The ANU Law School, which sits under the College of Law, Governance and Policy (CLGP), has had incredible success in the latest round of ARC funding, with three projects awarded $1.3 million funding from the Australian Research Council. 

The CLGP Associate Dean (Research), Distinguished Professor Renee Fry-McKibbin, said, “Only nine grants were awarded to projects with Law Fields of Research (FoR) Codes this year, and our Law School received two of them. Both projects are extremely important given global geopolitical headwinds.”  

One project is headed up by Associate Professor Esmé Shirlow for her work titled World Court? Globalising & Judicialising the International Court of Justice. This project received $646,886 and aims to investigate the evolution of the International Court of Justice into a “World Court” by examining the “internationalisation” and “judicialisation” of the Court. Using interview and archival data, the project will generate new knowledge about the world(s) within the International Court of Justice and their influence on its capacity to grapple with global challenges. Expected outcomes include new knowledge about the International Court of Justice as a “World Court” and refined methods and theories to study the internal life of international organisations. The project’s benefits include empirically based policy recommendations to support Australia’s strategic engagement in global institution-building in the future.  

Senior Lecturer and Director - Research at ANU Law School Anton Moiseienko received $529,137 in funding for work titled Financial Sanctions: Identifying Sanctioned Persons and Their Assets. This project studies the challenges of implementing Australia’s financial sanctions, especially identifying sanctioned persons and assets. It does so via a multidisciplinary study of implementation in five key economic sectors. The project will generate novel, practice-oriented and evidence-based approaches to sanctions implementation. Outcomes will include Australia’s enhanced capacity to implement sanctions and inform evidence-based policy on when and how they can be best deployed. Benefits will include enabling Australia to use its sanctions powers effectively. This study is especially timely given the increasing centrality of sanctions to Australian foreign policy, including in coordination with key partners, such as the US, the UK and EU. 

Another excellent result is Senior Lecturer Jason Chin’s success in the Linkage Program. His project totaling $204,080, Improving the accuracy of the justice system with systematic reviews, will be conducted in partnership with Victoria Police, PathWest Laboratory Medicine WA, Australia New Zealand Policing Advisory Agency, and the Australian Academy of Science. 

“Jason’s work will improve the efficiency of courts by contributing to the integrity of forensic practices and topics, such as fingerprint analysis through transparent review processes. The project will build evidence-based strategies for effectively communicating these reviews. Jason’s work will build and maintain trust in Australia’s judicial institutions, and like Esmé and Anton’s work, is important given current societal challenges,” said Distinguished Professor Fry-McKibbin. 

The Head of ANU Law School, Associate Professor Ryan Goss, said of the success, “Everyone here is so excited that Esmé, Anton, and Jason have had their work supported by ARC funding in this way. All three research projects speak to cutting-edge questions of national and international importance, and the national law school is a natural home for this work. Indeed, this ARC investment recognises the terrific work that is being done by these three leading researchers, and more broadly speaks to the supportive research community we are building here at ANU Law.” 

Distinguished Professor Fry-McKibbin added “I would like to gratefully acknowledge the support of the CGLP research office in making these applications successful.” 

Congratulations to the recipients. We are looking forward to seeing the outcome of your work.