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Academic Staff
STAFF PROFILES
Professors
Professor Robert Hughes. Professor Robert Hughes became the Head of the School and Department of Law at the beginning of 1997. Before that he was the Director of the School of Law at the University of New England, Armidale, Australia. He was admitted as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of New South Wales in 1973. His books include ' Company Law in the South Pacific', 'The Law of Public Unit Trusts', 'Identity, Law and Politics', 'Introduction to Trusts', 'Australian Legal Institutions' and the 'Plant Industries' section for 'Halsbury’s Laws of Australia', 'Trust Law in the South Pacific', and 'Succession Law in the South Pacific'.
Professor Hughes can be contacted at hughes_r@vanuatu.usp.ac.fj
Professor Donald Paterson taught at Victoria University of Wellington and Otago University. In 1979 he was appointed as Professor of Public Administration at USP and later held the positions of Head of the School of Social and Economic Development and Deputy Vice Chancellor. In 1985 Professor Paterson was appointed Professor of Law and Director of the newly created Pacific Law Unit, which offered a vocationally oriented law programme. Professor Paterson’s research interests are in the fields of public law, South Pacific Law and constitutional development. He has edited the Tonga Law Reports for the years 1974-1980, 1981-1989 and 1990, as well as publishing in the area of administrative law.
Professor Paterson can be contacted at paterson_d@vanuatu.usp.ac.fj
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Associate Professor
Associate Professor Peter MacFarlane comes from the Law School, Queensland University of Technology Brisbane. He was admitted as a barrister in 1985. Between 2000 and 2002 he held the position of full time Law Reform Commissioner for Queensland. During this time he also served as Deputy Chair of the Queensland Radiation Advisory Council and as a member of the Health Practitioners Tribunal. Associate Professor MacFarlane was a foundation board member of the Australian Institute for Health, Law and Ethics and has written widely in the area of medico-legal issues. His books in this area include ‘Health Law - Commentary and Materials’ and ‘The Queensland Health Law Handbook’. He has also written for ‘Halsbury’s Laws of Australia’. Apart from this, he has an interest in Contract Law, Tort Law and Legal Ethics. For a time he was on the editorial board of the Torts Law Journal and recently contributed a chapter to an Australian text on Contract Law (Oxford UP). In the area of legal ethics, the second edition of his book (with Yasiah Ross) ‘Lawyers' Responsibility and Accountability’ is due for release early in 2002. He has also published a text (with Simon Fisher) on ‘Churches, Clergy and the Law’.
Peter McFarlane will be contactable after February 2002 on: macfarlane_p@vanuatu.usp.ac.fj
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Senior Lecturers
Mohammed Ahmadu is an Associate of the Royal Institute of Chartered Secretaries, and has practised as a Barrister at Law in Nigeria and Fiji. He has taught at the University of Maiduguri and has worked as a Legal Officer at the Attorney General’s Chambers in Fiji. Mohammed has published in the areas of banking, commercial and corporate laws.
Mohammed Ahmadu can be contacted at ahmadu_m@vanuatu.usp.ac.fj
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Sue Farran took up the position of Senior Lecturer in the Law School in September of 1999. She was previously Principal Lecturer at the University of the West of England in Britain and specialises in the field of comparative law, property, equity and trusts. She has published widely including three books and a number of papers on French law. One of her books concerns the French Legal System. She has been a visitor to the Law School on two prior occasions as a USP Visiting Scholar and Commonwealth Fellow and has an on-going interest in Pacific law.
Sue Farran can be contacted at farran_s@vanuatu.usp.ac.fj
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Law Clinic
Ted Hill was called to the bar in British Columbia in 1981 and subsequently engaged in private practice for over 10 years. During this time, Ted received accreditation as a mediator from the Law Society. In 1992, Ted joined the Law Faculty of the University of Papua New Guinea. In addition to teaching courses in practice, procedure and remedies, Ted also took a leading role in international mooting programmes and initiated a student legal aid programme in Port Moresby. Ted’s research and writing interests include Alternative Dispute Resolution, civil procedure and customary law.
Ted Hill can be contacted at hill_t@vanuatu.usp.ac.fj
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Lecturers
Anita Jowitt comes from New Zealand, and is half Indo-Fijian. She graduated from Otago University with an LLB (Hons) degree and has been admitted to the bar in New Zealand. Her previous job was as a legal advisor at the Ministry of Consumer Affairs. She has also worked at the New Zealand Law Commission, a law reform body. Anita’s research interests include civil liberties, environmental law and dispute resolution systems. She has had articles published in the areas of family law and environmental law.
Anita Jowitt can be contacted at jowitt_a@vanuatu.usp.ac.fj
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Dr. Laurence Cordonnery comes from France. In 1992, she graduated from La Sorbonne with a Diplomes d’Etudes Approfondies (DEA) in International Relations from the Department of Political Sciences. In 1997, she obtained a PhD in Law from the University of Tasmania (Australia). Her doctoral thesis is entitled "The Implementation of the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty". She has published journal articles on protected areas in the Antarctic and on the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR). She has experience in working with non-governmental organisations in the environmental field and was data manager for the International Southern Oceans Longline Fisheries Information Clearing House (ISOFISH) based in Tasmania. Her current research interests include: the development of International Environmental Law, the conservation of marine living resources, marine and terrestrial protected areas designation combining legal methods with the use of information technology such as Geographic Information Systems.
