Tania Penovic

Dr Tania Penovic is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Law, Deputy Associate Dean (International) and the research program group leader in gender and sexuality for the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law. Dr Penovic teaches litigation and dispute resolution, torts and a number of areas of international and domestic human rights law, including women's rights.

Dr Penovic has provided professional human rights training programs for judges and Australian and international government officials. She has published numerous scholarly articles and chapters on human rights, including the rights of asylum seekers, access to civil justice, reproductive rights and children's rights. Dr Penovic has provided numerous submissions to state, federal and international inquiries into law reform and her research has been relied upon in argument before the Constitutional Court of Chile and the European Court of Human Rights. Leave to appear as amicus curiae has been granted by the High Court of Australia with respect to her submissions and her research has been cited by the High Court of Australia and the Supreme Court of Victoria.

A sample of her research can be viewed here and here. Her Google Scholar profile is here.

Chapters in edited collections

Tania Penovic, ‘Boat People and the Entrenchment of Exclusion’ in Melissa Castan and Paula Gerber (Eds), Critical Perspectives on Human Rights Law in Australia: Volume 1 (Thomson Reuters, 2021), 373-408

Tania Penovic, ‘Illuminating the invisible: women’s human rights in Australian law and policy’ in Melissa Castan and Paula Gerber (Eds), Critical Perspectives on Human Rights Law in Australia: Volume 1 (Thomson Reuters, 2021), 215-250

Tania Penovic, ‘Moral panics and the Distortion of Human Rights’ in Paula Gerber (Ed), Worldwide Perspectives on Lesbians, Gays, and Bisexuals: Volume 2 - Law and Government (ABC-Clio, 2021), 324-358

Tania Penovic, ‘What’s so contentious about promoting acceptance of gender and sexual diversity?’ in VII International Conference on Education in Human Rights (IHREC), Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Chile, November 2017, 472-282 at http://www.derecho.uchile.cl/publicaciones/139918/vii-conferencia-internacional-de-educacion-en-derechos-humanos-ihrec

Tania Penovic and Azadeh Dastyari, ‘Harm and accountability in transnational detention environments: the case of Australia’s extraterritorial processing of asylum seekers’ in Furman, Ackerman and Epps (Eds) Detaining the Immigrant Other: Global and Transnational Issues (Oxford University Press, 2016)

Tania Penovic, ‘Boat people and the Body Politic’ Chapter 14 in Melissa Castan and Paula Gerber (Eds), Contemporary Perspectives on Human Rights Law in Australia (Thomson Reuters, 2013) 333-370.

Books

Stephen Colbran, Peta Spender, Sheryl Jackson, Roger Douglas and Tania Penovic; Civil Procedure: Commentary and Materials (5th, 6th and 7th Editions, LexisNexis Butterworths, 2012, 2015 and 2019)

Stephen Colbran et al, Civil Procedure Study Guide (2nd Edition, 2019)

Andrew Hemming and Tania Penovic, Civil Procedure in Australia (1st Edition, LexisNexis Butterworths, 2015)

 Journal articles-peer reviewed

Caroline Henckels, Ronli Sifris and Tania Penovic, 'Dignity as a Constitutional Value: Abortion, Political Communication and Proportionality' (2021) 49(4) Federal Law Review (forthcoming)

Ronli Sifris and Tania Penovic, ‘Barriers to abortion faced by Australian women before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic’ Vol 86, May-June 2021 Women’s Studies International Forum, Article 102470 at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2021.102470

Michaela Guthridge, Paul H. Mason, Tania Penovic and Melita J. Giummarra. ‘A critical review of interdisciplinary perspectives on the paradox of prosocial compared to antisocial manifestations of empathy’ Dec 2020 Social Science Information SSI 976946, pp 632-653 DOI: 10.1177/0539018420976946

Ronli Sifris, Tania Penovic and Caroline Henckels, ‘Advancing Reproductive Rights through Legal Reform: The Example of Abortion Clinic Safe Access Zones’ (2020) 43(3) University of New South Wales Law Journal, 1078-1097

