Injustice is observable only under certain conditions. Getting better at being able to see injustice is a vocational issue for people working in law. After all, justice is what legal systems are for.
Judy Harrison
Honorary Senior Lecturer
BA/LLB, MAppAnth&ParDev (ANU), MScIntlDev (Distinct) (RMIT), MPub&IntLaw (Hons) (Melb); Barrister & Solicitor ACT & NT. Practicing Certificate, WA.
Off campus
ANU College of Law, 5 Fellows Rd, Acton ACT 2600
Research Centre
Biography
Judy Harrison has been a practicing lawyer for over 30 years. Judy researches in the areas of law and organising, critical lawyering theory and minority justice issues. Applying immersive, collaborative and reflexive research methodologies, Judy’s research has helped develop regional, national and international networks and linkages especially in the areas of legal and collaborative responses to domestic and family violence, family law and the safety of women and children and women’s legal equality. Judy’s research has helped instigate law reform, new national programs, new national and international service standards, new services and coalitions of influence.
Currently focusing on remote lawyering, criminal lawyering and historical injustice, Judy is working with local people and community groups and with networks which encompass Indigenous studies, genocide, human rights, reparations, and political and social change.
Judy appears on her own behalf and with clients in state and national television programs and she regularly briefs parliamentarians and the media. Through regional, national and international - government and non-government consultancies, Judy’s research has helped strengthen legal services for Indigenous peoples, criminal and civil justice responses to domestic family violence and community based safety options for Indigenous women.
Appointments
- Convenor, Law, Lawyers, Justice: Regional, Rural Remote (new course began 2017)
- Convenor, Law and Organizing for Justice, Reform and Inclusion (new course began 2017)
- Project Coordinator, Kimberley Community Legal Services - ANU Initiatitve, 2016-
- Member, ANU College of Law Reconciliation Action Plan Committee 2016 -
- Co-convenor, Professionalism in Practice, ANU Legal Workshop, 2015
- Convenor, ANU Legal Workshop Criminal Law Practice NT and WA 2012-13
- Registrar Family Court of Australia 2009 &10 (part-time)
- Coordinator ANU Legal Workshop Regional, Rural, Remote Legal Practice Placements Pilot 2009-10
- Chair, ANU GDLP Indigenous Scholarship Committee 2009-2010
- Member, ANU College of Law Reconciliation Action Plan Committee 2009-2010
- Convenor, ANU Community Law Clinical Program (most sessions) 2006-2010
- Convenor ANU Clinical Youth Law Program (most sessions) 2005-2010
- Convenor, ANU Legal Workshop Criminal Law Practice NT (most sessions) 2005-2010
- Senior Lecturer, ANU College of Law 2005 -
- ANU Director of Clinical Law Programs 2004-2010
- Convenor, ANU Legal Workshop Becoming a Practitioner (numerous locations) 2004-
- Manager, Australian Virtual Centre for Women and the Law 1998-2002
- Co-Convenor, Supervised Internship Program / Legal Aid Clinical Program 1996-2010
- Convenor, Family Law Practice, ANU Legal Workshop most sessions from 1996-2010
- Convenor, Australian National Women's Justice Coalition 1995-2002
- Convenor, ACT & Regional Women's Legal Service - establishment working group and Board member (1995-7)
- Lecturer, ANU College of Law 1995-2005
- Co-Convenor, Australian & New Zealand Supervised Access Association / Australian Supervised Contact Services Association 1994-2000
- Member, Dispute resolution reference group, NT Law Reform Committee 1992-1993
- Convenor, NT Children's Supervised Access Services Working Group -1993
- Convenor, NT Committee Against Violence Against Women 1992-1993
- Member, ACT Community Law Reform Committee 1990-1992
- Member, Family Law Committee, NT Law Society 1992-1993
- Legal Member, Social Security Appeals Tribunal ACT & NT 1989-1992
- Head, Family Law Section, NT Legal Aid Commission 1992-1994
- Member, Family Law Committee, ACT Law Society 1986-1991
- Assistant Director, Family Law ACT Legal Aid in statutory partnership with the Director and Assistant Director (General Law) (1998-1991)
Awards
| Year | Title |
|---|---|
| 2019 | Award for Indigenous Education, ANU College of Law Excellence in Education Award |
| 2018 | Award for Program or Service that Enhances Learning, ANU College of Law Excellence in Education Award |
| 2017 |
Award for Program or Service that Enhances Learning: ANU College of Law/ Kimberley Community Legal Service initiative |
| 2016 |
