: Management of the environment using a combination of policy instruments: A case study of farm dams in Victoria. Supervisors: Professor Michael Stewardson (Engineering), Professor Biran Finlayson (Geography and Resource Management) and Professor Lee Godden.
James Munro
PhD Candidate, Melbourne Law School. Topic: The relationship between emissions trading schemes and international trade and investment law. Supervisors: Professor Andrew Mitchell and Associate Professor Margaret Young.
Stephanie Niall
PhD Candidate, Melbourne Law School. Topic: Shifting Sands: The Complexity of Managing Natural Resources in a Dynamic Environment. Supervisors: Professor Lee Godden and Professor Jacqueline Peel.
Erin O'Donnell
PhD Candidate, Melbourne Law School. Topic: Environmental independence: How can environmental law adapt to an environmental corporation with property rights and a voice of its own? Supervisors: Professor Lee Godden, Professor Sundhya Pahuja and Professor John Freebairn (Economics). Read more about Erin O'Donnell.
Lily O'Neil
PhD Candidate, Melbourne Law School. Topic: Law, power, and indigenous negotiation outcomes in Australia's natural gas industry. Supervisors: Adjunct Associate Professor Maureen Tehan and Professor Miranda Stewart. =
Joshua Paine
PhD Candidate, Melbourne Law School. Topic: International Adjudicatory Functions: A Comparative Study through the Lens of Environmental Cases. Supervisors: Laureate Professor Anne Orford and Associate Professor Margaret Young.
Robin Robinson
PhD Candidate, Melbourne Law School. Topic: Unfinished Business: How to address deficiencies in native title jurisprudence relating to the protection of intragroup native title rights and interests. Supervisors: Adjunct Associate Professor Maureen Tehan and Associate Professor Kirsty Gover.
Elizabeth Sheargold
PhD Candidate, Melbourne Law School. Topic examines how states seek to safeguard their regulatory autonomy when drafting international trade and investment agreements.
For a comprehensive list of MCLE's Graduate Researchers theses and working papers, please visit the Melbourne Law School Library's website.
Alumni
Samuel Alexander
Samuel Alexander has an LLB from the University of Otago, New Zealand, and an LLM (Hons) from the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. After graduating Sam practiced employment law in Christchurch, New Zealand, before joining Melbourne Law School in 2006 as a PhD student. Sam's thesis was titled 'Voluntary Simplicity: Towards a Post-growth Theory of Property' (supervisors Lee Godden and Jenny Beard). Sam has also founded the Life Poets' Simplicity Collective (http://simplicitycollective.com/) which is a grass roots environmental organization dedicated to creatively promoting and celebrating sustainable culture.
Takele Bulto
Takele Bulto holds LLB and MA degrees from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia, and an LLM degree from University of Pretoria, South Africa. Takele worked as a judge and lecturer in Ethiopia and a visiting lecturer at the Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria. He also worked as Programme Coordinator for Child Rights and Child Rights Programming in Eastern and Central African Regional Office of Save the Children, Sweden. Just before taking up his PhD studies at Melbourne Law School Takele was a Legal Officer in a PanAfrican Pioneer NGO. Takele's thesis was entitled 'The Imperatives of Extraterritorial Application of the Human Right to Water: A Case Study of the Nile Basin' and explores the operationalisation of the emerging human right to water in Africa (supervisors Jacqueline Peel and Carolyn Evans, completed in 2012).
Lisa Caripis
Lisa Caripis was an RA with CREEL between 2011-2013. After leaving CREEL, Lisa lived in South America where she worked at the Centre for Climate and Resilience Research at the University of Chile and volunteered with Tierra Digna, a local Colombian human rights organisation supporting communities affected by extractive projects. Since 2016, Lisa has worked as Research and Policy Manager for Transparency International's global Accountable Mining Programme where she leads on research, knowledge-sharing and policy advocacy. Working with local TI partners in twenty countries, the programme aims to combat corruption in the mining sector by enhancing transparency, accountability and civic participation in government decisions to approve exploration and mining projects. Adopting a multi-stakeholder approach, Lisa has worked in collaboration with a diverse range of organisations from the World Economic Forum to local civil society groups and networks.
