Melbourne Law School

History

MLS was established in 1857, when Richard Clarke Sewell was appointed Reader in Law. This was in response to demand for legal education from those seeking admission to practise as lawyers and the university's need to increase student numbers. The first students studied for a certificate that, with practical training, qualified them for admission to legal practice. In 1860 they were given the additional option of studying for a degree.

MLS was expanded and reorganised in 1873, becoming the Faculty of Law. The school continued to grow throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, and underwent a major transformation with the appointment of Sir Zelman Cowen as Dean in 1951. Sir Zelman shaped MLS after the United States model, rather than the British model that is common in Australia. Sir Zelman reformed teaching, research and academic recruitment. Under his stewardship, full-time academics came to dominate teaching, instead of part-time practitioners. Many prominent international academics were invited to study at the School, and many Australians were given the opportunity to study abroad.

In 2007 MLS accepted its last cohort of LLB students. From 2008 the only degree offered by MLS qualifying for legal practice is the graduate-entry JD. This change to an entirely graduate law school is consistent with University-wide changes occurring under Vice-Chancellor Glyn Davis's Melbourne Model, although MLS does offer some subjects to the University's undergraduate students (known as 'breadth' subjects).

Admissions

MLS enrols approximately 360 students each year in the J.D. program. Applications are assessed on two criteria: academic results in all previous tertiary study and LSAT score. Formerly, a personal statement by the applicant was also considered.

Research centres

MLS is host to a number of research centres and institutes, specialising in a wide variety of legal fields:

Mooting

Mooting is mandated as assessment at MLS for some core J.D. subjects, such as constitutional law, and is widely pursued by the student body in both internal and external moot court competitions. MLS's internal moot court competition takes place in MLS's purpose-built moot court. It is organised and run each year by the Melbourne University Law Students' Society, and is currently sponsored by King & Wood Mallesons. MLS students have achieved success in multiple international moot court competitions. Teams from MLS have won the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition and the ELSA Moot Court Competition three times, and in 2012 a team from MLS won the IASLA Space Law Moot Court Competition. An MLS team also won the inaugural Victorian Championship Moot in 2013.

External programs

MLS offers subjects taught in New York City, Washington, D.C. and Geneva, and has partner programs with many of the world's leading law schools, including University of Virginia School of Law, Georgetown University Law Center, University of Toronto Faculty of Law, and the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law. MLS is a founding member of the Center for Transnational Legal Studies in London, and contributes both staff and students to the Center every year. Additionally, MLS has dual degree arrangements with the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, New York University School of Law and the Chinese University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law.

Publications

MLS students are involved in preparing and publishing the Melbourne University Law Review and the Melbourne Journal of International Law. These two journals jointly publish the Australian Guide to Legal Citation, the most widely followed authority for legal citation formats in Australia. MLS students also produce a newspaper, De Minimis, and a magazine, "Purely Dicta".

Additional journals published by MLS include the Australian Journal of Asian Law (in conjunction with the Australian National University and the University of Washington), Australian Journal of Labour Law, and Media and Arts Law Review.

Student organisations

Two main student organisations are associated with MLS. The first is the Melbourne University Law Students' Society, which represents all law students at the University of Melbourne. The second is the Global Law Students Association, which focuses on international legal issues, careers and provides additional support for international students at MLS.

In addition, the Postgraduate Law Student Association provides support to LL.M students. The Melbourne Chinese Law Society is also based at MLS, and facilitates the comparative study of Chinese and Australian law, as well as providing Mandarin language training to MLS students.

Deans

Below is a list of the deans of MLS from 1873 to the present:

Faculty

Notable academics at MLS include:

Notable alumni

Alfred Deakin, the 2nd Prime Minister of Australia, Sir Robert Menzies, the 12th Prime Minister of Australia, Harold Holt, the 17th Prime Minister of Australia, and Julia Gillard, the 27th Prime Minister of Australia, all graduated from MLS. Three Governors-General and at least 13 Attorneys-General have also graduated from MLS, including Gareth Evans, Nicola Roxon and Mark Dreyfus.

Foreign politicians who attended MLS include Neri Javier Colmenares, a Member of the House of Representatives of the Philippines, Adnan Buyung Nasution, Member of the Presidential Advisory Council of the Republic of Indonesia and Dame Meg Taylor, former Ambassador of Papua New Guinea to the United States and current Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat

Four MLS graduates have served as Chief Justice of Australia. This number includes Sir Owen Dixon, one of Australia's most eminent jurists, and Sir Isaac Isaacs, the first Jewish Chief Justice. Geoffrey Nettle, a current Justice of the High Court of Australia, graduated from MLS. In addition, two MLS graduates have served on the International Court of Justice: Hsu Mo and Hilary Charlesworth.

Francis Gurry, the Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization, Gillian Triggs, the President of the Australian Human Rights Commission, and Samuel Pisar, the UNESCO Special Envoy for Holocaust Education all graduated from MLS.

MLS graduates in the business world include James P. Gorman, Chairman and CEO of Morgan Stanley.

Legal academics who graduated from MLS include Sir David Derham, the founding Dean of Monash Law School, Greg Craven, the Vice-Chancellor of the Australian Catholic University, and Sir John Monash, a Vice-Chancellor of the University of Melbourne and decorated World War I general.