La Trobe Law School Executive

Professor Lorne Neudorf

Professor Lorne Neudorf is Dean of the La Trobe Law School. He is a qualified Canadian barrister and solicitor and received his legal education in Canada (Juris Doctor, University of Victoria); LLM (McGill University) and the United Kingdom (PhD, University of Cambridge). Prior to joining La Trobe, he was Deputy Dean and Associate Professor at the Adelaide Law School, University of Adelaide. Professor Neudorf has taught public law in Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. His research takes a comparative perspective, focusing on legal institutions and the lawmaking process, with a particular interest in delegated legislation. Professor Neudorf’s work has been cited by the Supreme Court of Canada, state and federal parliaments and the executive government. He has held several research grants as Chief Investigator, including from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Professor Neudorf is also co-founder and general editor of a global book series, The Rule of Law in Context, published by Hart/Bloomsbury. He is also the Legal Adviser to the Australian Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Delegated Legislation.

Associate Professor Madelaine Chiam

Associate Professor Madelaine Chiam is the Deputy Dean and Associate Dean, Academic and Partnerships in the La Trobe Law School. Associate Professor Chiam’s research examines the relationships between the global and the local, and the language and histories of international law. She has a particular interest in the role of international law in Australian life. These research interests are drawn together in her book, International Law in Public Debate (2021). Dr Chiam is a member of the faculty of the Harvard Law School Institute for Global Law and Policy Workshop, a founding member of the La Trobe International Legal Studies Research Group and serves on the Council of the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law.

Associate Professor Natalia Hanley

Associate Professor Natalia Hanley is the Associate Dean, Learning and Teaching in the La Trobe Law School. Associate Professor Hanley is a criminologist whose research examines the impact of imprisonment on people in prison, their families and the broader community; domestic and family violence service support, and wildlife crime. She teaches into the Criminal Law, Ethics and Accountability capstone subject and enjoys supervising Honours and Higher Degree by Research students. Prior to joining La Trobe University, Associate Professor Hanley was the Head of Discipline (Criminology, Justice & Social Policy) at the University of Wollongong. She has a strong commitment to research ethics and integrity, having previously served as HREC Chair, and via her current role as an Associate Editor of the journal Research Ethics.

Associate Professor Maria Elander

Associate Professor Maria Elander holds the roles of Associate Dean, Research and Industry Engagement and Co-Lead of the International and Comparative Law Cluster in the La Trobe Law School. She holds a PhD from the University of Melbourne, an MA in Human Rights Law from SOAS University of London, and a BA and BSS from Uppsala University, Sweden. Associate Professor Elander’s research examines the intersection of law and culture in the aftermath of atrocities, with a particular focus on questions of testimony, representation and archives, and the post-Khmer Rouge period in Cambodia. Her monograph, Figuring Victims in International Criminal Justice, the Case of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal (Routledge, 2018), won the 2019 Early Career Researcher Penny Pether Prize, awarded by the Law, Literature and Humanities Association of Australasia.

Dr Kathleen Birrell

Dr Kathleen Birrell is a Senior Lecturer and the Director of Graduate Research in Law at La Trobe Law School. Her research adopts cross-disciplinary methodologies to explore the changing relationship between law, ecology and humanities in the context of climate change. She teaches and supervises students in the areas of legal theory, law and humanities, law and politics, property law, environmental law, and climate law. She is the author of Indigeneity: Before and Beyond the Law (Routledge, 2016). Kathleen is President of the Law, Literature and Humanities Association of Australasia and Editor of the Journal of Human Rights and the Environment. She is a member of the La Trobe International and Comparative Law Research Cluster, the Association for the Study of Law, Culture and the Humanities, and the Global Network for Human Rights and the Environment. Prior to joining La Trobe Law School, Kathleen was a McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow at Melbourne Law School and completed a PhD (Law) at Birkbeck, University of London.

Ms Amber Treseder Fitts

Ms Amber Treseder Fitts is the Senior School Manager for the La Trobe Law School. Ms Treseder Fitts has over 15 years of experience in Australian and international higher education, which has provided her with a sophisticated knowledge of the sector. She has complimented her specialist skills with a Master of Tertiary Education (Management), bringing a strong theoretical underpinning to the governance, operations and strategic planning for the School.

Read our Statement of Strategic Intent.