Virginie Tassin Campanella
Virginie completed her doctoral degree n 2010, a double badged PhD from Melbourne Law School (Grade 1) and the Sorbonne University (High distinction, Prize & Funding for Publication) on the subject “The Extension of the Continental Shelf”, which was awarded the 2011 Prize of the Economic Law of the Sea Institute (INDEMER) of Monaco. She was co-supervised by Stuart Kaye, Andrew Mitchell and Jean-Marc Sorel (Sorbonne University). After completing her PhD, worked as Associate Legal Officer at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) where she worked, among other cases, on the first Seabed Dispute Chamber advisory opinion and the first extended continental shelf delimitation. In 2016, Dr. Tassin Campanella founded “VTA Tassin”, a law firm specialized in Ocean Law & Policy. She has developed since then a solid cross-sectoral and cross-field practice of the law of the sea anchored in the Science-Policy-Business nexus. The Prince Albert II of Monaco appointed her by Royal Ordinance, in June 2020, as a Member of the Scientific Committee of the INDEME along eminent scholars. She is the first “Avocat à la Cour” (Attorney-at-law) to have been appointed so far to such role.
Angus Frith
Angus Frith's PhD thesis was entitled, 'Sustainable Indigenous Entities for Making Agreements' and was co-supervised by Lee Godden, Professor Marcia Langton (Centre for Health and Society, Melbourne School of Population Health) and Maureen Tehan. Angus completed his degree in 2014.
Anita Foerster
Anita Foerster completed a double degree in Geography and Law (Honours) at the Australian National University. She joined the law school as a PhD candidate in 2005, researching the law, policy and practice of environmental water allocation. Anita's thesis was titled 'Law, policy and practice for ecologically sustainable water allocation and management? An analysis of institutional developments to provide for environmental water needs in the Murray-Darling Basin (NSW and Victoria), 1994-2008'. She completed her degree in 2010 co-supervised by Lee Godden and Jacqueline Peel. Anita is currently a Senior Lecturer at Monash University, teaching Corporate Sustainability Regulation. Anita’s current research projects include an exploration of the role of institutional investors, such as superannuation funds, in addressing climate change through investment decision-making and practice.
Steven Geroe
Steven's PhD with Lee Godden examined consultative drafting for Chinese renewable energy regulation. I’ve been teaching at La Trobe since 2013 in environmental law, climate law, contract and property. Steve have a couple of papers under review on using experience of Chinese ETS pilots in drafting the national ETS. One is co-authored with Hao Zhang, comparing enforcement measures under the national ETS and the Chinese Environmental Pollution Tax. He has a forthcoming book with Lexis Nexis: Victorian Environmental Law in Context - a concise introductory textbook for non-law students. He is currently researching on Australian low-carbon policy, including regulation on electricity prices and energy security.
Myriam Amiet-Knottenbelt
While undertaking her Juris Doctor studies at Melbourne Law School, Myriam worked as a Research Assistant to Professor Lee Godden, co-writing a book chapter on International Environmental Law and microplastic pollution as well as researching hazardous waste regulation across Australia. She also founded the Victorian Environmental Law Student Network. Presently Myriam worked as a Legal Adviser within the Public Law and Litigation Team, at the Office of the General Counsel in the Victorian Department of Justice and Community Safety and an offer holder for the Master of Philosophy in Law Program at the University of Oxford (commencing September 2022).
Jenny O'Connell
Jenny worked as CREEL Administrator for Professor Lee Godden and Professor Michael Crommelin AO from 2010-2013. While working part-time as CREEL Administrator, Jenny studied her Master of Arts (Cultural Material Conservation) at the Grimwade Centre (University of Melbourne). Jenny’s Master thesis researched documentation of Aboriginal art collections in remote art centres, focusing on the permanent collection at Waringarri Aboriginal Arts in Kununurra, WA. Since graduating from her Masters, a career highlight for Jenny was traveling to Gjirokastra, Albania as lead conservator for the volunteer organisation ‘Adventures in Preservation’ to document wall paintings on Ottoman Tower Houses. Jenny currently works as Senior Conservator (Painting) at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) to care for the painting collection which includes Colonial artworks by John Glover, William Charles Piguenit and Benjamin Duterreau, as well as works by modern and contemporary Tasmanian artists, such as Dorothy Stoner and David Keeling.
Yoriko Otomo
Yoriko Otomo has worked in several government and non-government environmental organisations, and has contributed to publications relating to sustainable development, environmental law and humanitarian issues. Her doctoral thesis on The Changing Landscapes of Risk (supervised by Anne Orford) seeks to develop a semiology of law through a poststructural feminist analysis of key texts within the law of occupation and international economic law, completed in 2013. Yoriko was teaching the undergraduate Environmental Law subject at Melbourne Law School.
