Professor Shirley Scott

Shirley Scott is a Professor of International Law and International Relations in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at UNSW Canberra.
 
Professor Scott is internationally-recognised for her research at the intersection of International Law and International Relations. One of her most significant contributions to scholarship has been her theory of international law as ideology. She has also contributed widely to scholarly understanding of theoretical questions arising in relation to the political operation of international law and of topics including the nature of US engagement with international law, Antarctic governance, international dispute resolution, and climate security governance. Professor Scott is contributing to contemporary analysis of threats to the international rules based order, how that order operated in the past, and the nature and significance of change to international law at a systemic level. She is also at the forefront of international debate regarding what constructive role the UN Security Council could play in addressing climate insecurity. 

Professor Scott has held visiting fellowships and appointments including at Beasley School of Law, China Foreign Affairs University and the University of Hamburg. In 2020 she was a Senior Visiting Fellow with the Berlin-Potsdam Research Group on International Law, Rise or Decline at the Freie Universität in Berlin.
 
Professor Scott is co-chair of the Editorial Board of the Asian Journal of International Law and the immediate past President of the Asian Society of International Law. She is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of International Affairs and of the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia. She has also contributed to the International Law Section of the International Studies Association, including as Section Chair. 

Research Areas

        Politics of international law and the operation of the rules based global order, climate security governance, Antarctic governance, Australia's foreign relations

Postgraduate Research Supervision

Professor Scott is available to supervise HDR candidates on a range of topics including those pertaining to the political operation of international law, national engagement with international law (on the part of the US, Australia, China, etc), international regimes and institutions, norms, the rules-based global order, International Relations, Australia's foreign relations, Antarctica, maritime security, and global climate governance.

Teaching areas

Politics of international law

For her Engagement story please click