Professor Justine Nolan

Justine Nolan is the Director of the Australian Human Rights Institute and a Professor in the Faculty of Law and Justice at UNSW Sydney.  Justine's research focuses on the intersection of business and human rights, in particular, supply chain responsibility for human rights and modern slavery. Her 2019 co-authored book Addressing Modern Slavery examines how consumers, business and government are both part of the problem and the solution in curbing modern slavery in global supply chains (see review in The Australian or other reviews here). Other books include The International Law of Human Rights (OUP, 2017) and Business and Human Rights: From Principles to Practice (Routledge, 2016). She teaches international human rights law and related courses on global law, development, globalisation and business and human rights. Justine works closely with business, government and civil society and has been a key driver of the Australian business and human rights movement. 

Prior to joining UNSW in 2004, she worked as the Director of the Business and Human Rights program at the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (now Human Rights First) in the USA. This work examined ways in which to prevent and redress corporate violations of human rights. During this time Justine advised both companies and civil society organisations on effective strategies to protect human rights in the corporate sphere and was closely involved in the establishment of the Fair Labor Association.

She has also worked in both public interest and private legal practices and continues to hold various expert advisory roles. In 2020 Justine was appointed to the Australian Government's Modern Slavery Expert Advisory Group. Other appointments include the Australian Government's Multi-Stakeholder Advisory Group on Business and Human Rights (2017) and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade & Ausaid's Human Rights Grants Scheme Expert Panel (2009-2013) which provided practical financial support for small community-based projects to promote and protect human rights in developing countries. She was an advisory member of NSW Legal Aid's Human Rights Panel (2012-2017). Justine has given guest lectures at a number of universities including more recently Yale, NYU, Stanford, UC Berkeley, University of Geneva, Columbia University, City University Hong Kong and the University of Hong Kong. She has consulted to a range of organisations including UNICEF, UNDP, companies and NGOs. From 2006-2017 she was the Deputy Director of the Australian Human Rights Centre and from 2016-2019 she served as Associate Dean Academic at UNSW Law. She is a Visiting Professorial Scholar at NYU's Stern Center for Business and Human Rights. In 2019 she was named 'Academic of the Year' at the Australian Law Awards. She is a member of the Editorial Board of the Business and Human Rights Journal and the Executive Editor of the Australian Human Rights Journal. 

Areas of expertise