ANDREW COLEMAN - PhD Student Profile

Andrew is currently employed as a Lecturer, with the Department of Business Law and Taxation, Faculty of Business and Economics, Monash University. Andrew left legal practice to join Monash University initially at its Gippsland Campus in 1993 and then moved to the Caulfield Campus in 1998. He teaches in a number of commercial law subjects at the Caulfield and Berwick Campuses such as: - Finance Law, Lending Law, Corporations Law, Business or Commerce Law, in both the Department's Undergraduate and Postgraduate programs. In addition Andrew is heavily involved in Distance Education and Offshore programs in Singapore and mainly Hong Kong, where he has been involved in pastoral visits teaching local students.

Abstract of PhD Thesis
'The Role of the International Court of Justice and Self-Determination'
(expected completion date: December 2006)

The thesis concentrates on analysing the appropriateness of an alternative solution to problems of aspirant peoples seeking to establish their own nation-state by using the International Court of Justice as opposed to the traditional established method: violent revolution.

Most of the literature on self-determination discusses the actual meaning of the term or explains its evolution and application to individual situations, such as the Palestinians or native Hawaiians, but none refer to the use of a legal tribunal to resolve "applications" for self-determination. As such the project is unique and controversial since nation-states do not support any idea or proposal that may undermine their control over "troublesome provinces" as evidenced by East Timor and the situations in West Papua in Indonesia and Chechnya in Russia.

However nation-states in years gone by would not have condoned the concept of humanitarian intervention but they do now. So the author believes it is a viable alternative that may assist bodies such as the United Nations in the maintenance of international peace and security or at the very least prompt discussion and recognition of other less violent alternatives to armed revolution.

Please select to view publications

(January 2006)

Contact details:
law-apcml@unimelb.edu.au