Finalist WA Attorney General's Community Service Law Awards (individual) for outstanding pro bono legal services to the WA community. |
| 2015 |
Finalist (with co-authors Steve Kinnane and Isabelle Reinecke) Promoting Indigenous Reconciliation category, United Nations Association Australia Media Peace Awards |
| 2005 |
ANU Vice-Chancellor's Award for Community Outreach |
| 2003 |
Centenary Medal for services to women including Indigenous women and women in regional, rural and remote Australia |
| 2001 | Vida Goldstein Award for promoting access to technology for social change |
| 1996 | Churchill Fellowship, for a study of supervised parent child contact services in five countries |
| 1995 |
CAPOW! (Coalition of Australian Participating Organisations of Women) sponsorship to attend the 4th World Conference of Women in Beijing |
Significant research publications
- Judy Harrison, Conditions of Observability: Tunnel vision happens when we notice certain things but not others, 15 Sept 2017, Blog, ANU College of Law
- Judy is the co-author, with Steve Kinnane and Isabelle Reinecke, of ‘Finger Money: The black and the white of stolen wages’, in Griffith Review, Vol. 47, Looking West, Feb 2015. Judy and KCLS colleagues provided material for Sarah Dingle's report WA's Stolen Wages Shame, on ABC Radio National's Background Briefing, broadcast 6 September 2015. This report highlighted a gap of over $70mill between acturial modeling and the WA Goverment's Stolen Wages Reparation Scheme. In October 2016 Sarah received a United Nations Media Peace Prize for her report.
- Judy was the principal consultant with Maria Dimopoulos for Fiji Law Reform Commission's reference on Domestic Violence Laws. The final report included Executive Summary and Recommendations, Context, Criminal Justice Response, Civil Justice Response, and 5 draft bills). For background: FLRC Newsletter February 2005 the press release delivering the reports, and the resulting Domestic Violence Decree 2009 as recently amended by Revised Edition of the Laws (Consequential Amendments) Act 2016.
- Judy's work in relation to the development of supervised children's contact (visitation) services in Australia inluded preparing the first versions of the Australian and New Zealand Standards for Supervised Access Services. These Standards were influential in the development of similar standards in the USA and Canada, legislation in California and standards in the UK. The Australian Law Reform Commission recommended that the standards be linked to funding critera for quality control, and the Australian goverment acted on this in relation to federal funding, currently about $15mill pa.
View more publications on the ANU Researchers website
Recent news
02
Feb
2017
February marks the 20th anniversary of the Canberra Legal Aid Clinic, an opportunity for law students to work at the “coalface” of the legal profession while completing their Graduate Diploma Legal Practice at ANU Legal Workshop.
06
Sep
2015
A decades old injustice against Aboriginal station workers in Western Australia has been taken up ANU lawyer Judy Harrison.
In the Media
12
May
2014
Judy Harrison speaks to ABC Kimberley re-broadcast by the National Indigenous Radio Service
View more publications on the ANU Researchers website
Research biography
Judy Harrison researches in the areas of law and organising, critical lawyering theory and minority justice issues. Applying immersive, collaborative and reflexive research methodologies, Judy’s research has helped develop regional, national and international networks and linkages especially in the areas of legal and collaborative responses to domestic and family violence, family law and the safety of women and children and women’s legal equality.
Judy’s research has helped instigate law reform, new national programs, new national and international service standards, new services and coalitions of influence. Currently focusing on remote lawyering, liminal lawyering and historical injustice, Judy is working with local people and community groups and with networks which encompass Indigenous studies, genocide, human rights, reparations, and political and social change. Judy appears on her own behalf and with clients in state and national television programs and she regularly briefs parliamentarians and the media.
Through regional, national and international - government and non-government consultancies, Judy’s research has helped strengthen legal services for Indigenous peoples, criminal and civil justice responses to domestic family violence and community based safety options for Indigenous women.
