Dr Yega Muthu

Lecturer

LLB (Hons), LLM (Staffordshire), PhD (Macquarie), Grad DipLegPrac (UTS), Barrister (Lincoln's Inn, London) and Solicitor of the Supreme Court (NSW)

Academic Profile

Yega is a Lecturer at the Faculty of Law. He is also a part-time member of the Mental Health Review Tribunal and a volunteer solicitor at Redfern Legal Centre. Prior to joining UTS in 2004, Yega used to teach at several other universities in Sydney and also at University of Staffordshire from 1993-1996. He was educated at the University of Staffordshire, UK (LLB (Hons) 1993) and LLM(Business Law) (1996), Macquarie University (PhD 2004), UTS (Grad Dip Legal Practice 2006), called to the English Bar in 1996, Malaysian Bar in 1997 and Supreme Court of New South Wales in 2006.

His PhD degree dealt with judicial scepticism in the realm of medical psychiatry and law - in particular, post traumatic stress disorder suffered by an individual who witnessed a traumatic event. Yega has presented many of his research papers at International Conferences both in Australia and abroad including France, Italy, Ireland, England, Malaysia and Singapore.

His research interests lie in Tort (especially negligence), Jurisprudence and medical psychiatry. He is also an organising member of the International Scientific Committee of the International Congress on Law and Mental Health, New York, 2009.

Current Research Activities

(2006) Project title : "Judicial distrust of psychiatry in law: brain mapping techniques, a way forward?"

(2007) Project title: "Terrorism, mental injury and victims compensation"

(2008) Project title: "A comparative study of Dworkin's and Fish's Models of Awarding Damages for Psychiatric Illness"

Recent Refereed Journal Articles

2008 Muthu Y, 'Psychiatric Illness and Law Reform in Australian Law' (2008) 3 Malayan  Law Journal, Lexis Nexis xxiv

2007 Muthu Y et al, 'When is it reasonable for modern employers to foresee psychiatric Injury as a result of stress at Work?' (2007) 14 Psychiatry, Psychology and Law 168-175.

2006 Muthu Y et al 'If I Only Had A Heart! The Australian Case Of Annetts And The Internationally Confounding Question Of Compensation In Nervous Shock Law' [2006] Santa Clara Journal of International Law and UTS Law Review 157-183

2006 Refereed: Article: Muthu Y et al  'The rise of psychiatric Injury as a cause of action under the Warsaw Convention and innovative judicial interpretation' [2006] Malayan Law Journal xcviii-cxii

2005 Refereed: Article: Muthu Y et al, 'Terrorist Attacks Involving Airplanes: Implications under Australian Law''[2005] 15 Caribbean Law Review 73-82.

Refereed Articles Submitted (In Press) for Publication

2008 Muthu Y, "Dworkin v. Fish: Theoretical premises of awarding damages for psychiatric illness in England and Australia" (2009) 3 Archives for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy

Refereed Proceedings

'Terrorism and Law' (Paper presented at the 30th International Congress on Law and Mental Health, Padua, Italy, June 2007).

 "Why is there an endemic distrust of medical psychiatry in law, is it a myth or an illness?" (Paper presented at the 30th International Congress on Law and Mental Health, Padua, Italy, June 2007).

International Roundtable Discussion

"A comparative study of Dworkin's and Fish's Models of Awarding Damages for Psychiatric Illness" presented at the 7ème TABLE RONDE INTERNATIONALE DE SEMIOTIQUE JURIDIQUE / 7th INTERNATIONAL ROUND TABLE FOR THE SEMIOTICS OF LAW, Centre Universitaire du Musée, 34 Grande Rue, B.P. 751, 62321 Boulogne-sur-Mer Cedex, FRANCE  on 1-4 July 2008.

Previous Publications

2000 Refereed: 'Case Commentary: Recovery For A Pathological Grief Reaction Following Bereavement: Sloss v State of New South Wales' [2001] 4 Malaysian Journal of Law and Society 169-178.

2000 Refereed: Article: 'Psychiatric Illness And The Law Of Negligence: An Historical Review' [2000] 4 Macarthur Law Review 1-35.

1999 Refereed: Article: 'Negligent Infliction of Psychiatric Illness: An area which remains to be Clarified?' [1999] 4 Malayan Law Journal clxxvii-clxxxix

Refereed Book Reviews

2000 Refereed: Book Review: 'Psychiatry and the Law' [2000] 10 Caribbean Law Review 311.

1999 Refereed: Book Review: 'The Interfaces of Medicine and Law: The History of the Liability for Negligently Caused Psychiatric Injury (Nervous Shock)' [1999] 2 Malayan Law Journal clxi.

