Dr Oscar Roos

Dr Oscar Roos is a Senior Lecturer in Deakin Law School. He graduated with an honours degree in law and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Melbourne in 1992, where he was awarded the Hearn Exhibition and the Supreme Court Prize for Jurisprudence.  He was subsequently admitted to practice as a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria in 1993, after completing his professional training at the Leo Cussen Institute where he won the Advocacy Award.

After graduating, Dr Roos worked for the Commonwealth Public Service for two years before his appointment as Associate to Justice David Byrne of the Supreme Court of Victoria.  After completing his associateship, he worked for Victoria Legal Aid and then in 1999 he completed the Bar Readers’ Course and signed the Roll of the Victorian Bar.  As a barrister, he practised mainly in criminal law, appearing for both prosecution and defence in summary and indictable jurisdictions. In 2002, he was awarded a Master of Laws from Monash University.

Dr Roos commenced working at Deakin in 2003 as an associate lecturer.  He has taught in the areas of criminal law, criminal procedure, evidence, constitutional law and administrative law.  His current research interests include domestic and international public law, and GLBTIQ human rights.  His writing has been cited in Australia and overseas, including in the Melbourne University Law Review and in the Sydney Law Review, and numerous textbooks. The quality of his research was acknowledged by the Law Institute of Victoria in 2008 when he was runner-up in the Rodgers Legal Writing Award and by the School of Law when he was awarded a prize for outstanding research publication for 2013.

In 2015, Dr Roos completed a Doctor of Juridical Science at Monash University.  His thesis was entitled 'Towards An Originalist Assessment of the Entrenchment of Judicial Review in the Australian States'.  Two lengthy articles derived from his thesis were published in the prestigious Sydney Law Review in 2013 and the Public Law Review in 2015.  In 2017 he published a lengthy article in the United States of America in the George Washington International Law Review (co-authored with Dr Anita MacKay of Latrobe University) on the right to marry in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and same-sex marriage.

Dr Roos is currently a non-practising member of the Victorian Bar, an Associate Member of the Law Institute of Victoria and a member of the Australian Association of Constitutional Law and the Australian Institute of Administrative Law.

In 2021 Dr Roos was awarded the prestigious Cheryl Saunders Prize by the Australian Association of Constitutional Law (‘AACL’) for his article 'The Kirk Structural Constitutional Implication' published in 2020 in volume 44 of the Melbourne University Law Review.  The Saunders Prize is named in honour of Laureate Professor Cheryl Saunders AO, in recognition of her exceptional eminence in constitutional law and her leadership in the creation of the AACL. The Prize is awarded to the author of an article or note on a subject of constitutional law, published in an Australian legal journal in the preceding calendar year, which reflects the highest standards of research and scholarship, as judged by a Panel consisting of three eminent constitutional law scholars or practitioners, appointed for each year by resolution of the Council of the AACL. The judging panel for 2021 comprised the Hon Virginia Bell AC SC, Professor the Hon William Gummow AC and Professor Michael Crommelin AO.

Dr Roos is a coach of the Deakin Team in the annual Sir Harry Gibbs Constitutional Law Moot.