Australia

The Hon Anthony North is a Judge of the Federal Court of Australia. The Federal Court is a superior court of record which exercises both first instance and appellate jurisdiction. A large part of the Court's work is reviewing administrative decisions, particularly decisions of the Refugee Review Tribunal determining Australia's protection obligations to applicants for refugee status. Justice North was appointed to the Federal Court in 1995. He also holds commissions as a Judge of the Industrial Relations Court of Australia and the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory. He graduated from the University of Melbourne as Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Arts. In 1973 he served as associate to Sir Ninian Stephen then a Judge of the High Court of Australia. In 1975, he graduated from the University of London as Master of Laws. He was admitted to the Victorian Bar in 1976 and took silk in 1989. Between 1993 and 1995 he held the part-time statutory appointment as Defence Force Advocate.

Dr Michelle Foster is an Associate Professor and Director of the International Refugee Law Research Programme in the Institute for International Law and the Humanities at Melbourne Law School. Her teaching and research interests are in the areas of public law, international refugee law, and international human rights law. Michelle has LLM and SJD degrees from the University of Michigan Law School, where she was a Michigan Grotius Fellow. She also holds an LLB and BComm (Hons 1) from the University of New South Wales. Prior to her graduate studies she worked for the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department, as Research Director for the Hon AM Gleeson AC (then Chief Justice of NSW) and Legal Research Officer in the Chambers of the NSW Solicitor-General and Crown Advocate.