Tony Blackshield AO taught in the 1960s at the University of Sydney Law School.  In the 1970s (along with Michael Coper) he was one of the founding members of the Faculty of Law at the University of New South Wales.  Thereafter he was Professor of Legal Studies at La Trobe University, and Professor of Law at Macquarie University.  He is an Honorary Professor of the Indian Law Institute, New Delhi.

Tony has written extensively on jurisprudential and constitutional issues. He was also a frequent public commentator, notably on “the Dismissal” of 11 November 1975 and “the Murphy affair” of 1984-1986.

Hilary Charlesworth is a Melbourne Laureate Professor at Melbourne Law School and Distinguished Professor in the Regulatory Institutions Network at the ANU. Her areas of research include international law and human rights law at both international and national levels.

Prof Michael Coper graduated with Arts and Law (Hons) degrees from the University of Sydney in 1969, spent 1970 as Myer Foundation Fellow at the University of Rajasthan in Jaipur, and became one of the seven ‘founding fathers’ of the UNSW Law School when he was appointed to that fledgling institution in its first year of teaching in 1971. After nearly two decades at UNSW, which included a year as Fulbright Senior Scholar at the University of Virginia in 1978, he moved to Canberra in 1988 to take up his appointment as a Member of the Inter-State Commission, a constitutionally-mandated but curiously ephemeral body, which conducted inquiries into regulatory reform of interstate land transport and the operation of the Australian waterfront.

When in 1991 the second iteration of the Inter-State Commission was returned to the oblivion to which the Wheat Case had effectively condemned it in 1915, he joined Sly & Weigall in Canberra as Director of Government Advising and remained in private practice until 1995, when he was appointed to the ANU as Professor of Constitutional Law following the retirement of Professor Leslie Zines. Michael was Dean of the ANU College of Law from 1998 to 2012, championing in particular the values of academic excellence, collegiality, law reform and social justice, and internationalisation.

Michael’s books include Freedom of Interstate Trade under the Australian Constitution (1983), Encounters with the Australian Constitution (1987), and The Oxford Companion to the High Court of Australia (co-edited with Tony Blackshield and George Williams, 2001). He has appeared as counsel in a number of cases in the High Court, including the revolutionary Cole v Whitfield (1988), and argued the very first case brought by a non-claimant in the Native Title Tribunal. He was Chair of the Council of Australian Law Deans (2005-2007), Vice President of the International Association of Law Schools (2011-2014), is a Foundation Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law, and, since 1999, a member of the American Law Institute.    

Kim Economides is Professor of Law and Dean at Flinders Law School. Previously, Professor of Legal Ethics (2000-09) and Head of Law (1999-2004); Director, Exeter University Centre for Legal Interdisciplinary Development (EUCLID) (1989-93) and Acting Director, Centre for Legal Practice, (2005-06), University of Exeter, Devon, UK; Professor of Law and Founding Director, Legal Issues Centre, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand (2009-12). Kim studied law in London and was one of the first researchers at the European University Institute in Italy where he worked on the Florence Access to Justice Project (1976-79). 

Kim co-directed the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)-funded Access to Justice in Rural Britain Project (1983-1987). Founding Secretary (1990-92) and Vice Chair (1992-93) Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA). From 1993-95 he was seconded as Education Secretary to the Lord Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Legal Education & Conduct (ACLEC). He was Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Hamlyn Trust (2004-09) and Series Editor, The Hamlyn Lectures (2005-10). He was Founding General Editor of Legal Ethics (1998-2008) and in 2004 helped establish the International Legal Ethics Conference (ILEC) series that meets biennially. He served as President of the International Association of Legal Ethics (IAOLE) (2014-16). 

Stephen John Gageler was appointed to the High Court in October 2012. At the time of his appointment he was Solicitor-General of Australia. He is a graduate of the Australian National University and has post-graduate qualifications from Harvard University. He was admitted as a barrister of the Supreme Court of New South Wales in 1989 and was appointed Senior Counsel in 2000. Before his appointment as Solicitor-General in 2008, he practised as a barrister extensively throughout Australia principally in constitutional law, administrative law and commercial law.

Ryan Goss is a Senior Lecturer at the ANU College of Law, working on public law and human rights law. Before joining the ANU in 2013, Ryan was Junior Research Fellow in Law at Lincoln College, University of Oxford. His book on European human rights law, Criminal Fair Trial Rights (Hart, 2014) was longlisted for the Inner Temple Book Prize 2015, and shortlisted for the Birks Prize 2015.

