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Professor Heather Douglas

Deputy Dean (Research)

School of Law
Faculty of Business, Economics and Law

Affiliate Professor Level E

UQ Poche Centre for Indigenous Health
Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences
h.douglas@law.uq.edu.au
+61 7 336 56605

Overview

Professor Heather Douglas researches in the areas of criminal justice and domestic violence. Heather has published widely on criminal justice issues and around legal responses to domestic violence and child protection. In 2014- 2019 she was awarded an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship to research the way in which women who have experienced domestic violence use the legal system to help them leave violence. She was the lead researcher and project co-ordinator with the Australasian Institute of Judicial Administration on the development of the National Domestic and Family Violence Bench Book, a project funded by the Australian Commonwealth Government. Between 2012-2015 Heather was the lead chief investigator on the Australian Feminist Judgments Project funded by the Australian Research Council.

Heather has considered the criminal justice response to fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) and to the drug khat. Her earlier work explored the work of Justice Martin Kriewaldt, the sole judge of the Northern Territory Supreme Court during the 1950s and more generally the relationship between Indigenous people and the criminal law. In 2012 she co-authored (with Professor Mark Finnane) Indigenous Crime and Settler Law: White Sovereignty After Empire. In 2016 Heather was appointed as a Member to the Australian Research Council's College of Experts. From 2001-2007 she was a part-time commissioner with the Queensland Law Reform Commission and in 2004 she was a visiting scholar at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, Oxford University. Heather was appointed a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law in 2013 and a Fellow of theAcademy of Social Sciences in Australia in 2017. In 2016 Heather was an Institute of Advanced Studies fellow at Collingwood College, Durham University (January-March 2016). In 2018 Heather was a fellow at the Humboldt University Faculty of Law and Center for Transdisciplinary Gender Studies in Berlin.

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy, University of Melbourne
  • Master of Laws, Queensland University of Technology
  • Bachelor of Laws, Monash University
  • Bachelor of Arts, Monash University

Publications

View all Publications

Grants

View all Grants

Supervision

  • Migration and domestic violence: Women's experiences of proving domestic violence as a requirement for permanent residency.

    Doctor Philosophy

  • A Place at the Table: Queer Indigenous Women in Australian Health Law and Policy

    Doctor Philosophy

  • Dealing with the unrepresented defendants in criminal matters - A comparative study between Australia and Bhutan

    Doctor Philosophy

View all Supervision

Available Projects

  • Criminal law and procedure

    • disclosure and fair trial;
    • unrepresented defendants in criminal matters and the role of judges;
    • post-sentence detention (eg: dangerous offenders, indefinites sentences etc.

    For further information contact Professor Heather Douglas, e: h.douglas@law.uq.edu.au

  • Topics that explore legal issues related to domestic and family violence

    • use of exclusion or ouster orders in legislation and by the courts;
    • development of specific offences (stalking, torture etc) and their implementation;
    • development of defences (eg provocation, battered persons defence) and use in courts;
    • role of the victim in charge and prosecution of criminal offences;
    • special courts and alternative justice mechanisms in domestic and family violence matters.

    For further information contact Professor Heather Douglas, e: h.douglas@law.uq.edu.au

View all Available Projects

Publications

Featured Publications

Book

Book Chapter

  • Abortion

    Bennett, Belinda and Douglas, Heather (2018). Abortion. In Ben White, Lindy Willmott and Fiona McDonald (Ed.), Health Law in Australia 3rd ed. (pp. 473-496) Sydney, Australia: Thomson Reuters.

  • Domestic violence protection orders and their role in ensuring personal security

    Heather Douglas (2018). Domestic violence protection orders and their role in ensuring personal security. In Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Sandra Walklate, Jude McCulloch and JaneMaree Maher (Ed.), Intimate partner violence, risk and security: securing women’s lives in a global world (pp. 216-232) London: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315204765-13

  • Introduction

    Stenning, Philip, Colvin, Victoria and Douglas, Heather (2018). Introduction. In Victoria Colvin and Philip Stenning (Ed.), The evolving role of the public prosecutor: challenges and innovations (pp. 1-12) New York, NY United States: Routledge.

  • Prosecuting domestic violence cases: listening to victims

    Douglas, Heather (2018). Prosecuting domestic violence cases: listening to victims. In Victoria Colvin and Philip Stenning (Ed.), The evolving role of the public prosecutor: challenges and innovations (pp. 154-168) New York, NY United States: Routledge.

