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Hilary Charlesworth
Professor Hilary Charlesworth
Qualifications
BA (Hons), LlB (Hons) (Melb), SJD (Harvard)

Hilary Charlesworth was educated at the University of Melbourne and Harvard Law School. She was Professor and Director of the Centre for International Governance and Justice at the School of Regulation and Governance (RegNet) at the Australian National University and is now Honorary Professor at RegNet. She held an ARC Federation Fellowship from 2005-2010 and an ARC Laureate Fellowship from 2010-2015.
Hilary currently holds an appointment as Harrison Moore Professor and Melbourne Laureate Professor at the University of Melbourne Law School. She has held visiting appointments at United States and European universities.
She was President of the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law (1997-2001). She is on the editorial boards of a number of international law journals and served as Co-Editor of the Australian Yearbook of International Law from 1996-2006 and a member of the Board of Editors of the American Journal of International Law 1999-2009. She was joint winner of the American Society of International Law’s 2006 Goler T Butcher Medal in recognition of ‘outstanding contributions to the development or effective realization of international human rights law’. She was elected to the Institut de Droit International in 2011. In 2016 Hilary was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium.
Hilary has worked with various non-governmental human rights organisations on ways to implement international human rights standards and was chair of the Australian Capital Territory government’s inquiry into an ACT bill of rights, which led to the adoption of the ACT Human Rights Act 2004.
She has served as a Judge of the International Court of Justice since late 2021.
Research interests:
Theory and practice of international law; law and society; feminist legal theory; human rights law at international, national and local levels; peacebuilding; and justice and democracy after conflict

Professor Hilary Charlesworth receives the highest accolade at ANU
The 2022 Vice-Chancellor’s and Chancellor’s Annual Awards were held on 30 November highlighting the outstanding contribution and commitment of professional and academic staff at

Hilary Charlesworth: first Australian woman elected to International Court of Justice
Distinguished Professor Hilary Charlesworth has made history becoming the first Australian woman ever elected to the UN International Court of Justice on 6 November 2022.

Law scholar first Australian woman elected to the ICJ
Long-time human rights scholar and international law expert, ANU Distinguished Professor Hilary Charlesworth, has been elected to the United Nations’ International Court o

Hilary Charlesworth nominated for election as Judge to the International Court of Justice
The independent Australian National Group has nominated Hilary Charlesworth for election as a Judge of the International Court of Justice for election as a Judge of the International Court of Justi

Three RegNet alumnae recognised by the International Studies Association
The contributions of three RegNet alumnae have been recognised by the International Studies Association (ISA) with awards for bravery in pursuing pioneering scholarship; p

RegNet’s Hilary Charlesworth joins other ARC Laureates in open letter to Australian Government on deep cuts to greenhouse gas emissions.
Eighty one Australian Research Council Laureates, including ANU RegNet’s Hilary Charlesworth

Pushing to add human rights
When the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) government was considering creating its own bill of rights, it chose

Designing, evaluating and improving Australia’s first bill of rights
RegNet and other ANU researchers were at the heart of the development and implementation of a significant legislative innovation for Australia: the adoption of Australia’s first bill of rights - the ACT’s Human Rights Act 2004.

Australia elected to UN Human Rights Council
Australia was elected to the UN Human Rights Council on 17 October 2017.

How can regulatory theory strengthen international human rights law?
In this eighteen minute speech, Hilary Charlesworth explores the successes and failures of attempts to regulate human rights at an international level.

7th Annual Human Rights Tertiary Teachers Workshop 2017
7th annual Human Rights Tertiary Teachers Workshop to be held at Monash University

Strengthening the rule of law through the UN Security Council - proposal launch
Strengthening the rule of law through the UN Security Council proposals were launched earlier this week.

Law and emancipation
Hilary Charlesworth’s speech on law and emancipation from her honorary doctorate conferral ceremony.

Hilary Charlesworth interviewed about the Chilcot report, a 'just' war and Tony Blair on ABC news
Hilary Charlesworth interviewed by Andrew West on ABC RN Religion and Ethics Report

Hilary Charlesworth awarded honorary degree
Doctorate Honoris Causa from Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium.

New publication - rule of law and the UN Security Council
New publication by Jeremy Farrall and Hilary Charlesworth on rule of law and the UN Security Council.

