Rate My Professor Melissa de Zwart

Melissa de Zwart is an Internally Grant-Funded Research Professor in the School of Law, College of Business and Law, at the University of Adelaide. She is also Deputy Director and Chief Investigator at the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space, and Professor of Space Law and Governance at the Andy Thomas Centre for Space Resources. A prominent legal researcher, her work focuses on commercial and military uses of outer space, domestic and international space law, technology and innovation, human uses of outer space, sustainability of space resources, and internet law, including social media moderation, disinformation, information warfare, surveillance, privacy, and platform regulation.

De Zwart earned her PhD from Monash University, LLM from the University of Melbourne, BA (Hons) and LLB (Hons) also from Melbourne, Graduate Certificate in Higher Education from Monash, and Graduate Certificate in Higher Education (Online Learning) from Adelaide. She joined Adelaide in 2011, advancing to Professor and serving as Dean of Law from 2017 to 2021. Prior roles include Associate Professor at University of South Australia (2009-2011), Lecturer/Senior Lecturer at Monash University (1996-2009), and Manager, Corporate Legal Services at CSIRO (1994-1998). She held visiting positions at the University of Amsterdam (2002) and National University of Singapore (2006, 2017). De Zwart served as Lieutenant in the Royal Australian Navy Reserve (2019-2025), Member of the Commonwealth Attorney-General's Classification Review Board (2009-2014), Board Member of the Space Industry Association of Australia (2019-2023), and Advisory Council Member (2016-2019). She contributed to the successful bid for the 2025 International Astronautical Congress and works closely with the Australian space industry.

Her key publications include "Space resource activities and the evolution of international space law" (Acta Astronautica, 2023), "Conceptualising sustainability in outer space resource utilisation" (Griffith Law Review, 2024), "Watch This Space: The Development of Commercial Space Law in Australia and New Zealand" (Federal Law Review, 2019), and "The Space (Innovation) Race: The Inevitable Relationship between Military Technology and Innovation" (Melbourne Journal of International Law, 2019). She co-edited "Commercial and Military Uses of Outer Space" (2021). Awards include Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law, Member of the International Institute of Space Law, Copyright Agency Research Fellowship (2016), and Copyright Society Research Grant (2014). De Zwart serves on editorial boards of Legalities, Alternative Law Journal, and Media & Arts Law Review, influencing academic discourse and policy in space law and digital governance.