Doctor Shelley Bielefeld

Lecturer in Law

PhD, LLB (Hons1), BLJS SCU

Biography

Shelley Bielefeld is a 2003 graduate of the School of Law and Justice at Southern Cross University. She graduated with First Class Honours, a University Medal for Academic Excellence and was first in her graduating year.

Shelley has a keen interest in social justice and a particular interest in the area of race and the law. Shelley has been awarded her PhD entitled The Dehumanising Violence of Racism – The Role of Law. The focus of this PhD research is concern about exercises of parliamentary power resulting in adverse effects for groups targeted on the basis of race.

Shelley worked as an academic at Southern Cross University at the School of Law and Justice from February 2003 until August 2011 and then took up a Lecturer position at the School of Law at the University of Western Sydney.

Shelley has experience teaching across a broad range of subjects. In recent years she has focused on teaching and curriculum development for Property Law, Contract Law, and Restorative Justice.

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Areas of Research / Teaching Expertise

Property Law
Contract Law
Restorative Justice
Philosophy of Law
Legal Process
Constitutional Law
Race and the Law

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Awards and Recognition


• Awarded first place in the SCU round of the Three Minute Thesis Competition in 2010.
• Awarded an Australian Postgraduate Award in 2004 for undertaking a Doctorate of Philosophy
• Awarded the University Medal in 2003 for Academic Excellence.
• Awarded the Stone and Partners Prize for 2002 for being the graduating student with the best academic performance in the Bachelor of Laws Degree which was determined by having the highest grade point average out of the graduating students.

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Selected Publications

REFEREED JOURNAL ARTICLES

Shelley Bielefeld, 'Compulsory Income Management and Indigenous Australians - Delivering Social Justice of Furthering Colonial Domination?' (2012) 35(2) University of New South Wales Law Journal 522-562.

Shelley Bielefeld, ‘The “Intervention” Legislation – “Just” Terms or “Reasonable” Injustice? - Wurridjal v The Commonwealth of Australia’ (2010) 14(2) Australian Indigenous Law Review 2-23. 

Shelley Bielefeld, ‘The Good White Nation Once More Made Good? Apology for Atrocities to the Stolen Generations’ (2009/2010) 13 Southern Cross University Law Review 87-108. 

Shelley Bielefeld, Sue Higginson, Jim Jackson, and Aidan Ricketts, ‘Directors' duties to the company and minority shareholder environmental activism’ (2004) 23 (1) Company and Securities Law Journal 28-49. 

Shelley Bielefeld, ‘The culture of consent and traditional punishments under customary law’ (2003) 7 Southern Cross University Law Review 142-153. 

E-PUBLICATION

Shelley Bielefeld, The Dehumanising Violence of Racism: The Role of Law (D Phil thesis, Southern Cross University, 2010), http://epubs.scu.edu.au/theses/163/.

CONFERENCE PAPERS

'The Impact of the History War on Law: Stronger Futures or Perpetuating Paternalism?', Australian and New Zealand Law and History Society Conference: Receiving Laws/Giving Laws, University of Technology Sydney, 11 December 2012.

'Racist restrictions on participation in the cash economy in Nazi Germany and Australia', Australasian Law Teachers Association Annual Conference: Legal Education for a Global Community, The University of Sydney, 3 July 2012.

‘Income Management in Australia - A Historical Anachronism Given Contemporary Currency', Australian and New Zealand Law and History Society Conference: Private Law, Public Lives, The University of Queensland, 12 December 2011.

'Nazi Germany and Queensland – Exploring the Parallels’, Australian and New Zealand Law and History Society Conference: Owning the Past, La Trobe University, 13 December 2010.

‘Hitler’s National Emergency, Howard’s National Emergency and the Ongoing Northern Territory Emergency Response’, Cultural Studies Association of Australasia Annual Conference, Southern Cross University, 7 December 2010.

‘Ngarrindjeri Dominion and Law’s “Truth” - An Analysis of Issues Arising from Kartinyeri v The Commonwealth’, Critical Legal Conference, University of Kent, Canterbury, England, 3 September 2005.

OTHER RESEARCH PRESENTATIONS

‘Are the Provisions in the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) on Unfair Contract Terms Adequate to Address the Concerns of Critical Theorists?’, Early to Mid Career Research Workshop – The Australian Consumer Law and Contracts, Australian National University, 18 February 2011.

‘The Dehumanising Violence of Racism – The Role of Law’, Inaugural Australia and New Zealand Three Minute Thesis Competition, The University of Queensland, 21 September 2010.

‘The Dehumanising Violence of Racism – The Role of Law’, SCU’s Three Minute Thesis Competition, Southern Cross University, 2 September 2010.

‘The Dehumanising Violence of Racism – The Role of Law’, Sydney Law School, The University of Sydney, 18 August 2010.

‘“Natural Justice”? Colonial impositions of “justice” on Indigenous Peoples’, Stories and Songs of the People in association with Gnibi College of Indigenous Australian Peoples, Southern Cross University, 31 October 2008.

‘Parliamentary Sovereignty, Democracy, the Rule of Law, and Indigenous Voices - An Analysis of Issues Arising from
Kartinyeri v The Commonwealth’, Centre for Peace and Social Justice, Southern Cross University, December 2004.

‘Directors' duties to the company and minority shareholder environmental activism’, School of Law and Justice, Southern Cross University, 25 August 2004.

‘The Use of Legislative Power to Dehumanise a Racial Group: A Comparison of Australia and Nazi Germany’, CRUX Postgraduate Association Workshop, Southern Cross University, March 2004.

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Memberships and Engagement

  • Member of the Australian and New Zealand Law and History Society (ANZLHS).
  • Involved with the Northern Rivers Environmental Defender’s Office
  • Member of the School of Law Social Justice Research Group

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