Anne is a research scholar with the Centre for Public, International and Comparative Law at T C Beirne School of Law. Her research focuses on law reform particularly in the areas of land tenure and property law, legal pluralism and development. More generally, Anne is interested in interdisciplinary research initiatives and projects that investigate property law and regimes to propose change and develop processes and frameworks that guides policy formulation and informs law reform both nationally and internationally. She tutors legal profession and ethics, business law and property law.
In addition to research and teaching, Anne has experience in private legal practice, particularly in property and commercial law, professional development, governance, policy and law reform. From 2018 to 2020, she worked as a consultant policy advisor in a multidisciplinary team within an international development agency.
Anne has a particular interest in teaching and learning — recently gaining accreditation as a fellow of the Higher Education Academy of the United Kingdom (FHEA). In 2020 and 2016, Anne acted as a panel judge of the Lawasia International Moot Competition. Anne was the recipient of the 2018 Owen Fletcher Postgraduate Research award at The University of Queensland. In 2008, she was the recipient of the Hernando de Soto Fellowship awarded to undertake research and prepare the International Property Rights Index 2009, which involved the analysis of global data relating to property rights to establish the correlation between secure property rights and economic development.
Anne’s doctoral thesis examines and develops a new way to reposition the present understanding of legal pluralism by devising a framework for land tenure reform that combines theory and practical tools. The new framework proposes a comprehensive approach to land tenure reform in pluralistic countries — one that recognises the importance of the interrelationship between customary and formal land relations.
HDR project title: Reconciling customary and formal land tenure: A proposed framework for the process of reform.
Supervisors: Professor Emerita Jennifer Corrin and Professor Rick Bigwood.
Publications
Book Chapters
- Anne C Pickering, ‘The Employment Contract: Implied Terms’ in Louise Floyd (ed), Employment and Industrial Law in Australia (Cambridge University Press, 2017)
Journal Articles
- Anne C Pickering, ‘Customary Land Tenure: A Key Area for Consideration in Development Opportunities and Challenges in Pacific Island Countries’ (2017) (19) Journal of South Pacific
- Anne C Pickering, ‘New and Early Title Registration Jurisdictions - Lessons from Established Torrens Jurisdictions and other Essential Considerations’ (2011) Lawasia Journal, 111–131
Conference papers
- Anne C Pickering, ‘The necessity to consider the complexities inherent within pluralistic legal systems when introducing domestic property law reform: The case of Sri Lanka’, World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty, Washington DC, March 2018
- Anne C Pickering, ‘Customary Land Tenure: A Key Area for Consideration in Development Opportunities and Challenges in Pacific Island Countries’, University of Queensland, Higher Research Degree Colloquium, October 27, 2017
- Anne C Pickering, ‘The case for domestic real estate law reform to accommodate foreign investments in the Asia-Pacific region: Sri Lanka’ presented at the 29th LawAsia Conference, Colombo, Sri Lanka, August 2016
Other
- Anne C Pickering, various chapters and content in Queensland Lawyers’ Companion (Legal Practitioners Admissions Board, 2017, Queensland)
- Anne C Pickering, ‘The Hidden Toll’ (May 2012) PROCTOR magazine, Queensland Law Society