ANU College of Law alumnus Marcel Delany (Bachelor of Asian Studies/LLB '15) has received the Vinerian Scholarship in the Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) at Oxford. 

The prestigious Vinerian Scholarship is a scholarship given to the student who “gives the best performance in the examination for the degree of Bachelor of Civil Law".

“I had no expectation of receiving the Vinerian and all of the students who I studied with here were brilliant, so it is unexpected and very exciting,” says Marcel. 

For Marcel, the most rewarding aspect of the BCL was the small-scale tutorials, where students prepare essays and then defend them against critique by a tutor who is usually the leading academic in the field.

“Tutorials certainly require resilience (since the feedback can be unflinching) but I found them to be an immensely valuable exercise in the long run!”

Before undertaking the BCL, Marcel worked as a civil lawyer for the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA), a career path he feels particularly proud of. 

“This is (I think) a relatively unusual path for the Oxford master’s, and I think this recognition shows that pursuing a career in community legal centres and social justice does not close off the door to academic success down the track. Instead, it can assist in the realisation of that success, as well as being incredibly rewarding and important work in its own right.”

Marcel credits the LLB experience at ANU in helping him prepare for the Oxford BCL. 

“The ANU model of teaching is obviously quite different, but one aspect of my time at ANU which was particularly rewarding was undertaking an honours thesis under the supervision of Professor James Stellios.”

“Professor Stellios was particularly generous with his time, and the one-on-one aspect to the supervision process with a leading academic in the field in some respects mirrors the Oxford style of supervision of tutorials and was helpful in preparing me for that style of teaching.”

Reflecting on his time at the ANU College of Law, Marcel believes that ANU law scholars genuinely encourage their students to see the role of lawyers in the community through the lens of broader social justice issues in Australia.

“For me, and for many law graduates I know from ANU, that led to my taking a career path that is relatively atypical for an academically minded lawyer.”

Marcel encourages new and existing graduates to consider careers as community legal centre solicitors. 

“My experience as a civil solicitor at NAAJA was that while we were heavily under-resourced compared with its opponents and faced huge logistical, cultural and linguistic challenges in taking instructions and providing advice, we could make a very real difference to the lives of Aboriginal people suffering from great injustice as a result of the (still ongoing) process of colonisation.”

“This was an incredibly rewarding experience, and it is the job where I have learnt the most about how law operates in the real world.”

Marcel is due to commence as a barrister at the Victorian bar in March 2025.