Professor Peter Billings
Professor
TC Beirne School of Law
Affiliate of Centre for Public, International and Comparative Law & Affiliate of Centre for Public, International and Comparative Law
Centre for Public, International and Comparative Law
+61 7 336 57176
W410 Forgan Smith Building, St Lucia campus. Availability by appointment.
Researcher biography
Dr Peter Billings is a Professor at the School of Law, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. His research interests are in particular areas of public law: administrative law, immigration and refugee law, social welfare law and human rights law. In 2016 he received an Australian Award for University Teaching - Award for Programs that Enhance Learning (Pro Bono Centre). Since 2010 he has received five teaching excellence awards within the School of Law for outstanding course/teacher evaluations, and in 2011 was awarded the Vice Chancellor's Equity and Diversity Award (UQ) for the Asylum and Refugee Law Project.
Recently, he has published several papers on 'crImmigration' law, policy and practice in Australia, including a chapter, "International crimes, refugee 'prisoner' swaps and duplicity in Australia's refugee admissions", in J Simeon (ed) Serious International Crimes, Human Rights and Forced Migration (Routledge, 2022). And he authored chapter one in his own edited collection, Regulating Refugee Protection through Social Welfare: Law, Policy and Praxis (Routledge, 2023). Most recently, he has authored a chapter on the corrosive effect of immigration detention laws on officialdom, in M Peterie, Immigration Detention and Social Harm: The Collateral Impacts of Migrant Incarceration (Routledge) forthcoming.
Publications
Books
Jones, Nicky and Billings, Peter (2023). An annotated guide to the Human Rights Act 2019 (Qld). Chatswood, NSW Australia: LexisNexis.
Cassimatis, Anthony E. and Billings, Peter (2016). Thomson Reuters Guide to Mooting. Pyrmont, NSW, Australia: Thomson Lawbook Co.
Book Chapters
Billings, Peter (2024). Immunised and Indifferent to Indefinite Incarceration. Immigration Detention and Social Harm. (pp. 175-195) New York: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003370727-13
Billings, Peter (2023). Introduction. Regulating refugee protection through social welfare: law, policy and praxis. (pp. 1-9) edited by Peter Billings. London, United Kingdom: Routledge.
Billings, Peter (2023). Regulating refugees through welfare: Australia's hostile response to unauthorised maritime arrivals. Regulating refugee protection through social welfare: law, policy and praxis. (pp. 20-46) edited by Peter Billings. Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003298595-4
Billings, Peter (2022). International crimes, refugee 'prisoner' swaps and duplicity in Australia's refugee admissions. Serious International Crimes, Human Rights and Forced Migration. (pp. 179-201) edited by James C. Simeon. Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003094388-11
Bedford, Narelle and Billings, Peter (2021). Tickner v Chapman (1995) 57 FCR 451. Indigenous legal judgments: bringing indigenous voices into judicial decision making. (pp. 73-91) edited by Nicole Watson and Heather Douglas. Abingdon, Oxon United Kingdom: Routledge.
Billings, Peter and Ananian-Welsh, Rebecca (2020). Counter-terrorism and the exclusion of refugees and refugee-citizens from Australia. Terrorism and asylum. (pp. 175-214) edited by James C. Simeon. Leiden, the Netherlands: Brill Nijhoff. doi: 10.1163/9789004295995_008
Billings, Peter (2020). Governing felonious foreigners through crimmigration controls in Australia: administering additional punishments?. Causes and consequences of migrant criminalization. (pp. 43-68) edited by Neža Kogovšek Šalamon. Cham, Switzerland: Springer . doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-43732-9_3
Billings, Peter (2019). Introduction. Crimmigration in Australia: law, politics and society. (pp. 3-18) Singapore, Singapore: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-981-13-9093-7_1
Billings, Peter and Hoang, Khanh (2019). Characters of concern, or concerning character tests?: regulating risk through visa cancellation, containment and removal from Australia. Crimmigration in Australia: law, politics and society. (pp. 119-148) edited by Peter Billings. Singapore, Singapore: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-981-13-9093-7_6
Billings, Peter and Stevens, Dallal (2017). Protection seekers and preventive justice: immigration detention in Australia and the United Kingdom. Regulating preventive justice: principle, policy and paradox. (pp. 95-116) edited by Tamara Tullich, Rebecca Ananian-Welsh, Simon Bronitt and Sarah Murray. New York, United States: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781315620978
Billings, Peter and Cassimatis, Anthony (2014). Australia's codification of judicial review: has the legislative effort been worth it?. Modern administrative law in Australia: concepts and context. (pp. 180-204) edited by Matthew Groves. Port Melbourne, VIC, Australia: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/CBO9781107445734.011
Billings, Peter and Cassimatis, Anthony (2013). Irregular migration, refugee protection and the 'Malaysian Solution'. Protection of refugees and displaced persons in the Asia Pacific Region. (pp. 135-169) edited by Angus Francis and Rowena Maguire. Farnham, United Kingdom: Ashgate Publishing. doi: 10.4324/9781315602691-12
Peter Billings and Rachel Trost (1998). The Designation of "Safe" Countries and the Individual Assessment of Asylum Claims. Current Issues in UK Asylum Law and Policy. (pp. 73-99) United Kingdom: Ashgate Publishing.
