Research - Deakin Law School

While pedagogy in its most up-to-date theoretical and technical (audio-visual, cloud-based education) manifestations underpins our teaching, we foster intellectual curiosity and excellence in academic scholarship.

Covering research areas as diverse as international law, natural resource law, health law, commercial law and criminal justice, we share our findings through conferences, workshops and high-quality publications.

Study a masters or PhD with Deakin

By studying a research degree at Deakin Law School, you can start your path towards a research or academic career. Alternatively, you can use your degree to stand out to employers who value the important skills you gain, which in turn opens up a diverse mix of job opportunities.

We have postgraduate research supervisors available in:

constitutional law
corporate governance
data and the law
energy and natural resource
torts and the law of medicine

intellectual property
international law
criminal justice
transnational law.

If you'd like to study a masters or PhD at the School of Law and would like help to find a supervisor, please contact Business and Law Research Services.

Find out how to become a research degree student at Deakin

Research projects and centres

Our research discipline strengths

Our research scope is wide, covering:

anti-discrimination law
comparative law
constitutional law
corporate governance
data and the law
energy and natural resource law
health law
intellectual property
international law
legal history sentencing and criminal justice
transnational commercial law.

Research partners

Deakin Law School hosts regular seminars throughout the year, partnering with high-profile speakers who cover a range of unique topics. These seminars are open to students and staff alike.

Previous seminar topics have included:

the domestic and international framework regarding climate change law
current impediments associated with the criminal justice system in Victoria
limiting global warming to two degrees – what Australia needs to do to deeply decarbonise our economy
whether asylum seeker policy reflects real Australian values
energy networks in a new energy era.

ARC Discovery Project

Through this project, our researchers explore the discussions across UNESCO, WIPO and other international organisations about:

intangible cultural heritage
the different interpretations of related 'rights'
cross-border conflicts about heritage.

The project analyses the legal, political and cultural reasons for such conflicts and develops practical proposals for promoting international reconciliation and improved international cooperation in heritage protection.

Centre on the Legal Profession

The Centre on the Legal Profession will conduct research on the changing market for legal services – enabled by technology and globalisation – and the optimal forms of regulation to respond to these changes while delivering access to justice and protecting the rule of law.

Find out more about the Centre on Legal Profession

Data to Decisions Cooperative Research Centre (D2D CRC)

Deakin Law School and UNSW Law collaborate in the Law and Policy Program of the national Data to Decisions Cooperative Research Centre (D2D CRC).

It combines researchers and industry, as well as additional contributions, to provide Big Data capability resulting in a safer and more secure nation and a sustainable Big Data workforce for Australia.

Find out more about the Data to Decisions Cooperative Research Centre

Grants awarded

2016 grants

The Legal and Ethical Dimensions of the Web of Data. Regulatory Tools, Rights and the Rule of Law

Professor Pompeu Casanovas (DLS professorial fellow) and Professor Antoni Roig Batalla of the Institute of Law and Technology of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (IDT-UAB). Grant amount: $80,000 AUD (55,000 €) as well as a funded PhD from the Spanish government.

Project description: This project is a further result of the collaborative agreement between IDT-UAB and the DLS. The grant will enable a large working group-based project, including one group on security, ethics, governance, comprising Dr Mariarosaria Taddeo (Oxford), Professor Louis de Koker (DLS), Professor Danuta Mendelson (DLS), Professor Pompeu Casanovas (IDT-UAB/DLS) and Associate Professor Yaiza Cabedo Figueredo (IDT-UAB).

Identity Proofing

Gabrielle Wolf, Bridget Bainbridge. Grant amount: $200,000, from Data to Decision CRC.

Project description: Legal implications of new techniques of identity proofing (Professor Louis de Koker (project lead), in collaboration with the Office of the Victorian Commissioner for Privacy and Data Protection).

Guiding Principles in the Design, Regulation, Implementation, Governance and Oversight of Data-Based Decision-support Technologies for Law Enforcement and National Security

Louis de Koker, Danuta Mendelson, Pompeu Casanovas. Grant amount: $57,000, from Data to Decision CRC.

