Welcome from the Dean
»Ê¹Ú²ÊƱ Law & Justice graduates have a powerful combination of strengths.
They receive the very best academic grounding in law or criminology, informed by diverse theoretical perspectives and critique, and gain a deep understanding of how these disciplines operate in practice.
Through our distinctive teaching tradition, our students acquire the knowledge and skills for success in pursuing a full range of opportunities, whether in commercial legal practice or community law centres, from running a startup to working in the justice or law enforcement system, to roles in government or international organisations, developing law reform or public policy.
“Our commitment to the notion that our work should serve the needs of the local and global community runs very deep and has been the mission of »Ê¹Ú²ÊƱ Law & Justice since its creation more than 50 years ago.â€
The »Ê¹Ú²ÊƱ Law & Justice 2030 strategy emphasises our unyielding commitment to independent and critical thinking, engaging debate, defending the rule of law in the 21st century; and advocating law reform to improve lives, especially those of First Australians and marginalised communities.
Whether expressed simply as ‘social justice’ or by some other formulation, the Faculty’s distinctive tradition and purpose is proclaimed in a banner that hangs at the entrance of the Law Building. It carries the call of Emeritus Professor Hal Wootten AO, our founding dean: ‘A Law School should have and communicate to its students a keen concern for those on whom the law bears harshly.’
Professor Wootten’s words are borne out today in our title, the Faculty of Law & Justice – where academics and students in law and criminology come together to study, research, and debate the ideas and laws that sustain a democratic and just society.
Professor Andrew Lynch - Dean, »Ê¹Ú²ÊƱ Law & Justice
Our teaching and research
»Ê¹Ú²ÊƱ Law & Justice is organised across three Schools, reflecting the depth of our academic expertise. Through the Schools, our research centres and institutes, as well as affiliated centres in the civil society space, we are focused on the contemporary challenges of our times.
These include, but are not limited to, justice for Australia’s Indigenous people, the climate crisis and sustainable development, the rise of AI and digital technology, human rights protection, refugees and forced migration, international finance systems and digital currency, issues in criminal justice, government accountability and democratic constitutionalism. On these and many other topics, we apply our expertise to public debate, whether through the media or formal submissions and evidence to law reform bodies and parliamentary inquiries. Our students have numerous opportunities to work alongside our academics in these research and engagement activities.
Our students can experience law in practice through the »Ê¹Ú²ÊƱ Kingsford Legal Centre and other clinical legal education and internship opportunities. Uniquely to Australian legal education, »Ê¹Ú²ÊƱ Law & Justice provides our law and criminology students with a specialist, dedicated careers service to help them explore options and develop opportunities throughout their degree, so they are ready to take the next step that is right for them upon graduation.
Our graduates go on to be members of a very special Law & Justice alumni community – who we continue to engage with and support as they make their way in the world.Â