  • Practice and persuasion: women, feminism and judicial diversity

    Douglas, Heather and Bartlett, Francesca (2016). Practice and persuasion: women, feminism and judicial diversity. In Rebecca Ananian-Welsh and Jonathan Crowe (Ed.), Judicial independence in Australia: contemporary challenges, future directions (pp. 76-88) Sydney, Australia: Federation Press.

  • An unsettling presence: Indigenous art and settler law

    Douglas, Heather and Besley, Jo (2015). An unsettling presence: Indigenous art and settler law. In Fiona Foley, Louise Martin-Chew and Fiona Nicoll (Ed.), Courting Blakness: Recalibrating Knowledge in the Sandstone University (pp. 124-133) St Lucia, QLD, Australia: University of Queensland Press.

  • Criminal responsibility and family violence: the relationship between (feminist) academic critique and judicial decision-making

    Douglas, Heather Anne (2015). Criminal responsibility and family violence: the relationship between (feminist) academic critique and judicial decision-making. In Thomas Crofts and Arlie Loughnan (Ed.), Criminalisation and criminal responsibility in Australia (pp. 176-190) South Melbourne, VIC Australia: Oxford University Press.

  • Mandatory Reporting of Child Abuse and Marginalised Families

    Douglas, Heather and Walsh, Tamara (2015). Mandatory Reporting of Child Abuse and Marginalised Families. In Matthews, Ben and Bross, Donald C (Ed.), Mandatory Reporting Laws and the Identification of Severe Child Abuse and Neglect 1st ed. (pp. 491-509) New York, United States: Springer Netherlands. doi:10.1007/978-94-017-9685-9_23

  • Mothers in crisis: mothers and the child protection system

    Walsh, Tamara and Douglas, Heather (2015). Mothers in crisis: mothers and the child protection system. In Lisa Raith, Jenny Jones and Marie Porter (Ed.), Mothers at the Margins: Stories of Challenge, Resistance and Love (pp. 89-107) Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

  • Perils of Using Law: A Critique of Protection Orders to Respond to Intimate Partner Violence

    Douglas, Heather and Nancarrow, Heather (2015). Perils of Using Law: A Critique of Protection Orders to Respond to Intimate Partner Violence. In Holly Johnson, Bonnie S. Fisher and Veronique Jaquier (Ed.), Critical issues on violence against women : international perspectives and promising strategies (pp. 77-87) New York, NY United States: Routledge.

  • Social framework evidence: its interpretation and application in Victoria and beyond

    Douglas, Heather (2015). Social framework evidence: its interpretation and application in Victoria and beyond. In Kate Fitz-Gibbon and Arie Freiberg (Ed.), Homicide law reform in Victoria: retrospect and prospects (pp. 94-109) Sydney, NSW, Australia: Federation Press.

  • Intersectionality and Indigenous Sentencing Courts

    Douglas, Heather (2014). Intersectionality and Indigenous Sentencing Courts. In Heather Douglas, Francesca Bartlett, Trish Luker and Rosemary Hunter (Ed.), Australian Feminist Judgments: Righting and Rewriting Law (pp. 339-344) Oxford, United Kingdom: Hart Publishing.

  • Introduction: Righting Australian Law

    Douglas, Heather Anne, Bartlett, Francesca, Luker, Trish and Hunter, Rosemary (2014). Introduction: Righting Australian Law. In Heather Douglas, Francesca Bartlett, Trish Luker and Rosemary Hunter (Ed.), Australian Feminist Judgments: Righting and Rewriting Law (pp. 1-18) Oxford, United Kingdom: Hart Publishing.

  • Reconsidering Precedent

    Douglas, Heather (2014). Reconsidering Precedent. In Heather Douglas, Francesca Bartlett, Trish Luker and Rosemary Hunter (Ed.), Australian Feminist Judgments: Righting and Rewriting Law (pp. 229-233) Oxford, United Kingdom: Hart Publishing.

  • Reflections on rewriting the law

    Douglas, Heather Anne, Bartlett, Francesca, Luker, Trish and Hunter, Rosemary (2014). Reflections on rewriting the law. In Heather Douglas, Francesca Bartlett, Trish Luker and Rosemary Hunter (Ed.), Australian Feminist Judgments: Righting and Rewriting Law (pp. 19-40) Oxford, United Kingdom: Hart Publishing.

