Margaret Thornton | ANU College of Law

Professor

Margaret Thornton

FAAL FASSA

Emerita Professor

BA(Hons) Syd; LLB (UNSW); LLM (Yale); Barrister of the Supreme Court of NSW & the High Court of Australia

Biography
Research
Supervision
Teaching

Emerita Professor Margaret Thornton is a socio-legal and feminist scholar whose work on the legal academy and the legal profession is internationally recognised. She is regularly invited to participate in international projects.

She has published extensively in the area of discrimination and the law. Her book The Liberal Promise (Oxford, 1990) remains the only critical study of discrimination law in Australia. Her book, Dissonance and Distrust (Oxford 1996) is the only study of women in the legal profession in Australia. It was translated into Mandarin and published in Beijing (Law Press, 2001).

Margaret also has a particular interest in the impact of the corporatisation of universities on the legal academy and has conducted research in the UK, Canada and New Zealand, as well as Australia. Publications from this research include Privatising the Public University: The Case of Law (Routledge, 2012). Her current ARC-funded research focuses on work/life balance in corporate law firms, particularly the gendered effects of globalisation, competition and technology.

Margaret’s scholarship has been acknowledged by election to the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, the invitation to be a Foundation Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law, and the award of an ARC Professorial Fellowship, in additional to international fellowships.

Margaret formerly held the Richard McGarvie Chair of Socio-Legal studies at La Trobe University where she also served as Head of School, Director of Research and Professorial Member of University Council. She served the discipline of law as a member of the ARC and as Chair of the Federal Government Advisory Committee for the Gender Issues in the Law Curriculum Project, as well as occupying many other federal and State positions.

Appointments

2012: ANU Public Policy Fellow
2019 Emerita Professor, ANU

Significant research publications

Thornton, The Liberal Promise: Anti-Discrimination Legislation in Australia, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1990
Thornton, Dissonance and Distrust: Women in the Legal Profession, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1996 (Chinese edn, Law Press, Beijing, 2001)
Thornton, Privatising the Public University: The Case of Law, Routledge, Abingdon, Oxon, 2012
Thornton (ed) Public and Private: Feminist Legal Debates, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1995
Thornton (ed), Romancing the Tomes: Popular Culture, Law and Feminism, Cavendish, London, 2002
Thornton (ed), Sex Discrimination in Uncertain Times, ANU E Press, Canberra, 2010 http://epress.anu.edu.au/discrimination_citation.html
Thornton (ed), Through a Glass Darkly: The Social Sciences look at the Neoliberal University (ed), ANU Press, Canberra, 2015: http://press.anu.edu.au?p=304001
Ron Levy, Molly O’Brien, Pauline Ridge, Simon Rice & Margaret Thornton (eds), New Directions for Law in Australia, ANU Press, Canberra, 2017: http://press.anu.edu.au/node/2641/download
Ulrike Schultz, Gisela Shaw, Margaret Thornton & Rosemary Auchmuty (eds), Gender and Careers in the Legal Academy, Hart Publishing, Oxford, 2021

Curriculum vitae

Thornton publications 2021

Research biography

Margaret’s scholarship has been acknowledged by election to the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, the invitation to be a Foundation Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law, inclusion as a ‘Trailblazing Woman in Law’ in the Oral History Project of the Australian National Library (led by Professor Kim Rubenstein), and the award of an ARC Professorial Fellowship.

She has published extensively in the area of discrimination and the law and the 25th anniversary of her book, The Liberal Promise (Oxford, 1990), is being celebrated in 2015.

Margaret also has a particular interest in the impact of the corporatisation of universities on the legal academy and has conducted research in the UK, Canada and New Zealand, as well as Australia. Publications from this research include Privatising the Public University: The Case of Law (Routledge, 2012). Her current ARC-funded research focuses on work/life balance in corporate law firms, particularly the gendered effects of globalisation, competition and technology.

