Faculty news

Professor John Page Deputy Head of School (Research)

In research news, Professor John Page has been busy finalising his latest monograph, Public Property, Law and Society, which was submitted to Routledge in May.

This new book explores the under-studied and under-theorised topic of public property, interrogating our understandings of public ownership, and the nature of our diverse relationships with public space. It also chronicles the public estate across time and place, observing how legal traditions such as Roman law, Scots law, and of course the common law, interact with, and accomodate the little traversed field of public property.

In late May, John was also successful (along with co-author and former SLJ colleague Dr Cristy Clark) in being offered a book contract with Edinburgh University Press for The Lawful Forest. Building on their award winning UNSWLJ article of the same name, (awarded the Law & Society Publication Prize in December 2019 for best socio-legal journal article/book chapter for that year), The Lawful Forest will form part of the Edinburgh Critical Studies in Law, Literature and the Humanities Series, edited by the SLJ’s Professor William MacNeil.

The Lawful Forest explores issues of spatial justice, ranging from the forests of pre-Norman England to the urban protest camps of the 21st century.

Finally, John has been working with colleagues within the SLJ and in the School of Environment, Science and Engineering, in finalising the publication of a long running, collaborative research project. ‘Owning Humankind’ was published in Helyion in June, exploring the links between law and archaeological practice, while ‘Student Evaluations: Pedagogical Tools, or Weapons of Choice?’ was accepted for publication in the Legal Education Review, to appear in July/August. ‘Student Evaluations’ represents the culmination of a 12 month project of the SLJ’s Scholarship of Teaching & Learning Reading (& now Writing!) Group.

The article’s co-authors are the SLJ’s Dr Alessandro Pelizzon, Ms Helen Walsh, Mr Warwick Fisher and Dr John Orr. Their project also included a conference presentation on this topic at the ALAA Conference held in 2019 at SCU’s Gold Coast campus.

Associate Professor Jennifer Nielsen Deputy Head of School (Teaching & Learning), July 2017 – March 2020

In 2019 – 2020, Associate Professor Nielsen continued in the role of Deputy Head of School (Teaching & Learning), responsible for quality and assurance in the School’s teaching and learning programs.

As part of this portfolio, she participated in the national Legal Education Associate Dean’s Network. Her work in the teaching and learning portfolio was complemented by her election in July to the Executive Committee of the Australasian Law Academics Association, as a General Member.

In August 2019, she attended the National Indigenous Legal Conference in Darwin (Northern Territory) which had a focus on ‘True Justice: Integrating Indigenous Perspectives’.

At that conference, Dr Nielsen and Marcelle Burns (UNE/ SCU Alumnus) co-presented the paper, ‘Moving Beyond Indigenous Deficit in the Model Admission Rules for Legal Practitioners’ (published in the 2018 Legal Education Review and co-written with Professor Simon Young).

Dr Nielsen completed a coaching program with an external mentor as the PVC Research’s nominee for the RUN Women’s leadership/ coaching program.

Alongside this, she continued her teaching in Professional Conduct and led the School’s Placements Program. In particular, she worked on the SLJ’s new partnership with My Community Legal, a Community Legal Centre based in Robina (Queensland), see pages 8–9.

Dr Nielsen decided to stand down from her role as Deputy Dean effective March 2020, so that she could return her focus to her research, alongside further developing the School’s clinical programs and volunteer opportunities.

The new partnership and Volunteer Program with MCL, now in its second session, has been such a success all students from the first intake have stayed on to continue working as volunteers, some with Supervisory roles, allowing them to make the most of this valuable opportunity.

Dr Nielsen decided to stand down from her role as Deputy Dean effective March 2020, so that she could return her focus to her research, alongside further developing the School’s clinical programs and volunteer opportunities.

She was able to spend the COVID-19 lockdown resting, relaxing and rejuvenating during a hard earned period of long service leave.