Academy Fellow

Nicholas Aroney is Professor of Constitutional Law at The University of Queensland, an External Fellow of the Centre for Law and Religion at Emory University, and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law. In 2010 he received a four-year Future Fellowship from the Australian Research Council to study comparative federalism. In 2012 he secured an ARC Discovery Grant to explore innovative approaches to multicultural accommodation and in 2021 he received an ARC Discovery Grant to investigate the nature and function of constituent power in federal systems. He has held visiting positions at Oxford, Cambridge, Paris II, Edinburgh, Durham, Sydney, Emory, Padua and Tilburg universities.

Professor Aroney has published over 150 journal articles, book chapters and books in the fields of constitutional law, comparative constitutional law and legal theory. He has led several international research projects in comparative federalism, bicameralism, legal pluralism, and law & religion, and he speaks frequently at international conferences on these topics. His most notable publications in these fields include: The Constitution of a Federal Commonwealth: The Making and Meaning of the Australian Constitution (Cambridge University Press, 2009), Shari'a in the West (Oxford University Press, 2010) (edited with Rex Ahdar), The Future of Australian Federalism (Cambridge University Press, 2012) (edited with Gabrielle Appleby and Thomas John), The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia: History, Principle and Interpretation (Cambridge University Press, 2015) (with Peter Gerangelos, James Stellios and Sarah Murray), Courts in Federal Countries (Toronto University Press, 2017) (edited with John Kincaid), The Routledge Handbook of Subnational Constitutions and Constitutionalism (Routledge 2021) (edited with Patricia Popelier and Giacomo Delledonne) and Christianity and Constitutionalism (Oxford University Press, 2022) (edited with Ian Leigh). He is also a co-author of Winterton’s Australian Federal Constitutional Law: Commentary & Materials (Thomson Reuters, 5th ed 2022, 4th ed 2017, 3rd ed 2013) (with Sarah Murray, Peter Gerangelos, Adrienne Stone, Patrick Emerton and Joel Harrison).

Professor Aroney is a former editor of The University of Queensland Law Journal (2003-2005) and International Trade and Business Law Annual (1996-1998), and a past secretary of the Australian Society of Legal Philosophy. He is a past member of the Governing Council and the current Co-Convenor of the Queensland Chapter of the Australian Association of Constitutional Law. He is also a member of the editorial advisory board of the American Journal of Jurisprudence, Public Law Review and the Australian Journal of Law and Religion. He has made numerous influential submissions to government and parliamentary inquiries and in 2013 undertook a review of the Crime and Misconduct Act for the Queensland Government with the Hon Ian Callinan AC QC, a former Justice of the High Court of Australia. In 2017 he was appointed by the Australian Prime Minister to an Expert Panel to advise on whether Australian law adequately protects the human right to freedom of religion.

Visiting Professor, University of Padua, 2023

Fellow, Australian Academy of Law, 2022

Distinguished Professorial Fellow, The Scots College, Sydney, 2019

Visiting Fellow, Institute of Advanced Study, Durham University, 2017

Visiting Professor, Institut Michel Villey, University of Paris II (Pantheon-Assas), 2017 

Visiting Fellow, Faculty of Law, Oxford University, 2016

MacCormick Fellow, School of Law, Edinburgh University, 2012

Visiting Fellow, Faculty of Law, Oxford University, 2012

Visitor, Faculty of Law, Cambridge University, 2012

Visiting Professor, School of Law, Murdoch University, 2008

Visiting Scholar, Law School, University of Notre Dame, Indiana, 2006

Parsons Visitor, Sydney Law School, University of Sydney, 2006

Senior Visiting Fellow, Emory Law School, Emory University, 2005

Visiting Senior Lecturer, School of Law, Tilburg University, 2004

Mollie Holman Doctoral Medal, Monash University, 2002

1. ‘Formation, Representation and Amendment in Federal Constitutions’ (2006) 54(1) American Journal of Comparative Law 277-336.

2. The Constitution of a Federal Commonwealth: The Making and Meaning of the Australian Constitution (Cambridge University Press, 2009).

3. ‘Associational Freedom, Anti-Discrimination Law and the New Multiculturalism’ (2019) 44 Australasian Journal of Legal Philosophy 1-29.

4. ‘The Australian federal response to the COVID-19 crisis: Momentary success or enduring reform?’, in Nico Steytler (ed), Confronting the COVID-19 pandemic: Federal systems a boon or bane? (Routledge, 2021) (with Michael Boyce).

5. The Routledge Handbook of Subnational Constitutions and Constitutionalism (Routledge, 2021).