Bryan Horrigan

Bryan Horrigan
Born	1962 (age 61–62) Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Occupation	Professor of Law at Monash University

Professor Bryan Horrigan (born 1962) is an Australian legal academic and a past Dean of the Faculty of Law at Monash University in Australia (2013-2024). He previously held positions at Monash University as the Louis Waller Chair in Law and Associate Dean (Research). Formerly a senior associate and long-standing consultant with a leading international law firm, he holds a doctorate in law from Oxford University under a Rhodes Scholarship.

Education

Bryan Horrigan was born in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. He was educated at St. Joseph's College, Gregory Terrace (Brisbane) and the University of Queensland (BA, LLB), where he was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship. He was subsequently awarded a D. Phil. in Law from University College, Oxford.

Professional career

Professor Bryan Horrigan was Dean of the Faculty of Law at Monash University in Australia from 2013 to 2024. Previously holding positions at Monash University as the Louis Waller Chair in Law and Associate Dean (Research) following positions at the Queensland University of Technology and University of Canberra, he became Dean of the Faculty of Law at Monash University in January 2013, succeeding Emeritus Professor Arie Freiberg as Dean. Formerly a senior associate and long-standing consultant with a leading international law firm, he holds a doctorate in law from Oxford University under a Rhodes Scholarship. He was the longest-serving current law dean in Victoria. He was succeeded by Professor Marilyn Pittard, who became Interim Dean of the Faculty in March 2024.

During his Deanship at Monash University, Bryan was a member of the Vice-Chancellor's executive committee and the Monash-Penn State Alliance Steering Committee. He has held board positions on the Cranlana Centre for Ethical Leadership and as a director of Monash South Africa. He has mentored and been referee for numerous students who have won prestigious scholarships (such as Menzies Scholarships, Sir John Monash Scholarships, Schwarzman Scholarships, and Rhodes Scholarships), and many of his former research assistants have gone on to become judges’ associates to judges and chief justices, including in the Supreme Court of Victoria, the Federal Court of Australia, and the High Court of Australia.

In 2010, he was appointed to a three-member Australian Government expert panel, charged with investigating the regulation of unconscionable business conduct and problematic franchising behaviours, whose recommendations for reform were accepted by the Australian Government, resulting in the Australian Parliament making changes to three major pieces of national economic regulation. He was also part of the expert reference group for the Finkel Review of Australia's electricity and energy market, as well as for the work by the Centre for Policy Development leading to the publication of landmark legal opinions on the responsibilities and liabilities of companies and their boards for managing climate change risks and disclosures.

Core expertise

Bryan's published research has been cited by the Queensland Court of Appeal and speeches by high-level judges, as well as in public submissions and reports, parliamentary committee and regulatory reports, law reform commission proposals, and other academic work. He has spoken and published internationally in the fields of internationalisation of law, judicial decision-making, public sector governance, corporate social responsibility, unconscionable business conduct, and good faith in commercial transactions.

His book entitled Corporate Social Responsibility in the 21st Century: Debates, Models, and Practices Across Government, Law, and Business was published in 2010 by Edward Elgar Publications, and is frequently cited.

Achievements

In his time as Dean of Law, Professor Horrigan has steered the Faculty towards having:

• new named professorial chairs (in criminal and corporate law)
• the first and only Clinical Guarantee of any Australian law school, under which every commencing law student has the opportunity for a transformational work-situated legal clinical experience, in contributing to access to justice in Victoria and elsewhere;
• a moot court
• a growing cohort of former high-level Victorian and other Australian judges as Law Faculty members; and major initiatives such as:

- joint hosting with the Supreme Court of Victoria of a conference on the Victorian contributions and comparative lessons for human rights jurisprudence on charters and bills of rights

- the Open Justice Project pro bono collaboration with the Victorian Bar;

- the Eleos Justice initiative on capital punishment in partnership with the Capital Punishment Justice Project and with funding from the Australian Government; and

- a state and national commercial law seminar series in partnership with the Victorian Supreme Court, Federal Court of Australia, and peak bodies form the legal profession.

Publications

Contributor

Horrigan has contributed chapters to the following academic and professional texts:

• 1994. Enforcing Securities
• 1994. Foreign Investment in Australia
• 1995. Equity: Issues and Trends
• 1996. Interpreting Constitutions
• 1997. Commercial Implications of Native Title
• 1998. Government Law and Policy: Commercial Aspects (ed., contrib.)
• 1999. Corporatisation and Privatisation in Australia
• 1999. Guarantees and Solicitors' Certificates
• 2001. Human Rights and Commercial Law
• 2002. Oxford Companion to the High Court of Australia
• 2003. From Bureaucracy to Business Enterprise
• 2005. Handbook of Corporate Legal Responsibility

Author

Horrigan's books are:

• 2000. Horrors' Hints: Helpful Hints on the Theory and Practice of Legal Research and Analysis for Students, Academics and Practitioners

  Faculty of Law, Kelvin Grove, Qld.: Queensland University of Technology, ISBN 978-1-86435-474-4 (pbk.)

• 2003. Adventures in Law and Justice: Exploring Big Legal Questions in Everyday Life

  Law at Large, Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, ISBN 978-0-86840-572-8 (pbk.), "a down-to-earth explanation of topical and newsworthy law-and-justice dilemmas".

• 2008. Corporate Social Responsibility in the 21st Century: Debates, Models and Practices Across Government, Law and Business

  Cheltenham, UK & Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, ISBN 978-1-84542-956-0 (hbk.), ISBN 978-1-84720-835-4 (pbk.)