Explore our strengths
Many of our strengths are underpinned by three longstanding concerns: social justice, technological transformation, and the global dimensions of legal thought and practice.
Criminal Law, Criminal Justice & Criminology
About this strength
Crime and justice are pressing public concerns with implications for the safety, rights and freedoms of the community. Our research deals with enduring concerns about social justice and the use and limits of criminalisation, policing, evidence and trial processes, and punishment. It also meets newer challenges arising from technology and national and global developments in crime and criminal justice.
Areas of expertise
- Criminal Law & Criminalisation
- Criminal Trial, Evidence & Procedure
- Forensic Science, Big Data & New Technologies
- Gendered Violence
- Indigenous People & Criminal Justice
- Innovative Justice Practices
- National Security & Counter-Terrorism
- Policing
- Punishment
- State Crime
Environmental Law
About this strength
UNSW Law has one of the largest and most experienced groups of environmental law scholars in Australia and the Asia Pacific. With expertise across local, state, national and international law, we collaborate extensively on multi- and inter-disciplinary projects with academic, advocacy, governmental, non-governmental and industry colleagues and communities.
Areas of expertise
- Built Environment
- Food Law
- Nature Rights & Earth Governance
- Oceans & Coasts Governance
- Sustainable Economies
- Water & Natural Resources Law
Human Rights
About this strength
UNSW Law is home to a diverse group of internationally renowned human rights scholars and practitioners who specialise in a range of topics that focus on the advancement of human rights, both locally and globally.
Areas of expertise
- Business and human rights
- Children’s rights
- Cultural heritage
- Food security
- Gender justice
- Health and human rights
- Human rights, security and terrorism
- Media and human rights
- Migrant worker rights
- National human rights institutions and legislation
- Rights of older persons
- Rights of persons with disabilities
- Rights of refugees and other forced migrants
Indigenous Peoples & the Law
About this strength
We have a long and proud history of supporting Indigenous peoples, using the law to achieve justice. UNSW Law’s renowned experts consult on a range of legal issues that impact First Nations peoples, playing a pivotal role in initiatives including the Uluru Statement from the Heart and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).
Areas of expertise
- Constitutional Recognition & Treaty
- Cultural Heritage, Intellectual Property & Indigenous Peoples
- Indigenous Children & Young People
- Indigenous Family Violence & Child Abuse
- Indigenous Legal Education & Pedagogy
- International Law of Indigenous Peoples
- Indigenous Peoples, Wills & Intestacy Law
- Native Title & Land Rights
- Policing & Incarceration of Indigenous Peoples
International Law & Global Governance
About this strength
A quarter of academics at UNSW Law work primarily in the field of international law and global governance. We tackle global regulatory problems in innovative ways. Our research reinvents many theoretical traditions, reaching the highest levels of scholarship. It has deep impact on the practice of addressing global legal challenges: our academics work directly with top firms, international organisations, civil society and national governments around the world.
Areas of expertise
- Global Security, National Security & Terrorism
- International Criminal Law
- International Disaster Law
- International Dispute Settlement
- International Economic Law
- International Human Rights Law
- International Law of the Sea
- International Refugee Law
- Law & Development
- Law & Policy in China & the Asia Pacific
- Private International Law
- Public International Law
Laws of the Asia Pacific
About this strength
With a wealth of experience in the Asia-Pacific region, UNSW Law hosts a research forum dedicated to Southeast Asian law. We also house the world’s largest centre of experts on Chinese economic and business law outside China. Our scholars have an impressive understanding of China’s business, regulatory and political landscape.
Areas of expertise
- Chinese Economic & Business Law
- Comparative Public Law
- Indonesian Law
- Myanmar Law
Legal & Regulatory Theory
About this strength
UNSW Law has more than 20 scholars working on a wide range of socio-legal theoretical and empirical research projects. They take a reflective interest in the study of law – its intellectual foundations, social conditions, relationship with morality and politics, and kinship with other disciplines. The projects focus on fundamental questions of legal thinking, practices, institutions and regulatory governance regimes.
