Launched today, the Sydney Public Law Group brings together nationally and internationally recognised experts with diverse interests and perspectives, to carry forward Sydney Law School's long tradition of intellectual leadership and open inquiry in public law.

Co-directors, Professor Lisa Crawford and Dr Joel Harrison, highlighted the group's mission:

“The Sydney Public Law Group will build on the Law School’s long tradition of scholarly rigour and service to public law practice – providing a vital forum for advancing our research in dialogue with Australian and international scholars, and for deepening engagement with the legal profession, the judiciary, and the wider community.

"We are very grateful to our foundation benefactors — the friends and family of George Winterton and the estate of Alan Neaves — whose generosity has allowed us to launch this new venture.”

The Group's researchers will use doctrinal, historical, theoretical and comparative research methods to shed new light on pressing public law issues, including:

• The nature and operation of constitutions in Australia, and internationally;
• the systems in place to hold public actors to account; and
• important public law topics, like citizenship, migration and regulation.

Their research will include both in-depth analyses of Australian public law, and comparative and international law.

The Sydney Public Law Group will support a range of research projects in these areas, and host conferences, workshops and seminars in dialogue with the legal profession and industry. It will also host esteemed public law scholars from other other institutions - with Professor Jeffrey Pojanowski, a world-leading scholar of legal interpretation and public law, visiting  from Notre Dame University in the US this October. Generous new research stipends will allow the Group to supervise exceptional higher degree by research candidates in public law.

Professor Fleur Johns, Dean and Head of Sydney Law School, expressed her congratulations on the launch:

"The launch of the Sydney Public Law Group marks an exciting new chapter in our School’s long tradition of leadership in public law, reinforcing its reputation as a centre for critical, interdisciplinary, and impactful research. This Group deepens and showcases our capacity to explore foundational questions of constitutional order, identity, accountability and interpretation."