Bond University has announced the establishment of a new University Research Centre. The University Research Centre for Law, Governance and Public Policy was established as Bond University’s latest University Research Centre on 6 November 2009.

The Centre for Law, Governance and Public Policy will conduct project-based interdisciplinary research to inform public policy and promote law reform, and has expertise in constitutional law, criminal law, public policy and human rights. The Foundation Director is Professor Patrick Keyzer of the Faculty of Law, and the Centre will shortly be welcoming its Co-Patrons, the Hon. Justice Roslyn Atkinson of the Supreme Court of Queensland and the Hon. Michael Kirby AC CMG, former Justice of the High Court of Australia.

Professor Keyzer has written seven books and monographs and edited thirteen collections of law and governance topics. His PhD, Open Constitutional Courts in Australia, critically examines access to constitutional justice in Australia. Patrick has worked as Executive Associate to the Chief Justice of Australia, was previously the Director of Research at the UTS Faculty of Law and Editor of the UTS Law Review. He is a barrister who has represented clients in the High Court of Australia, in the Supreme Courts of New South Wales, the Northern Territory, Queensland and Vanuatu, and who has represented two Australians in test cases in the United Nations Human Rights Committee. Patrick undertakes constitutional advisory work for governments and governmental departments in Australia and in the Pacific region, and has previously completed a LPITAF-funded project to develop and evaluate a free legal advice service for ageing carers of people with intellectual disability. He is presently a chief investigator on an Australian Research Council Discovery Project researching improvements to the management of serious ‘dangerous’ offenders.

Current Centre staff include Patrick Keyzer, Joel Butler, Anne Cullen, John Farrar, Tina Hunter, Amy Kenworthy, Ken Levy, Damien Lockie, Michael Lupton, Geraldine Mackenzie, Jodie O’Leary and several research assistants. The Centre welcomes any scholars from any Faculty who would like to participate in Centre activities to contact the Centre to discuss their interests and ideas.

For further information on the Centre for Law, Governance and Public Policy, email pkeyzer@bond.edu.au.