Tania Penovic and Ronli Sifris, ‘Expanding the Feminisation Dimension of International Law: targeted anti-abortion protest as violence against women’ (2018) Cambridge International Law Journal, Vol. 7 No. 2, pp. 241–267

Ronli Sifris and Tania Penovic, ‘Anti-Abortion Protest and the Effectiveness of Victoria's Safe-Access Zones: An Analysis' (2018) 44 Monash University Law Review

Tania Penovic, ‘Privatised immigration detention services: challenges and opportunities for implementing human rights (2014) 30(2) Law in Context 10-47

Tania Penovic, ‘Labor’s ‘New Directions in detention’ three years on: Plus ça change’ (2011) 36(4) Alternative Law Journal 240-244.

Tania Penovic, Review: ‘Human Rights and the Unborn Child; Rita Joseph (Martinus Nijhoff, 2009)’ (2011) Human Rights Quarterly 33 229-242

- presented as an amicus curiae brief and used in oral arguments before the Constitutional Court of Chile in the case of Requerimiento de inscontitucionalidad, rol 3729-17 (amicus curiae brief no 41, 11 August 2017)

 Tania Penovic, ‘Testing the boundaries of administrative detention through the tort of false imprisonment’ (2008) 16 Torts Law Journal, 156-181.

 Tania Penovic, ‘Mental harm as an instrument of public policy’ (2008) 15(1) Psychiatry, Psychology and Law 140-152.

Tania Penovic and Azadeh Dastyari, ‘Boatloads of incongruity: the evolution of Australia’s offshore processing regime’ (2007) 13(33) Australian Journal of Human Rights 33-61

• citations include Colombia law School intervenor brief (application no. 27765/09, European Court of Human Rights) in Hirsi v Italy, 17 April 2010

Tania Penovic and Adiva Sifris, ‘Children’s Rights through the Lens of Immigration Detention’, (2006) 20 Australian Journal of Family Law 12-44

Tania Penovic and Adiva Sifris, ‘Like a Bird in a Cage: Children’s voices and challenges to Australia’s immigration detention regime’ (2005) 292) International Journal of Equity and Innovation in Early Childhood 32-44

Tania Penovic ‘Undermining Australia’s International Standing: the failure to extend human rights protections to indigenous peoples affected by Australian mining companies’ ventures abroad’ (2005) 11 (1) Australian Journal of Human Rights 71-118

Tania Penovic ‘‘The separation of powers, Lim and the ‘voluntary’ immigration detention of children’, (2004) 29:5 Alternative Law Journal 222-227

Adiva Sifris and Tania Penovic ‘Children in Immigration Detention: The High Court Verdict in B and B and Beyond’ (2004) 29:5 Alternative Law Journal 217-221

Tania Penovic, Immigration detention of children: arbitrary deprivation of liberty’, 7(2) Newcastle Law Review (2003-2004) 35-48

Judd Epstein and Tania Penovic, ‘Can you have your say about your neighbour’s planning application and salvage your relationship? A study of Mediation in the Planning and Environment List at VCAT’ (2003) 8 Local Government Law Journal 116-176

Dictionary entires

Penovic, T, Entries in areas of Constitutional Law, Torts, International law, Internatonal human rights law in Trischa Mann (ed), Australian Law Dictionary (3rd Edition, Oxford University Press, 2017)  

Penovic, T, Entries in areas of Constitutional Law, Torts, International law, Internatonal human rights law in Trischa Mann (ed), Australian Law Dictionary (2nd Edition, Oxford University Press, 2013)  

Penovic, T, Entries in areas of Constitutional Law, Torts, International law, Internatonal human rights law in Trischa Mann (ed), Australian Law Dictionary (Oxford University Press, 2010)   

Submissions

Submission to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health on behalf of the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law (with Ronli Sifris), 8 June 2021 