Grants

(with Dominique Allen & Alysia Blackham) 'Using Transparency to Achieve Equality', ASSA Workshop 2020-21
ARC Discovery Project 2012-2018: 'Balancing Law and Life'
(with Glenn Withers) ASSA Workshop 2012-13: ‘Markets and the Modern University’
ARC Professorial Fellowship 2006-2012: 'EEO in a Culture of Uncertainty'
(with Prof Beth Gaze) ASSA Workshop 2007: ‘The Future of Discrimination Law in Australia’
(with Prof Charles Sampford & 28 ors) ARC Research Centre 2005-09: ‘The Governance Research Network (GovNet)
ARC Discovery Grant 2002-05: ‘The Neoliberal Legal Academy’

Books & edited collections

Ron Levy, Molly O’Brien, Pauline Ridge, Simon Rice & Margaret Thornton (eds), New Directions for Law in Australia, ANU Press, Canberra, 2017: http://press.anu.edu.au/node/2641/download
Thornton (ed), Through a Glass Darkly: The Social Sciences look at the Neoliberal University (ed), ANU Press, Canberra, 2015: http://press.anu.edu.au?p=304001
Thornton, Privatising the Public University: The Case of Law, Routledge, London, 2012
Thornton (ed), Sex Discrimination in Uncertain Times, ANU E Press, Canberra, 2010 http://epress.anu.edu.au/discrimination_citation.html
Thornton (ed), Romancing the Tomes: Popular Culture, Law and Feminism, Cavendish, London, 2002
Thornton, Dissonance and Distrust: Women in the Legal Profession, Oxford, 1996 (Chinese edition, Law Press, Beijing, 2001)
Thornton (ed) Public and Private: Feminist Legal Debates, Oxford, 1995
Thornton, The Liberal Promise: Anti-Discrimination Legislation in Australia, Oxford, 1990

Refereed journal articles

Thornton, ‘The Mirage of Merit: Reconstituting the “Ideal Academic”’ (2013) 28(76) Australian Feminist Studies 127-143 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08164649.2013.789584
Thornton, ‘Legal Education in the Corporate University’ (2014) 10 Annual Review of Law and Social Science 19-35 http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/action/showPreferences?menuTab=Access
Thornton, ‘The Flexible Cyborg: Work/Life Balance in the Legal Profession’ (2016) 38(1) Sydney Law Review 1-21 http://sydney.edu.au/law/slr/slr_38/slr38_1/SLRv38n1Thornton.pdf reprinted in Rechtswissenschaftliche Beiträge der Hamburger Sozialökonomie, Heft 8, August 2016 https://www.wiso.uni-hamburg.de/.../heft8-margaret-thornton-work-life- balance-final.pdf
Thornton, ‘Squeezing the Life out of Lawyers: Legal Practice in the Market Embrace’ (2016) 25(4) Griffith Law Review 471-491 http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/10383441.2016.1262230?needAccess=true
Thornton, ‘Social Status: The Last Bastion of Discrimination’ (2018) 1 Anti-Discrimination Law Rev 5-26
Thornton, ‘Towards the Uberisation of Legal Practice’ (2019) 1 Law, Technology and Humans 46-63 https://doi.org/10.5204/lthj.v1i1.1277
Thornton, ‘Who Cares? The Conundrum for Gender Equality in Legal Practice’ (2020) 43(4) UNSW Law Journal 1473-1493 http://www.unswlawjournal.unsw.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Thornton.pdf

Book chapters

Thornton, ‘Free Trade and Justice: A Discomfiting Liaison’ in Kevin Walton, Helen Irving & Jacqui Mowbray (eds), Julius Stone: A Study of Influence, Federation Press, Sydney, 2010, pp 145-65
Thornton, ‘An Inconstant Affair: Feminism and the Legal Academy’ in Martha Albertson Fineman (ed), Transcending the Boundaries of Law: Generations of Feminism and Legal Theory, Cavendish-Routledge, London & New York, 2011, pp 25-39
Thornton, ‘The Feminist Fandango with the Legal Academy’ in Dorota Gozdecka & Anne Macduff (eds), Feminism, Postfeminism and Legal Theory: Beyond the Gendered Subject, Routledge, London, 2019, 11-29
Thornton, ‘Uberisation: The Path to Lawyer Wellbeing?’ in Janet Chan, Michael Legg & Prue Vines (eds) , The Impact of Technology and Innovation on the Well-Being of the Legal Profession, Intersentia, Cambridge, 2020, 177-198
Thornton, ‘The First and Last (?) Feminist Law Professors in Australia’ in Ulrike Schultz, Gisela Shaw, Margaret Thornton & Rosemary Auchmuty (eds), Gender and Careers in the Legal Academy, Hart Publishing, Oxford, 2021, 457-473

