Dr Daniel Ghezelbash
Associate Professor

Dr Daniel Ghezelbash

PhD (University of Sydney)

LLB (Hons I) (University of Sydney)

BA (Hons I) (University of Sydney)

Graduate Dip Legal Practice (ANU)

Law & Justice
School of Global & Public Law

Daniel is Associate Professor and the Deputy Director of the Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law at UNSW Sydney, and an Australian Research Council (ARC) DECRA Fellow. He is an internationally recognised scholar of international and comparative refugee and migration law. His ARC DECRA project examines fast-track asylum policies, and whether it is possible to design procedures which are both fair and efficient. He has also published widely on the way restrictive asylum policies have spread around the world. This is the topic of his book, Refuge Lost: Asylum Law in an Interdependent World (Cambridge University Press, 2018). He has spent time as a Visiting Fellow at the Refugee Studies Centre at Oxford University and a Visiting Scholar at Harvard Law School, Brooklyn Law School and New York Law School.

His research transcends traditional disciplinary barriers, drawing on everything from law, computing, political science, behavioural psychology and data science.

Daniel is passionate about using technology to increase access to justice and to counter systemic discrimination and bias in the legal system. He has been involved in establishing a number of initiatives using technology to increase access to justice, including Wallumatta Legal, a not-for-profit law firm which uses technology to provide low-cost legal advice to family law litigants that would otherwise be unrepresented, and Tech4Justice, which aims to harness the power of complaint making to combat systemic discrimination. He is also one of the pioneers of computational and jurimetrics approaches to studying judicial decision-making in the Australian context. In his previous role, Ghezelbash founded and directed the award winning Macquarie University Social Justice Clinic and led the Law and AI stream at the Macquarie AI-enabled Processes Research Centre. 

Daniel is a practicing refugee lawyer. He is Special Counsel at the National Justice Project, and sits on the boards of a number of not-for-profit legal centres, including Refugee Advice and Casework Services (Vice-President) and Wallumatta Legal.

Daniel regularly features and published in domestic and international media outlets on refugee, migration, access to justice and legal technology issues. In 2021, he was selected for the ABC Top 5 Humanities Media Residency.

