Have you read the Australian Constitution?

Whether you have read the constitution or not, you now have an opportunity to listen to a world-leading constitutional law expert and refresh your understanding about the Australian Constitution.

Laureate Professor Emeritus, Cheryl Saunders AO has specialist interests in Australian and comparative public law, including comparative constitutional law and method, intergovernmental relations and constitutional design and change. She is a President Emeritus of the International Association of Constitutional Law, a former President of the International Association of Centres for Federal Studies, a former President of the Administrative Review Council of Australia and a senior technical advisor to the Constitution Building program of International IDEA. She has held visiting positions in law schools in many parts of the world and is an officer of the Order of Australia and a Chevalier dans l’Ordre National de la Legion d’Honneur of France.

She teaches in both the JD and the MLM and is the founding Director of the Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies. She has she has written widely on constitutional law and comparative public law, including federalism and intergovernmental relations and constitutional design and change. She has recently published The Australian Constitution: A Contextual Analysis (Hart Publishing, 2011) and is presently working on a monograph on comparative constitutional law.

Prof. Saunders is an editor of the Public Law Review and a member of the editorial boards of a range of Australian and international journals, including Publius, Jus Politicum and the Constitutional Court Review, South Africa. She has held visiting positions at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Paris II, Georgetown, Indiana (Bloomington), Hong Kong, Copenhagen, Fribourg, Capetown and Auckland.

She is President Emeritus of the International Association of Constitutional Law and the International Association of Centers for Federal Studies and a former President of the Administrative Review Council of Australia.

In addition to her research and teaching activities, Cheryl Saunders is active in public debate on constitutional matters in Australia and internationally. From 1991, as deputy chair of the Australian Constitutional Centenary Foundation, she was closely involved in its pioneering work to encourage public understanding of the Constitution. She has had some involvement in aspects of constitutional design in other countries, including Fiji, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, East Timor, Iraq and Nepal. She is a senior technical advisor to the Constitution Building program of International IDEA.

In 1994, Cheryl Saunders was made an officer of the Order of Australia, for services to the law and to public administration. She was awarded a Centenary Medal in 2003, and an honorary doctorate from the University of Cordoba, Argentina in 2005. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia and a Foundation Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law.

This will be an outstanding experience, for members and potential members, to engage and learn about the set of rules by which Australia is run, to explore the process of constitutional change and discuss the implications of the upcoming referendum.