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Professor

Margaret Otlowski

Professor in Law (Personal Chair)

Law

Orcid identifier0000-0003-4707-4325
  • Professor in Law (Personal Chair)
    Law
  • +61 3 6226 7569 (Work)
  • Faculty of Law, Law, Private Bag 89, Hobart, Tas, 7001, Australia

BIO

Margaret Otlowski is a Professor of Law at the School of Law in the College of Arts, Law and Education and Director of the Centre for Law and Genetics. She holds an adjunct professorial appointment with the Menzies Institute for Medical Research. Her research has focused on health law. She was Dean of Law from 2010-2017 and Pro Vice Chancellor (Culture, Wellbeing and Sustainability) from 2018-2020. She has been admitted to practice and has been a part-time member of various Commonwealth and State Tribunals including the Social Security Appeals Tribunal, the Tasmanian Anti-Discrimination Board and the Tasmanian Guardianship Board. She was made a fellow of the Australian Academy of Law in 2015. She has also served on a range of national and state committees. In 2022 she was appointed as Commissioner for the Voluntary Assisted Dying Commission and is also the Patron for Tasmanian Women Lawyers.



Margaret graduated in 1985 with First Class Honours in Law. After completing the Legal Practice Course, she did her articles with Page Seager solicitors in Hobart and was admitted as Barrister and Solicitor in 1986. After some part-time lecturing involvements, she was appointed in a full-time academic role at UTAS in 1987. She completed a PhD in 1992 which was published in the UK by Oxford University Press (Voluntary Euthanasia and the Common Law). Since then, she has pursued her career through the University of Tasmania and was appointed Professor through a Personal Chair in 2003. Margaret has served in a range of roles at UTAS, including as Dean of Law 2010-2017, Pro Vice Chancellor (Culture, Wellbeing and Sustainability) 2018-2020, Senior Academic Adviser, Graduate Research (2021) and Vice Chancellor's Envoy for Europe (since 2021) alongside her substantive position as Law Professor.

Her principal areas of research expertise are in relation to end-of-life issues and aspects of law and genetics, with particular focus on genetic discrimination, privacy and regulatory issues. She has taught across a number of areas including Family Law, Torts, Law and Ethics of Health Care, Biotechnology Law and more recently Foundations of Law and Ethics, Social Responsibility and the Law. She was an inaugural recipient of a UTAS Teaching Excellence Award in 1992 and has also been awarded a Teaching Merit Certificate.

DEGREES

  • LLB (Hons 1)
    University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia1985
  • Graduate Certificate in Legal Practice
    University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia1985
  • PhD
    University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia1993

SCHOOL AND PORTFOLIO

  • Faculty of Law

UN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

  • 3 Good Health and Well Being
  • 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

AVAILABILITY

  • Masters by research or PhD student supervision

FIELD OF RESEARCH