BSc(Hons), LLB, MAsPacSt, PhD (ANU), SFHEA Professor Mark Nolan is an interdisciplinary legal scholar with qualifications in law, honours and doctoral training in social psychology, and a Masters of Asia Pacific Studies majoring in Thai language. Mark is currently the Chair of the Australian Graduate School of Policing and Centre for Law and Justice Research Committee. Mark served as Director of the Centre for Law and Justice from April 2020 until December 2024. During his Directorship, Mark was also active as a member of the Council of Australian Law Deans, including as a member in 2023 and Co-Chair in 2024 of the First Peoples Partnership https://cald.asn.au/first-peoples-partnership/ with Dr Marcelle Burns, Associate Dean (Indigenous Leadership and Engagement, UTS). During time as Director of the Centre, Mark assisted in co-organising the Dhuluny conference event https://www.csu.edu.au/yindyamarra-nguluway/dhuluny/home hosted at Charles Sturt in Bathurst to mark the bicentenary of the Declaration of Martial Law over the Wiradyuri People. Mark also hosted a visit by The Hon Dr Michael Kirby AC CMG who received an Honorary Doctorate of the University at Charles Sturt in Bathurst in June 2024 https://news.csu.edu.au/latest-news/iconic-australian-legal-advocate-awarded-honorary-doctorate and gave a public lecture on retirement ages of judges. Further work with Dr Kirby has included an In Conversation event with the CSU Ally Network entitled Unspoken to Unstoppable on National Coming Out Day in 2025 to raise funds for The Honourable Michael Kirby Empowerment Scholarship https://www.csu.edu.au/scholarships/scholarships-grants/find-scholarship/foundation/any-year/the-honourable-michael-kirby-empowerment-scholarship. Alongside teaching and research and research supervision, Mark continues to mentor colleagues in a range of Charles Sturt mentoring programs. Prior to becoming Director of the Centre for Law and Justice at CSU in April 2020, Mark worked at the ANU College of Law, The Australian National University, Canberra since 2002. At ANU, Mark taught undergraduate and postgraduate students and researched criminal law and procedure, including codified Australian federal criminal law (such as counter-terrorism law, human trafficking, cybercrime, social security, and drug law), law and psychology, military discipline law (taught to Legal Officers in the ADF), Foundations of Australian Law, advocacy, and human rights law. Other research interests include citizenship law, social cohesion, human rights law, intergroup relations, stereotyping, prejudice, social justice theory, and sentencing law. Mark held a range of administrative positions at ANU including HDR Director, Associate Dean (Education), JD Director (including of an online JD), and Director of Postgraduate Programs. Mark has also guest lectured into psychology and Asian studies programs, taught public servants (at the ANU National Security College), delivered continuing professional development courses to psychiatrists and psychologists, and, continuing legal education to lawyers. Mark has also taught law with law students to detainees in prison in Canberra; initially in a voluntary capacity for the Law Reform and Social Justice initiative at ANU then as a clinical course. Mark was awarded life membership of the National Judicial College of Australia (NJCA) in 2020 in recognition of his role as a judicial educator and conference organiser, from 2006-2020 of annual conferences bringing together judicial officers, practitioners, academics, and other professionals including psychiatrists and psychologists. Other work undertaken for the NJCA has involved developing and delivering judicial education courses alongside Australian judicial officers, hosting visiting judicial fellows, and editing the Commonwealth Sentencing Database. Mark has made numerous individual and joint submissions to parliamentary inquiries in the area of counter-terrorism law and federal criminal law (such as submissions to the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor) and in 2017 