Government submissions

2012: Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Bill, Exposure draft: Discrimination Law Experts Group
2013: Sex Discrimination Amendment (Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Intersex Status) Bill 2013
2014: Freedom of speech (repeal of s. 18c) Bill 2014
2016: Discrimination Law Experts Group, Freedom of Speech in Australia, Submission to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights
2018: Discrimination Law Experts, Modernisation of the Anti-Discrimination Act 1992 (NT)
2018: Discrimination Law Experts, Inquiry: Religious Freedom Review (Expert Panel on Religious Freedom, Dept PM & Cabinet)

Case notes & book reviews

Thornton, Mary Jane Mossman: The First Women Lawyers: A Comparative Study of Gender, Law and the Legal Professions, Hart Publishing, Oxford, 2006. (2007) 29(4) Sydney Law Review 735-37
Thornton, How well does Australian Democracy serve Australian Women? Prepared by Sarah Maddison and Emma Partridge for the Democratic Audit of Australia, School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, 2007 (2007) 26(2) Dialogue: Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia 78-79
Thornton, Evan Gerstmann and Matthew J Streb (Eds), Academic Freedom at the Dawn of a New Century: How Terrorism, Governments, and Culture Wars impact Free Speech (2007) 26(2) Higher Education Research & Development 249-51
Thornton, Book Review, Sharon Roach Anleu & Kathy Mack, Performing Judicial Authority in the Lower Courts (2017) 19(1) Flinders Law Journal
Thornton, Book Review, Public Universities, Managerialism and the Value of Higher Education by Rob Watts (2017) 34 (3-4) Prometheus: Critical Studies in Innovation 257-60: http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/tiYaBRNf3gFdA7qiYqeq/ful

Other

Thornton, ‘“Post-Feminism” in the Legal Academy?’ (2010) 95 Feminist Review 92-98
Thornton, ‘The Racial State as Legal Person’ (2010) 35 Australian Journal of Legal Philosophy 140-4
Thornton, ‘Of Boiled Frogs and Other Things’ (2016) 34(1) Prometheus: Critical Studies in Innovation 79-82: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/08109028.2016.1222130?needAccess=true
Thornton, Public Universities, Managerialism and the Value of Higher Education by Rob Watts (2017) 34 (3-4) Prometheus: Critical Studies in Innovation 257-60: http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/tiYaBRNf3gFdA7qiYqeq/ful
Thornton, Law Mart: Justice, Access, and For-Profit Law Schools by Riaz Tejani (2018) 43(3) Canadian J Sociology 321-324 https://journals.library.ualberta.ca/cjs/index.php/cjs/

Currently supervising

Zhuoyu Li
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Topic: Gender, Culture, and Unpaid Care Work: A Socio-Legal Study of Work/Family Conflict and Reconciliation Theory in Sichuan Basin of China.
Andrew Henderson
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Topic: The effect of law school's implicit curriculum on law students' perceptions of life after law school (https://implicitcurriculumresearch.wordpress.com/)

PhD supervision

I have supervised 21 students to completion.

Current students:

Pauline Bomball
Nilanka Goonetillake, 'Pay and conditions of junior lawyers - Rethinking the role of lawyers in their early career':
Emma Graham, Maternity discrimination resulting in job loss: examining the role of labour laws
Andrew Henderson, The effect of law schools's implicit curriculum on law students' perceptions of life after law
Su Robertson, Clinical legal education, the benchmark lawyer and disruptive women

I am willing to supervise in the relevant areas.