Research highlights

We are delighted that Faculty of Law academics have involvement in three new recently awarded Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Projects grants and a Future Fellowship. These nationally competitive awards support the highest-quality research leading to the discovery of new ideas and the advancement of knowledge, and are a testament to the creative abilities and skills of our researchers.

Discovery Projects provide funding for research projects that can be undertaken by individual researchers or research teams for up to three consecutive years.

Our staff have involvement in the following projects for which funding will commence in 2014:

Professor Jeff Goldsworthy, Prof Thomas Campbell (Charles Sturt University), Dr Dale Smith (University of Melbourne), Dr Patrick Emerton, and Professor Mark Greenberg (University of California, Los Angeles)

Construing statutes: the interaction between a statute’s linguistic content and principles of statutory interpretation.

The project aims to identify the factors that determine what legal effect a statutory provision has; what effect it has on the content of the law; in cases where its legal effect is modified by another legal rule or principle. Such cases are commonplace, but the way in which statutory provisions interact with other legal rules or principles is poorly understood. The outcome of this project will be a general methodology for construing Australian statutes which can resolve problems that existing methodologies cannot. This will provide much-needed guidance to judges, and will advance our understanding of important legal and political issues concerning the effect that statutory provisions have on the content of the law.

Professor Susan Kneebone

Towards development of a legal framework for regulation of international marriage migration

This project identifies gaps and inconsistencies in the legal frameworks which apply to the regulation of international marriage migration in the laws of ‘origin’ states such as Cambodia and Vietnam, and those of ‘destination’ states in East and Southeast Asia in relation to key concepts such as the purpose of marriage, the role of ‘the family’, the rights of women and of children born to such unions, and their citizenship and nationality. It will develop an analytical framework as the basis of a proposal for an international instrument to regulate international marriage migration.

Our third successful Discovery grant was issued to Prof Alan Petersen (Faculty of Arts) and Professor Christine Parker, Faculty of Law, for their project: The dynamics of medical expectation: a sociological investigation of the anti-aging treatment market. Public expectations of new medical treatments are often high, indeed higher than warranted by medical evidence. This project will reveal how expectations arise and function in the market of so-called anti-ageing treatments and will explore the implications for treatment practices and decisions. It will clarify the socio-cultural factors sustaining expectations of treatments, including the respective roles played by those who produce, sell, regulate and consume them. The project will offer a new perspective on the dynamics of emerging medical treatment markets that will assist regulatory efforts.

Future Fellowships provides individual fellowships to outstanding Australian and international mid-career researchers. The fellowships are awarded for four consecutive years, and the funding depends on the nominated salary level of the applicant. Associate Professor Anne-Maree Farrell received a Future fellowship Award.