Featured scholars

Renato Costa

Dr Renato Costa is a Lecturer at T.C. Beirne School of Law, the University of Queensland, and serves as the Associate Editor of the University of Queensland Law Journal. He holds a PhD and an LLM from the University of Queensland. Before undertaking his studies at the University of Queensland, he practised as a lawyer in one of Brazil's most prominent law firms. Renato graduated with honours (equivalent) from Universidade Católica de Pernambuco and completed a Postgraduate Specialisation in Public Law at Universidade Anhanguera-Uniderp. 

Renato's main research area is public law, including constitutional, administrative, and comparative law. His research focus is constitutional theory and specific aspects of the Australian constitutional system, including but not limited to the rule of law, federalism, constitutional history, religious freedom and human rights, responsible government, political and legal theology, and jurisprudence. Renato has recently published in the Journal of Legal Philosophy and Revus - The Journal for Philosophy of Law and Constitutional Theory. He has authored a book entitled Public Law: Great Themes. His second book will be launched in January 2025. It will be the first publication in Brazil about the Australian constitutional system—a project supported by a grant from the Australian Embassy in Brazil. Renato is also editing a book with Professor Nicholas Aroney entitled Federalism in a Turbulent Era.

Renato is a member of the Australian Association of Constitutional Law (AACL), the International Society of Public Law (ICON-S), and the UQ Centre of Public, International and Comparative Law (CPICL). He has constantly participated in national and international conferences, presenting papers on comparative constitutional law (such as this recent one on Brazil's constitutional history) and the broader theme of constitutional theory. For an updated list of his publications and seminars, please refer to his Law School or SSRN profiles. You can also watch him teach constitutional law on his YouTube channel.

For a full list of Dr Costa's publications see his UQ Experts profile.

Ann Black

Professor Ann Black, was one of the founding members of CPICL. She is currently CPICL’s Executive Director for Comparative Law and is the Program Manager for the Centre's Indonesian Law Program, the Legal Pluralism Program, and the Korean Law Program and is a member of the Law and Religion in the Asia-Pacific and the Federalism and Multilevel Governance Program.

Professor Black is recognised as a pioneering law lecturer who empowers her students to learn about different legal systems across cultures. In February 2024, Ann’s outstanding contribution was recognised nationally when she received the prestigious Award for Teaching Excellence at the annual Australian Awards for University Teaching.

Her innovative teaching and assessment methods equip her students to be informed global citizens who can evaluate different approaches to law and make sense of law in the world.

Professor Black researches in the field of comparative law, law & religion, and legal pluralism, with particular interest in Islamic law and the law and legal cultures of Asia, especially Brunei Darussalam. She is a co-author, with Gary Bell, of Law and Legal Institutions of Asia: Traditions, adaptations and innovations (Cambridge University Press, 2011) and Modern Perspectives on Islamic Law, with Hossein Esmaeili and Nadirsyah Hosen, (Edward Elgar, 2013), and Religious Freedom in a Secular Society, with Jahid Hussein in Brill’s Studies in Religion, Secular Beliefs and Human Rights (2022). Another book co-edited with Jahid Hussein, Religious Freedom and Accommodating Religious Diversity: Challenges and Responses will be published this year.

For a full list of Professor Black's publications see her Law School profile page.

Rebecca Barber

Rebecca Barber is a PhD candidate with the School of Law and a Senior Research Fellow at the Asia Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, University of Queensland. Her PhD thesis (currently under examination) focused on the legal powers of the UN General Assembly to prevent and respond to atrocity crimes. In 2021 she authored a guidance document for States on that topic. She is currently working on the development of a framework for the implementation of the Responsibility to Protect.

Rebecca’s research encompasses UN Charter law, international peace and security law, international organisations, state responsibility, international human rights and humanitarian law, and the responsibility to protect. Her research has been published in leading international law journals including the International and Comparative Law Quarterly, the International Review of the Red Cross, the Journal of International Peacekeeping, the Journal of Conflict and Security Law and the Journal on the Use of Force in International Law, among others. She also writes frequently for online international law forums including Just Security and EJIL:Talk!. Her blogs for EJIL:Talk! have for the last two years been listed as among the blog’s most widely read. 

Rebecca has received several national and international awards for her research including the International and Comparative Law Quarterly early career prize (2021), an Australian Legal Research Award (2022) and awards for HDR research excellence from the University of Queensland’s Law School (2021) and Faculty of Business, Economics and Law (2022).

Rebecca previously had a career in international humanitarian assistance and advocacy, with assignments in Africa, South and Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

For Rebecca’s publications see her UQ POLSIS page here.

Dr Mark Deng 

CPICL Fellow, Dr Mark Deng, is a researcher in South Sudanese public law. He was awarded a UNSW Comparative Constitutional Law Bursary to advance work on his monograph on constitutional transformations and institutional development in South Sudan. 

Read more about Mark's journey in Contact Magazine's From tree leaves to UQ Law. 

View all CPICL Members