Jason Varuhas

Professor Jason N. E. Varuhas (BA LLB (Hons) Victoria University of Wellington, LLM University College London, PhD University of Cambridge) is Professor of Law at Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne. He received the Yorke Prize for the best doctoral thesis at Cambridge. His career encompasses roles as Judge’s Clerk to Justice Mark O’Regan of the New Zealand Court of Appeal (later Supreme Court), Junior Research Fellow at Christ’s College, Cambridge, Senior Lecturer at the University of New South Wales, Associate Professor at Melbourne Law School, and Director of the Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies (2021-2023). He currently serves as Senior Crown Counsel at the New Zealand Crown Law Office, providing advice and appellate representation for the New Zealand Government on constitutional and human rights matters. Professor Varuhas is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law, Senior Research Fellow at the New Zealand Centre for Public Law (Victoria University of Wellington), and Associate Fellow of the Centre for Public Law (University of Cambridge). He has held distinguished visiting appointments, including Robert S. Campbell Visiting Fellow in Law at Magdalen College, Oxford; Allan Myers Visitor at the University of Oxford Law Faculty; Visiting Fellow at the Bonavero Institute for Human Rights, Oxford; Visiting Fellow at the University of Cambridge Faculty of Law; Fox International Fellow at Yale University; Visiting Scholar at McGill University Faculty of Law; and Visiting Fellow at Victoria University of Wellington Faculty of Law. He is Founder and Director of the biennial Public Law Conference series on public law in common law systems.

Professor Varuhas’s research specializations include administrative law, human rights, constitutional law, law of torts, law of remedies, and the intersection of public and private law. He serves on the Editorial Board of Public Law Review and has edited volumes such as The Frontiers of Public Law (Hart Publishing, 2019, co-edited with Shona Wilson Stark), Remedies for Breach of Privacy (Hart Publishing, 2018, co-edited with Nicole Moreham), The Unity of Public Law (Hart Publishing, 2018), Equitable Compensation and Disgorgement of Profits (Hart Publishing, 2017), and The Making and Re-Making of Public Law (Hart Publishing, 2024). Key authored works include the monograph Damages and Human Rights (Hart Publishing, 2016), which received the UK Society of Legal Scholars Peter Birks Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship (2016) and the Inner Temple New Authors Book Prize (2018); co-authorship of Administrative Law (5th edition, Oxford University Press, 2017); contribution of Book V on Damages under the Human Rights Act in McGregor on Damages (22nd edition, Sweet & Maxwell, 2024); and co-authorship of Balkin and Davis The Law of Torts (6th edition, LexisNexis, 2020). His scholarship has been cited by higher courts including the High Court of Australia, New Zealand Supreme Court, and UK Supreme Court, and has contributed to law reform such as English judicial review procedure. He delivered the Robin Cooke Lecture at Victoria University of Wellington (2023) and led Melbourne Law School’s public engagement series on the Voice referendum.

Professional Email: jason.varuhas@unimelb.edu.au