Mrs Liesel Spencer
Associate Lecturer, School of Law
BALAWS(Hons) UWS Contact details
Career Profile
Liesel Spencer joined the School of Law at UWS in 2007. Prior to joining the school, she spent two years as a sessional law lecturer with UWS, the University of Sydney, and the University of Wollongong. Her working history also includes positions in legal publishing with Law Book Company (now Thompson), as a commercial litigation paralegal, and in journalism. Her current scholarship is in the intersection between the local government law, public health law and urban planning disciplines. She is writing a PhD thesis at University of Technology Sydney on the use of local government law for urban agriculture and sustainable public health. She also publishes in the area of legal education, on the use of exemplars and on motivating law students to engage in reading.
Learning & Teaching Interests
Mentoring first year studens in foundation skills in research, time managemetn, studying, legal writing, and university/life balance. She also teaches Torts Law, and teaches and co-ordinates Introduction to Law.
Research Interests
Local government and planning law; public health law; law and urban agriculture; intersection of law and urban planning; legal education.
Engagement Interests
On the panel of interviewers for the UWS Medical School.
Publications
‘Integrating Food Security Into Local Government Law, Policy and Planning: Using Local Government Legal Structures to Build Community Resilience to Food Insecurity’ (2013) Food Studies: An International Journal (forthcoming).
'Using Exemplars to Communicate Criteria and Standards and Improve Students' Performance in Assessment' (with David Newlyn) (2013) Ubiquitous Learning: An International Journal (forthcoming).
‘Motivating Law Students to 'Do the Reading' Before Class: Appropriate Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivational Tools’ (2012) 5 (1-2) Journal of the Australasian Law Teachers’ Association 189.
‘Providing Exemplars to Improve Student Performance in a Contract Law Research Essay’ (with John Juriansz and David Newlyn) (2012) The International Journal of Learning (forthcoming).
‘Vodcasting in Tandem with Annotated Exemplars to Improve Student Performance’ (with David Newlyn) (2012) Canadian Legal Education Review = Revue de l'Enseignement du Droit au Canada (Editor Annie Rochette) Canada, pp 87-109.
'Improving Student Performance in Interdisciplinary Law Unit Assessment by Providing Annotated Exemplars' (with David Newlyn) (2010) 3 (1&2) Journal of the Australasian Law Teachers Association 67.
'Using Exemplars in an Interdisciplinary Law Unit: Listening to the Student's Voices', (with David Newlyn) (2009) 2 Journal of the Australasian Law Teachers' Association 121.
‘Intertester Reliability: Reporting on Assessment Methods in Interdisciplinary Units' (with David Newlyn) (2008) 1 Journal of the Australasian Law Teachers Association 255.
Conference Papers
Liesel Spencer, 'Cuban legal structures for urban agriculture: cobenefits of translation to New South Wales local government law and policy', XIX International Conference of the Society for Human Ecology, Australian National University, Canberra, 5-8 February 2013.
Liesel Spencer, ‘Cuban legal structures facilitating urban agriculture: adaptation for the New South Wales local government context’, 2012 Conference of the Australasian Law Teachers’ Association, University of Sydney, Camperdown.
Liesel Spencer, ‘Motivating law students to ‘do the reading’ before class: appropriate extrinsic and intrinsic motivational tools’, 2012 Conference of the Australasian Law Teachers’ Association, University of Sydney, Camperdown.
Liesel Spencer, 'The capacity of local government in New South Wales to promote public health within the existing legislative framework' poster presentation, 2011 4th Healthy Cities - Making Cities Liveable Conference, Noosa (forthcoming July 2011).
David Newlyn and Liesel Spencer, 'Using Exemplars in An Interdisciplinary Law Unit: Listening To The Students' Voices' 2009 Conference of The Australiasian Law Teachers' Association, University of Western Sydney, Parramatta.
David Newlyn and Liesel Spencer, 'Intertester Reliability: Reporting on Assessment Methods in Interdisciplinary Units' 2008 Conference of the Australasian Law Teachers' Association, James Cook University, Cairns
