Professor Hilary Charlesworth AM

She is currently the Director of the Centre for International and Public Law at the Australian National University. Hilary graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1979 with an LLB and BA. After completing her Articles she worked as an Associate to Justice Ninian Stephen of the High Court of Australia. She graduated from Harvard Law School with an SJD in 1986.

In 1987, Hilary was appointed as a Lecturer at the University of Melbourne Law School. From 1993-97 she was John Bray Professor of Law at the University of Adelaide. She has held numerous other positions relating to international law and human rights. In 1993-94, she was a part-time Commissioner with the Australian Law Reform Commission on its reference into Equality before the Law. From 1994-99 she was a Hearing Commissioner with the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.

She is currently a member of the Foreign Affairs Council of the Minister for Foreign Affairs. She is also President of the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law. She is Co-Editor of the Australian Yearbook of International Law, and a member of the Board of Editors of the American Journal of International Law. She is also a Professor in the Global Law Faculty of New York University. In 1997 Hilary wrote, with Burns Weston and Richard Falk, International Law and World Order. The Boundaries of International Law, written with Christine Chinkin, was published by Manchester University Press in 2000. This book won the American Society of International Law's Certificate of Merit in 2001.

Hilary gives freely of her time as an advocate for human rights and social justice.