Drug law reform in Australia

The larger project funded by the Australian Research Council to which the PhD is attached involves industry partnerships with: the the Australian Alcohol and Other Drugs Council, the national peakorganisation for AOD providers in Australia; the government-funded Family Drug Support which provides support and counselling to families; the government-funded national drug user organisation peak Australian Injecting and Illicit Drug Users League (representing all state and territory organisations); and Harm Reduction Australia, a national charity committed to reducing the harms potentially associated with drug use. The larger project uses a mixed methods approach, including: qualitative interviews with local and global experts; collaborative legal, policy and practice analysis; and human rights review.

The PhD should propose a research problem within the broader field of drug law reform, through a focus on a research problem such as: how drug law ‘on the books’ compares with ‘law in practice’, and the implications of any emerging inconsistencies for law, policy and practice; the views of experts on political and social barriers, enablers and pathways to reform; clear, practical strategies for legal, policy and practice reform; how to increase workforce capacity to understand human rights obligations, and enhance compliance with these obligations through reforms to law, policy and practice; how health care practices and policies can be strengthened so as to be consistent with emerging perspectives on drug law and human rights, and critiques of rights; or subjunctive jurisprudence methods for imagining and designing drug law reform, drawing on insights from projects such as the feminist, queer and Indigenous judgments and legislative projects.