SCU law professors flying high

One Southern Cross University (SCU) professor who specialises in comparative criminal law is about to take up a prestigious visiting professorship in Singapore, while another who specialises in laws governing higher education has just returned from two months’ study leave in Europe and the United States.

Professor Stanley Yeo is leaving Australia two days before Christmas to take up a six-month position as a Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Law at the National University of Singapore, teaching a comparison of criminal laws of various countries.

Professor Yeo has been appointed to the prestigious David Marshall Professorship in Law, named after the late David Marshall, one of Singapore's most outstanding criminal lawyers, politicians and diplomats. Other scholars appointed to the professorship have come from Oxford, Monash and Nottingham universities.

“Increasing globalisation, spurred on recently by concerns over national security, has caused many societies to have shared views about criminal law and criminal justice issues,” Professor Yeo said. “I look forward to learning about some of these issues in Singapore and comparing them with equivalent developments in Australia.”

Professor Yeo has been teaching and carrying out research on criminal law and criminal justice issues for more than 20 years. In particular, he has developed an expertise in comparative criminal law concentrating on the laws of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and India, as well as Singapore and Malaysia.

Professor Yeo, one of the first two professors of law at Southern Cross University in 1993, was awarded a postdoctoral Doctor of Laws degree by the University of Sydney earlier this year, in recognition of his sustained, high-quality research work. He has also been twice nominated for best Australian lecturer in legal studies, an annual competition sponsored by the Australian Government.

Meanwhile Professor Jim Jackson, who lectures in commercial and corporations law at SCU, has just returned from two months' study leave in Europe and the US. He is one of the few academics in Australia writing in the field of education law, which is the law governing the operation of modern universities.

Professor Jackson, who was the foundation Dean of Law at SCU, presented a paper on Disability Law and Education at a conference in Manchester, and made contact with major higher education law experts in Belgium, Holland and the US.

“The Australian higher education system is very interesting to people overseas: countries looking at student fee models are interested in Australia's HECS system, but they are also interested in governance issues, and the success of Australian universities in attracting overseas students,” he said.

Professor Jackson completed his PhD in 2002 on academic freedom, which led him into the area of higher education law. Professor Jackson has been invited to give a paper at the World Education Law Conference in Amsterdam later next year.

Contact: SCU media unit Sara Crowe Ph: 6620 3144 or Brigid Veale Ph: 6659 3006, M: 0439 680 748.