Submission to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination Discrimination against Women, Australia’s Compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (with Ronli Sifris), 19 May 2021

Briefing South Australian members of the House of Assembly on safe access zone legislation and advising on proposed amendments to the Health Care (Safe Access) Bill 2020, 15 July 2020

Research cited in Parliament in Second Reading Speech, Health Care (Safe Access) Amendment Bill,  The Hon. T.A. Franks, 15 October 2020

Briefing South Australian members of the Legislative Council on further proposed amendments to the Health Care (Safe Access) Bill 2020, 23 October 2020

Submission to the United Nations OHCHR Working Group on Discrimination against Women and Girls, Women’s and girls’ sexual and reproductive health and rights in situations of crisis, co-author with by Karin Frodé, Andrea Olivares Jones and Ronli Sifris on behalf of Castan Centre for Human Rights Law, 31 August 2020

• Appearance before the New Zealand Abortion Legislation Committee: Abortion Legislation Bill, 29 October 2019, with Ronli Sifris

Submission to the New Zealand Abortion Legislation Committee: Abortion Legislation Bill, 13 September 2019, co-author with Ronli Sifris and Caroline Henckels 

Submission to the South Australian Law Reform Institute, Abortion: A Review of South Australian Law and Practice, May 2019, co-author with Ronli Sifris

South Australian Law Reform Institute Abortion: A Review of South Australian Law and Practice, Report 13, October 2019 cites submission 21 times, quotes submission 16 times and cites our submissions to the Queensland Law Reform Commission and Victorian Law Reform Commission and cites articles I have published in the Monash University Law Review and Cambridge International Law Journal.  

Submission to the Government of Western Australia Department of Health, Safe Access Zones Proposal for Reform in WA 17 May 2019, co-author with Ronli Sifris

Research cited in the Second Reading Speech of the Western Australian Health Minister to the Public Health Amendment (Safe Access Zones) Bill 2020.

Submission to the Queensland Parliament Health, Communities, Disability Services and Domestic and Family Violence Prevention Committee, Inquiry Concerning the Termination of Pregnancy Bill 2018, 5 September 2018, c-author with Ronli Sifris

Submissions of the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law seeking leave to appear as Amicus Curiae, in the High Court of Australia, Matter M46 of 2018, Kathleen Clubb v. Alyce Edwards & Attorney-General for Victoria, 25 May 2018, co-author with Ronli Sifris and Caroline Henckels at http://www.hcourt.gov.au/assets/cases/06-Melbourne/m46-2018/Clubb-Edwards_CastanCentre.pdf

    - cited in judgment of Nettle J  in High Court of Australia at para 281

    - cited in Supreme Court of Victoria, Clubb v Edwards and Anor [2020] VSC 49 at para 106

Submission to the Queensland Law Reform Commission, Review of Termination of Pregnancy Laws, January 2018, co-author with Ronli Sifris

Presentation of review article published in Human Rights Quarterly before the Constitutional Court of Chile in the case of Requerimiento de inscontitucionalidad, rol 3729-17 (amicus curiae brief no 41), 11 August 2017

Submission to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet The Australian Government's priority setting for the 62nd Commission on the Status of Women (CSW62), October 2017, co-author with Angela Gibbs

Submission to Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee on the Migration Legislation Amendment (Regional Processing Cohort) Bill 2016 [Provisions], November 2016, co-author with Azadeh Dastyari and Maria O'Sullivan

Submission to Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee, Inquiry into serious allegations of abuse and neglect of asylum-seekers in the regional processing centres at Nauru and Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, November 2016

Submission to the Law Admissions Consultative Committee on the review of academic requirements for admission to legal practice, 30 March 2015, co-author with a group of 19 academics

• Evidence presented before the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee on 5 September on the Migration Amendment (Protection and Other Measures) Bill 2014

Submission to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee on the Inquiry into the incident at the Manus Island Detention Centre from 16 February to 18 February 2014, May 2014, co-author with Azadeh Dastyari