Journal Articles
Bell‐James, Justine, Foster, Rose, Frohlich, Miguel, Archibald, Carla, Benham, Claudia, Evans, Megan, Fidelman, Pedro, Morrison, Tiffany, Rolim Baggio, Liza, Billings, Peter and Shumway, Nicole (2024). Not all conservation “policy” is created equally: When does a policy give rise to legally binding obligations?. Conservation Letters. doi: 10.1111/conl.13054
Billings, Peter (2019). Getting rid of risky foreigners: promoting community protection at the expense of administrative justice?. Federal Law Review, 47 (2), 231-260. doi: 10.1177/0067205X19831818
Billings, Peter (2019). Regulating crimmigrants through the 'character test': exploring the consequences of mandatory visa cancellation for the fundamental rights of non-citizens in Australia. Crime, Law and Social Change, 71 (1), 1-23. doi: 10.1007/s10611-018-9786-7
Billings, Peter (2018). Refugee protection and state security in Australia: piecing together protective regimes. Australian Journal of Administrative Law, 24 (4), 222-233.
Billings, Peter (2017). Evaluating the pedagogic value of mooting and nooting at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. Monash University Law Review, 43 (3), 687-722.
Harpur, Paul David, Verreynne, Martie Louise, Bronitt, Simon, Pachana, Nancy, Billings, Peter and Ritchie, Brent (2016). Disability assistance animals or not? Problems in policy and practice workshop. SSRN Electronic Journal doi: 10.2139/ssrn.2856824
Billings, Peter (2016). Operation sovereign borders and interdiction at sea: CPCF v minister for immigration and border protection. Australian Journal of Administrative Law, 23 (2), 76-101.
Billings, Peter (2015). Whither indefinite immigration detention: re-thinking legal constraints on the detention of non-citizens. University of New South Wales Law Journal, 38 (4), 1386-1420.
Billings, Peter (2013). Irregular maritime migration and the Pacific Solution Mark II: back to the future for refugee law and policy in Australia?. International Journal on Minority and Group Rights, 20 (2), 279-305. doi: 10.1163/15718115-02002007
Cassimatis, Anthony E. and Billings, Peter (2013). Statutory judicial review in Australia: a comparative analysis of the Australian Capital Territory, Queensland and Tasmanian schemes. Journal of Judicial Administration, 23 (2), 73-129.
Billings, Peter and Cassimatis, Anthony E. (2013). Twenty-one years of the Judicial Review Act 1991: enhancing access to justice and promoting legal accountability?. University of Queensland Law Journal, 32 (1), 65-101.
Billings, Peter (2011). Conditioning social welfare payments: securing liberty for vulnerable children and adults?. Indigenous Law Bulletin, 7 (22), 13-17.
Billings, Peter (2011). Income management in Australia: Protecting the vulnerable and promoting human capital through welfare conditionality. Journal of Social Security Law, 18 (4), 167-191.
Billings, Peter (2011). Juridical exceptionalism in Australia: Law, nostalgia and the exclusion of others. Griffith Law Review, 20 (2), 271-309. doi: 10.1080/10383441.2011.10854699
Billings, Peter (2010). Social welfare experiments in Australia: More trials for Aboriginal families?. Journal of Social Security Law, 17 (3), 164-197.
