EVENT

THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE MELISSA PERRY was appointed to the Federal Court of Australia in 2013 and was appointed as a Deputy President of the AAT in 2019.  Her Honour graduated in Law from Adelaide University with 1^st class honours, and was awarded a prize-winning PhD in public international law from Cambridge University.  She practiced at the Bar in Australia from 1992 to 2013, being appointed Queen’s Counsel for South Australia in 2004, and was admitted to the Bar of England and Wales in 2012.   Her Honour’s areas of expertise in practice included general appellate, international and constitutional law, administrative law, migration law, environmental and climate change law, and native title.  

Justice Perry serves with the Royal Australian Air Force Legal Specialist Reserves holding the rank of Air Commodore and was appointed to the Defence Force Discipline Appeal Tribunal in October 2018 and as Deputy Judge Advocate General – Air Force with effect from 10 February 2023.  She also served as a member of the Judicial Council on Cultural Diversity established by the Council of Chief Justices from 2014-2023 and chaired the expert committee which prepared the first and second editions of the National Recommended Standards for Working with Interpreters in Courts and Tribunals. 

Among other roles, her Honour is a foundation Fellow and former director of the Australian Academy of Law, and a member of the advisory boards for the Centre for International and Public Law (Australian National University), the Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law (University of New South Wales), the Research Unit on Military Law and Ethics (University of Adelaide), and the UNSW Allens Hub for Technology, Law and Innovation.  She served for many years on the Administrative Review Council, an independent statutory body which monitored and advised on federal administrative law.