School of Law

Dr Rebecca Ananian-Welsh

Associate Professor
TC Beirne School of Law
+61 7 336 52218
W472 Forgan Smith Building, St Lucia campus. Availability by appointment (Monday only).
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Current project

Press Freedom

 

Researcher biography

Dr Rebecca Ananian-Welsh is a constitutional law scholar and Senior Lecturer at UQ Law with combined expertise in courts, national security and press freedom. She has published widely in these fields, including two edited collections as well as articles in Australia's leading journals. In 2019, Rebecca was awarded the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia's Paul Bourke Award for Early Career Research and a UQ BEL Faculty award, in recognition of her research in national security, press freedom and fair trial rights. Her book 'The Tim Carmody Affair: Australia's Greatest Judicial Crisis' (co-authored with Gabrielle Appleby and Andrew Lynch), was shortlisted for a 2017 Queensland Literary Award and her Sydney Law Review article 'The Inherent Jurisdiction of Courts and the Fair Trial' has been shortlisted for a 2020 Australian Legal Research Award.

Rebecca's current research combines legal and empirical approaches to examine the impact of national security law on press freedom and edits the Press Freedom Policy Papers.

Rebecca writes regularly for The Conversation, has given evidence to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, and has contributed to numerous submissions to government with respect to national security, human rights and constitutional issues. Prior to joining UQ Law, Rebecca held positions with the Laureate Fellowship Project 'Anti-Terror Laws and the Democratic Challenge' and the Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law's Terrorism & Law Project at UNSW and, previously, as a litigation solicitor at DLA Piper, Sydney, and legal officer with the Federal Attorney-General's Department, Canberra.

Featured projects Duration
Judicial independence
The University of Queensland
 2016–2017
A fair go: Achieving fair process in Australian courts
UQ Early Career Researcher Grant
 2017
Journalistic Freedom in Australia
 2019–2021

Publications

Book (1)
Book Chapters (12)
Journal Articles (21)
Conference Papers (8)
Audio Document (1)
Thesis (1)
Newspaper Articles (4)

Book

Ananian-Welsh, Rebecca, Appleby, Gabrielle and Lynch, Andrew (2016). The Tim Carmody affair: Australia's greatest judicial crisis. Sydney, New South Wales: NewSouth.

Book Chapters

Murray, Richard, Ananian-Welsh, Rebecca and Greste, Peter (2021). Journalism on Ice - National Security Laws and The Chilling Effect in Australian Journalism. Counter-Terrorism Laws and Freedom of Expression: Global Perspectives. (pp. 295-317) edited by Workneh, Tewodros and Haridakis, Paul. Lanham, MD United States: Lexington Books.
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
Ananian-Welsh, Rebecca (2019). Crimmigration-counterterrorism in the war on foreign terrorist fighters. Crimmigration in Australia: law, politics and society. (pp. 173-195) edited by Peter Billings. Singapore: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-981-13-9093-7_8
Ananian-Welsh, Rebecca (2019). A fair trial for accused terrorists. The legal protection of rights in Australia. (pp. 313-333) edited by Matthew Groves, Janina Boughey and Dan Meagher. Oxford, United Kingdom: Hart Publishing. doi: 10.5040/9781509919857.ch-016
Ananian-Welsh, Rebecca and McGarrity, Nicola (2018). National security: a hegemonic constitutional value?. Australian constitutional values. (pp. 267-286) edited by Rosalind Dixon. Portland, OR, United States: Hart Publishing.
Ananian-Welsh, Rebecca (2017). If at first you don't succeed...: effectiveness and the evolution of preventive organised crime measures. Regulating preventive justice: principle, policy and paradox. (pp. 177-194) edited by Tamara Tulich, Rebecca Ananian-Welsh, Simon Bronitt and Sarah Murray. New York, NY United States: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781315620978-10
Ananian-Welsh, Rebecca and Williams, George (2016). State judges as lieutenant-governors. Judicial independence in Australia: contemporary challenges, future directions. (pp. 194-207) edited by Rebecca Ananian-Welsh and Jonathan Crowe. Annandale, Australia: Federation Press.
Ananian-Welsh, Rebecca (2016). Judicial independence in an age of terror. Judicial independence in Australia: contemporary challenges, future directions. (pp. 241-254) edited by Rebecca Ananian-Welsh and Jonathan Crowe. Annandale, Australia: Federation Press.
Ananian-Welsh, Rebecca (2016). Introduction. Judicial independence in Australia: contemporary challenges, future directions. (pp. 1-6) edited by Crowe, Jonathan and Ananian-Welsh, Rebecca. New South Wales: Federation Press.
Ananian-Welsh, Rebecca (2015). Secrecy, procedural fairness and state courts. Secrecy, law and society. (pp. 120-135) edited by Greg Martin, Rebecca Scott Bray and Miiko Kumar. Abingdon, United Kingdom: Routledge.
Lynch, Andrew, Tulich, Tamara and Welsh, Rebecca (2013). Secrecy and control orders: the role and vulnerability of constitutional values in Australia and the United Kingdom. Secrecy, national security, and the vindication of constitutional law. (pp. 154-172) edited by David Cole, Federico Fabbrini and Arianna Vedaschi. Cheltenham, United Kingdom: Edward Elgar. doi: 10.4337/9781781953860.00018
Welsh, Rebecca (2013). Anti-terror preventive detention and the independent judiciary. Preventive detention: asking the fundamental questions. (pp. 137-158) edited by Patrick Keyzer. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Intersentia.

