Peter Rush came to the Law Faculty at the University of Melbourne in 1999. He has been a youthworker, an artist, a filmmaker and a scholar. Since 1988, he has taught in Law Faculties and Criminology Departments in Australia and in England. Courses taught have included criminal law, jurisprudence, legal discourse, gender and law, evidence, legal history and legal method, law and the body, law and criminal justice. In 2004/2005, he was a Karl Loewenstein Fellow in Political Science at Amherst College (USA).
He is the author of several books on criminal law and edited collections on jurisprudence and poststructuralist legal theory. A longstanding member of the critical legal studies movement in the United Kingdom, he was coordinator of its national conference and a founding member of the interdisciplinary legal theory journal Law & Critique. Additionally, he has been invited to present papers and lectures at institutions in the United States and Canada, such as Amherst College, Carleton University, and New York University. In Australia, he is a member of the editorial boards of several legal theory journals and has been active in the Australian Law and Literature Association and the Australian Law and Society Association. He contributes to community and professional debate concerning law reform, particularly in relation to both the law of sexual offences and the criminal law of HIV transmission. In 2000, he made a short documentary film concerning justice, aesthetics and colonialism in the city of Melbourne.
His current scholarship is in the areas of Legal Theory and of Criminal Law (national and international).
Current scholarship is in the areas of Legal Theory and Criminal Law. Specific areas include: theories of crimial jurisdiction; international criminal law and theories of trauma; and sexual assault, brief authorisation and policing.
In respect of the latter, he is currently a Chief Investigator on a five year ARC Linkage grant, with linkage partner Victoria Police and collaborating organisation Ballarat University. The project - entitled Policing Just Outcomes - is investigating the investigation and prosecution of adult sexual assault by police. In respect of the latter, he is currently a Chief Investigator on a five year ARC Linkage grant, with linkage partner Victoria Police and collaborating organisation Ballarat University. The project - entitled Policing Just Outcomes - is investigating the investigation and prosecution of adult sexual assault by police.
Other Faculty and University Responsibilities
Director, Theories of Sovereignty and Jurisdiction programme, Institute for International law and the Humantities
Associate Director, Legal Aesthetics, Centre for Media and Communications Law
Memberships and Affiliations
Vice President, and past President, Law and Literature Association of Australia
Other
Editorial Board Member, Griffith Law Review, Griffith Law Review Association, Nathan, Qld
Advisory Committee Member, Law, Text, Culture, University of Wollongong, Wollongong
