Rate My Professor AM KC

The Honourable Kevin H Bell AM KC is Adjunct Professor and Professor of Practice in the Faculty of Law at Monash University, formerly serving as Director of the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law. He earned a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws (Honours) from Monash University and a Master of Studies in International Human Rights Law from the University of Oxford. Admitted to the Victorian Bar in 1977, he was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1997. Bell's judicial career highlights include Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria from 2005 to 2020, President of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal from 2008 to 2010, and President of the Forensic Leave Panel from 2015 to 2020. Earlier roles encompassed part-time tutor in administrative law at Monash Law Faculty (1978-1979), lecturer in Legal Studies at La Trobe University (1982-1985), and member of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal Small Claims Tribunal (1982-1989). In 2017, he received the Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for significant service to the law and judiciary, native title, human rights, and the community. He also served as Commissioner on Victoria’s YooRrook Justice Commission from 2021 to 2023 and Co-Chair of the Steering Committee on the National Stigma and Discrimination Reduction Strategy at the National Mental Health Commission from 2021 to 2023.

Professor Bell's research specializations include international human rights law, with particular emphasis on the right to adequate housing, mental health rights, freedom of expression, freedom of opinion, right to health, sustainable development goals, equality and discrimination, rights of older persons, bills of rights, fair trial, and access to justice. His work addresses human rights for vulnerable populations such as persons with mental disabilities, children, detained persons, unrepresented litigants, migrants, women subjected to gender-based violence, and the homeless, contributing to UN Sustainable Development Goals 3, 5, 11, and 16. Key publications comprise the book Housing: The Great Australian Right (Monash University Publishing, 2024), the conference paper Certainty and coherence in the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (Vic) (2021), and the book chapter Homelessness and human rights in Australia (2021). He delivered the Monash University Costello Lecture in 2012 on protecting public housing tenants from forced eviction under the human right to adequate housing, hosted the Human Rights Leaders in Conversation series featuring dialogues with figures like Deborah Glass OBE and Judge Robert Spano, and participated in events such as A Legal Community Event on Indigenous Truth Telling (2023). Professor Bell has submitted expert opinions to UN Special Rapporteurs on adequate housing, judicial independence, and rights of older persons, advancing human rights policy and scholarship.