Journal Articles

Ananian-Welsh, Rebecca and Kendall, Sarah (2022). Crimes of communication: the implications of Australian espionage law for global media. Communication Law and Policy, 27 (1), 1-27. doi: 10.1080/10811680.2021.2014293
Ananian-Welsh, Rebecca, Cronin, Rose and Greste, Peter (2021). In the public interest: protections and risks in whistleblowing to the media. University of New South Wales Law Journal, 44 (4), 1242-1280. doi: 10.53637/WMZR2175
Ananian-Welsh, Rebecca, Kendall, Sarah and Murray, Richard (2021). Risk and uncertainty in public interest journalism: the impact of espionage law on press freedom. Melbourne University Law Review, 44 (3), 764-811.
Ananian-Welsh, Rebecca and Orange, Joseph (2020). The confidentiality of journalists' sources in police investigations: privacy, privilege and the freedom of political communication. Australian Law Journal, 94, 777-790.
Ananian-Welsh, Rebecca (2020). Smethurst v Commissioner of Police and the Unlawful Seizure of Journalists’ Private Information. Media and Arts Law Review, 24 (1), 60-71.
Ananian-Welsh, Rebecca (2019). The Inherent Jurisdiction of Courts and the Fair Trial. Sydney Law Review, 41 (4), 423-454.
Ananian-Welsh, Rebecca (2019). Journalistic confidentiality in an age of data surveillance. Australian Journalism Review, 41 (2), 225-239. doi: 10.1386/ajr_00008_1
Ananian-Welsh, Rebecca (2019). CATs, courts and the constitution: the place of super-tribunals in the National Judicial System. Melbourne University Law Review, 43 (3), 852-902.
Ananian-Welsh, Rebecca (2016). Extraordinary powers without judicial oversight: a separation of powers dilemma. Public Law Review, 27 (4), 249-254.
Ananian-Welsh, Rebecca (2016). Criminal Due Process and Chapter III of the Australian Constitution by Anthony Gray. Australian Law Journal, 1-1.
Ananian-Welsh, Rebecca and Gover, Kate (2015). Commonwealth v Director, Fair Work Building Industry Inspectorate: The End of Penalty Agreements in Civil Pecuniary Penalty Schemes?. The Sydney Law Review, 37 (3), 417-435.
Ananian-Welsh, Rebecca (2015). Preventative detention orders and the separation of judicial power. University of New South Wales Law Journal, 38 (2), 756-791.
Hoole, Grant and Ananian-Welsh, Rebecca (2015). Judicialization or renunciation? Judges in today's landscape of anti-terror laws. Constitutional Forum, 24 (1), 7-14.
Ananian-Welsh, Rebecca and Williams, George (2015). Judges in vice-regal roles. Federal Law Review, 43 (1), 119-146.
Ananian-Welsh, Rebecca (2015). Kuczborski v Queensland and the Scope of the Kable Doctrine. University of Queensland Law Journal, 34 (1), 47-71.
Ananian-Welsh, Rebecca and Williams, George (2014). The new terrorists: The normalisation and spread of anti-terror laws in Australia. Melbourne University Law Review, 38 (2), 362-408.
Ananian-Welsh, Rebecca and Williams, George (2014). Judicial Independence from the Executive: A First-Principles Review of the Australian Cases. Monash University Law Review, 40 (3), 593-638.
Welsh, Rebecca (2013). Understood but undefined: why do Argentina and Brazil resist criminalising terrorism?. Vienna Journal on International Constitutional Law, 7 (3), 327-348.
Welsh, Rebecca (2012). A path to purposive formalism: interpreting Chapter III for judicial independence and impartiality. Monash University Law Review, 39 (1), 66-105.
Welsh, Rebecca (2011). "Incompatibility" rising? Some potential consequences of Wainohu v New South Wales. Public Law Review, 22 (4), 259-265.
Welsh, Rebecca (2011). A question of integrity: the role of judges in counter-terrorism questioning and detention by ASIO. Public Law Review, 22 (2), 138-152.

