Daniel Fitzpatrick writes on property rights in contexts of natural disasters and climate change. In 2007 he won the Hart Article Prize from the UK Socio-Legal Association. He has authored or co-authored 6 books, and has published in the Yale Law Journal, Law and Society Review, the Yale Journal of International Law, Regulation & Governance, the American Journal of Comparative Law, and Law and Social Inquiry. He has been a Global Visiting Professor at New York University School of Law, a Visiting Professor at the National University of Singapore; a Visiting Professor at the University of Muenster; and a Distinguished Visitor at the University of Toronto. In 2022, he was a Scholar-in-Residence at the Woodrow Wilson Institute for International Scholars in Washington DC.

Since 2012, Prof Fitzpatrick has received A$1,031,690 in competitive research funding from the Australian Research Council (for projects in Indonesia and the Solomon Islands). From 2012 to 2016 he was an Australian Research Council Future Fellow. In 2016, he acted as an Assessor for the Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) program.

Professor Fitzpatrick has extensive experience in the public policy of property rights and development. He was the UN's land rights adviser in post-conflict East Timor (2000) and post-tsunami Aceh (2005-6). He is the primary author of the UN's guidelines on addressing land issues after natural disasters [Land and Disasters: Guidance for Practitioners (2010)]. He has worked with Oxfam International on land issues after the earthquake in Nepal, and after Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. He advised UNESCAP on land issues after Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar. He is a member of the expert advisory committee for the Platform on Disaster Displacement. In 2010, he was a Keynote Speaker at the 2010 International Federation of Surveyors Conference (Climate Change, Disaster Management and Land Governance - 2000 delegates). He has undertaken professional consultancies on law and development with the World Bank; AusAID; the Asian Development Bank; Oxfam International; the OECD; UNDP and UN-HABITAT.

Prof Fitzpatrick's most recent work for the World Bank is on land tenure and disaster risk management in situations of fragility, conflict and violence (2022). His most recent work for the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat is on Land Tenure and Climate Mobility in the Pacific Region.

Professor Fitzpatrick joined Monash University from the Australian National University in 2017. At ANU, he acted as Director of the Centre for Commercial Law, and established the Masters in Law, Governance and Development. He was nominated for a Vice-Chancellor’s excellence in education award in 2010, and an ANU College of Law teaching excellence award in 2011.