Rate My Professor Lisa van Toor

Lisa van Toor is a Lecturer Clinical/Professional Practice Scholar in the School of Law and Criminology at Murdoch University. In this role, she contributes to clinical legal education and professional practice scholarship. She serves as a clinical supervisor and pro bono solicitor in the university's Human Rights Law Clinic, where she provides legal advice and assistance to people with refugee status and individuals seeking asylum. Her practical involvement in the clinic underscores her commitment to social justice through law. Additionally, van Toor is a PhD candidate at the UNSW Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law. Her doctoral research focuses on the ‘Historical development of State Practice and the Interpretation of ‘Danger to the Community’ in Article 33(2) of the Refugee Convention’, supervised by Daniel Ghezelbash, Tristan Harley, and Clare Higgins. She also holds a position as a Sessional Academic at Curtin University.

Van Toor earned her Master of Laws (LLM) from Leiden University in 2020, a Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice from the Australian National University in 2018, and both a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Arts—with majors in History and Asian Studies, and a minor in Anthropology—from Murdoch University in 2017. Her academic trajectory reflects a strong foundation in law and interdisciplinary humanities. Van Toor's research specializations encompass human rights law, refugee law, and crimmigration law. She has engaged in public discourse on migration policy, co-authoring articles for The Conversation, including ‘Australia is deporting 3 non-citizens from the ‘NZYQ’ group to Nauru. What could it do instead?’ (February 18, 2025, with Mary Anne Kenny) and ‘By sending non-visa holders to Nauru, Australia is shifting its responsibilities’ (September 1, 2025, with Mary Anne Kenny). Previously, she worked as a lawyer and Acting Law Reform and Advocacy Officer, contributing to parliamentary submissions such as the Second Interim Report of the Joint Select Committee on Australia's Immigration Detention Network in 2021. Through teaching, clinical supervision, and scholarly contributions, van Toor influences legal education and policy discussions in refugee and human rights domains.