Professor
Lesley Hitchens

Associate Dean (Research)

DipTeach (AMC), BA (Macq), LLB (UNSW), LLM (Lond)

Academic Profile

Lesley Hitchens joined UTS in January 2008. She has been an academic at universities in Australia and in the United Kingdom, and has also held visiting positions at universities in the UK. Prior to taking up an academic position, she practised as a commercial lawyer in London and Sydney.

She has taught postgraduate courses in comparative broadcasting regulation, and international and European regulation of telecommunications and broadcasting, and undergraduate courses in media law and electronic communications law. She also maintains an interest in corporate law teaching and scholarship.

Her research in communications regulation has focused on broadcasting regulation, with particular reference to ownership and control and content regulation. Much of her work has a comparative focus involving the United Kingdom (and EU), the United States, and Australia. She has held a number of research grants, and has been involved in projects advising on media reform in Russia and contributing to the development of media law studies in Hungary. In 2008, she will be part of an international research project on media pluralism funded by the EU.

Current Research Activities

Determining appropriate regulatory responses in a converged media environment with particular reference to content regulation.

An examination of the relationship between regulatory objectives and the work of communications regulatory bodies with particular reference to Ofcom (UK) and ACMA (Australia).

Recent Publications

Books

Broadcasting Pluralism and Diversity: A comparative study of policy and regulation (Hart Publishing, Oxford, 2006); http://www.hartpub.co.uk/books/details.asp?isbn=9781841132143

Media Law: Cases and Materials (Longman, London, 2000), with Eric Barendt.

Communications Law and Policy in Australia (Butterworths, Sydney, 1987), co-editor (with L Grey and R Orr) of second edition.

Book Chapters

Citizen versus Consumer in the Digital World' in Andrew T Kenyon (ed.), TV Futures: Digital Television Policy in Australia (Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 2007), pages 343-363; http://www.mup.unimelb.edu.au/catalogue/0-522-85440-0.html

'Celebrity Privacy and the Benefits of Simple History' in AT Kenyon & M Richardson (eds) New Dimensions in Privacy Law: International and Comparative Perspectives (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2006), pages 250-269 (with M Richardson); http://www.cambridge.org/us/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521860741

'Preparing for the Information Society: Lessons from Canada' in E..M Barendt (ed.) The Yearbook of Media and Entertainment Law 1997/98 (Oxford University Press/Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1997), pages 97-146.

'The European Community and the Regulation of Media Ownership and Control: Possibilities for Pluralism' in O Boyd-Barrett, A Sreberny- Mohammadi et al (eds) Media in a Global Context (Edward Arnold, London, 1997), pages 207-218.

'Identifying European Community Audio-Visual Policy in the Dawn of the Information Society' in EM Barendt (ed.) The Yearbook of Media and Entertainment Law 1996 (Oxford University Press/Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1996), pages 45-73.

Articles

Media and Communications Law

'Australian Media Reform - Discerning the Policy' (2007) 13(1) UNSW Law Journal Forum 26-32.

'Commercial Broadcasting - Preserving the Public Interest' (2004) 32(1) Federal Law Review 79-106.

'The Role of Sponsorship Regulation in Non-commercial Broadcasting' (2004) 15(2) Entertainment Law Review 33-41.

'Regulation of Election and Political Broadcasting' (2002) 21(1) Communications Law Bulletin 1-5.

'Digital Television Broadcasting-An Australian Approach' (2001) 12(4) Entertainment Law Review 113-119.

'Approaches to Broadcasting Regulation: Australia and the United Kingdom Compared' (1997) 17 Legal Studies 40-64.

'Digital Broadcasting: The Government's Proposals - The Doubtful Revolution' (1996) 59 Modern Law Review 427-442.

''Get ready, Fire, Take aim', The Regulation of Cross-Media Ownership - An Exercise in Policy-Making', [1995] Public Law 620-641.

'Fit to Broadcast? Fit to Decide', (1995) 12 Journal of Media Law and Practice 115-122.

'Media Ownership and Control: A European Approach', (1994) 57 Modern Law Review 585-601.

'Impartiality and the Broadcasting Act: Riding the Wrong Horse', (1991) 12 Journal of Media Law and Practice 48-54.

'Cross-media Regulation and the Broadcasting Bill: a mismatch of policy and rules', (1990) 1 Utilities Law Review 121-126.

'Public Interest and the Decision Makers', (1982) 25 Media Information Australia 26.

Company and Commercial Law

'Directorships - How Many is Too Many' [2000] Company Financial and Insolvency Law Review 359-369.

'Forgery and Cheque Cards', (1994) 57 Modern Law Review 811-817.

'Holders for Value and their Status', (1993) Journal of Business Law571-576.

'The Regulation of Takeovers: The American and Australian Experience', (1982) 5 University of New South Wales Law Journal 153.

Book Reviews

Bowrey, K, Law and Internet Cultures (Cambridge University Press, 2005) in (2006) 26(3) Legal Studies 437. 

Doyle, G., Media Ownership (Sage, 2002) in (2003) 27(3-4) Journal of Cultural Economics 290.

Marsden & Verhulst, eds, Convergence in European Digital TV: law in its social setting (Blackstone Press, 1999) in (2000) 24 Telecommunications Policy 631.

Milman, ed., Regulating Enterprise: Law and Business Organisation in the UK in (1999) 149 (6910) New Law Journal 1598.

Watson, Wheadon and The Communications Practice of Simmons and Simmons, Telecommunications: The EU Law in (1999) 24 European Law Review 683.

Brands and Leo, The Law and Regulation of Telecommunications Carriers(1999) in (1999) 1 Journal of Information Law and Technology.

Craufurd Smith, Broadcasting Law and Fundamental Rights (OUP, 1997) in (1998) 7 Social and Legal Studies 599.

Kennedy and Pastor, An Introduction to International Telecommunications Law (Artech House, 1996) in (1997) 2 Journal of Information Law and Technology.

Winn, European Community and International Media Law (1994) in (1995) 20 European Law Review 420.

Higham, Bannister et al, EC Telecommunications Law (1994) in (1994) 19 European Law Review 441.

Conference and Seminar Papers

September 2007, Society of Legal Scholars Conference, Durham, UK, Rethinking Content in a Converged Media Environment.

November 2006, Digital Television Policy Workshop, University of Melbourne, Citizen versus Consumer in the Digital World.

June 2000, International Symposium: A New Framework for Media Ownership in Russia, Moscow Media Law and Policy Centre, Sector-specific Ownership Regulation versus the use of Competition Law: the Australian Case.

September 1999, University of Miskolc, Hungary, Commercial Law Department Seminar, Reform of English Company Law.

September 1999, International Seminar on Harmonisation of Laws, University of Miskolc, Hungary, Community Attempts to Regulate Media Ownership and Control.

Other Scholarship

Contributor, Tolley's Company Law (1994-1998).

Case-Law Noter Up,Gore-Browne on Companies (1996-June 2000).

"Controlling the Information Society" (1995) 2(5) European Brief 62-63.

Submission to the Department of National Heritage on Government Proposals for regulation of Media Ownership and Control (August 1995).

Submission to the Inquiry into the Effectiveness of the Broadcasting Codes of Practice, Senate Standing Committee on Environment, Communications and the Arts; Evidence given to public hearing (May 2008)