Project description: Identifying principles to inform the design, regulation, implementation, governance and oversight of data-based decision-support technologies for law enforcement and national security (Associate Professor Lyria Bennett Moses (UNSW) (project lead) and with Professor Janet Chan (UNSW), Dr Alana Maurushat (UNSW) and Mr David Vaile (UNSW).

Mobile Financial Services: Regulatory responses in Australia, Kenya and South Africa

Mobile Financial Services: Regulatory responses in Australia, Kenya and South Africa
Louis De Koker (supervisor); Edwin Tongoi (PhD student). Grant amount: $45,000, from Data to Decision CRC.

Project description: This doctoral project investigates regulatory frameworks for mobile financial services in Australia, Kenya and South Africa.

Qualitative – End User Evaluation

Qualitative – End User Evaluation
Louis De Koker (with Rens Scheepers et al). Grant amount: $80,000, from Data to Decision CRC.

Project description: The project focuses on user analysts’ perceptions of the efficiency and utility of current and planned information systems used by State and Federal police and associated government agencies (joining Professor Ingrid Nielsen and Dr Chad Whelan with Professor Rens Scheepers as project lead).

Building an Intellectual Property System: The Indonesian Experience

Christoph Antons. Grant amount: $144,178, from ARC - Discovery Projects.

Project description: Economic theory suggests pathways to innovation and ‘tipping points’ in intellectual property (IP) development based on the experiences of a few technology trailblazing economies. This project will show the introduction and operation of IP in Indonesia over the last thirty years as a typical example for middle income developing countries and newcomers to the IP system. It will analyse court decisions, implementing laws and the institutions supporting IP. It will show the bargaining processes about the future of the system between the government and foreign investors as well as citizens and between different institutions, thereby providing valuable information to businesses and government agencies.

The project aims at providing lessons for innovation theory and for other developing countries and sound knowledge for aid agencies, government sponsored training programs and other forms of institutional support. It will also help clarifying Australia’s position during regional and bilateral Free Trade Agreement negotiations.

Indo-Australian Cooperation in Enhancing Judicial practices and the Legal Profession

Dakshina Chandra. Grant amount: $40,300, from Australia-India Council Research Grant.

Project description: The project will enable knowledge-sharing between the Indian legal profession, judiciary, and officials and their Australian counterparts to: 1. showcase innovations by Australian courts, and help India to design solutions based on Australian models; and 2. liberalise the legal profession.