Billings, Peter (2010). The Family Responsibilities Commission: facilitating socially responsible standards of care in Cape York?. Indigenous Law Bulletin, 7 (16), 3-7.
Billings, Peter (2010). Mind the gap: Public power, accountability and the Northern Territory emergency response. Australian Journal of Administrative Law, 17 (3), 132-158.
Billings, Peter (2009). School enrolment and attendance measures: more trials for Aboriginal families. Indigenous Law Bulletin, 7 (14), 3-6.
Billings, Peter and Cassimatis, Anthony E. (2009). Re-designing the Northern Territory emergency response - Social welfare reform and non-discrimination. Law in Context, 27 (2), 58-89.
Billings, Peter (2009). Still paying the price for benign intentions? Contextualising contemporary interventions in the lives of Aboriginal peoples. Melbourne University Law Review, 33 (1), 1-38.
Billings, Peter (2008). 'Complementary protection in international refugee law', by Jane McAdam. Legal Studies, 28 (1), 143-148. doi: 10.1111/j.1748-121x.2007.00082_2.x
Billings, Peter W. (2007). The treatment of asylum seekers in the UK. The Journal of Social Welfare & Family Law, 29 (1), 49-65. doi: 10.1080/09649060701423198
Billings, P. and Edwards, R. (2006). R.(Adam, Limbuela and Tesema) v. Secretary of State for the Home Department - A Case of 'Mountainish Inhumanity'. Journal of Social Security Law, 13 (3), 167-178.
Billings, Peter (2006). Balancing acts : Six acts in search of equilibrium. Journal of Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Law, 20 (3), 197-209.
Billings, Peter and Edwards, R. (2004). Safeguarding asylum seekers' dignity: Clarifying the interface between Convention rights and asylum law. Journal of Social Security Law, 11 (2), 83-111.
Billings, Peter (2003). Refugees, the Rule of Law and Executive Power: A(nother) Case of the Conjuror's Rabbit?. Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly, 54 (4), 412-429.
Billings, Peter (2002). Alienating asylum seekers: Welfare support in the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. Journal of Social Security Law, 9 (3), 115-144.
Billings, Peter and Pontin, Ben (2001). Prerogative Powers and the Human Rights Act: Elevating the Status of Orders in Council. Public Law, 2001, 21-27.
Billings, Peter (2000). A Comparative Analysis of Administrative and Adjudicative Systems for Determining Asylum Claims. Administrative Law Review, 52 (1), 254-303.
Peter Billings (1999). R v Chief Adjudication Officer, Ex Parte B. Journal of Social Security Law, 6 (3), 137-144.
Peter Billings (1998). The Influence of Human Rights Law on the Procedural Formalities of the Asylum Determination Process. International Journal of Human Rights, 2 (1), 32-61.
Billings, Peter W. (1996). Why the English Legal System Fails to Adequately Protect Victims of Obsessions. Journal of Civil Liberties, 1 (3), 183-215.
Conference Papers
Billings, Peter (2020). Softer sentences for CrImmigrants? Examining whether and how prospective deportation can mitigate a sentence. National Judicial College of Australia - 2020 Sentencing Conference, Canberra, ACT, Australia, 29 February-1 March 2020.
Billings, Peter (2019). Characters of concern or concerning character tests?. Immigration Law Seminar - Law Council of Australia, Brisbane, QLD Australia, 18 September 2019.
Billings, Peter (2018). Exploring the consequences of visa cancellations on the rights of non-citizens. Crimmigration in Australia: Law Politics and Society, Faculty of Law, University of Queensland, 19 July 2018.
Billings, Peter (2018). Going soft on crimmigrants? Examining the relevance of prospective deportation as sentencing considerations in Australia. CINETS IV: Mobility and Security in an Era of Globalization: Crimmigration at a Crossroads?, London, United Kingdom, 5-6 October 2018.
Billings, Peter (2018). Operation sovereign borders - the Australian experience of maritime border policing. Interdisciplinary Conference on Migration: Vulnerability, Protection, and Agency, Faculty of Law, University of Oslo, 24-25 May 2018.
