Anita Stuhmcke

Associate Professor

BA, LLB (Hons) (Macq), MJur (Hons) (Syd), Solicitor of the Supreme Court of New South Wales

Academic Profile

A honours graduate of Macquarie University and the University of Sydney, Associate Professor Anita Stuhmcke joined the Law Faculty in 1996.  Prior to this, she lectured at the University of Western Sydney and worked as a solicitor in a large Sydney commercial law firm.

In addition to teaching in fields of Tort and Biomedical Law, Associate Professor Stuhmcke has been a Director of the Undergraduate Program (1998-2000) as well as Student Ombudsman (1999-2002). 

Apart from an enthusiasm for teaching law, Anita has an active interest in research in the exploration of the limits and ability of the Law to accommodate social, political and economic change and to provide a cross jurisdictional perspective on law reform.

Current Research Activities 

Anita is currently undertaking a doctoral study (at the ANU) of the changing role of the Ombudsman in society, including the application of independent review mechanisms to the private sector and in trans-national situations. She is also looking at how such bodies interact with the more traditional grievance handling and investidation structures of the Law.

Recent Publications

'Changing Relations Between Government and Citizen: Administrative Law and the Work of the Australian Commonwealth Ombudsman forthcoming (2008) Australian Journal of Public Administration.

'Evaluating Ombudsman: A Case Study in Developing a Quantitative Methodology to Measure the Performance of Ombudsman' forthcoming  (2006) 10 The International Ombudsman Yearbook.

With Anne Tran, 'The Commonwealth Ombudsman: An Integrity Branch of Government?' (2007) 32 Alternative Law Journal 233-236.

With Pam Stewart, 'Legal Pragmatism and the Pre-birth Continuum:  An Absence of Unifying Principle' (2007) 15 Journal of Law and Medicine 272-295.

With  Bronwyn Olliffe, 'A National University Grievance handler?  Transporting the UK office of the Independent Adjudicator for  Higher Education (OIA) to Australia' (2007) 29 Journal of Higher  Education and Policy Management 203-215.

'Looking Backwards, Looking Forwards: Judicial & Legislative Trends in the Regulation of Surrogate Motherhood in the UK & Australia' (2004) 18 Australian Journal of Family Law 13-40.

'Privatisation and Corporatisation: What now for the Commonwealth Ombudsman?' (2004) 11 Australian Journal of Public Administration 101-114.

'Resolving Consumer Disputes: Out of the Courts and into Private Industry' (2003) 31 Australian Business Law Review 48-54.

'The Commonwealth Ombudsman: Twenty Five Years On and No Longer Alone' (2003) 36 AIAL Forum 54-63.

Books

With Pam Stewart, Principles of Tort Law, Cavendish  Publishing, 2005.

Essential Tort Law, 3rd ed, Cavendish Publishing, 2005. 

Legal Referencing, 3rd ed, Butterworths,  2005.

Book Chapters

'Transforming Government and Changing Law: the Ombudsman and Integrity Review' in Carol Harlow, Linda Pearson & Mike Taggart (eds), forthcoming, Administrative Law in a Changing State: Essays in Honour of Mark Aronson,  Hart Publishing, 2008.

With Pam Stewart, 'The Child in Utero and ex Utero' in Geoff Monahan & Lisa Young (eds) forthcoming, Children and the Law in Australia, Lexis Nexis, 2008.