Megan Davis

Brief overview

Dr Megan Davis is a Professor of Law and Director, Indigenous Law Centre, Faculty of Law. Megan is a UN expert member of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples (ECOSOC states elected) and holds the portfolios of Administration of Justice and Gender and Women. Megan is an Acting Commissioner of the NSW Land and Environment Court. Megan is also the Australian member of the International Law Association's Indigenous Rights Committee. In 2011, Megan was appointed by the federal government to the Expert Panel on the Recognition of Indigenous Australians in the Constitution. Megan teaches, writes and researches in public law and on Indigenous issues in public and international law including the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP)and Aboriginal women's rights. In particular, Megan is interested in constitutional law and constitutional reform and democratic theory and governance. Megan has extensive experience as an international human rights lawyer and participated in the drafting of the UNDRIP from 1999-2004. Megan is a former UN Fellow of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva and has participated as an international lawyer in Indigenous legal advocacy, UN working groups and expert seminars at the United Nations for over a decade.

Megan was also the Director of the Bill of Rights Project, Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law.

Megan's doctoral thesis, to be published in a forthcoming book, argues that the right to self-determination as it is recognised in international law does not pay adequate attention to the situation of Indigenous women and explores in particular one aspect of Martha Nussbaum's theory of capabilities, a constitutional guarantee to equality. Her current research is focused on the limitations of international human rights law and Indigenous rights. Megan is an admitted Legal Practitioner of the Supreme Court of the A.C.T. although currently not practising. Megan has a PhD (Law) having studied at the Regulatory Institutions Network, ANU examining Aboriginal women and the right to self-determination. Megan was the 2010 NAIDOC Scholar of the Year.

Courses taught

Areas of expertise

International human rights law; Public Law; Indigenous peoples and constitutional law; Aboriginal people and democracy; Aboriginal women’s legal issues; violence against Aboriginal women; UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Professional memberships and affiliations

NSW Sentencing Council; Commonwealth Crime Prevention Advisory Committee; NSW Child Death Review Team; International Law Association (Australia Branch); Indigenous Law Association (Indigenous Rights Committee); Member, Ngara Yura Indigenous Committee, Judicial Commission of NSW; Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Advisory Panel on the Government’s Human Rights Small Grants Scheme; Board Member, Diplomacy Training Program (DTP) UNSW; Board Member, Cape York Institute; Member, Australasian Law Teachers Association; Member, Australian Lawyers for Human Rights; Centre Associate, Gilbert +Tobin Centre of Public Law, UNSW Faculty of Law; Editorial Board, Indigenous Law Bulletin; Editor, Australian Indigenous Law Review.

Research supervision

PhD student - Leon Terrill (2010); PhD student - Dr Ngaire Brown (2011); PhD student - Jackie Hartley (2011). external supervisor PhD student - Dylan Lino (2011).

Grants

ARC: A study of how Aboriginal women fare in liberal democracies (ARC Discovery Indigenous Researchers Development scheme); UNSW Law Early Career Research grant: Aboriginal women and constitutional reform; Commonwealth Attorney-General's Department: A study of the experiences of Aboriginal women and children before the courts in sexual assault cases (2008 - now).