Billings, Peter (2018). Regulating crimmigrants through the 'character test' - a case of double punishment?. Understanding the causes and consequences of the criminalisation of migration, The Peace Institute/Institute of Criminology in the Faculty of Law, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 17-18 May 2018.
Billings, Peter (2017). The Tradition and Trajectory of Procedural Fairness. Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal - Members' Training, Brisbane, 3 February 2017.
Billings, Peter (2016). 'Stopping the Boats': Australia's punitive responses to irregular maritime migration. Rethinking Forced Migration and Displacement: Theory, Policy and Praxis: International Association for the Study of Forced Migration, Poland, 12-15 July 2016.
Billings, Peter (2016). Operation Sovereign Borders: maritime interdiction, deflection and detention at sea. The Future of Refugee Law: 1st Annual Conference, Refugee Law Initiative, London, United Kingdom, 29 June - 1 July 2016.
Billings, Peter (2015). Evaluating the Effectiveness of Income Management: Administrative Injustice?. Examining Income Management Programs in Australia (Academy of the Social Sciences Australia), Melbourne, Australia, 16-17 July 2015.
Billings, Peter (2015). Evaluating Income Management in Australia: Inequality Before the Law?. Examining Income Management Programs in Australia (Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia), Melbourne, Australia, 16-17 July 2015.
Billings, Peter (2009). Reforming Social Welfare In Australia: More Trials for Aboriginal People?. Australian Institute for Administrative Law (Qld Chapter), Commonwealth Ombudsman's Office, Brisbane, August 19 2009.
Billings, Peter (2006). The Migration Amendment (Designated Unauthorised Arrivals) Bill 2006: Asylum Protection Beyond Australia?. TC Beirne School of Law, The University of Queensland, Research Seminar Series, Brisbane, Australia, 1 September 2006.
Generic Document
Billings, Peter and Vogl, Anthea (2023). Indefinite detention and the HCA ruling: an end to indefinite immigration detention in Australia?. Oxford University, Faculty of Law Blogs.
Working Paper
Ananian-Walsh, Rebecca, Billings, Peter, Cassimatis Am, Anthony, Larkin, Dani and Lino, Dylan (2023). Submission on the Constitutional Alteration (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice) 2023 . Submission Number 77. Joint Select Committee on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice Referendum .
Creative Work
Billings, Peter (2021). Counterterrorism rhetoric, the deterrence paradigm, and the end of asylum: an antipodean viewpoint. Berlin, Germany: Verfassungsblog.
Seminar Papers
Billings, Peter (2022). How Djokovic's detention-deportation shines a light on the mistreatment of refugees in Australia. International Lecture Series. McLaughlin College, York University, Toronto.
Billings, Peter (2015). Refugee Protection in Australia: An Oxymoron?. Free Evening Seminars. Indooroopilly Uniting Church.
Billings, Peter, Nick Gaskell and Michael White QC (2015). Maritime Powers Act and Refugees: Where Next?. Maritime and Shipping Law Unit (MASLU) Twilight Seminar Series.. TC Beirne School of Law, UQ.
Billings, Peter and Shelley Bielefield (2014). Structural Violence, Colonialism and Income Management. 13th Australian Institute of Family Studies Conference (Symposium on Income Management). Melbourne.
Research Reports
Billings, Peter (2019). The future of law reform: simplification of the Migration Act 1958 - submission to the Australian Law Reform Commission. Canberra, ACT, Australia: Commonwealth of Australia.
Billings, Peter and Cassimatis, Anthony E. (2011). Reform of judicial review in New South Wales: written submission discussion paper. Sydney, NSW, Australia: NSW Department of Justice and Attorney General.
Billings, Peter and Cassimatis, Anthony E. (2011). Judicial review in Australia: submission to the Administrative Review Council. Canberra, ACT, Australia: Administrative Review Council.
Newspaper Articles
Billings, Peter and Lelliott, Joseph (2019, 09 06). Minister's 'God-like' powers can be put to better use in Biloela Tamil family's case The Guardian
Knaus, Christopher and Billings, Peter (2019, 05 30). Refugee swap Rwandans: how did they pass Australia's character test? The guardian: Australia
Billings, Peter (2011, 04 12). Indigenous programs: protecting the vulnerable and promoting well-being? The Conversation 1-1.