Research projects & collaborations
Recent examples:
- Unmet civil law legal needs in the Kimberley 2016- continuing
- WA Stolen Wages Reparation Scheme, project with KCLS, 2012 - continuing
- Redressing the WA Redress Scheme, project with KCLS 2013 - continuing
- Redressing the WA Redress Scheme action research report with Kimberley Community Legal Service (2012)
Consultancies
- Developing an M&E framework for Vietnam's domestic violence laws for UNDP Vietnam (2010-11)
- Needs assessment and formative evaluation for the Orana Far West Women's Safe Houses - Lightning Ridge, Walgett, Brewarrina, Bourke, Wilcannia and the NSW Women's Refuges Movement (2005, 2009-10)
- Consultant to the Fiji Law Reform Commission to review Fiji's domestic violence laws (2004-05)
- Service strengthening for ATSIC with Family Violence Prevention Legal Services (FVPLS) and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (ATSILS) in metro and RRR areas around Australia (1996-2003)
- Developing the Policy Framework for FVPLS (2002) for ATSIC, the ATSILS Policy Framework for ATSIC (1995) and the Australian Consumer Justice Charter for the Australian Federation of Consumer Organisations (1994)
Conference papers & presentations
Recent
- Breakthrough! Kimberley Community Legal Services Hotdesk at the ANU College of Law in Canberra
Australian Clinical Legal Education Symposium, 6 April 2018, University of NSW
- Where are there lawyers? Cashless Welfare Card in the East Kimberley and Ceduna, Cashless Debit Card Symposium, 1-2 February 2018, University of Melbourne
-
Long distance clinics: Can remote area legal services exercise the right to the city? Global Alliance of Justice Education Conference, Puebla, Mexico, 5-12 December 2017. Jointly with Sarouche Razi
-
Pindan, peripheries and power: First Nations peoples, civil law and justice in the Kimberley, Launch of the KCLS-ANU Initiative, ANU College of Law, Canberra, 9 July 2017. Facilitator.
-
Situational awareness: connections between client stories, client standpoints and law reform, Kimberley Community Legal Services Training Days, KCLS Kununurra 21-23 June 2017 (by skype).
-
Reform, lawyering and the repertoire of contention, National Law Reform Conference, ANU, Canberra, 14-15 April 2016
Government submissions
Recent
- Submission to the Law Council of Australia review of the Australian Solicitor's Professional Conduct Rules, June 2018
- Submission to the Australian Law Reform Commission on Indigenous Incarceration Rates, September 2017
Committees
Current
- Kimberley Community Legal Services - ANU College of Law Working Group
- Reconciliation Action Plan Committee, ANU College of Law
Internship supervision
ANU Law Internships (recent i.e. from 2017)
| 2017 | 2018 |
|
Sem 1/2017
Winter 2017
Sem 2/2017
|
Summer 18
Sem 1/2018
Winter 2018
Sem 2/2018
|
Philosophy & approach
Other courses in 2017 & 2018
Philosopy & approach
Judy's significant teaching related collaborations include:
- applying critical, constructivist and Freirian pedagogies
- skills integration and online teaching and learning
- establishing ANU clinical law programs
- promoting practical legal training in regional, rural and remote areas
- promoting engagement with contextual and political dimensions of lawyering.
Student clinical supervision and projects
Since 2012 Judy has worked with law student volunteers and law graduates undertaking practical legal training with particular emphasis on historical injustice, Indigenous rights, law and organising, and approaches to lawyering.
From 1996-2010 the Legal Aid Clinical Program, which Judy co-convened, enabled ANU law students to help provide legal assistance under supervision to clients at ACT Legal Aid.
Between 2004-10, while Judy was the Director of Clinical Law Programs, the number of ANU law students and law graduates who undertook clinical legal experience rose dramatically, with students directly assisting several hundered clients a year under supervision, with exposure across the clinical programs to over 1000 clients a year.
Between 2004-10 ANU law students undertaking the Clinical Youth Law Program, which Judy convened, produced about 120 practical research projects relating to youth legal issues in the ACT.
In 2009-10 about 20 ANU law graduates undertook 20-80 day legal practice experience in regional, rural and remote (RRR) Community Legal Centres around Australia. Judy managed this project, connected to the recruitment and retention of lawyers in RRR Australia for the ANU Legal Workshop in partnership with the National Association of Community Legal Centres.
Teaching awards
| Year | Title |
|---|---|
| 2019 | Award for Indigenous Education, ANU College of Law Excellence in Education Award |
| 2018 | Award for Program or Service that Enhances Learning, ANU College of Law Excellence in Education Award |
| 2017 |
Award for Program or Service that Enhances Learning: ANU College of Law/ Kimberley Community Legal Service initiative |
Past courses
- Convening LEGW8141 Becoming a Practitioner city and regional locations (2004-)
- Co-convening Professionalism in Practice in LEGW8142 Professional Practice Core (2015)
- Practice Mentor and Giving Voice to Values Mentor LEGW8142 Professional Practice Core (2011-2016)
- Convening LEGW8106 Criminal Law Practice NT & WA (2005-10, 2012-14)
- Convening LAWS2268 Community Law Clinical Program (2005-10)
- Convening LAWS4267 Clinical Youth Law Program (2004-10)
- Director of Clinical Law Programs (2004-10)
- Co-convening Legal Aid Clinical Program (1996-2010)
- Convening LEGW8107 Family Law Practice (1996-2010)
How my works connects with public policy
By participating and collaborating in relation to services, justice issues, law reform, national programs, and national and international service standards.
