BA (Australian Studies) LLB (UQ); LLM (International Law) GDLP (ANU)

Director, Indigenous Law Centre, Faculty of Law UNSW
Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law UNSW
Indigenous Legal Education Committee, Faculty of Law UNSW


Research Interests

Indigenous peoples and democracy; Indigenous peoples and the Constitution; Aboriginal women’s legal issues; Indigenous peoples in International law; UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; international human rights law.


Publications


Courses Taught

LAWS2140 Public Law
LAWS2211 Indigenous Peoples and the Law
LAWS4415 Contemporary Issues in International and Domestic Indigenous Law and Policy
LAWS4413 Indigenous Peoples in International Law 

UNSW Faculty of Law webpage


Biography

Megan Davis is the Director of the Indigenous Law Centre. Megan's published scholarship includes Indigenous issues in public law, in particular, Indigenous peoples and Constitutional issues and Aboriginal women's issues in Australian democracy. Megan's research also includes Indigenous peoples and international law, in particular examining UN treaty body jurisprudence and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the WTO.   Megan is also an Australian member of the International Law Association’s Indigenous Rights Committee.

Megan is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Law and teaches Public Law, Contemporary Issues in Indigenous Law and Policy and Indigenous Peoples in International Law. Megan is an admitted Legal Practitioner of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory.

Megan's previous positions include Director, Bill of Rights project, G + T Centre of Public Law; Senior Research Fellow, Research Unit, Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning, UTS; Legal Counsel, Administrative Law, Legal Branch, ATSIC and United Nations Indigenous Fellowship, UNOHCHR, Geneva.

Megan has participated during the past decade in UN expert seminars and working groups including UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations, UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the Commission on Human Rights working group elaborating a Declaration on the rights of Indigenous peoples. Megan is completing her Doctorate in Law at the Regulatory Institutions Network (RegNet), ANU on Aboriginal women in Australian democracy. Megan is Aboriginal (Cobble Cobble/Waka Waka) and of South Sea Island heritage .

Megan supports the North Queensland Cowboys.

Current Research Projects

• A study of how Aboriginal women fare in Australian liberal democracy (ARC and UNSW Faculty of Law ECR grant)
• “Unfinished business”: constitutional reform, extra-parliamentary or parliamentary representation and reconciliation (w Assoc Prof Andrea Durbach)
• Indigenous peoples rights in International Law (International Law Association Indigenous Rights committee)
• Aboriginal people and wills (w- Prof Prue Vines and the Office of the Public Trustee)
  

Grants

• A study of how Aboriginal women fare in liberal democracies – ARC Discovery Indigenous Researchers Development scheme 2007/2008
• A comparative study of Aboriginal women in Canada and Australia and constitutional reform - UNSW Faculty of Law ECR grant 2008
• Aboriginal people and wills - w- Prof Prue Vines and the Office of the Public Trustee
  

Editorial/Journal Affiliations

Editor, Australian Indigenous Law Review

Editorial Board, Indigenous Law Bulletin

Editorial Panel, Australian Indigenous Law Review

Service to Discipline and the Profession

Environment Defenders Office Aboriginal Advisory Committee

Oxfam Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Reference Group

Member, Steering Committee, UNSW Health and Human Rights Initiative

Australian Member, Indigenous Rights Committee, International Law Association

Member, International Law Association (Australia Branch)

Member, Australian Lawyers for Human Rights

Ngalaya Aboriginal Corporation – Indigenous Lawyers in NSW

Management Committee, Indigenous Law Centre, UNSW Faculty of Law

Centre Associate, Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law, UNSW Faculty of Law

Australasian Law Teachers Association