The Judicial Research Project and Magistrates Research Project at Flinders University have been underway since 2000, led by Matthew Flinders Distinguished Professor Sharyn Roach Anleu and Emerita Professor Kathy Mack.

Professor Sharyn L. Roach Anleu,  BA (Hons) Tas, MA Tas, Ll B (Hons) Adel, Ph D Conn is Matthew Flinders Distinguished Professor in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at Flinders University, Adelaide and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.  She is a past president of The Australian Sociological Association and the author of Law and Social Change and four editions of Deviance, Conformity and Control. She has contributed to the Masters Program at the International Institute for the Sociology of Law, Oñati, Spain. With Emerita Professor Kathy Mack, Flinders Law School, she is currently engaged in socio-legal research into the Australian judiciary and their courts.

Professor Kathy Mack, BA magna cum laude Rice University, JD Law School Stanford University, LLM Law School University of Adelaide is Emerita Professor in the College of Business, Government and Law at Flinders University. She is the author of a monograph, book chapters and articles on ADR, and articles on legal education and evidence.  With Professor Sharyn Roach Anleu, she has conducted empirical research involving plea negotiations. Since 2000, they have been engaged in a major socio-legal study of the Australian judiciary.

Working together, they are among Australia’s most highly regarded socio-legal researchers, beginning with earlier empirical research project on guilty pleas, published as an AIJA Report.

Other ongoing staff:

Other ongoing project staff include the Project Administrator and Research Assistants.

Colleen deLaine joined the Project in 2011 as the Project Administrator and is available on a casual basis.  She brings previous experience working in the Federal Court of Australia.

Jordan Tutton continues to provide legal research and editorial support.  Jordan completed his BA and LLB/LP at Flinders in 2017, with first class honours and was awarded the University Medal.  He previously completed an internship at the Australian Law Reform Commission, after a semester studying in Germany on an exchange program and has worked as a clerk at Lipman Karas and Thomson Geer in Adelaide.  From 2017-2018 he was Associate to the Honourable Justice White of the Federal Court of Australia.  He is currently employed as a solicitor in the South Australian Crown Solicitor’s Office.

From 2009-2016 and 2018-2020 Rae Wood undertook primary responsibility for analysis of survey, court observation and interview data and also provided research and editorial support.  She previously worked with the School of Medicine at Flinders University as a Project Administrator, and for the City of Onkaparinga as a statistical researcher.

From 2016-2018, Rhiannon Davies provided data analysis, legal research and editorial support.  After completing her PhD under the supervision of Her Excellency Professor the Honourable Kate Warner, Governor of Tasmania, Rhiannon has taken up a legal position and an Analyst in Retail Markets with the ACCC.

The Project continues to analyse and publish material drawing on data from all phases of the research.  All staff remain bound by ethical obligations such as maintaining strict confidentiality of the data, and all parties continue to be bound by contractual obligations in relation to publication of information. We acknowledge the support of all participants in any publication.