was a co-author on a research report about memory of complainants of historical institutional child sexual abuse for the Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse: https://bit.ly/34LI5Em. Mark has contributed to and/or hosted national and international research meetings on legal psychology including on jury reform in Australia and Asia (especially the reforms in Japan, and South Korea). Mark has completed staff research exchanges in Japan (Chuo University) and research training in Myanmar (University of Yangon), as well as delivering research presentations in Thailand (Chulalongkorn and Thammasat Universities), Japan (Ritsumeikan University Ibaraki Campus) and South Korea (Dongguk University). Mark has also taught international students visiting ANU from University of Alabama (comparative counter-terrorism law and Survey of Australia Law courses) and from a range of Japanese law schools (in the regular ANU Canberra Seminar). Since 2004, Mark has also helped to host visitors from the Japanese court system via visitor programs with the Australian Network of Japanese Law as well as the Ministry of Justice in Japan. Mark has also hosted visits from the Supreme Court of Thailand and Indonesian Australia Awards recipients; including teaching visiting Indonesian investigators interviewing psychology together with Australian police officers. Mark was the inaugural ACT Branch President of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Psychiatry, Psychology and Law (ANZAPPL) from 2012-2015. Since 2012 he has helped organise a program of research presentations for the ACT Branch and two of the annual congresses for the Binational ANZAPPL organisation (in Canberra in 2015, jointly hosted by the Faculty of Forensic Psychiatry of the Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, and, in Singapore in 2019, jointly hosted by the East Asian Association of Psychology and Law). Mark has served as Secretary and President Elect on the binational executive committee of ANZAPPL is currently the Editor-in Chief (April 2020-present) of the ANZAPPL journal Psychiatry, Psychology and Law. Upon appointment at Charles Sturt, Mark remained an Honorary Professor (adjunct) at the ANU College of Law: https://law.anu.edu.au/about/our-people/mark-nolan. Mark currently teaches and has also taught into subjects such as JST110 Criminal Justice in Society, JST320 Drugs, Crime and Society. Mark has also been involved in hosting and organising a range of Plenary sessions offered to the entire LLB cohort at Charles Sturt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aa32GAkEnsQ&list=PLAcyv-pirv9bCxUW60FIMPoBWKK9LhTmp Between 2002-2020 at ANU, Mark convened and/or taught into the following undergraduate and postgraduate courses: Criminal Law and Procedure, Federal Criminal Law, Law and Psychology, Military Discipline Law, Advanced Military Discipline Law, Foundations of Australian Law, Criminal Justice, Prison Legal Literacy Clinic, Law Capstone Project, and Human Rights Law in Australia. Legal psychology, criminal law and procedure including codified Australian federal criminal law (such as counter-terrorism law and human trafficking) and military discipline law. Citizenship law, social cohesion, human rights law, intergroup relations, social justice theory, and sentencing law. Comparative criminal and constitutional law in Asia. Mark’s recent and ongoing research projects include: Andrew Byrnes, Simon Bronitt, Miriam Gani, Russell Hogg, Penelope Mathew, Mark Nolan, and Gabriele Porretto, Terrorism and the Non-State Actor After September 11: The Role of Law in the Search for Security. Discovery Project (DP0451473) Funded by the Australian Research Council 2004-2007, $180 000 total. Summary: September 11 elicited diverse legal responses to a perceived threat of unprecedented global terrorism. This project will redress the dearth of analysis integrating legal and social-scientific perspectives on recent anti-terrorism laws. Combining perspectives from international and criminal law, criminology and social psychology, the