  • Obstacles to 'a proper exercise of jurisdiction' – sorcery and criminal justice in the settler–indigenous encounter in Australia

    Douglas, Heather and Finnane, Mark (2013). Obstacles to 'a proper exercise of jurisdiction' – sorcery and criminal justice in the settler–indigenous encounter in Australia. In Lisa Ford and Tim Rowse (Ed.), Between Indigenous and Settler Governance (pp. 59-69) London, United Kingdom: Routledge.

  • Domestic violence research: Valuing stories

    Douglas, Heather (2011). Domestic violence research: Valuing stories. In Lorana Bartels and Kelly Richards (Ed.), Qualitative criminology: Stories from the field (pp. 129-139) Leichardt, NSW, Australia: Hawkins Press.

  • The Demise of the Provocation Defence and the Failure of Equality Concepts

    H Douglas (2008). The Demise of the Provocation Defence and the Failure of Equality Concepts. In Rosemary Hunter (Ed.), Rethinking Equality Projects in Law: Feminist Challenges 1st ed. (pp. 41-58) Portland: Hart Publishing.

  • Stories of mistaken consent: Still in the shadow of Morgan

    Douglas, H. A. (2007). Stories of mistaken consent: Still in the shadow of Morgan. In Hunter, R. and Cowan, S. (Ed.), Choice and Consent: Feminist Engagements with Law and Subjectivity (pp. 109-124) Abingdon, United Kingdom: Routledge Cavendish. doi:10.4324/9780203937389

  • How Australian law schools endeavour to support indigenous students

    Douglas, Heather (2005). How Australian law schools endeavour to support indigenous students. In Greg Shaw (Ed.), Tertiary teaching and learning : Dealing with diversity (pp. 177-186) Darwin, N.T., Australia: Charles Darwin University Press.

Journal Article

Conference Publication

Other Outputs

Grants (Administered at UQ)

PhD and MPhil Supervision

Current Supervision

  • Migration and domestic violence: Women's experiences of proving domestic violence as a requirement for permanent residency.

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

  • A Place at the Table: Queer Indigenous Women in Australian Health Law and Policy

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Dealing with the unrepresented defendants in criminal matters - A comparative study between Australia and Bhutan

    Doctor Philosophy — Principal Advisor

    Other advisors:

  • Violence against Women and Girls in Public: A Study Exploring `Eve Teasing¿ in Bangladesh

    Doctor Philosophy — Associate Advisor

    Other advisors:

Completed Supervision

Possible Research Projects

Note for students: The possible research projects listed on this page may not be comprehensive or up to date. Always feel free to contact the staff for more information, and also with your own research ideas.

  • Criminal law and procedure

    • disclosure and fair trial;
    • unrepresented defendants in criminal matters and the role of judges;
    • post-sentence detention (eg: dangerous offenders, indefinites sentences etc.

    For further information contact Professor Heather Douglas, e: h.douglas@law.uq.edu.au

  • Topics that explore legal issues related to domestic and family violence

    • use of exclusion or ouster orders in legislation and by the courts;
    • development of specific offences (stalking, torture etc) and their implementation;
    • development of defences (eg provocation, battered persons defence) and use in courts;
    • role of the victim in charge and prosecution of criminal offences;
    • special courts and alternative justice mechanisms in domestic and family violence matters.

    For further information contact Professor Heather Douglas, e: h.douglas@law.uq.edu.au

This staff member is a UQ Expert for media in the following fields:

Domestic violence, Violence - domestic, Indigenous people and criminal law, Criminal law and Indigenous people, Aboriginal peoples and criminal law, Domestic violence in Indigenous communities, Aboriginal peoples and domestic violence, Abortion and the law, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders and the Law, Criminal law and procedure, FASD, Family violence, Stalking and technology facilitated abuse, sentencing, law reform, Social justice law, Australian judicial decision-making, Feminism, Human rights

They are happy to lend their expertise to your articles or broadcasts and share their research discoveries and insights with the community via media channels.

For additional assistance with story ideas, general advice and information or help with seeking further experts, please email the UQ Media Team or telephone (07) 3365 1120.

Links

ResearcherID: C-2834-2013

ORCID: 0000-0002-0420-3820

Scopus ID:

Personal Profile: Link

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