Laurence Cordonnery can be contacted at cordonnery_l@vanuatu.usp.ac.fj
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Yoli Tom'tavala joined the Faculty of Law, University of Papua New Guinea in June, 1990 to June, 1993 and from June, 1994 to July, 1998 as lecturer. In between these appointments, he also worked in a private law firm and also tried hotel management training. His teaching and research interests include Customary Law, Environmental Law, Industrial Law, International Human Rights Law , Law Study Skills and Legal Research Methods, Law of the Sea and Public International Law.
During his tenure at UPNG he served in various administrative capacities including Acting Head of Law Department (1991) and Associate-Dean (Academic). He has also assisted with the formulation of policy documents on fisheries, seabed-mining and marine issues in PNG.
He joined the USP School of Law in mid-September, 1998. He is now engaged in preparing the course curriculum for Customary Law and the Law of the Sea with a view to offering them through the USP School of Law in 1999.
Yoli Tom'tavala can be contacted at tomtavala_y@vanuatu.usp.ac.fj
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Ian Fraser BA, BCL, LLB (McGill), LLM (Dalhousie). Ian began teaching law in Canada, his home country, and came to the School in 1999 after five years at the University of Papua New Guinea. He teaches Torts and Jurisprudence; his interests include legal theory and the roles of law in Melanesia.
Ian Fraser can be contacted at fraser_i@vanuatu.usp.ac.fj
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Myint Zan has a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws degrees from Rangoon University, Burma, a Master of Laws from the University of Michigan, USA and a Master of International Law from the Australian National University.
He is currently a Lecture in the School of Law, University of the South Pacific, Port Vila, Vanuatu. Before teaching at the School of Law he has also taught a variety of law subjects to law and non-law, post-graduate and undergraduate students (in both on-campus and off-campus mode). The subjects that he has taught include international law, administrative law, human rights law, business law, law of international trade, legal studies, law and society, introduction to land law and he has taught them at the Law Faculties of University of Malaya, National University of Malaysia, University of New England, Armidale, and Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia and the School of Social and Economic Development at University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji. He has also given guest lectures at the Indian Academy of International Law and Diplomacy, Malaysian Defence Forces College, Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations, Malaysia and University of Sydney Law School.
He has numerous publications mainly on international, human rights, comparative and Burmese law in academic journals that are published in Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and the United States. He occasionally writes on international law topics for the general audience and his newspaper articles has also been published in newspapers of about 12 countries based in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East and the United States.
Myint Zan can be contacted at zan_m@vanuatu.usp.ac.fj
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Associate Lecturers
Arthur Faerua is a ni-Vanuatu lawyer who joined the Law School in August 2001. In1996 he graduated with an LLB from the University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand. He returned to Vanuatu and commenced employment as a State Counsel with the State Law Office of the Government of Vanuatu. He left the State Law Office as Senior State Counsel in July 2001, after 5 years as a government solicitor. In 1997, he obtained sabbatical leave to complete his Master of Laws programme at the University of Waikato, and graduated with an LLM in 1998. He teaches Criminal Law & Procedure I & II, which is a core course for the law programme and is offered at second year level. He has also assisted in the development of certificate level courses to be offered on extension by the Law School in 2002.
Arthur also coordinates Legal Methods & Procedure which is a first year course offered on extension for students throughout the region.
His main areas of interest are Criminal Law, International Trade Law, Industrial Relations Law and Information Technology Law, including secondary areas of interest such as child rights, access to justice and sports and the law.
Arthur Faerua can be contacted at faerua_a@vanuatu.usp.ac.fj
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Librarian
Peter Murgatroyd graduated from Massey University (NZ) in 1986 with a Bachelors Degree in Social Work and Social Policy. In 1990 Peter graduated with a postgraduate diploma in Librarianship and Information Studies from Victoria University (NZ). Following graduation Peter worked as a research librarian and library manager within the corporate law sector in New Zealand. In 1995 Peter was contracted with Volunteer Services Abroad to manage the University of the South Pacific’s extension centre library in the Solomon Islands. Following a brief return to New Zealand in 1997 Peter could not resist the lure of the Pacific and took up his current position as Law Librarian at Emalus Campus in 1998.
Peter Murgatroyd can be contacted at murgatroyd_p@vanuatu.usp.ac.fj
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Internet Project Manager
Robynne Blake is the Director of the Pacific Islands Legal Information Institute (PacLII), www.paclii.org, and Manager of the University of the South Pacific, School of Law, Internet Project, www.vanuatu.usp.ac.fj. She graduated from Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia in 1985 with a Bachelor of Arts, focussing on Pacific History, and a Bachelor of Laws. She is admitted to practice in NSW, England and Wales and in the Republic of Vanuatu and has practised in each of those countries, largely in the areas of commercial law and music law. Soon after the commencement, in 1998, of the USP School of Law Internet Project Robynne was appointed as Manager of the Project, which now provides to the University's 12 Pacific island nations on-line classrooms for law courses, course materials, Pacific island judgments and statutes, the electronic Journal of South Pacific Law and a wealth of other Pacific law related material. As the Project developed, PacLII was created to house the judgments, statutes and other material. Robynne has been Director of PacLII since its inception and launch as a demonstration site in 2001.
Robynne Blake can be contacted at blake_r@vanuatu.usp.ac.fj
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Robynne Blake, Internet Project Manager, The School of Law, The University of the South Pacific or fax: (678) 27785Last Update: Monday, June 02, 2003 08:20