Conference Papers

Murray, Richard, Ananian-Welsh, Rebecca and Greste, Peter (2021). Journalism on Ice: National Security Laws and the Chilling Effect in Australian Journalism. International Communication Association Conference: Engaging the Essential Work of Care: Communication, Connectedness, and Social Justice, Denver, CO United States, 27-31 May 2021.
Breitwieser-Faria, Yvonne, Ananian-Welsh, Rebecca and Lelliot, Joseph (2021). Careers in academia. UQ Legal Researchers Panel, Brisbane, QLD Australia, 26 October 2021.
Ananian-Welsh, Rebecca (2019). Decision-Making and the New Human Rights Act: Why, What and How?. Queensland Forensic Psychiatry Meeting, Brisbane, Australia, 7 May 2019.
Ananian-Welsh, Rebecca (2019). The Queensland Human Rights Act. Forensic Mental Health and Human Rights Workshop, Supreme Court Library, Brisbane, 21-22 March 2019.
Ananian-Welsh, Rebecca (2019). Is QCAT (still) a Court? Super-tribunals and Ch III of the Constitution. Current Constitutional Controversies: Occasional Colloquium Series, Queensland Bar Association, Brisbane, 28 March 2019.
Ananian-Welsh, Rebecca (2019). Implied freedom and other constitutional law 'Hot Topics'. 2019 Crown Law Legal Conference, Brisbane, QLD, Australia, 6 June 2019.
Murray, Richard , Ananian-Welsh, Rebecca and Greste, Peter (2019). The law or the lawyers: understanding the of legal counsel and advisors in Australian editorial processes. The Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia: Plurality, Precarity and Possibilities, Sydney, NSW Australia, 3-6 December 2019.
Rebecca Ananian-Welsh (2018). National security and human rights in the courtroom. ICON-S Conference: Identity, Security, Democracy: Challenges for Public Law, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 25-27 June 2018.

Audio Document

Ananian-Welsh, Rebecca (2016). The Tim Carmody Affair: Australia's Greatest Judicial Crisis. Australian Broadcasting Commission.

Thesis

Ananian-Welsh, Rebecca (2014). A Purposive Formalist Interpretation of Chapter III of the Australian Constitution. PhD Thesis, University of New South Wales, University of New South Wales.

Newspaper Articles

Jetten, Jolanda, Birch, Stephen, Gilks, Charles, Ananian-Welsh, Rebecca, Burgh, Gilbert and Thorpe, Karen (2020, 12 15). Preserve and protect: how far should governments go in restricting people’s freedoms in the name of public health? Contact Magazine
Ananian-Welsh, Rebecca (2019, 10 22). Australia needs a media freedom act The Conversation
Ananian-Welsh, Rebecca (2019, 09 01). Explainer: what are the media companies’ challenges to the AFP raids about? The Conversation
Ananian-Welsh, Rebecca (2019, 06 05). Why the raids on Australian media present a clear threat to democracy The Conversation

Areas of research

Centre for Public, International and Comparative Law
Constitutional Law
Courts, Judges and Judicial Independence
Criminal Law and Social Justice
Federalism and Separation of Powers
Freedom of the Press
Human and Civil Rights in Contemporary Society
Legal systems
National Security Law