Rate My Professor Tim Connor

Dr Tim Connor is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Law and Justice within the College of Human and Social Futures at the University of Newcastle, Australia. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Sydney, a Bachelor of Laws from the University of New South Wales, and a PhD from the University of Newcastle, where his doctoral research focused on the anti-sweatshop movement, Nike, Reebok, and Adidas’ participation in voluntary labor regulation, and workers’ rights to form trade unions. From 2002 to 2010, he worked as Labour Rights Advocacy Coordinator in Oxfam Australia’s Advocacy Unit-International Labour Law, contributing to campaigns addressing working conditions in global supply chains of sportswear brands. In 2010, Connor joined the University of Newcastle as a Lecturer and advanced to Senior Lecturer. His research specializations include regulating the social and environmental impacts of global corporations, corporate accountability, corporate social responsibility, corporate law theory, human rights linked to business activities, non-judicial grievance mechanisms, shareholder primacy, and directors’ duties. As Chief Investigator on an ARC Linkage Project (2013-2014), he examined the effectiveness of non-judicial grievance mechanisms through ten case studies in Indonesia and India across agribusiness, garments, and mining industries.

Connor teaches Company Law, Legal System and Method I, and Corporate Power and Corporate Accountability, fostering critical thinking through engagement with real-world social issues. He has garnered significant recognition for teaching excellence, including the University of Newcastle Award for Teaching Excellence and Innovation Award for Learning Design and Teaching (2024), Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence (2017), National Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning (Early Career, 2013), Faculty Awards for Teaching Excellence (2012, 2017), and Best Paper Prize at the 25th Annual Conference of the Corporate Law Teachers Association (2016). Key publications encompass the forthcoming book Global Business and Local Struggle: Reimagining Non-Judicial Remedy for Human Rights (Cambridge University Press, 2025, with A. Delaney, F. Haines, K. Macdonald, and S. Marshall); Desegregating Business and Human Rights: Including Due Diligence in the Corporations Act (Company and Securities Law Journal, 2025, with E. Hackenberg, S. Marshall, and C. Dudgeon); Will Business and Human Rights regulation help Rajasthan's bonded labourers who mine sandstone? (Journal of Industrial Relations, 2022, with S. Marshall, K. Taylor, F. Haines, and S. Tödt); Offside! Labour Rights and Sportswear Production in Asia (2006); and Networked regulation as a solution to human rights abuse in global supply chains? (Theoretical Criminology, 2013, with F. Haines).