Rosemary Rayfuse

Professor

LLB Queens, LLM Cambridge, PhD Utrecht
Admitted to practice in England and Wales Formerly of the Bar of British Columbia, Canada

Contact details

Room:

323 Law Building

Phone:

9385 2059

E-mail:

r.rayfuse@unsw.edu.au

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Brief overview

Originally from Canada, Rosemary joined the Faculty of Law at UNSW in 1994. Prior to that, she was a Research Fellow at the Lauterpacht Research Centre for International Law and taught international law at the University of Cambridge. She practiced law in Vancouver, Canada with McCarthy Tetrault and worked as a law clerk (judges associate) to the British Columbia Court of Appeal. Formerly of the Bar of British Columbia, she is currently on the rolls of the Law Society of England and Wales. She holds an LLB from Queen's University, an LLM from the University of Cambridge, where she was awarded the Clive Parry Prize for International Law, and a PhD from the University of Utrecht.

From 1994 to 2006 Rosemary was the Director of International Law Programs and was responsible for the establishment, development and coordination of undergraduate and postgraduate international law programs including the International Law specialist stream in the LLM Coursework program, the International Law Competitive Moot Program, the Public Interest Internship Program and the Masters of International Law and International Relations. She was also co-founder and, until 2009, co-director of both the International Law and Policy Group and the Climate Change Law and Policy Initiative. Her teaching and research interests are in the area of Public International Law generally, including international humanitarian law, use of force, and international dispute settlement, however, she specialises in law of the sea, international fisheries law and international environmental law particularly as it relates to the marine environment and to climate change.

Rosemary is a member of the editorial board of numerous international law journals including the Netherlands International Law Review, the International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law and the Aegean Review of the Law of the Sea and Maritime Law. She is a member of the IUCN Commission on Environmental Law, Co-Chair of its Working Group on High Seas Governance and a member of its Arctic Task Force. She has advised numerous governments, inter-governmental and non-governmental organisations, including the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs, the Australian and Canadian governments, the Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission, the European Commission, the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and TRAFFIC Oceania.

In 2006 Rosemary became the first Australian woman to attempt to ski from the North Pole to Canada, using her North Pole Challenge 2006 to raise money for the Law School's Mooting and Internship programs and to raise awareness of the need for international and national regulatory responses to climate change.

Courses taught

Areas of expertise

Public International Law generally including, law of the sea, international fisheries law, international wildlife law, international environmental law, international humanitarian law, and use of force.