Non Refereed Book Reviews

1999 Book Review: 'Negligent Words' [1999] 176 Official Publication of the Law Society of the

Australian Capital Territory 33. 1998 Book Review: 'Fault in Homicide' [1998] 170 Official Publication of the Law Society of the Australian Capital Territory 28.

Previous Conference Proceedings

'What do we know about mental health (social and well-being) of Indigenous Australians within the DSM context?' (Paper presented at the 29th International Congress on Law and Mental Health, Paris, France, July 2005).

'Consequences of World Wars, PTSD and the Law: Is law and Psychiatry at a discourse?' (Paper presented at the 29th International Congress on Law and Mental Health, Paris, France, July 2005).

'The rise of psychiatric injury as a cause of action-bodily injury, the Warsaw Convention and innovative judicial interpretation' James Harb (Price Waterhouse Coopers Legal); Kishan Manocha, Forensic Psychiatrist, London; Yega Muthu (MQ). (Paper presented at the 28th International Congress on Law and Mental Health, October 2003).

'Stalking on cyberspace: Is it sufficiently 'proximate' to give rise to a claim for psychiatric injury within the DSM and ICD classifications?' Yega Muthu (MQ). (Paper presented at the 28th International Congress on Law and Mental Health, Sydney, October 2003).

'Negligent psychiatric harm in the courtroom-are law and medicine on a collision course?' Prue Vines (UNSW); Yega Muthu (MQ); Barbara Ann Hocking (QUT) and Ben Zipser (Selborne Chambers, Sydney). (Paper presented at the 28th International Congress on Law and Mental Health, Sydney, October 2003).

'Discourse of the Law in Psychiatric Illness: To be or not to be' (Paper presented at the XXVIth International Congress On Law and Mental Health, Montreal, July 2001).

'Pain and Suffering as interpreted by the DSM from an Indigenous perspective' (Paper presented at the Indigenous Knowledge and Bioprospecting Conference, Macquarie University, Sydney, April 2004).

Non Refereed Proceedings

'The rise of psychiatric injury as a cause of action under the Warsaw convention and innovative judicial interpretation' (Paper presented at ASLI, National University of Singapore, February 2007).

'Can cultural psychiatry contribute to rethinking mental health services and enhance the understanding of indigenous suffering within a clinical and legal framework?' (Paper presented at the Faculty of Law Seminar Series, Griffiths University, Gold Coast Campus, October 2006)

'Stalking on Cyberspace Giving Rise to Psychiatric Injury' (Paper presented at the Law and Policy Seminar Series, University College Cork, College of Business and Law, Faculty of Law, Cork, Ireland, December 2004).

 'Interpretation of Psychiatry in Law: Is There A Legal Definition of Psychiatric Illness?' (Paper presented at the Postgraduate Colloquium, Division of Law, Macquarie University, Sydney, September 2001).

'A Judicial Innovation and Divergence: Interpreting Article 17 of the Warsaw Convention: Does 'bodily injury' include 'psychiatric injury'? (Paper presented at the Law, Culture and Social Change Conference, University of Sydney, November 2001).

'Judicial Scepticism in Psychiatric Illness' (Paper presented at the International Islamic University and National Malaysian University, Kuala Lumpur, June-July 2000).

'Has Tort Law failed women?' (Paper presented at the Materials for Feminism Conference, Macquarie University, Sydney, December 1999).

'Why is there an endemic distrust of medical psychiatry in law, is it a myth or an illness?' (Paper presented at the Markets Bodies Conference, University of Sydney, October 1999).

Media Appearances

Interviewed by the Wentworth Courier, Heath: Correct Diagnosis Critical to Health on the topic of rights afforded to psychiatric patients, 24 May 2007. ( Transcript)

Interviewed on the Law Report, 2SM New FM (Newcastle) Radio National, 2 September 2004 on the topic of harassment on the internet appear to have the same impact on physical stalking. ( Transcript)

Interviewed on the Wire, 2SER 107.3 Radio FM, 14 September 2004 on the topic of Cyber Stalking. ( Transcript) 

Quoted in the Courier Mail, Brisbane, 'Cyberstalking', September 2004.