Participation
- Project Coordinator, Kimberley Community Legal Services - ANU Initiative 2016-
- Locum Senior Solicitor, Kimberley Community Legal Service (KCLS), Broome May/June and Sept/Oct 2016
- Pro bono lawyer, Kimberley Community Legal Service (KCLS), (2012-continuing)
- Locum Principal Solicitor, KCLS, May, July, December (2011)
- Registrar Family Court of Australia (part-time) (2008-2010)
- Organising group for the second Australian Women's Constitutional Convention (2002)
- Joint Project Director, Through Our Eyes: Legal Needs of Women in Regional, Rural and Remote Australia e-letter (2001-2003)
- Organising group, conference Through Our Eyes: Legal Needs of Women in Regional, Rural and Remote Australia (2001)
- Organising group member for the first Australian Women's Constitutional Convention (1999)
- Developed and led Australian Virtual Centre for Women and the Law (1998-2004)
- Steering Committee Australian Women's Constitutional Network (1998-2002)
- Helper to the National Network of Indigenous Women's Legal Services (1998-2002)
- Co-convened Australian & New Zealand Association of Supervised Access Services / subsequent Australian Association of Children's Contact Services which developed supervised contact services in Australia (1994-2000)
- Co-chaired ACT Community Law Reform Committee Reference on Withdrawl of Essential Services, 1991
- Chaired ACT Community Law Reform Committee Reference on Domestic Violence, 1990
- Lawyer volunteer, part-time, most years ACT & Region Women’s Legal Centre (1997-2010)
- Lawyer part-time at ACT Legal Aid Commission for the Legal Aid Clinical Program (1996-2010)
- Locums NT Legal Aid Commission, 1995, 1996, 1997 & 2003 as head of the Family Law Section
Grants and resouces
- Collaborative projects involving grants and in-kind contributions - e.g.:
- ANU College of Law / ANU collaboration with KCLS about civil law legal needs in the Kimberley (2016 - current)
- ANU Legal Workshop / ACT Legal Aid collaboration to provide the Legal Aid Clinical Program (now running for over 20 years);
- ANU Legal Workshop / National Association of Community Legal Centres Project to develop Regional, Rural and Remote Practical Legal Training Placements (2009-10);
- Brokering arrangements for ANU legal academics to partner with national women's legal equality seeking groups (1995-2002);
- From 1994 working towards establishing supervised children's access / contact services in Australia
- Pro bono grant writing, 1995-2002 for non-profit Indigenous and non-Indigenous women's legal equality seeking groups, for grants of about $1millon
Research, reviews, reports
- WA Stolen Wages Reparation Scheme, project with Kimberley Community Legal Services, 2012 - continuing
- Redressing the WA Redress Scheme (abuse and neglect of children in State care), project with KCLS 2012 - continuing
- UNDP Vietnam, 2010-11, with Maria Dimopoulos: Developing Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for Domestic Violence Laws in Vietnam.
- Needs assessment (with Cleonie Quayle and Pam Greer) and formative evaluations to strengthen Orana Far West Women's Safe Houses with the five Safe Houses and the NSW Women's Refuge Movement (2005, 2009, 2010);
- Fiji Law Reform Commission: consultant with Maria Dimopoulos and on Review of Fiji's Domestic Violence Laws, including consultations, preparing reports, drafting 5 proposed bills. The recommendations ultimately resulted in the Domestic Violence Decree, 2009
- Service strengthening with Family Violence Prevention Legal Services (FVPLS) for ATSIC including participatory development of the first national Policy Framework for FVPLS with Cat Gander.
- Service strengthening with all mainland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (ATSILS) for ATSIC with Tony Fitzgerald (Darwin) including development of the first national ATSILS Policy Framework (1995) and later numerous subsequent service evaluations in collaboraiton on different projects with Tony Fitzgerald (Darwin), Maria Dimopoulos, Jacki Huggins, Ian Gray, Terry Dreier, Colin Dillon (1996-2003);
- Service reviews and planning North Queensland Women's Legal Service & North Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women's Legal Service (c.2002-2012)
- Participatory development of the Australian Consumer Justice Charter for the Australian Federation of Consumer Organisations (1994) and AFCO, submissions to the Access to Justice Advisory Committee (1994) and the Australian Law Reform Commission Inquiry on Litigation Costs Rules (1995) .
