Rosemary Owens

Biography

Emerita Professor Rosemary Owens, AO was formerly Dame Roma Mitchell Chair of Law (2008-2015) and served as Dean of Law (2007 - 2011). Professor Owens was appointed as an Officer in the Oder of Australia in January 2014 for her distinguished service to the law, as an academic and administrator, to international and national labour organizations, and to women. Professor Owens is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law. Professor Owens’ field of research expertise lies in the area of ‘the law of work’, which includes international labour law; employment, labour and industrial relations law; and anti-discrimination law. She also researches and teaches at both post-graduate and undergraduate levels in arbitration law, constitutional law, and feminist- and socio-legal theory. Acknowledged internationally as a leader in her field, Professor Owens has held many significant appointments during her academic career. In 2010 she was appointed to the International Labour Organisation’s Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations (CEACR), which comprises 20 leading experts from around the world appointed on the basis of their independence and integrity as well knowledge of their discipline. Professor Owens is also currently a member of the Editorial Board of the Australian Journal of Labour Law, and was previously its Editor (2003-2007). She is an active member of the Australian Labour Lawyers Association and has been a member of the National Executive. Professor Owens has also held a number of appointments with government and non-government organizations. She has served as the Chair of the South Australian Government’s Ministerial Advisory Committee on Work/Life Balance, and as a board member of several statutory corporations, including the SA Water Corporation and the West Beach Trust. Since the early 1990s she has been associated with the Working Women’s Centre in Adelaide, and during that time she has participated as both Chair and Member of its Board of Management. Emerita Professor Rosemary Owens, AO was formerly Dame Roma Mitchell Chair of Law (2008-2015) and served as Dean of Law (2007 - 2011). Professor Owens was appointed as an Officer in the Oder of Australia in January 2014 for her distinguished service to the law, as an academic and administrator, to international and national labour organizations, and to women. Professor Owens is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law. Professor Owens’ field of research expertise lies in the area of ‘the law of work’, which includes international labour law; employment, labour and industrial relations law; and anti-discrimination law. She also researches and teaches at both post-graduate and undergraduate levels in arbitration law, constitutional law, and feminist- and socio-legal theory. Acknowledged internationally as a leader in her field, Professor Owens has held many significant appointments during her academic career. In 2010 she was appointed to the International Labour Organisation’s Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations (CEACR), which comprises 20 leading experts from around the world appointed on the basis of their independence and integrity as well knowledge of their discipline. Professor Owens is also currently a member of the Editorial Board of the Australian Journal of Labour Law, and was previously its Editor (2003-2007). She is an active member of the Australian Labour Lawyers Association and has been a member of the National Executive. Professor Owens has also held a number of appointments with government and non-government organizations. She has served as the Chair of the South Australian Government’s Ministerial Advisory Committee on Work/Life Balance, and as a board member of several statutory corporations, including the SA Water Corporation and the West Beach Trust. Since the early 1990s she has been associated with the Working Women’s Centre in Adelaide, and during that time she has participated as both Chair and Member of its Board of Management.

Research Interest

The Law of Work including International Labour Law Anti-discrimination Law Australian Constitutional Law In her research work Professor Rosemary Owens focuses primarily on the Law of Work (including employment, labour and anti-discrimination law), but she also has strong interests in public law especially constitutional law. Professor Owens has published extensively on legal issues relating to non-standard and precarious forms of work and the participation of women in the labour market. She is particularly interested in the legal construction of women at work in both international and national legal systems, and in the development and protection of social and economic rights in the global era. In 2009 she was a rapporteur to The World Congress of International Association of Labour Law and Social Security Law. In 2004 she convened, with Prof Judy Fudge of Osgoode Hall Law School, a workshop on "Precarious Work, Women and the New Economy: The Challenge to Legal Norms" at the International Institute for the Sociology of Law in Onati, Spain. This project brought together academics from the Universities of Cambridge, Kent, and Oxford in the UK; Cornell, UCLA and Yale in the USA; Toronto, York and Quebec in Canada; Utrecht in Netherlands; Lund in Sweden; and Griffith and Adelaide in Australia. Rosemary Owens is a member of INTELL, and she is also an associate of the Centre for Employment and Labour Relations Law, The University of Melbourne.