Submission to Australian Human Rights Commission National Enquiry into Children in Immigration Detention, April 2014, co-author with Azadeh Dastyari and Maria O’Sullivan

• Evidence presented to Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee on the Migration Amendment (Regaining Control over Australia's Protection Obligations) Bill 2013, 14 February 2014

Submission to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee on the Migration Amendment (Regaining Control over Australia's Protection Obligations) Bill 2013, January 2014, co-author with Professor Susan Kneebone, Dr Azadeh Dastyari, Adam Fletcher and Dr Maria O'Sullivan

• Evidence presented to Tasmanian Legislative Council Committee Government Administration A on the provisions of the Tasmanian Legislative Council on Reproductive Health (Access to Terminations) Bill 2013, 3 September 2013 (with Dr Ronli Sifris and Rachel Ball, Human Rights Law Centre)

Submission to the Tasmanian Legislative Council on Reproductive Health (Access to Terminations) Bill 2013, July 2013, co-author with Dr Ronli Sifris

• Appearance before Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee in Enquiry into Migration Amendment (Unauthorised Maritime Arrivals and Other Measures) Bill 2012, 31 January 2013

• Appearance before Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights concerning Migration Legislation Amendment (Regional Processing and Other Measures) Act 2012 and related Bills and Legislative Instruments, 19 December 2012 (with Professor Sarah Joseph and Professor Susan Kneebone)

Submission to Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee on Migration Amendment (Unauthorised Maritime Arrivals and Other Measures) Bill 2012, December 2012, co-author with Adam Fletcher

• Appearance before Senate’s Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs with respect to the Migration Amendment (Health Care for Asylum Seekers) Bill 2012, 23 November 2012 (with Adam Fletcher)

Submission to Expert Panel on Asylum Seekers, 19 July 2012, co-author with Professor Susan Kneebone, Professor Sarah Joseph, Maria O’Sullivan and Dr Adiva Sifris

Submission to Inquiry into the agreement between Australia and Malaysia on the transfer of asylum seekers to Malaysia, September 2011, co-author with Professor Susan Kneebone and Maria O’Sullivan

Submission to the Joint Select Committee on Australia’s Immigration Detention Network, August 2011

Submission to Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee into the Migration Amendment (Detention Reform and Procedural Fairness) Bill 2010, June 2011

• Appearance before House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs into the Regulation of Billboard and Outdoor Advertising, 4 April 2011

Submission to House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs into the Regulation of Billboard and Outdoor Advertising, February 2011, co-author with Amanda Thompson and Lisa Harrison

• Evidence given before Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee at Inquiry into the Civil Dispute Resolution Bill 2010, 4 November 2010

Submission to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee Inquiry into the Civil Dispute Resolution Bill 2010, 1 November 2010, co-author with L. O'Dwyer and K. Northwood

Submission to Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee on the Migration Amendment (Immigration Detention Reform) Bill 2009, July 2009, co-author with Susan Kneebone and others

Submission to the Victorian Law Reform Commission Inquiry on the Law of Abortion, November 2007

Submission to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee on the provisions of the Migration Amendment (Review Provisions) Bill 2006, co-author with Professor Susan Kneebone

Submission to Victorian Law Reform Commission Civil Justice Review, December 2006

Submission to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Legislation Committee on the provisions of the Migration Amendment (Designated Unauthorised Arrivals) Bill 2006, co-author with Azadeh Dastyari and Jessie Taylor

• Evidence given before the Senate Legal and Constitutional Legislation Committee on the provisions of the Migration Amendment (Designated Unauthorised Arrivals) Bill 2006, 26 May 2006.

