Professor Paul Babie appointed the ninth holder of the Bonython Chair in Law

Environment Institute member, Professor Paul Babie has been appointed the ninth holder of the Bonython Chair in Law.

Professor Paul Babie joined the Adelaide Law School in 1999, and is Associate Dean of Law (International) and Director of the Research Unit for the Study of Society, Ethics, and Law. He has previously been Associate Dean of Law (Research) and Associate Dean of Law (Learning and Teaching). He was promoted to a Personal Chair (Full Professor) in Law in 2015 and named the ninth holder of the Bonython Chair in Law of the University of Adelaide in 2021. He was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law in 2017.

He holds a BA in sociology and political science from the University of Calgary, a BThSt from Flinders University, a LLB from the University of Alberta, a LLM from the University of Melbourne, writing a thesis on the transferability of water entitlements supervised by SD Clark, and a DPhil in law from St Catherine's College, the University of Oxford, completing a thesis on the nature of the Crown (state) interest in Australian land supervised by JW Harris, DJ Ibbetson, and JD Davies. At Oxford, he was a Viscount Bennett, a Canadian Centennial, and a Landau Scholar. Following law school he was an Associate with Howard, Mackie (now Borden Ladner Gervais (BLG)) in Calgary, Canada, specialising in securities and natural resources law.

Prior to his appointment to the Adelaide Law School, he was Lecturer in Law at St Catherine's and Balliol Colleges, University of Oxford, and the Melbourne Law School, The University of Melbourne. He is a Barrister and Solicitor (inactive) of the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta (Canada), and an Associate Member of the Law Society of South Australia (of which he is a Member of the Property Law Committee). He is frequently consulted on issues relating to real property law and law and religion (especially in relation to the Australian Constitution).

His research, throughout his career, has involved asking what property is and how, if at all, it can be justified. He has explored those questions from legal theoretical and from theological perspectives. He is Assistant Editor of the Australian Property Law Journal, was Editor in Chief and South Australia Editor of the Property Law Review (Thomson Reuters), and is an Editorial Board Member of the Journal of Law and Religion (Cambridge University Press), the Routledge Research Series in Law and Religion, the Springer Research Series in Law and Religion, and of the Forum on Religion & Ecology (FORE) @ Australia (affiliated with FORE, Yale University (USA).

His work has appeared in leading American law reviews (including the North Carolina Law Review, Emory Law Journal Online, UC Davis Law Review Online, Brigham Young University Law Review, Tulane Law Review, San Diego Law Review, the University of Hawaii Law Review, the Fordham International Law Journal, and the Journal of Law and Religion) and in leading Australian law reviews (including the Melbourne University Law Review, the Sydney Law Review, the Federal Law Review, the Monash University Law Review, the UNSW Law Journal, The University of Queensland Law Journal, the Adelaide Law Review, and the University of Western Australia Law Review).

Professor Babie currently teaches property law, property theory, law and religion and Roman law.