Law School

Lorraine Finlay

PhD candidate
TC Beirne School of Law
Lorraine Finlay

Lorraine has been a law lecturer at Murdoch University since 2010.  She currently lectures in Constitutional Law and International Human Rights Law, and is also the Director of the Moot Program.

Before joining Murdoch University Lorraine worked as a State Prosecutor at the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (WA) and at the High Court of Australia as the Legal Research Officer and then as an Associate to The Hon. Justice J D Heydon.  In 2009 she was selected as a Singapura Scholar with the NYU@NUS program and was awarded a dual LL.M from New York University and the National University of Singapore.

Lorraine’s PhD examines voting rights under the Australian Constitution and the extent to which the universal franchise is constitutionally protected.  In addition to constitutional law, Lorraine’s research interests include criminal law, international criminal law and public international law.

HDR project title: The Universal Franchise: The Protection of Voting Rights under the Australian Constitution

Supervisors: Professor James Allan, Professor Nicholas Aroney

Publications: 

Recent publications include:

  • Lorraine Finlay & Tyrone Kirchengast, Criminal Law in Australia (LexisNexis, 2014).
  • Augusto Zimmermann & Lorraine Finlay, ‘Suri Ratnapala’s Contribution to the Understanding of the Rule of Law’ (2014) 33(2) University of Queensland Law Journal367.
  • Augusto Zimmermann & Lorraine Finlay, ‘A Forgotten Freedom: Protecting Freedom of Speech in an Age of Political Correctness’ (2014) 14 Macquarie Law Journal 185.
  • Lorraine Finlay, ‘The Power of the Purse: An Examination of Fiscal Federalism in Australia’ (2012) 24 Journal of Constitutional History 81.
  • Lorraine Finlay, ‘Indigenous Recognition: Some Issues’ in The Samuel Griffith Society, Upholding the Australian Constitution (Proceedings from the 24th Conference) (2012).

Books   

  • No Offence Intended: Why 18C is Wrong (Connor Court Publishing, 2016) (co-authored with Joshua Forrester & Do Augusto Zimmermann)
  • Criminal Law in Australia (LexisNexis, 2014) (co-authored with Dr Tyrone Kirchengast).

Book chapters

  • “Getting Back to Basics: Law-Making 101” in J. Allan (ed), Making Australia Right: Where to from here? (Connor Court Publishing, 2016).

Journal articles

  • “Addressing Obstacles to Cyber Attribution: A Model Based on State Response to Cyber Attack” (2017) 49 The George Washington International Law Review 535 (co-authored with Dr Christian Payne).
  • “An Opportunity Missed? A Constitutional Analysis of Proposed Reforms to Tasmania’s ‘Hate Speech’ Laws” (2016) 7 The West Australian Jurist 375 (co-authored with Joshua Forrester & Dr Augusto Zimmermann).
  • “Environmentally Sensitive Areas in Western Australia: Highlighting the Limits of the ‘Just Terms’ guarantee” (2016) 41(1) University of Western Australia Law Review 49.
  • “It’s a Small World (After All): The Role of International Bodies in Legislative Scrutiny” (2016) 7 The Western Australian Jurist 65.
  • “The McMullan Principle: Ministerial Advisors & Parliamentary Committees” (2016) 35(1) University of Tasmania Law Review 69.
  • “Protesting the Anti-Protest Laws: Will a Constitutional Challenge Succeed?” (2016) 31(3) Australian Environment Review 67 (co-authored with Professor Nicholas Aroney).