United Nations Security Council and the rule of law
Dr. Jeremy Farrall and Prof. Hilary Charlesworth traveled to New York this month to launch a set of policy recommendations to strengthen the rule of law through UNSC’s practice.

Dr. Jeremy Farrall and Prof. Hilary Charlesworth launch policy proposals for strengthening the rule of law through the UN Security Council
On Friday 11 March Dr. Jeremy Farrall and Prof. Hilary Charlesworth launched the Policy Proposals on Strengthening the Rule of Law through the UN Security Council.

Anthea Roberts and Hilary Charlesworth at Sydney Centre for International Law
Associate Professor Anthea Roberts and Professor Hilary Charlesworth took part in the Sydney Centre for International Law’s annual conference, ‘International Law 2015 -The Year in Review’, on Frida
Pages
Current

The peacebuilding compared project
What are the kinds of interventions that create wars and make things worse for people? How can peacebuilding contribute to justice and development?
Completed

ACT economic, social and cultural rights project
The ACT Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ACT ESCR) research project assessed whether the ACT Human Rights Act 2004 should be amended to include economic, social and cultural rights.

Australia's first Bill of Rights
The aim of the ACT Human Rights Act research project was to document the impact of Australia's first Bill of Rights – the ACT Human Rights Act 2004 – over its first five years of operation.

Building democracy and justice after conflict
Through national and international collaboration, Building democracy and justice after conflict sought to develop not only innovative theoretical models to ground international norms about governance

Strengthening the international human rights system: Rights, regulation and ritualism
This project focuses on a problem endemic to the international human rights system: why are international human rights standards widely accepted in theory but so hard to implement in practice?

Strengthening the rule of law through the United Nations Security Council
This project will explore the potential of the rule of law to guide and support UNSC decision-making and practice across the areas of peacebuilding, sanctions and the use of force.

Author(s): Benjamin Authers, Hilary Charlesworth, Emma Larking, Marie-Benedicte Dembour
Date of publications: 2018
Publication type: Book chapter

Author(s): Authers, Benjamin, Baird, Natalie, Billaud, Julie, Bulto, Takele, Charlesworth, Hilary, Chauville, Roland, Collister, Heather, Cowan, Jane K, Joseph, Sarah, Kälin, Walter , Larking, Emma, Lynch, Phil, Schokman, Ben , De La Vega, Constance, Yamasaki, Cassandra, Wahyuningrum, Yuyun
Date of publications: 2015
Publication type: Book

Author(s): Charlesworth, Hilary, Larking, Emma
Date of publications: 2015
Publication type: Book chapter

Author(s): Authers, Benjamin, Charlesworth, Hilary
Date of publications: 2013
Publication type: Book chapter

Author(s): Charlesworth, Hilary
Date of publications: 2013
Publication type: Book Review

Author(s): Charlesworth, Hilary, & Chinkin, Christine
Date of publications: 2013
Publication type: Book chapter

Author(s): Charlesworth, Hilary
Date of publications: 2013
Publication type: Book chapter

Author(s): Charlesworth, Hilary
Date of publications: 2013
Publication type: Book chapter

Author(s): Charlesworth, Hilary , Durbach, Andrea
Date of publications: 2012
Publication type: Journal article

Author(s): Charlesworth, Hilary
Date of publications: 2012
Publication type: Newsletter

Author(s): Charlesworth, Hilary
Date of publications: 2011
Publication type: Book chapter

Author(s): Charlesworth, Hilary
Date of publications: 2011
Publication type: Journal article

Author(s): Charlesworth, Hilary
Date of publications: 2011
Publication type: Book chapter

Author(s): Charlesworth, Hilary (ed), Coicaud, Jean-Marc (ed)
Date of publications: 2010
Publication type: Book

Author(s): Charlesworth, Hilary
Date of publications: 2010
Publication type: Book chapter

Author(s): Charlesworth, Hilary
Date of publications: 2010
Publication type: Book chapter

Author(s): Charlesworth, Hilary
Date of publications: 2010
Publication type: Book chapter

Author(s): Charlesworth, Hilary, Harris-Rimmer, Susan
Date of publications: 2010
Publication type: Journal article

Author(s): Young, Katharine
Date of publications: 2010
Publication type: Journal article

Author(s): Byrnes, Andrew, Charlesworth, Hilary, Mckinnon, Gabrielle
Date of publications: 2009
Publication type: Book