Professor Pam O'Connor is an Adjunct Professor with the Sir Zelman Cowen Centre.

Prior to joining Victoria University, Professor O’Connor was a Professor at the University of the Sunshine Coast (USC) (2014-18), was Head of the School of Law and Criminology, and held a concurrent appointment as Adjunct Professor at Monash University. Previously, Professor O’Connor was employed at Monash University’s Faculty of Law for 23 years, most recently as Associate Professor and Association Dean (Education). At Monash and USC she was co-Chief Investigator in four research projects funded by the Australian Research Council.

Professor O’Connor is a past board member of the Judicial College of Victoria (a statutory board which provides education and training to judicial and tribunal officers) and the Leo Cussen Institute (a statutory corporation providing practical legal training and continuing legal education for law graduates). She has also been a Commissioner with the Victorian Law Reform Commission (2010-2012), a member of the Research Projects Committee of the Australian Institute of Judicial Administration, and a member of the Social Security Appeals Tribunal.

While at Monash University, Professor O’Connor developed and delivered a graduate diploma program for tribunal members. She has undertaken funded research and education projects and research consultancies for the Australasian Council of Tribunals.

Portfolios

Areas of expertise

  • Legal education
  • Tribunal practice
  • Administrative law
  • Real Property Law
Professor Pam O'Connor

Contact details

[email protected]

Publications

Edgeworth, B.E., Rossiter, C.J., O'Connor, P.A., Godwin, A., Terrill, L. (2021) Sackville & Neave: Australian Property Law, 11th ed, (LexisNexis Butterworth, Sydney).

Edgeworth, B.E., Rossiter, C.J., O'Connor, P.A., Godwin, A. (2016) Sackville & Neave: Australian Property Law, 10th ed, (LexisNexis Butterworth, Sydney).

O'Connor, P.A., Tribunal Independence (2013), Australian Institute of Judicial Administration Inc, Melbourne.

Edgeworth, B.E., Rossiter, C.J., Stone, MA, O'Connor, P.A., (2013) Sackville & Neave: Australian Property Law, 9th ed, (LexisNexis Butterworth, Sydney).

Campbell, S.L., Powles, G., Evans, A.H., Smith, S., Hyams, R., Dickson, J., O'Connor, P.A., Sexton, D. (eds) Lawyers Practice Manual (Victoria) (1999), LBC Information Services, Sydney.

O’Connor, P.A., ‘A Broader Development Perspective: Economic and Political Drivers of Worldwide Land Registration Reform’ in A Goymour and M Dixon (eds) New Perspectives on Land Registration (Hart, Oxford 2018), Chapter 5.

O’Connor, P.A., ‘Regulating by Covenant: Is it Sustainable?’ in P Carruthers, S Mascher and N Skead (eds) Property and Sustainability: Selected Essays (Thomson Reuters, 2011) 127-43.

O’Connor, P.A., ‘The Top Ten Questions for Registered Land Systems’ in L Bennett Moses, B Edgeworth, C Sherry (eds) Property and Security: Selected Essays’ (Thomson Reuters, 2010), 199-15.

O’Connor, P.A., ‘The Extension of Land Registration Principles to New Property in Land and Environmental Goods’ in M Dixon (ed), Modern Studies in Property Law (Hart, Oxford, 2009) Vol 5:363-85.

O’Connor, P.A., ‘An Adjudication Rule for Encroachment Disputes: Adverse Possession or Building Encroachment Statute?’ in E Cooke (ed), Modern Studies in Property Law (Hart, Oxford, 2007), Vol 4:197-218.

Christensen, S., Duncan W.D., Phillips, A., O'Connor P.A,. Issues in negotiating a carbon sequestration agreement for a biosequestration offsets project (2013), Australian Property Law Journal, 21(3):195-226.

O'Connor P.A., Contractual specification of new property rights in resources: the problem of measurement costs, (2013), Monash University Law Review, 39(1):38-65.

O'Connor P.A., Christensen S., Duncan W.D, Phillips A., From rights to responsibilities: reconceptualising carbon sequestration rights in Australia (2013), Environmental and Planning Law Journal, 30(5):403-421.

Christensen S., O'Connor P.A., Duncan W.D., Phillips A., Regulation of land access for resource development: a coal seam gas case study from Queensland (2012), Australian Property Law Journal, 21(2):110-146.

Christensen S., Durrant N., O’Connor P.A, and Phillips A., (2011) Regulating Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Coal Mining Activities in the Context of Climate Change, Environmental and Planning Law Journal, 28:381-415.

Research Grants

Institutional grants for teaching and learning innovations

2022: Advanced Decision Writing for the content development for Council of Australasian Tribunals' online training course

$22,436 (2009): Monash Strategic Innovations Fund grant for development of an online distance education course in Tribunal Procedures (P O’Connor, Assoc Prof E Gaze, Dr P Jamieson)

Nationally Competitive Research Grants

$367,000 (2013-16): Co-Chief Investigator, ARC Discovery Grant DP1300100607 2012 for 4 year cross-institutional project ‘A Legal Framework for Specifying and Defining Carbon Property Rights’, (with Profs S. Christensen and W. Duncan of QUT)

Research Consultancies

2022 Australian Institute of Judicial Administration Inc and the Council of Australasian Tribunals grant for 'Complaint Handling by Tribunals', (P O’Connor sole researcher, $28,000)

  • Better Complaint Handling System for Tribunals (2023), Australian Institute of Judicial Administration Inc, ISBN: 978-1-875527-63-2, available in hard copy/online from Australian Institute of Judicial Administration and Council of Australasian Tribunals, Pages 50.
  • AIJA and COAT project on complaint handling in Australasian tribunals (2023), Australian Institute of Judicial Administration, ISBN: 978-1-875527-62-5, Pages 28.

2014 Council of Australasian Tribunals, for project ‘Promoting Tribunal Independence in Member Appointment Processes’ (USC, P O’Connor sole researcher, $16,277)

2012 Council of Australasian Tribunals, for project ‘Current legislation and practices in Australia and New Zealand which affect Tribunal Independence’ (P O’Connor sole researcher, $20,000)

2005 Nationally competitive grant from the Council of Australasian Tribunals, to research and write the Council’s Practice Manual for Tribunals (with Profs B McSherry, P Sallman and I Freckelton, $49,500)

Conference presentations

O’Connor, P.A., ‘Does the Torrens System Guarantee Boundaries as well as Titles?’, International Property Registries Association – CINDER congress in Santiago Chile, 5 Nov 2014.

O’Connor, P.A., ‘Tribunal independence and appointment processes’, Council of Australasian Tribunals and Australian Institute of Judicial Administration National Conference, Effective Communication for Tribunals, Brisbane, 6-7 June 2013.

O’Connor, P.A., Invited submission - Parliament of Australia, Committee Hansard, Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee, Inquiry into the Foreign Investment Review Board National Interest Test, 10 Aug 2012, 21-26.

O’Connor, P.A., ‘Professional Development for Tribunal Members’, Australian Institute of Judicial Administration Tribunals Conference, 11 May 2008.

O’Connor, P.A., ‘Measuring the Quality of Administrative Justice’, Council of Australasian Tribunals NSW Chapter Inc 4th Annual Conference, Sydney, 11 May 2007.

Supervision

Past co-supervision of 4 PhD students, 4 Masters students, 10 Honours students