Welcome
The Australian National University's College of Law has a long history of hosting
legal scholars from around the world as visitors to Canberra. It is a tradition
valued as much by us as by our visitors, and we look forward to welcoming each
new arrival into our academic community. Our Visitors are part of what makes
the College a vibrant intellectual and social environment. Most members of the
ANU College of Law have been recipients of kind hospitality when visiting other
institutions in Australia and around the world, and we welcome the opportunity
to reciprocate.
The ANU College of Law is pleased to be able to accommodate a wide range of
visitors. Some come for only a week, others stay for much longer. There are
four categories of official College visitors: Distinguished Visiting Fellows,
Visiting Fellows, Visiting Scholars, and Visiting Research Students. All actively
participate in our College community and activities, and have access to general
facilities, library services and University events.
The Distinguished Visiting Fellow program is reserved for
internationally recognised legal experts. This program is by invitation of
the College only and often, but not always, carries financial support. The
Distinguished Visiting Fellow contributes directly to the College's teaching,
research, or international programs such as our annual Sawer Lecture or our
Visiting Mentor Program. For example, as a Distinguished Visiting Fellow,
Sir Anthony Mason, former Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia, has
given numerous lectures in our undergraduate and graduate programs during
his many visits to the College.
The Visiting Fellow program accommodates established legal
academics and practitioners from all over the world. In particular, many domestic
and foreign colleagues have been Visiting Fellows while on sabbatical from
their home institution. Academics who maintain a particularly close relationship
with the College through our teaching or research programs may be designated
Visiting Fellows or Adjuncts. In addition, our annual academic staff exchange
partners from Chuo University in Japan and the University of Alabama in the
United States are usually designated Visiting Fellows.
The Visiting Scholar program is generally for early career
academics and visitors from non-academic areas who want to devote a period
of time to sustained research. Many domestic and foreign colleagues have been
Visiting Scholars during their first sabbatical, or use the status to return
to the ANU for post-doctoral research. The status is also used frequently
to provide researchers with a base during long holidays to allow for access
to the ANU library system and other ANU and Canberra resources. Foreign scholars
are often designated as Visiting Scholars during short stays in Australia.
The Visiting Research Student program provides a base for
domestic and foreign graduate research students conducting field work in Australia
or accessing the ANU's and Canberra's resources. A small fee is charged for
this status, but may be waived upon application or with sponsorship of a College
member. An alternative for some individuals desiring to study law in Australia
is enrolment on a fee-paying basis in the College's course-based
LLM program or research-based
MPhil, SJD, and PhD programs.
The John Fleming Centre for
Advancement of Legal Research within the College runs a visitor program
by invitation only.