When he retired from the High Court of Australia on 2 February 2009, Michael Kirby was Australia’s longest serving judge.

He was first appointed in 1975 as a Deputy President of the Australian Conciliation & Arbitration Commission.  Soon after, he was seconded as inaugural Chairman of the Australian Law Reform Commission (1975-84).  Later, he was appointed a Judge of the Federal Court of Australia, then President of the New South Wales Court of Appeal (1984-96) and, concurrently, President of the Court of Appeal of Solomon Islands (1995-6).  His appointment to the High Court of Australia came in 1996 and he served thirteen years.  In later years, he was Acting Chief Justice of Australia twice.

In addition to his judicial duties, Michael Kirby has served on three university governing bodies being elected Chancellor of Macquarie University in Sydney (1984-93).  He also served on many national and international bodies.  Amongst the latter have been service as a member of the World Health Organisation’s Global Commission on AIDS (1988-92); as President of the International Commission of Jurists, Geneva (1995-8); as UN Special Representative for Human Rights in Cambodia (1993-6); as a member of the UNESCO International Bioethics Committee (1995-2005); as a member of the High Commissioner for Human Rights’ Judicial Reference Group (2007- 9) and as a member of the UNAIDS Reference Group on HIV and Human Rights(2004-). 

Following his judicial retirement, Michael Kirby was elected President of the Institute of Arbitrators & Mediators Australia from 2009-2010.  He served as a Board Member of the Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (2009-14).  In 2010, he was appointed to the Australian Panel of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (World Bank).  He has been appointed Honorary Visiting Professor by twelve universities. And he participates regularly in many local and international conferences and meetings.  He has been awarded a number of honorary doctorates at home and abroad.  He also serves as Editor-in-Chief of The Laws of Australia (2009 - ). 

He served 2011-12 as a member of the Eminent Persons Group on the future of the Commonwealth of Nations. He was a Commissioner of the UNDP Global Commission of HIV and the Law 2011-2012.  He was appointed to the Advisory Council of Transparency International, based in Berlin in 2012.  In 2013- 2014, he was appointed Chair of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights Violations in North Korea.  He also served as a Commissioner of the UNAIDS Lancet Commission on AIDS to the Right to Health (2013-2014) and of the Global Fund’s Equitable Access Panel (2015-16).

In December 2015 he was appointed by the UN Secretary-General to be a member of the United Nations High Level Panel on Health Technology Innovation and Access.  At the same time he was appointed to chair the Expert Advisory Group of the High Level Panel.  The Panel is expected to report to the Secretary-General in 2016.  He was awarded the Gruber Justice Prize in 2010 and has been Patron of the Kirby Institute on Blood Borne Diseases in UNSW Sydney, Australia since 2011.

The Honourable Sir Anthony Mason AC KBE GBM was a Justice of the High Court of Australia from 1972 to 1987 and Chief Justice from 1987 to 1995.  He was Commonwealth Solicitor General from 1964 to 1969 and a Judge of the NSW Court of Appeal from 1969 to 1972.  He has been Chancellor of UNSW, National Fellow at the Research School of Social Sciences at the ANU, a Judge of the Supreme Court of Fiji and President of the Solomon Islands Court of Appeal.   In 1996-1997 he was Arthur Goodhart Professor in Legal Science at Cambridge University. Since 2001 he has been Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the ANU College of Law. Sir Anthony was a non-permanent Judge of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal from 1997 until 2015.  Sir Anthony holds Honorary Doctorates from the Australian National University and Sydney, Melbourne, Monash, Griffith and Deakin Universities, UNSW and the Universities of Oxford and Hong Kong. 

Russell Miller AM graduated in law (with honours) at the ANU following which he went into private practice, ultimately as Chair of Minter Ellison. He and Professor Coper worked closely together in private practice advising the government prior to Professor Coper joining the ANU.  Russell Miller tutored in corporate law at ANU and taught various commercial law subjects at the ANU Legal Workshop, where he spent 6 months as the acting director. He has been an adjunct professor at the ANU and at the University of Canberra and a senior fellow in the Melbourne University Law School. 

He is the author of Miller’s Australian Competition and Consumer Law Annotated (38^th ed 2016) and Miller’s Australian Competition Law and Policy (3^rd ed in preparation).  He is a fellow of the Australian Academy of Law and of the Centre for Strategy and Governance.

