Tim McCormack is the Foundation Australian Red Cross Professor of International Humanitarian Law (appointed 1996) at the Melbourne Law School and the Foundation Director of the Asia Pacific Centre for Military Law – a collaborative initiative (established 2001) between the Melbourne Law School and The Australian Defence Force Legal Service. He was also recently appointed honorary Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Tasmania Law School.

Tim has developed an international reputation for his scholarship in International Humanitarian Law and in International Criminal Law. From 2002 – 2006 he acted as amicus curiae on international law matters to the judges of Trial Chamber III of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague for the trial of Slobodan Milošević. From 2003 – 2007 he provided expert International Humanitarian Law advice to Major Mori for the defence of David Hicks. In that capacity Tim travelled to Guántanamo Bay to attend the US Military Commission proceedings against David Hicks in March 2007.

Tim is a graduate of the University of Tasmania (LL.B. Hons. - 1982) and of Monash University (Ph.D. - 1990). He was the first Australian recipient of the Golda Meir Postdoctoral Fellowship to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1989 and in 2003 he was awarded a University of Tasmania Foundation ‘Outstanding Graduate’ Award. He has taught various graduate and undergraduate courses in several Australian Law Schools ( Tasmania, Monash, ANU, Melbourne and Wollongong) and at the Universities of Virginia, Auckland and Jerusalem. Tim developed Australia’s first graduate coursework specialization in International Humanitarian Law and an internationally unique specialist coursework graduate program in Military Law - both at the University of Melbourne. He has regularly lectured to graduate recruits in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and to ADF officers. In particular, he has been heavily involved in the teaching of Military Operations Law (with significant IHL components) to ADF Legal Officers as well as to legal officers, operators and planning staff from militaries in the Asia Pacific Region. In these roles Tim has contributed to the development of a culture of respect for the Rule of Law in the ADF and amongst regional militaries.

Tim was a National Vice-President of Australian Red Cross (1999-2002) and chaired the Australian Red Cross National Advisory Committee on International Humanitarian Law (1994-2002). In 2001 he was awarded the Australian Red Cross Medal for outstanding volunteer service to the organization. He is currently Deputy Chair of the Australian Foreign Minister’s National Consultative Committee on International Security Issues and a member of the Foreign Minister’s National Consultative Group on Bio-Security Issues. He has participated with Australian Government delegations to multilateral treaty negotiations in New York, Geneva, The Hague and Rome. He provides international legal advice to various Australian Government Departments and has delivered conference papers in many countries.

Tim has established one of the world’s strongest concentrations of research higher degree work in International Humanitarian Law, currently supervising 10 doctoral students. He is the general editor (with Christopher Greenwood of the London School of Economics) of the world’s first academic book series dedicated to International Humanitarian Law Series (with Martinus Nijhoff Publishers in Leiden) and has recently co-edited the twentieth volume of the series (his sixth book) - The Legacy of Nuremberg: Civilising Influence or Institutionalised Vengeance? Tim is editor-in-chief of the prestigious international journal - the Yearbook on International Humanitarian Law (published by the Asser Press in The Hague) - and is also a member of the editorial board of several other leading international academic journals.

July 2008