project will explore the challenges these developments pose to accepted legal categories; debates around exceptionalism as a justification for new laws; their unintended and collateral consequences; and public attitudes to new security measures. The research will enhance understanding of current reactions to terrorism and inform policy analysis and public debate over appropriate future responses. Mark Nolan, Understanding the Link Between “Victim” and Perpetrator Status for Thai Women Convicted of Trafficking and Enslaving Thai Women in Australia (ANU College of Law Small Grant Scheme / ARC seeding Project, 2016, $3963.60). Narratives of Compassion in Sentencing (with A/Prof Anthony Hopkins, Prof Lorana Bartels, Dr Stephen Tang and Dr Shannon Buglar (research assistant)) $25 000 in 2019 ANU College of Law New Research Collaboration Grant for two experimental studies on attitudes and reaction to compassionate approaches to writing sentencing remarks and discourse analysis of some sentencing remarks including the initial County Court sentencing of Cardinal Pell. Social Cohesion, Diversity and Integration project (4th placed cross-campus team of researchers from the 2018 Grand Challenges Bid funded as a start-up project by the VC and various ANU Deans). The funding for a law component is committed is $150,000 over 3 years 2019-2021. Research Advisor with Dr John Gaffey on Office of National Intelligence Post-Doctoral project Beyond Self Reporting: Behavioural matrices used for social identity mapping of multiple social identity expression on multi-platform digital environments awarded to Dr Peita Richards, Office of National Intelligence, National Intelligence Postdoctoral Grant, July 2023-July 2025 (NIPG project 202308). Dr Richards’ research focused on extending methods developed in her doctoral research to the national intelligence priority area of “measuring reliable behavioural indicators of multiple social identity features in real world settings”. Current PhD students supervised as principal supervisor or co-supervisor: Debbie Bayliss, Offender Diversion Under Sections 14 and 19 of the Mental Health and Cognitive Impairment Forensic Provisions Act 2020 (NSW) (‘MHCIFPA 2020’): A Comprehensive Analysis. (PhD, CSU) Tas Tasdemir, Critical Analysis of Implementing Affirmative Consent Standards in NSW Sexual Assault Laws (PhD CSU) Leighann Spencer, An Evaluation of Identity & State Involvement in Nigerian Vigilantism (PhD, CSU) PhD Theses Currently Under Examination Tracey Kerr, State Crime and the Right to Health: Accountability for Australia’s Pathogenic Immigration Detention Regime (PhD, CSU) Past HDR students supervised as principal supervisor or co-supervisor (23 completions) Dr Joshua Liddy, Negligent Combatants? Liability for Negligent Homicide During Armed Conflict: An Australian Perspective. (PhD, ANU) https://dspace-prod.anu.edu.au/items/a71264e8-e8bb-420c-9e21-f15feb16cc3f Dr Mary Spiers Williams, Summary Jurisprudence in Unsettled Places: Culture, ‘Miscognition’ and Sentencing Law. (PhD, ANU) https://digitalcollections.anu.edu.au/items/97f96d6e-3381-4606-b84e-8bdbeae7ce2b; https://profiles.uts.edu.au/Mary.Spiers/teaching Dr Sarah Bishop, Rights Under the 1997, 2006, and 2007 Thai Constitutions: Influences on, and Uses by, the Advantaged (PhD, ANU) https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/items/6cc0a538-8a75-4b23-8fd7-a57059e43cc8; https://law.nus.edu.sg/cals/people/sarah-bishop/ Dr Charrissa Chew-Moriarty, Examining the Application of Positive Social Based Informal Emotional Aid to a Police Officer and the Role of Family Members During a Period of Emotional Unwellness. (PhD, CSU) https://researchoutput.csu.edu.au/en/publications/examining-the-application-of-positive-social-based-informal-emoti/ Dr Peita Richards, The Aryan Spring: Twitter and the resurgence of racially-based far right extremist belief systems in the United States of America (PhD, CSU) https://researchoutput.csu.edu.au/en/publications/the-aryan-spring-twitter-and-the-resurgence-of-racially-based-far/ Dr Steven Burton, The