William Macneil

Professor William MacNeil, FAAL is the inaugural holder of The Honourable John Dowd Chair in Law, the Dean of Law and Professor of Jurisprudence in the Faculty of Business, Law and Arts, SCU. He joined SCU in 2016 and, previously, worked or taught at the London School of Economics, the University of Hong Kong and Griffith University. A scholar of law (LLB, Dalhousie; LLM, London; JSD, Columbia) and literature (BA, MA, Toronto), Bill’s most recent book, Novel Judgements: Legal Theory as Fiction, won the Penny Pether Prize for Scholarship in Law, Literature and the Humanities. He is the Editor of the book series, Edinburgh Critical Studies in Law, Literature and the Humanities; Co-Managing Editor of Polemos: A Journal of Law, Literature and the Humanities; and is Senior Editorial Consultant of Legalities: The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Law & Society. At SCU, Bill has taught a Winter School intensive unit - Law73004: Legal Fictions: Writing the Law - and, at Griffith and HKU, Jurisprudence, Law & Society, Criminal Law and a range of public and private law subjects. He has been a visiting scholar at the following: IDC, Herzliya, Israel; Tsinghua University, China; Shue Yan University, Hong Kong; Birkbeck London, England; University of Texas at Austin, USA; Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands; University of Ljubljana, Slovenia; McGill University, Canada; Amherst College, USA; and University of Sydney, Australia. Bill is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law, a former President of the Australian Legal Acacdemics Association (2019) and a past Chair of the Council of Australian Law Deans (2017-2019).

Education

• J.S.D. Columbia University in the City of New York (1992 — 1993)
• LL.M. UCL: University College London (University of London) (1987 — 1988)
• LL.B. Dalhousie University (1981 — 1984)
• M.A. University of Toronto (1980 — 1981)
• B.A. (Honours) University of Toronto - Victoria University (1976 — 1980)

Companies

• Interim Director, Sir Zelman Cowen Centre Victoria University (2021)
• Adjunct Professor Of Law College of Law and Justice, Victoria University (2021)
• Adjunct Professor Of Law Southern Cross University (2021)
• The Honourable John Dowd Chair in Law, Professor of Jurisprudence & Dean of Law Southern Cross University (2021 — 2021)
• Head of Lismore Campus Southern Cross University (2018 — 2021)
• The Honourable John Dowd Chair in Law & Dean and Head, School of Law and Social Justice Southern Cross University (2016 — 2021)
• Professor of Law, Griffith Law School Griffith Law School, Griffith University, Brisbane & Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia (2009 — 2016)
• Dean & Head of Griffith Law School Griffith University (2010 — 2014)
• Reader/Associate Professor, Griffith Law School Griffith University, Australia (2005 — 2009)

Skills

• Literature
• Legal Research
• Editing

Other

Higher Education, Legal Advice, Criminal Law, Teaching, Administrative Law, Lecturing, Public Speaking, Legal Writing, Research