Conference presentations

‘Interrogating our self-image as a champion of gender equality’ presented at Castan Centre Human Rights Law Conference 2021, 23 July 2021

Conditional empathy and the arrival of #MeToo in Australia, presented at Next Frontier: Neurofeminism, #UsToo and Korean Reunification, NGO CSW65 Virtual Forum, United Nations New York, 15 March 2021

Will you be my Friend? Presenting Academic Research in Amicus Curiae Submissions under the High Court Rules 2004, presented at 2020 Civil Justice Teaching and Research Conference University of New South Wales,13 February 2020

Stigma, Vulnerability and Barriers to Access, Invited paper presented at Reproductive Rights and Liberties Workshop, UTS Law Health Justice Research Centre, UTS, 7 February 2020

Advancing Access to Healthcare in Australia, Invited paper presented at La Trobe University Centre for Health Law and Society Symposium, New Approaches in Reproductive Justice, La Trobe University City Campus, 8 November 2019

Entrenching the protection of privacy, safety and dignity: safe access zones in Australia, presented at Feminist Perspectives on Reproductive Rights, Monash University Law Chambers, 29 August 2019 

Anti-Abortion Picketing and Safe Access Zones (with Ronli Sifris), presented at The Possibilities and Limits of Protest, Monash University Law Chambers, 20 August 2019

The High Court’s Take on Anti-Abortion Picketing, presented at Children by Choice conference, Brisbane, 1 August 2019

Legislating for Health and Wellbeing: The Case of Australia’s Safe Access Zones, presented at the XXXVI International Congress on Law and Mental Health, 22 July 2019

Enforcing norms of refugee protection in the face of exceptionalism: the role of civil society and the media, presented at Global Negotiations on Refugee Rights: Isolationism and the Development of Legal Norms, Monash Prato, 11 June 2019

Re-treating refugee status in a place and time of brutalising dishonesty and twisted logic through No Friend but the Mountains, presented at Re-treating Literature and Politics through Behrouz Boochani’s No Friend but the Mountains, Monash University, 22 May 2019

Vietnam’s National Action Plan for Human Rights Education: building a culture of respect for human rights, presented at 9^th International Conference on Human Rights Education, (University of Western Sydney, 28 November 2018)

Avenues for addressing child detention presented at Keep Kids Out: Preventing Detention of Refugee and Migrant Children in Australia, Monash University Law Chambers, 4 September 2018

Human rights and Capacity Building, presented at Monash Law Faculty, 16 May 2018with Associate Professor Julie Debeljak, Associate Professor Heli Askola, Associate Professor Giao Vu and Dr La Khanh Tung

Addressing the misappropriation of human rights in the Safe Schools moral panic (Ally Conference, Curtin University, 26 September 2018)

Mechanisms, policies & laws of human rights protection and promotion in Australia, 17 April 2018 presented at Human Rights Institute, Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics, Hanoi, Vietnam

Transnational anti-abortion activism, the right to free speech & the rights of others under international law, 7^th Cambridge International Law Conference, ‘Non-State Actors and International Law’, 3 April 2018

Overview of Reproductive Health in Australia (with Ronli Sifris), delivered at Safe Access to Reproductive Health in Australia workshop, Monash Caulfield, 21 November 2017

Safe access zones in Victoria: are they meeting their objectives? (with Ronli Sifris) delivered at the University of Tasmania, 2 November 2017

Layers of Retraumatisation: Seeking Redress for Child Sexual Abuse, delivered at the XXXVth International Congress on Law and Mental Health, Charles University Prague, 11 July 2017

Protest and safe access zones, delivered at the Law of Protest Roundtable, Monash University, 2 June 2017

Expanding on access, delivered at the 2017 Civil Justice Research & Teaching Symposium, Flinders University, Adelaide, 15 February 2017

Students and Inmates: practical internships behind bars (with Dr Justin Trounson and Emily Munro-Harrison) delivered at the 7th annual Human Rights Tertiary Teachers’ Workshop 2017 at Monash University Law Chambers, 14 February 2017

Student-led HRE beyond the Lecture Theatre: Have You Got that Right, presented at the 7th International Conference on Human Rights Education, Santiago, Chile, 14 December 2016

What’s so contentious about promoting acceptance of gender and sexual diversity? presented at the 7th International Conference on Human Rights Education, Santiago, Chile, 13 December 2016

The Procedural Wrap, delivered at Civil Procedure Academic Focus Roundtable at Monash University Law Chambers, Melbourne, 19 February 2016.