Rafael Plaza
Rafael Plaza is an expert in Energy, Natural Resources & Environmental Law. As specialist legal counsellor, Mr. Plaza has vast experience in regulated markets, international business transactions, taxation and comparative applied legal research. Rafael conducted his PhD thesis on Transnational Power Transmission (completed in 2013), a study aimed at exploring international legal mechanisms to further power grids interconnections, unrestrained cross border power transit and the integration of renewable sources of energy into domestic energy matrices. After leaving CREEL he conducted a two-year post-doctoral research stay at China University of Geosciences (CUG) in Wuhan. Currently, Rafael divides his time between Mexico, Spain, and Chile, lecturing, researching and acting as legal counsel for private corporations and public institutions. He is a Research Fellow and Assistant Professor of Energy Law, Water Law, Macro and Microeconomics and serves as Deputy Director of the Department of Economic Law of the School of Law, the University of Chile. Recently, he was appointed Director of the Economic Law Journal of that School of Law. He also evaluates competitive research projects and future indexed scientific journals for Chile's National Agency for Innovation and Development.
Hao Zhang
Hao Zhang was a PhD student with CREEL between 2010 and 2015, under the supervision of Professor Lee Godden and Professor Sarah Biddulph. After completing his PhD, Hao worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Faculty of Law, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK Law) and he is now an assistant professor at the same institution. Hao teaches energy law, environmental law and Chinese law at CUHK Law, and his research interests are primarily in the fields of Chinese energy law and climate law. Inspired by legal and regulatory issues surrounding the green economic transition in China, Hao’s recent research focuses on integration of renewable energy in China and he leads the China case study for a major research project funded by the German Environmental Agency on the interaction between carbon market regulation and electricity market regulation. At CUHK Law, Hao is the director of the LLM programme in Energy and Environmental Law, which is the first programme in the region specifically dedicated to provide legal training focusing on energy projects, the promotion of clean energy investments, local air quality, global warming and more generally the law applicable to energy security and sustainable development.
Visitors
2022
Ms Julieta Sarno, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany
Dr Hao Zhang, Assistant Professor, and Deputy LLM Programme Director (Energy and Environmental Law), Faculty of Law, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
2019
Professor Lavanya Rajamani, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi
Associate Professor Neil Craik, University of Waterloo
Professor Stepan Wood, University of British Columbia
Professor Nicolas de Sadeleer, University of Saint-Louis
Professor David Takacs, University of California Hastings College of the Law
Associate Professor Fernando Dias Simões, Chinese University of Hong Kong
2017
Professor Robert L. Glicksman, The George Washington University Law School
2016
Professor Terry Daintith, University of London
Professor Richard Stewart, New York University School of Law
Professor Robin Craig, University of Utah
Dr Daniella Rivera Bravo
Dr Junseo Lee, Korea Legislation Research Institute
Ms Evelyn Flores, Universidad de Chile
Mr Sam Johnston, United Nations University
2015
Professor Terry Daintith, University of London
Professor Jiunn-rong Yeh, National Taiwan University
Professor Owen Anderson, University of Texas
Professor John Lowe, Southern Methodist University, United States
Professor Paul Stephan, Universtiy of Virginia
2014
Professor Fadzilah Majid Cooke, Universiti Malaysia Sabah
Professor Richard Revesz, New York University
2013
Professor Aileen McHarg, School of Law, University of Strathclyde
Rebecca Nelson, Stanford University
Pieter Badenhorst, Deakin University
Manuel Nunez-Poblete, Faculty of Law, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso, Chile
2012
Bettina Lange, Faculty of Law, University of Oxford
Professor Juanita Pienaar, Faculty of Law, Stollenbosch University
Rebecca Nelson, Stanford University
The Centre seeks to ensure that its activities are of practical utility. It has the benefit of an Advisory Board whose members have collective experience that covers the whole spectrum of environmental, energy and natural resources developments in Australia, as well as international and comparative research and teaching.
