Constance has completed her Masters of Laws and Bachelor of Laws at the University of Queensland. She was also admitted as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of Queensland in 2012 and continues to work as a licensed practitioner in the areas of criminal law, civil and commercial litigation.
As an academic, Constance has been a research associate and sessional tutor at the University of Queensland, teaching and researching mainly on the topics of Jurisprudence and Constitutional Law.
HDR project title: Calvinist natural law and constitutionalism
Scholarship: Australian Postgraduate Award (APA)
Supervisors: Professor Nicholas Aroney, Professor Jonathan Crowe
Project overview
Constance’s PhD will examine natural law theory from a Reformed perspective with a view to identifying the moral foundations for constitutional law thought. It will begin by highlighting constitutionalism’s need for normative foundations. A detailed review of the new natural law approach to ethics will be undertaken with a view to examining the role it assigns to humans in moral and legal decision-making. This review will reveal that human rationality is allocated a significant role in the determination of moral validity. The reliance on human rationality fails to acknowledge the fallibility of humans. Subsequent chapters will explore the differing conceptions of human fallibility postulated by Thomist and Reformed approaches to natural law. The thesis will then go on to explore and apply the conception of human depravity, particularly as expounded by Augustine, to see what normative foundations it provides for the constitutional ideal of limiting government powers.
Publications:
- Constance Youngwon Lee, ‘Constitutional Silences and the Doctrine of Institutional Integrity’ in Rebecca Ananian-Welsh and Jonathan Crowe (eds) Judicial Independence in Australia (Federation Press, 2016) 124
- Constance Youngwon Lee and Jonathan Crowe, ‘The Deafening Silence of the ‘Comfort Women’: A Response Based on Lyotard and Irigaray’ (2015) 2(2) Asian Journal of Law and Society 339
- Jonathan Crowe and Constance Youngwon Lee, ‘Law as Memory’ (2015) 28(3) Law and Critique 251
- Constance Youngwon Lee ‘Calvinist Natural Law and Constitutionalism’ (2014) 39 Australian Journal of Legal Philosophy 1
- Constance Youngwon Lee, ‘Calvinist Natural Law and the Ultimate Good’ (2014) 5 The Western Australian Jurist 153
- Constance Youngwon Lee and Jonathan Crowe, Review of Wen-Chen Chang, Li-ann Thio, Kevin YL Tan and Juiunn-rong Yeh, Constitutionalism in Asia: Cases and Materials [2014] LAWASIA Journal 125
- Jonathan Crowe and Constance Youngwon Lee, Constitutionalism, power and equality in contemporary Korea [2013] LAWASIA Journal 113