David McCann
 David McCann |
Postgraduate Award
Media Profile
“East Timor was a shockingly graphic illustration of the importance of the fight for the rights of those who suffer from the related evils of poverty and violence…I worked and lived with Timorese who had suffered and struggled for decades under the dual terrors of Indonesian occupation and chronic poverty…The optimism and strength of the people I met in East Timor was awesome [and] showed the most extraordinary human determination and humanitarian generosity.”
David McCann has won a Fulbright Postgraduate Award to conduct Masters research in the field of judicial power and constitutional rights in the United States. David attended St Virgil’s and Guilford Young Colleges in Hobart. He completed degrees in Commerce and Law at the University of Melbourne as a Melbourne National Scholar. He specialised in public law and economics and graduated with First Class Honours. While at university, David was resident at Ormond College and was elected Chair of the Ormond College Students’ Club. He is presently Associate to the Chief Justice of Australia, Murray Gleeson, at the High Court of Australia in Canberra.
David hopes to work in an emerging area of constitutional and federal research: the boundaries of judicial decision-making and the interpretation of constitutional rights. The unique similarity of American and Australian federal systems is of great value to Australian constitutional lawyers. McCann will examine the appropriate role of judges in interpreting a constitution, particularly the Australian Constitution.
Furthermore, David will identify the relationship between constitution jurisprudence and its role in the achievement of social justice. His experiences working with the people of East Timor in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission strengthened his resolve to become an effective legal advocate for marginalised causes and disempowered people in Australia and internationally.
David will be asking key questions regarding the empowerment of underprivileged persons. These questions will include ‘to what degree does and should the Constitution protect immigrants from unjust executive detention?’, and ‘should judges take a narrow view of their role and of the Constitution even where there will be desperate human cost?’
David aims to build a new normative model of judicial engagement in governance and social development. David will also be re-examining the relationship of judicial adjudication to government power, specifically the relationship between the High Court and our increasingly Presidential Australian executive government.
David is confident his research will make a useful contribution to international constitutional theory, and that his discoveries will be of particular benefit to both Australia and the United States.