Areas of expertise
- Critical Legal Theory
- Feminist Legal Theory
- Law & Social Theory
- Legal Philosophy
- Theories of Human Rights
- Theories of Law & Justice
- Theories of Regulation
Legal Education & Experiential Learning
About this strength
We are the leading Go8 law school for teaching, renowned for our interactive and research-based education. Our academics win awards for teaching excellence and produce seminal literature in the area. UNSW Law’s Kingsford Legal Centre plays a world-leading role in the development of clinical legal education. We are one of the few law schools in the world where every student has clinical legal education in our own clinic.
Areas of expertise
- Clinical Legal Education & Internship Program
- Indigenous Legal Education
- Legal Pedagogy
- Practical Legal Education
- Technology & Legal Education
Private, Corporate & Commercial Law
About this strength
UNSW Law is widely recognised as a leader in the private, corporate and commercial law world, with particular expertise in the application of regulatory theory and equitable doctrine to contemporary legal issues. Crucially, we bring a deep concern about social justice and the way that law impacts people in our specific areas of expertise.
Areas of expertise
- Banking & Finance Law
- Chinese Economic & Business Law
- Competition & Consumer Law
- Contract Law
- Corporate & Commercial Law
- Corporate Governance
- Data Privacy
- Dispute Resolution & Civil Procedure
- Equity & Trusts
- Fintech & Regtech
- Intellectual Property Law
- Private Law
- Property Law
- Securities Law
- Sports Law
- Torts Law
- Family & Succession Law
Public Law
About this strength
UNSW Law is Australia’s leading public law research institution. Combining broad research excellence in domestic and comparative public law with strong community engagement, our scholars influence policymaking and debates vital to Australia’s future. We are working across issues from the design of a First Nations Voice to Parliament to challenges of national security and terrorism.
Areas of expertise
- Administrative Law
- Charters of Rights
- Comparative Constitutional Law
- Constitutional Law
- Electoral Law
- National Security & Terrorism
Socio-Legal Studies
About this strength
As well as leading socio-legal research in Australia, UNSW Law is well recognised throughout the discipline’s international community. Many of our scholars carry out interdisciplinary research with a socio-legal inflection, participating in international socio-legal societies and conferences and publishing widely.
Areas of expertise
- Applied Legal Philosophy
- Art & the Law
- Children & the Law
- Criminal Law & Criminology
- Critical Legal Theory
- Feminist Legal Theory
- Health Law
- Interdisciplinary Research Methods
- Labour Law
- Law & Culture
- Law & Economics
- Law & the Environment
- Law & Human Rights
- Law & Indigenous Peoples
- Law & Political Economy
- Law & Science
- Law & Social Theory
- Law & Society
- Law & Technology
- Laws, Polities, Economies & Societies in Local, National & Global Contexts
- Legal Ethics & Professional Practice
- Legal Geography
- Legal History
- Legal Informalism & Dispute Resolution
- Legal Pluralism
- New Legal Realism
- Science & Technology Studies
- Socio-legal Approaches to Tort
Technology, Law & Innovation
About this strength
We are interested in the challenges of technology and its impact on law reform and policy, legal education and legal practice. Our work cuts across doctrines (from private to public and criminal law), technologies (from AI to synthetic biology) and industries (from financial services to medical care). The Allens Hub for Technology, Law & Innovation is the first Australian university research initiative of its kind.
Areas of expertise
- AI, Robotics & Law
- Competition & Consumer Law in a Digital World, Consumer Data Rights
- Cyber Security, Data Protection & Surveillance
- Data Justice, Human Rights & Data Governance, Data Science & Humanitarianism
- Fintech & Regtech
- Future of the Legal Profession & Legal Practice, Impact of Technology
- Intellectual Property
- Law & Bioscience, Health Law
- Media Law
- Online Investing Regulation
- Private Law & Digital Technologies
- Technology & Access to Justice
- Technology & Criminal Law, Technology & Policing
- Technology & the Rule of Law
- Technology in Dispute Resolution
- Technology Platforms
- Theories of Law & Technological Change
QS World University Rankings 2019
Excellence in research 'well above world standard'
ARC Discovery grants 2019