Heather Roberts is a lecturer at the ANU College of Law where she teaches constitutional law and property law. After completing her undergraduate degree at the ANU, Heather worked as a solicitor at Freehills in Canberra. She returned to the law school in 2002 as a PhD student and tutor in property law.

Heather’s research interests are in judicial biography and constitutional law. Her PhD explored the constitutional philosophy of Justice Deane, a member of the High Court of Australia between 1982 and 1995. She then continued her passion for judicial biography as a research fellow with Professor AJ Brown on his award-winning biography of Justice Michael Kirby (co-incidentally, Justice Deane’s successor on the High Court).

Heather’s current research picks up a thread from her PhD, the speeches made at judicial swearing-in ceremonies. Focusing on judges of Australian federal courts, she is exploring how speeches made at judicial swearing-in ceremonies shed light on the Australian legal and judicial system. That research recently featured in Radio National's Law Report Program 'Judge's Maiden Speeches'.

Kim Rubenstein is a Professor in the ANU College of Law and an ANU Public Policy Fellow.  The second edition of her landmark book Australian Citizenship Law in Context is due out in December 2016, and she is the co-series editor and co-editor of each volume of the Cambridge University Press six volume series Connecting International law with Public law. In a constitutional context she has been lead counsel in two High Court matters; on the special leave application to the Court from Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs v Walsh (2002) 189 ALR 694 and in Re Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs; Ex parte Ame (2005) 222 CLR 439.  She was also junior counsel to the solicitor general in Singh v Commonwealth (2004) 222 CLR 322.  

Internationally, she has participated in legal and policy work on statelessness and on citizenship by descent policy and she has been involved in two amici submissions before the United States Supreme Court. In 2012 she was recognized in the first batch of the Australian Financial Review’s and Westpac’s “100 women of influence” for her work on public policy. 

She is currently completing a major ARC oral history project on Trailblazing Women and the Law, which has led to a significant new online exhibition – Australian Women Lawyers as Active Citizens

Dr James Stellios is a Professor at the ANU College of Law. His primary research interest is constitutional law, and he has published widely in that field. He is the Director of the Centre for International and Public Law. James is also a barrister at the NSW Bar and has appeared as junior counsel in a number of High Court and lower court cases. Prior to joining the ANU, he spent a number of years in legal practice working for the Attorney-General's Department and the Australian Government Solicitor, principally in the area of constitutional litigation. He has also been Counsel Assisting the Solicitor-General of the Commonwealth.

Garry Sturgess practised as a barrister but has worked mainly in media and publishing including Law Reporter, The Age, Presenter The Law Report (ABC Radio National) and Senior Reporter Legal Times (Washington DC.) He is the co-author of Judging the World: Law and Politics in the World’s Leading Courts (1988), the co-editor of Legal Visions of the 21st Century: Essays in Honour of Judge Christopher Weeramantry,  and the author of Murphy and the Media in Lionel Murphy: Radical Judge. He researched The Hawke Memoirs and was Associate Producer of BBC Television’s The Republic of Oz, which Hawke presented.

He created the Radio National series Prime Minister (1980), and was Senior Researcher of the ABC’s five-part television series Labor In Power (Gold Walkley, Silver Logie) and produced the BBC version. He was the originator & co-creator of the SBS Television’s award-winning series Liberal Rule: The Politics that Changed Australia.  Garry is a regular interviewer for the Oral History and Folklore branch of the National Library of Australia. His film  Barry Jones In search of Lost Time is now in post-production. The Garry Sturgess Collection is held in the National Library. 

George Williams AO is the Dean, the Anthony Mason Professor, and a Scientia Professor at UNSW Law.

He has written and edited 34 books, including Australian Constitutional Law and Theory, The Oxford Companion to the High Court of Australia and Human Rights under the Australian Constitution. He has appeared as a barrister in the High Court in many cases over the past two decades, including on freedom of speech, freedom from racial discrimination and the rule of law. He has also appeared in the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal of Fiji, including on the legality of the 2000 coup.

George is a well-known media commentator on legal issues. He has been a columnist for The Australian and the Canberra Times and an on-air analyst for ABC Television, and is a columnist for the Sydney Morning Herald. He also reviews science fiction and fantasy books for The Weekend Australian and Books and Arts Daily on ABC Radio National.

George was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2011: ‘For distinguished service to the law in the fields of anti-terrorism, human rights and constitutional law as an academic, author, adviser and public commentator.’