Associate Professor Pieter Badenhorst
Deakin University
Retiring as of June 2022
Pieter Badenhorst is currently an Associate Professor of Law at Deakin University. He teaches Land law and Property. He was previously professor of Law at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Pieter is admitted as an attorney and notary of the High Court of South Africa. Since 1985 he is author and co-author of 107 articles, notes and case discussions. His main area of research is South African Mineral Law. Pieter is author and co-author of 4 books on South African Property law and Mineral law. This includes the current Mineral and Petroleum Law of South Africa, which is a commentary on the new South African Mineral law system and updated annually.
Elisa De Wit
Partner, Norton Rose
Retiring as of June 2022
Elisa de Wit is a partner in the Melbourne office of Norton Rose Australia, a leading international law firm. She leads the environment group of the Melbourne office and heads the Australian climate change practice. With over 20 years of experience, Elisa's practice covers both environmental and climate change matters, and she has practiced in three Australian jurisdictions and the United Kingdom. A regular presenter and author of articles on climate change and emissions trading, Elisa is also editor of Norton Rose Australia's environment and climate change newsletter, "Legally Green". Elisa was recently named as a "leading lawyer" in the Australasian Legal Business Guide for Environmental Law.
Professor Roz Hansen
Managing Director, Hansen
B.Arts (University of Melbourne); Dip. Education (Melbourne State College); Dip. Town & Regional Planning (University of Melbourne); FPIA; FVPELA.
Roz Hansen is Managing Director of Hansen Partnership being a multi award winning company offering professional consultancy services in urban planning, urban design and landscape architecture. Roz is a highly skilled urban planner with more than 30 years of experience in a diverse range of projects in Australia and overseas. Roz offers a sound understanding of planning and development issues at the local, national and international levels. Her strong leadership qualities, coupled with her excellent communication skills and capacity to think in an innovative and creative manner, have been applied in collaborative projects in Australia and overseas. Roz regularly appears as an expert witness at VCAT and Planning Panels Victoria. A recipient of a Centenary Medal from the Federal Government and her on-going appointment as an Adjunct Professor at Deakin University since 1995 is testimony of Roz's wealth of experience in the planning arena.
Ian Havercroft
Senior Adviser - Legal and Regulatory at the Global CCS Institute
Ian Havercroft is the Senior Adviser – Legal and Regulatory at the Global CCS Institute, and is based in Melbourne, Australia. He was previously an academic at University College London’s Faculty of Laws, where he taught on the environmental law programme and undertook contracted research for a range of organisations including governments and industry. He co-founded and managed the UCL Carbon Capture Legal Programme between 2007 and 2010.
Ian had acted as an expert reviewer or an adviser to a number of organisations on CCS law and regulation; these include the International Energy Agency and the IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme. He holds undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in law and in 2012, was appointed as an Honorary Visiting Senior Research Fellow at University College London’s Faculty of Laws.
Professor Ray Ison
Monash and Open University, UK
As Professor of Systems (UK Open University; 1994 - present) Ray has led or facilitated the development of new teaching programs (MSc's in Environmental Decision Making, Systems Thinking in Practice, Information Systems and a undergraduate Diploma in Systems Practice) and established the Open Systems Research Group. He was Head of the Systems Department (1995-8; 25 academic staff) then from 2000-04 he successfully coordinated a major interdisciplinary 5th Framework program (30 researchers, 6 countries) researching social learning for sustainable catchment management as well as running an EPSRC funded Systems Practice for Managing Complexity Network. From 2002 -7 the Environment Agency (England & Wales) funded research to apply social learning to implementation of the European Water Framework Directive. In September 2008 he moved to 0.3 time at the Open University (OU) and a 0.7 Professorship at Monash (Systems for Sustainability) where he has developed a Systemic and Adaptive Governance Research program within Monash Sustainability Institute and the School of Geography & Environmental Science.
Sam Johnston
Senior Research Fellow, United Nations University
Sam Johnston is a Senior Research Fellow at the United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies - a policy think tank for the United Nations based in Japan. His principal responsibilities are to provide strategic guidance to the Director regarding the research priorities of the Institute, develop new research activities for the Institute and assist with fundraising efforts.
His research interests include International Environmental Law, Governance of International Spaces, International Regulation of Biotechnology, Law of the Sea and Antarctica. In 2011 he taught and was the coordinator for the International Environmental Law Masters Course offered by the Faculty. He has have raised over $10m in research funding from governments, international organizations and philanthropic organizations.
Johnston has degrees in chemistry and law and is a qualified lawyer in the Supreme Court of Victoria, Australia.