Abused all over again: Child sex abuse and inaccessible justice, presented at the Australian Centre for Justice Innovation conference, The Future of Civil Procedure: Innovation & Inertia, 17 February 2016

Should civil procedure retain its place in the law curriculum? presented at the 2015 Civil Justice Teaching and Research workshop, Sydney (University of Sydney and UNSW) 19-20 February, 2015 

Engaging students and the broader community in learning about human rights presented at the Better Teaching Better Learning showcase, Monash Caulfield, 16 February 2015

Queue jumpers’ and the deviant ‘other’, paper delivered at ‘Australia and its others: Fear and politics in a multicultural nation’ conference, RMIT University, 15 November 2014

Outsourcing protection: Australia’s bilateral arrangements for asylum seeker transfer in the Asia Pacific, presented at a public forum sponsored by the Croatian Centre for Peace Studies and the Ivo Pilar Institute of Social Sciences, entitled ‘The politics of asylum law in Australia and the European Union’ held at Bogdan Ogrizović Library, Zagreb, Croatia 9 June 2014.

Offshore and Outsourced: shifting responsibility for the management of asylum seekers, presented at ‘Access to Asylum: Current Challenges and Future Directions’, Monash University Prato Centre, 29 May 2014 

Reflections on teaching, drawing on Pushkin, presented at the 2014 Civil Justice Research and Teaching Conference, University of Tasmania Faculty of Law, 18 February 2014

Civil procedure pedagogy and striking a balance between procedure and ADR, presented at ‘Current Issues in Civil Justice’ Conference, University of Melbourne, 25 February 2013

Implementing Human Rights in immigration detention facilities at ‘Implementing Human Rights in Closed Environments 2012 Conference’ Monash University Law Chambers, 21 February 2012

International human rights law as a vehicle for activism opposed to reproductive choice, delivered at Public Interest Law-Opportunities and Obstacles, University of Melbourne, 28 September 2010.

International Justice and Human Rights, speech to Australian Institute of International Affairs ACCESS Youth Network forum ‘Inside the World of International Law’ held on 30 September 2009  

Seeking asylum in Australia, the path to refuge, delivered at the ‘Unpacking the Suitcase’ conference sponsored by VicHealth and the South Eastern Migrant Resource Centre held on 12 July 2007

Mental harm as an instrument of public policy delivered at Monash University and Kings College London conference ‘Public Health and Human Rights’ held in Prato, Italy on 7-10 June 2007

False imprisonment as a surrogate claim for promoting personal liberty, presented at Castan Centre workshop ‘Compensation, Torts and Immigration Detention’ held at Monash University, Melbourne on 30 March 2007

Refugee processing and mental health: how far does the duty of care extend? delivered at Foundation House on 28 March 2007 as part of the ‘Refugee Research @ La Trobe’ seminar series run by the La Trobe University Faculty of Health Sciences and Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture

Racism and the non-citizen child, paper delivered for the Centre for Equity and Innovation in Early Childhood and the Victorian Multicultural Commission, University of Melbourne, 9 November 2005.  

The separation of powers, Lim and Australia’s ‘voluntary’ detention of children, delivered at a workshop titled Children in Immigration Detention: the Policy, the Practice and the Prognosis, Monash University, 2 April 2004.

Human Rights

International Human Rights Law

International Law

Refugee Law

Torts

LAW5013 Principles of Litigation and Dispute Resolution T1 2021, T3

LAW4172 Human Rights in Australian Law SEM 1  2021

LAW 5359 International Human Rights Law and Women SEM1/T2 2020

LAW4303 Litigation and Dispute Resolution SEM 1 2020