Professor Abbe Smith

Abbe Smith

Fulbright Senior Scholar

Media Profile

“Despite similar cultural pasts, the United States and Australia have developed significantly different approaches to the obligations of advocacy, particularly on behalf of unpopular clients and causes. As criminal justice increasingly becomes a global problem, with high profile, unpopular cases gaining international significance, an understanding of the myriad ways that rules and culture affect representation becomes increasingly important.”

Abbe Smith is one of five Americans to be granted a Fulbright Senior Scholar Award in 2005 to study at the University of Melbourne Law School, where she will compare and contrast the adversarial ethic of Australian lawyers representing unpopular clients with that of American lawyers.

Professor Smith holds a PhD in Law from the New York University School of Law and is a Co-Director at the Criminal Justice Clinic and E. Barrett Prettyman Fellowship Program at the Georgetown University Law Centre.

“Australia offers me a unique opportunity to compare the American and Australian ‘unpopular cases’ with the benefit of resemblance between the Australian and American legal systems,” expressed Professor Smith.

Professor Smith will look at two high- profile Australian cases: Martin Bryant (Port Arthur Massacre, 1996) and Kathleen Folbigg (Infanticide, 1989 to 1999). Both cases have generated extensive media coverage and attention. She will investigate the conduct of the lawyers involved in these cases and compare them to similar U.S. cases including: the ‘Sniper Case’ (Mass murder, 2002), the ‘Unabomber Case’ (Terrorism, 1978 to 1996) and those of Susan Smith (Infanticide, 1994) and Andrea Yates (Infanticide, 2001).

“Initial explorations suggest that Australian lawyers feel more tension regarding their responsibilities to the law, the court and their client than their American counterparts”

Outcomes of Professor Smith’s research will make significant contributions to legal ethics and to the understanding of current ethical dilemmas facing lawyers who represent unpopular clients. Furthermore, Professor Smith hopes that her research project will spark discourse in Australia, especially in the post-September 11 environment, about the importance of an Australian Bill of Rights, which Australia does not currently have.