Location
Room 147 The Law Building University of New South Wales UNSW Kensington Campus Sydney NSW 2052 Australia (Access via Gate 2 off High Street)
  • Books | 2020
    Crock M; Bones K; Ghezelbash D; Hollands J; Kenny MA, 2020, Children and Young People in Asylum and Refugee Processes Towards Best Practice
    Books | 2018
    Ghezelbash D, 2018, Refuge lost: Asylum law in an interdependent world, http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/9781108349031
  • Book Chapters | 2022
    Crock M; Ghezelbash D; Reich S; Stevens R, 2022, 'Selective Generosity: Migration Law and Policy in Australia', in Ius Comparatum - Global Studies in Comparative Law, Springer International Publishing, pp. 99 - 139, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99508-3_2
    Book Chapters | 2022
    Ghezelbash D, 2022, 'Australia’s boat push-back policy: Hyper-legalism and obfuscation in action', in Refugee Externalisation Policies: Responsibility, Legitimacy and Accountability, pp. 69 - 83, http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003167273-6
    Book Chapters | 2021
    Ghezelbash D, 2021, 'Fast-track, accelerated, and expedited asylum procedures as a tool of exclusion', in Research Handbook on the Law and Politics of Migration, pp. 248 - 261
    Book Chapters | 2018
    Ghezelbash D, 2018, 'The rise and rise of mandatory immigration detention', in Protecting Migrant Children: In Search of Best Practice, pp. 420 - 436
    Book Chapters | 2016
    Crock M; Ghezelbash D, 2016, 'Secret immigration business: Policy transfers and the tyranny of deterrence theory', in The Ashgate Research Companion to Migration Law, Theory and Policy, pp. 617 - 638, http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781315613239
    Book Chapters | 2016
    Pickering S; Segrave M; Tazreiter C; Weber L, 2016, 'Migration control and human security', in The Ashgate Research Companion to Migration Law, Theory and Policy, pp. 535 - 562, http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781315613239
    Book Chapters | 2015
    Ghezelbash D, 2015, 'Lessons in exclusion: Interdiction and extraterritorial processing of asylum seekers in the United States and Australia', in Exploring the Boundaries of Refugee Law: Current Protection Challenges, pp. 90 - 117, http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/9789004265585_006
    Book Chapters | 2013
    Crock M; Ghezelbash D, 2013, 'Secret immigration business: Policy transfers and the tyranny of deterrence theory', in The Ashgate Research Companion to Migration Law, Theory and Policy, pp. 617 - 637
  • Journal articles | 2023
    Carole V; Ghezelbash D; Hinterberger KF; Heckendorn Urscherler L, 2023, 'Editorial - Special Issue on Comparative Migration Law: Methods, Debates and New Frontiers', International Journal of Migration and Border Studies, 7, pp. 107 - 113, https://www.inderscience.com/info/inarticletoc.php?jcode=ijmbs&year=2023&vol=7&issue=2
    Journal articles | 2022
    Ghezelbash D; Dorostkar K; Walsh S, 2022, 'A DATA DRIVEN APPROACH TO EVALUATING AND IMPROVING JUDICIAL DECISION-MAKING: STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF THE JUDICIAL REVIEW OF REFUGEE CASES IN AUSTRALIA', University of New South Wales Law Journal, 45, pp. 1085 - 1123
    Journal articles | 2022
    Ghezelbash D, 2022, 'Legal transfers of migration law: the case for an interdisciplinary approach', International Journal of Migration and Border Studies, 7, pp. 1 - 1, http://dx.doi.org/10.1504/ijmbs.2022.10051335
    Journal articles | 2022
    Ghezelbash D, 2022, 'Technology and countersurveillance: holding governments accountable for refugee externalization policies', Globalizations, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2022.2051274
    Journal articles | 2021
    Dastyari A; Ghezelbash D, 2021, 'Asylum at sea: The legality of shipboard refugee status determination procedures', International Journal of Refugee Law, 32, pp. 1 - 27, http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/IJRL/EEZ046
    Journal articles | 2020
    Ghezelbash D; Feith Tan N, 2020, 'The End of the Right to Seek Asylum? COVID-19 and the Future of Refugee Protection', International Journal of Refugee Law, 32, pp. 668 - 679, http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ijrl/eeab002
    Journal articles | 2020
    Ghezelbash D, 2020, 'Hyper-Legalism and Obfuscation: How States Evade Their International Obligations towards Refugees', American Journal of Comparative Law, 68, pp. 479 - 516, http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ajcl/avaa019
    Journal articles | 2020
    Jefferies R; Ghezelbash D; Hirsch A, 2020, 'ASSESSING REFUGEE PROTECTION CLAIMS AT AUSTRALIAN AIRPORTS: THE GAP BETWEEN LAW, POLICY, AND PRACTICE', MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW, 44, pp. 162 - 211, http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3746085
    Journal articles | 2020
    Newhouse G; Ghezelbash D; Whittaker A, 2020, 'The Experience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Participants in Australia’s Coronial Inquest System: Reflections from the Front Line', International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, 9, pp. 76 - 89, http://dx.doi.org/10.5204/IJCJSD.1691
    Journal articles | 2019
    Moreno-Lax V; Ghezelbash D; Klein N, 2019, 'Between life, security and rights: Framing the interdiction of 'boat migrants' in the central mediterranean and Australia', Leiden Journal of International Law, 32, pp. 715 - 740, http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0922156519000451
    Journal articles | 2018
    Ghezelbash D; Moreno-Lax V; Klein N; Opeskin B, 2018, 'Securitization of Search and Rescue at Sea: The Response to Boat Migration in the Mediterranean and Offshore Australia', International & Comparative Law Quarterly, 67, pp. 315 - 351, http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0020589317000562
    Journal articles | 2017
    Ghezelbash D, 2017, 'LEGAL TRANSFERS of RESTRICTIVE IMMIGRATION LAWS: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE', International and Comparative Law Quarterly, 66, pp. 235 - 255, http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0020589316000373
    Journal articles | 2014
    Ghezelbash D, 2014, 'Forces of diffusion: what drives the transfer of immigration policy and law across jurisdictions?', International Journal of Migration and Border Studies, 1, pp. 139 - 139, http://dx.doi.org/10.1504/ijmbs.2014.066306
    Journal articles | 2011
    Crock M; Ghezelbash D, 2011, 'Due process and rule of law as human rights: The High Court and the "offshore" processing of asylum seekers', AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF ADMINISTRATIVE LAW, 18, https://www.webofscience.com/api/gateway?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000213674600004&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=891bb5ab6ba270e68a29b250adbe88d1
    Journal articles | 2010
    Crock M; Ghezelbash D, 2010, 'Do loose lips bring ships? The role of policy, politics and human rights in managing unauthorised boat arrivals', Griffith Law Review, 19, pp. 238 - 287, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10383441.2010.10854676
  • Reports | 2022
    Gleeson M; Ghezelbash D; Pillai S, 2022, Torture and cruel treatment in Australia’s refugee protection and immigration detention regimes: Submission to the UN Committee Against Torture’s sixth periodic review of Australia, https://www.kaldorcentre.unsw.edu.au/sites/kaldorcentre.unsw.edu.au/files/20221003_HRLC_RCOA_Kaldor_Centre_Submission_Committee_Against_Torture.pdf
    Submissions to Government | 2022
    Hirsch A; Ghezelbash D; Dorostkar K; Walsh S, 2022, Submission to Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee Inquiry: The performance and integrity of Australia’s administrative review system, , https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/2021-AAT-Inquiry-RCOA.pdf
    Submissions to Government | 2021
    2021, Submission to the Australian Law Reform Commission Review of Judicial Impartiality, , https://www.alrc.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/29.-Macquarie-University-Behavioural-Insights-Team-Public.pdf
    Preprints |
    Ghezelbash D; Feith Tan N, The End of the Right to Seek Asylum? COVID-19 and the Future of Refugee Protection, , http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3689093

Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award, Fast Track Asylum Procedures: Balancing Fairness and Efficiency (2022 – 2025)

Macquarie Research Accelerator Scheme, Were We All in This Together? Sub-national border closures during Covid-19 and the shifting scales of governance and resilience (2022 – 2023, with CIs Burridge, Howitt, Lloyd)

Macquarie Research Accelerator Scheme, Counteracting Cognitive and Social Biases Experienced by First Nations People in the Legal System (2021 – 2022, with CIs Beheshti, Ross and Levy)

Macquarie Centre for Agency and Values, Refugee Policy Messaging Project (2021 – 2022, with CIs Ross, Beheshti and Wodak)

DVCR Strategic Research Start-up Funding, Measuring the Impact of Advocacy Work Carried out by the Not-For-Profit Legal Sector (2019 – 2022)

Queen Mary’s HSS Collaboration Fund, Search and Rescue Observatory for the Mediterranean (SAROBMED) (2018)     

Macquarie Research Development Grant, Comparative Perspectives on the Search and Rescue of Migrants at Sea (2016 – 2018, with CIs Klein and Opeskin)

2022 - Financial Times Legal Innovation Award (Wallumatta Legal)

2021 - Macquarie Vice-Chancellor Research Excellence Award   

2018 - Macquarie Faculty of Arts Research Excellence Award 

2018 - Macquarie Faculty of Arts Learning and Teaching Award