Older grants

2010–2015 grants

Total Grant	Title	Source	Staff Member
EUR 250,000	Internationalisation of corporate governance model	German Alexander von Humboldt Foundation	Jean du Plessis
$300,000	Intangible cultural heritage across borders: laws, structures and strategies in China and its Association of Southeast Asian Nations neighbours	ARC Discovery	Christoph Antons
$178,000	Centre for Rural and Regional Law and Justice to fund part-time Learning and Development Coordinator	Legal Services Board	Richard Coverdale
$150,000	IP in Asia – project is part of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation	ARC Discovery	Christoph Antons
$47,721	Addressing the structural and ethical challenge of conflict of interest in rural and regional legal practice	Vic Law Foundation Grant	Richard Coverdale
$8,712	Review of Barriers to Open Data and Related Re−Use of Information in Five Exemplar Data Sets (2014)	Data to Decisions Cooperative Research Centre	Louis de Koker
$217,500	Comparative International Perspectives on Strategy, Policy and Law (Australia) (2014–2016)	Data to Decisions Cooperative Research Centre	Louis de Koker; Danuta Mendelson
$8,299	Research Support: National organised crime response plan (2009)	AUSTRAC	Louis de Koker
$44,083	Integrity in mobile phone financial services (2010–2011)	World Bank	Louis de Koker
$18,199	Money laundering and terrorist financing risk and vulnerability methodology (2010–2011)	World Bank	Louis de Koker
$36,106	Family Violence and the Regional Magistrates' Court	Alfred Felton Trust	Dr Lucinda Jordan
$22,727	Improving access to justice for women and children survivors of family violence in the Geelong region	Geelong Community Foundation	Dr Lucinda Jordan
$4,545	Bringing justice to isolated suburbs – finding a solution!	Wyndham Legal Service	James Farrell
$4,000	Scoping access to justice issues in the Magistrate's Court in rural and regional Australia	Australasian Institute of Judicial Administration (AIJA)	Dr Lucinda Jordan
$3,000	Rethinking Law Curriculum	Australian Learning and Teaching Council	Richard Coverdale
$58,201	Scoping a Victorian Centre for Rural and Regional law and justice – seeding grant	Vic Law Foundation Grant	Richard Coverdale
$46,143	Provision of legal services to small business in rural and regional Victoria	LSB-Grants Program	Prof Anne Rees, Prof Jean Du Plessis, Dr Lucinda Jordan and Richard Coverdale
$13,726	Over-compliance: Towards an Understanding of Compliance Responses of Financial Institutions in South Africa	Cenfri Grant - Research - The Centre for Financial Regulation & Inclusion	Louis De Koker
$220,000	Building Distributed Leadership in Designing and Implementing a Quality Management Framework for Online Learning Environments	ALTC Grant - Research - Australian Learning and Teaching Council	Dale Holt
$86,805	Doping and Australian Professional Cycling; Attitudes Issues and a Pathway to a New Approach	DHA Grant - Anti-doping Research Program - Department of Health and Ageing	Martin Hardie
$36,470	Postcode Justice - Rural Disadvantage and the Law	VIC Law Foundation Grant - Research	Richard Coverdale
$1,593	Sacred Rules Secular Revelations: the Conceptions of Rights in pre-Modern Europe	ARC - Discovery Projects	Jason Taliadoros
$9,749	Humanising Animals - Civilising People	Voiceless	Mirko Bagaric
$10,000	FATF 2012: Impact of Revised Standards on Corporate Compliance Practices in Nigeria and Ghana	Downton Hill	Louis De Koker
$206,000	Realising the Potential: Assessing Professional Learning through the Integration of ePortfolios in Australian Business Education	OLT Seed Projects - Office for Learning and Teaching	Dale Holt
$29,253	Delivering Law to Regional Victoria - E Learning Solutions	Telematics Course Development Fund Trust Grant - Research	Dale Holt, Richard Coverdale
$17,000	Court Network Self-represented Litigants	Court Network Inc	Ian Parsons
$46,428	Building Advocacy Justice Alliances for offenders with mental impairment in Victoria s Barwon South West Region	Helen Macpherson Smith Trust Grant - Research	Ian Parsons, Richard Coverdale
$6,690	Performance Audit Planning VAGO	Victorian Auditor General's Office	Louis De Koker
$12,272	Draft Audit Performance Report Unconventional Gas	Victorian Auditor General's Office	Victorian Auditor General's Office
$65,000	Social Cohesion, Marginalisation and Violent Extremism in Regional and Rural Victoria: A dual Case Study	Department of Premier and Cabinet - Social Cohesion Research Grants Program	Mirko Bagaric, Ian Parsons, Richard Coverdale

2019 Research reports

Download the August/September 2019 Research Report (PDF, 287KB)

Past research reports

2016

2015

2015 Research Report No 12 (DOC, 52KB)
2015 Research Report No 11(DOC, 50KB)
2015 Research Report No 10 (DOC, 52KB)
2015 Research Report No 8 (DOC, 52KB)
2015 Research Report No 7 (DOC, 51KB)
2015 Research Report No 6 (DOC, 53KB)
2015 Research Report No 5 (DOC, 47KB)
2015 Research Report No 4 (DOC, 74KB)
2015 Research Report No 3 (DOC, 46KB)
2015 Research Report No 2 (DOC, 50KB)

2014

2014 No. 12 October 2014 (PDF, 238KB)
2014 No. 11 September 2014 (PDF, 271KB)
2014 No. 10 August 2014 (PDF, 277.8KB)
2014 No. 9 July 2014 (DOCX, 163.7KB)
2014 No. 7 May 2014 (DOCX, 80.8KB)
2014 No. 6 March 2014 (DOCX, 129KB)
2014 No. 5 March 2014 (DOCX, 91.1KB)
2014 No. 4 February 2014 (DOCX, 85.2KB)
2014 No. 2 January 2014 (DOCX, 70.8KB)
2014 No. 1 January 2014 (DOCX, 68.2KB)

2013

2012

ERA Ranking

The Deakin Law School's performance is assessed by ERA at world standard (Excellence in Research for Australia Initiative: Level 3).

Journal Ranking

2017 Journal Ranking List

Law Newsroom

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