PROFILE
Professor Robyn Carroll
Started at UWA: 1986
Exploring the way the law impacts on people’s emotional wellbeing
I enjoy being in a school where teaching and research are valued equally and staff strive to make a difference to students and society through their work.Professor Robyn Carroll
Professor Robyn Carroll is a law professor interested in remedies and the way the law impacts on people’s emotional wellbeing, and ways that law and legal processes promote resolution of disputes.
Robyn studied and trained in law in WA and England. For most of her adult life she has lived in WA and taught and researched law at UWA. She has experience as a mediator and as a tribunal member in matters involving family law, equal opportunity and guardianship and administration matters.
What she loves most of all is the opportunity to teach and critically examine the law, processes and practices in the light of legal principles, as well as research and knowledge from other disciplines, especially psychology and health.
In the last few years, Robyn has received funding for a pilot research project on family violence and property disputes, as well as a research contract to explore legal issues relating to the introduction of apology legislation in Hong Kong.
Qualifications:
- Bachelor of Civil Law, Oxford University
- Bachelor of Jurisprudence (Honours), UWA
- LLB (Honours), UWA
External positions:
- 2005-2017: Senior Sessional Member of the WA State Administrative Tribunal
- 2014: Invited to consult to the Hong Kong Department of Justice on apology legislation
Projects
Robyn is working on two areas of research that are also her areas of teaching:
1. The role of apologies in the law: An in-depth examination of three aspects of the law in Australia and internationally – apology-protection legislation, apologies in assessment of damages and ordered apologies. Apologies have received little scholarly attention in the law and Robyn’s work addresses this gap. She’s co-authoring a book; the Role of Apologies in the Law and co-editing a book; Apologies in the Legal Arena: A comparative perspective.
2. Family violence and family law property matters and elder abuse: Victims of family violence and elder abuse frequently are unable to assert and enforce their legal rights and change is necessary to achieve the legal and non-legal outcomes that they need. To this end, Robyn is updating three chapters for the 10th edition of Family Law in Australia, published by Lexis Nexis, due 2021.
Funding
2017-2018
WA Public Purposes Trust Fund
- Family Violence and Property Disputes: A pilot research project – Law Access Research Advisory Committee and UWA Law School research team
- Jill Howieson CI, Robyn Carroll, Sarah Murray, Ian Murray; Lisa Young, Murdoch University
2014
Hong Kong Ministry of Justice Research Contract
- Legal Issues relating to the Introduction of Apology Legislation in Hong Kong
2013
Institute of Advanced Studies (UWA) Grant for Elder Law Forum
- Health Wealth and Hearth: Law, Policy and Social Perspectives on an Ageing Australia
- Meredith Blake, Robyn Carroll, Eileen Webb
Teaching
Supervisor opportunities
News and articles
How might an apology feature in the new religious freedom bill?
If the federal government’s proposed Religious Discrimination Bill becomes law, a person seeking an apology for religious discrimination will have a new avenue to do so.
Read moreApologies and corrections as remedies for serious invasions of privacy
Chapter 9 from 'Remedies for Breach of Privacy', edited by Jason N. E. Varuhas and N. A. Moreham
Read moreFamily property disputes involving family violence: a pilot research project
Read this collaborative research project that investigated families affected by family and domestic violence (‘FDV’) who cannot access legal assistance to resolve their property disputes.
Read more