Steven White is a Lecturer at the Faculty of Law at Griffith Law School here in Brisbane.  He is a graduate of Griffith Law School and also has a BSc from the University of Melbourne.   Prior to joining Griffith, Steven worked with the firm of Mallesons Stephen Jaques. Previously, Steven has worked as an associate to Justice Bill Pincus of the Queensland Court of Appeal and as an adviser to a Senator of the Federal Parliament.  He has published on animal law, and taught one of the first undergraduate courses ever offered on animal law in Australia (in early 2007).  Steven is currently writing his PhD on the regulation of companion and farmed animals in Australia.

Deidre Bourke is the founder and Chair of the Animal Rights Legal Advocacy Network (ARLAN), a New Zealand based organisation made up of legal professionals working to promote and protect the interests of animals.  Deidre has degrees in anthropology, biology and law, and has been involved in the animal rights movement in New Zealand since 1989. In 2005 Deidre graduated with an LL.M (First Class Honours) from the University of Auckland. Her Masters thesis examined the regulation of animal use for research, testing and teaching purposes under New Zealand’s Animal Welfare Act 1999.

Malcolm Caulfield – Dr. Caulfield is one of the very small number of full time animal lawyers in Australia, and since August 2006 has worked as legal counsel for Animals Australia.  Malcolm is one of those exceptional talents with a background in science and law, having spent over 25 years working as a scientist in industry and in universities in the UK. He came to Australia in 1999 to study law at the University of Western Australia, qualifying in 2002. 

Arnja Dale is a Lecturer at the School of Animal Health and Welfare at UNITEC, where she runs the certificate in Animal Welfare Investigations and teaches animal behaviour and ethics for the Bachelor of Applied Animal Technology.  She has written and published on animal welfare science, and is now examining the practical effectiveness of the Animal Welfare Act 1999 (NZ).  Her background is in the sciences, with a Masters of Science from Edinburgh University, and she is very familiar with the practical operation of the AWA.

Elizabeth Ellis - Elizabeth is a Lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the University of Wollongong, with interests in public law and legal education.  She has published books and articles on these areas and she is now moving into the area of animal law research. She will become one of the lucky few to teach a course on Animal Law in Australia, which is scheduled to begin next year. 

Al Gillespie is a Professor of Law at the University of Waikato in Hamilton. Professor Alexander Gillespie obtained his LLB and LLM degrees with Honours from The University of Auckland. He did his PhD at Nottingham and post-doctoral studies at Colombia University in New York City.  His specialty is environmental law and he has written over thirty articles that have been published in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Al has published five books; and has been awarded a Rotary International Scholarship, Fulbright Fellowship, Rockerfeller Fellowship and a number of smaller domestic awards. In 2004 Al was awarded the New Zealand Law Foundation International Research Fellowship. Al is also the New Zealand lawyer/expert on a number of international delegations involving conventions for animal conservation. 

Paula Gerber – is a Senior Lecturer at Monash University, and has been there since 2004.  Paula has also taught at the University of Melbourne and worked for 20 years in private practice in London, Los Angeles and Melbourne.   Her specialties are the well-connected areas of Construction Law and International Human Rights Law.  That wasn’t enough and Paula is now branching out into animal law, and is hoping to teach the subject at Monash in 2009. She has just completed writing her PhD at the University of Melbourne on the Rights of the Child.

Siobhan O'Sullivan - Siobhan has researched and worked in the area of animal rights and welfare for five years, and published a number of articles on the topic.  She has a BA in Political Studies, and has spent much of the last five years writing her PhD at the University of Sydney, in the Discipline of Government and International Relations. Siobhan’s doctoral thesis focuses on animal protection issues and is currently under examination.  Siobhan is an Associate Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, a member of the Animals Australia Executive and a member of Animal Liberation NSW.  Between 2002 and 2005 Siobhan did a three year turn on the NSW Animal Research Review Panel, which is the statutory body that overseas animal research in NSW.  She teaches a course in public policy at MacQuarie University.

Katrina Sharman is the corporate counsel for Voiceless, the fund for animals.   A proud graduate of the University of New South Wales, she is a former Senior Associate at Minter Ellison Lawyers and a former Councillor of NSW Young Lawyers Executive Council.  Katrina chaired NSW Young Lawyers Animal Rights Committee, which was the first group of Australian lawyers to speak out about animal law issues, for more than five years. Katrina is a former member of the Animal Research Review Panel (NSW) and the National Health & Medical Research Council, Animal Welfare Committee. Katrina has published papers on a number of animal law topics and spoken about animal law at conferences in Australia and overseas.

Peter Stevenson - Educated at Trinity College Cambridge, Peter Stevenson is a qualified English solicitor.  He worked as a local government lawyer, then for many years as a theatre director and after that for the Law Society, before specialising in animal welfare. Peter is currently the Chief Policy Advisor of Compassion in World Farming (CIWF), and aside from a short break, has been with the group for 14 years.  Peter played a leading role in winning the EU bans on veal crates, battery cages and sow stalls as well as a new status for animals in EU law as sentient beings.  In addition, he has written comprehensive legal analyses of EU legislation on farm animals and also of the impact of the WTO rules on animal welfare.  Peter is also the author of the book A Far Cry From Noah on live animal exports. In 2004, Peter Stevenson was the joint recipient of the RSPCA Lord Erskine Award for commitment to animal welfare.

ADDITIONAL CONTRIBUTORS

In addition to our workshop participants, the book project had contributions from the following individuals:

Andrew Bartlett – Deputy Leader of the Australian Democrats and Senator for Queensland.  He is the party’s national spokesperson on Animal Welfare and regularly raises animal welfare issues in Parliament.

Annabel Markham – Annabel is a solicitor at Crown Law office in Wellington, with over ten years experience acting at the trial and appellate level in public law cases.  Annabel has acted in a number of animal cruelty cases, and presented a seminar on sentencing at the 2004 Animal Welfare Conference held in Auckland.

Lesley Petrie – Lesley is a Lecturer at Flinders University.  Lesley has experience in teaching Legal Method, Property Law Concepts, Trusts & Assignments.  Lesley has recently attracted funding to undertake a project which examines the legal mechanisms for revitalizing port communities in Australia, a project which incorporates her major research interests: Heritage Law, Planning Law and Property Law.  She has developed an interest in Animal Law and would like to teach a course on this subject at Flinders beginning in 2009. 

Dominique Thiriet - Dominique is a Lecturer at James Cook University in Townsville.  She is involved with a variety of community organizations and has been appointed as a member of the Animals in the Wild Working Group which assists the Commonwealth implement its Australian Animal Welfare Strategy (AAWS).