Dr James Renwick

Fulbright DFAT Professional Scholar

Media Profile

“The relationship between the Australian and the United States’ governments has never been closer than in the ‘war’ on terror, a ‘war’ which has seen much joint or complimentary action by the Alliance, including military operations, and law enforcement and intelligence activity. This project asks ‘what are the main international and constitutional law constraints on such action?’, a question which focuses attention upon bedrock issues of governments’ powers and citizens’ rights.”

Dr James Renwick has received the 2007 Fulbright Professional Australia-U.S. Alliance Studies Scholarship sponsored by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). Through his Fulbright Scholarship, he will undertake research at the Merrill Centre for Strategic Studies at Johns Hopkins University in Washington D.C. into the perceived legal impediments to closer joint or complementary Alliance action and information sharing.

James is a barrister and an Adjunct International Lecturer at The University of Sydney Law School. He has a Bachelor of Laws and Doctor of Juridical Studies (SJD) from the University of Sydney. He established the first National Security Law course in Australia in 2003 and continues both to teach it and to be a leading practitioner in the area.

“My research requires access to many of the U.S. Government institutions which are located in Washington DC, as is the Australian Embassy and its officials, and to leading strategic analysts and international lawyers, many of whom are located in my host institution,” he explains.

“The security alliance between Australia and the United States is of great importance to each nation. It involves both wide and deep intergovernmental cooperation, sharing of information and joint or complementary action. Both nations live under and have abiding respect for the rule of law and are thus concerned to ensure that their actions are lawful."

"Achieving that aim however, for either country, is complicated by the differential operation of international and constitutional law in each country. The aim of this project is to examine critically some of these complications, and to consider whether there are principled and lawful ways to resolve or overcome them.”

James, a former Parsons Scholar at The University of Sydney, has appeared as junior counsel in half a dozen major constitutional cases in the High Court of Australia in recent years. He was one of the counsel assisting the Building Royal Commission in 2001-2. He represented Australia in the 2004 hearings in U.S v David Hicks at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He has been a member of the NSW Bar Council. He also serves as a Lieutenant Commander in the Royal Australian Navy Reserve.