Role of Psychology in Witness Protection, Assessment, and Management (PhD, CSU) https://researchoutput.csu.edu.au/en/publications/the-role-of-psychology-in-witness-protection-assessment-and-manag/ Dr Claire O’Neill, When Prevention Could be the Cure: Developing an Instrument for the Detection of Adolescent Vulnerability to Extremism (DPS, CSU) https://researchoutput.csu.edu.au/en/publications/when-prevention-could-be-the-cure-developing-an-instrument-for-th/ Dr Carol Lawson, Voices from Inside: The Role of Soft Civil Oversight in Regulating Prisons in Japan and the Australian Capital Territory (PhD, ANU) https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/items/00598dae-5e66-48a3-985b-c603a3897dc3https://www.pp.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/faculty/lawson-carol/ ; https://jp.linkedin.com/in/carollawson Dr Murray Chisholm, Capital Punishment and Clemency in Papua New Guinea, 1954 to 1965 (PhD, ANU) https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/items/bd8e82f1-3e34-4a11-8810-c8a17db2d59b; https://press.anu.edu.au/publications/series/pacific/capital-punishment-clemency-colonialism-papua-new-guinea Dr Alexandra Walker, Beyond Duality: A New Vision of Gender Justice and Collective Consciousness in International Law (PhD, ANU) https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/items/59e6d115-f569-499e-b21c-3978fd5c4ba8 Dr Abhichon Chandrasen, Enhancing the Deterrent Effect of Anti-Fraud Measures in Thai Securities Law and Compliance Procedures (PhD, ANU) https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/items/da28d977-e861-418e-9145-430ea9e55d8a Dr Alexandra McEwan, The Concept of Violence: A Proposed Framework for the Study of Animal Protection Law and Policy https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/items/1a44670f-fb97-4cc6-8e78-9d15ef82cd0e; https://staff-profiles.cqu.edu.au/home/view/22680 Dr Wendy Kukulies-Smith, Punishing Parents: A Study of Family Hardship in Australian Sentencing (PhD, ANU) https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/items/6316a182-c14a-4936-a366-99ae4d53720d Dr Robin Gibson, Bridging the Gap Between Rhetoric and Reality: Can the Law Enforce Quality Patient-Centred Care in Australia? (PhD, ANU) https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/items/9cc4d543-1877-462e-a05c-e3b20534e232 Dr Johannes-Krebs, The Right to a Fair Trial in the Context of Counter-Terrorism: The Use and Suppression of Sensitive Information in Australia and the United Kingdom (PhD, ANU) https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/items/34a35f19-23cc-4687-b4bb-d585ec542061 Dr Carolyn Penfold, Contextualising Legal Education: The Case of Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. (PhD, ANU) https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/items/1ee7a51a-69bb-417d-9578-9a1525c09c98 Dr Anne Imobersteg Harvey, Terrorism: A Type of Organised Crime or an Offence Sui Generis? Similarities and Differences in the Australian and European Union Legislative Approaches (PhD, UWA) https://research-repository.uwa.edu.au/en/publications/terrorism-a-type-of-organised-crime-or-an-offence-sui-generis-sim/ Dr Kath Hall, Mind the Gap: Psychological Jurisprudence and the Professional Regulation of Lawyer Dishonesty (PhD, ANU)) Prof Saskia Hufnagel, Comparison of European and Australian Cross Border Law Enforcement Strategies. https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/items/f1b07b58-37b3-4583-9873-8c71970550ce Dr Caroline Blink, Ideology is a Double-edged Sword: The Role of Ideology in Helping and Hindering the Interactive Development of Support for Social Change (PhD, ANU) https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/items/8c30f4b3-8c86-4476-9642-c8b47001d72c Dr Léan O’Brien, Subjective Justice: A Social Identity Perspective. (PhD, ANU) https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/items/35267e8e-928b-4a7d-9386-ac5821fcf163 Dr Antoinette Harmer, Practitioners’ Opinions of Best Interests of the Child in Australian Legislation (PhD, CSU) https://researchoutput.csu.edu.au/en/publications/practitioners-opinions-of-best-interests-of-the-child-in-australi/ Dr Perri Timmins, Factors Influencing Judicial Officers’ Attitude Towards Using Sentencing Guidelines (PhD, ANU) https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/items/94059b68-e4bd-4a38-ba41-e5ab1e354175 Various Law or Psychology or Criminology Honours Supervisions in ANU College of Law and ANU Research School of Psychology and Centre for Law and Justice, CSU. CSU News, ‘LGBTIQA+ Scholarship to be Launched by The Hon. Dr Michael Kirby’ 14 October 2025 https://news.csu.edu.au/in-brief/lgbtiqa-scholarship-to-be-launched-by-the-hon.-dr-michael-kirby ; https://www.michaelkirby.com.au/content/national-coming-out-day-event 21 May 2020 7 May 2020 4 May 2020 2 May 2020 Centre for Law and Justice, Research Seminar, ‘More Than One Australian Post-Sentence Preventive Terrorism Regime: Straining Cooperative Federalism and Much More?’ 28 April 2020 18 September 2019 ABC Radio Evenings ‘Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility and Doli Incapax’ from 1:33:44 – 1:46:33 28 March 2019 Wall Street Journal ‘Journalists Face Prison Over Reporting George Pell Sex-Abuse Conviction’ 26 February 2019 ABC Radio 666 Canberra ‘How Does Jury Duty Work?’ 12 December 2018 Radio 2CC Canberra ‘Inside the Mind of a Firestarter’ 28 March 2018 New York Times ‘Australian Court to Decide Whether Cardinal Pell Faces Trial’ 21 May 2017 ABC TV Canberra and online news ‘Concern over Jury Trials in the Internet Age’ 6 July 2017 The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse report ‘Research finds misconceptions about memory may affect child sexual abuse prosecutions’ 26 July 2016 ABCTV Lateline ‘Prime Minister Pushes for New Laws to Detain High Risk Terrorists Indefinitely’ 1 April 2016 ABC Lateline ‘What It’s Like to Sweat Under the Interrogation Lamp’ 11 December 2015 Skynews TV Newsday ‘COAG Plan for Indefinite Detention of Terrorists’ 12 October 2010 Lawyers Weekly ‘Force of Obligation’ 28 September 2010 ABC Radio 612 Brisbane Mornings ‘Murder Charges Announced Against Four SAS Soldiers’ 28 September 2010 The Wire Radio ‘ADF Soldiers on Charges Over Deaths’ 28 September 2009 (with Simon Bronitt) The Age ‘Our Sights Must be Set on Justice’ 1 May 2006 ANU Reporter ‘Trialling a Jury’ 1 March 2006 On Campus ‘Legal Minds Help Shape Sentencing Courses’ 6 July 2005 The Australian Higher Education Supplement (B Lane) ‘Terror a Law Unto Itself’ 14 June 2005 ABC702 Radio Sydney Morning Show ‘Press Conference Held by Jurors in the Michael Jackson Case’ 22 January 2004 ABC666 Canberra Mornings Show ‘Japanese Jury Reforms and Visits by Japanese Prosecutors to the ANU’ 5 October 2001 ANU Reporter ‘The Human Rights Psyche in Australian Political Debate’
Academic Staff3789097
Professor Mark Nolan
Professor in Law
Port Macquarie
Building 802
Teaching
Research Interests
Research Projects
Past funded projects
Current Supervision
Past Honours students supervised as principal supervisor or co-supervisor (~50 completions)
Professional Associations
Life Memberships
Media
Date Media 14 October 2025 9 August 2024 CSU News, ‘Dhuluny Conference to Explore 1824 ‘Martial Law’ in Bathurst and Reconciliation’ (9 August 2024) https://news.csu.edu.au/latest-news/dhuluny-conference-to-explore-1824-martial-law-in-bathurst-and-reconciliation 22 October 2022 Maryanne Taouk, ‘Return of Islamic State Wives to Australia Causes Fear for Those who Escaped the Brutality’ (ABC News, Friday 28 Oct 2022) https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-28/sydney-migrant-speaks-of-islamic-state-scars-as-families-return/101582356 Charles Sturt University, News, Have the bushfires and COVID-19 highlighted a constitutional crisis in Australia? 2BS Radio, Interview ‘New role as Director for the Centre for Law and Justice at Charles Sturt University’
Charles Sturt University, News, ‘New Director for the Charles Sturt Centre for Law and Justice’
Australian National University, New & Events, ‘After a stellar ANU career, Professor Nolan prepares for new CSU directorship’