HUGO LEITH

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2009 Fulbright Western Australia Scholarship

“Public law in Australia is entering a challenging phase. There are vocal advocates for reform of the Federal-State balance. Simultaneously, there are demands for the formal protection of human rights, now seriously being explored by the Federal government and legislatively enshrined by the Victorian and ACT Parliaments. Significantly, there is a growing impetus to give legal recognition to the chronological pre-eminence of Indigenous people, and redress their losses and grievances.”

Hugo Leith, who is a Solicitor with the State Solicitor for Western Australia and a tutor and adjunct lecturer in law at the University of Western Australia, has won one of two 2009 Fulbright Western Australia (W.A.) Scholarships. The W.A. scholarship is supported through a fund established by donations from the W.A. government, W.A. based universities, companies, foundations and individuals.

Hugo will use his Fulbright Scholarship to visit Yale University to undertake a comparative study of governmental power and constitutional structures in the Australia and the United States as part of a Master of Laws (LL.M) by coursework.

“My courses and research paper proposal will explore the structures and balances of public power, and restraining effect of creating tensions between institutions of government,” Hugo said.

“Constitutional structures produce protection for minorities, safeguard human rights, and enhance democratic values.”

“My comparative analysis will pay particular regard to how the law and policy work together in the US. This will then relate to Australian problems of government, notably remodelling the federal balance of control of publicly owned resources, protecting minorities, and providing government services to the community.”

“I will examine the possibilities of alternatives to the concentration of power in Commonwealth institutions, and also a new paradigm of protection for human rights—are there structural reforms that can provide alternatives to the creating an explicit, and often highly contentious, Bill of Rights?”

Hugo has a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Arts both with First Class Honours from the University of Western Australia. He has contributed and formulated legal advice to the WA Premier and Attorney General, assisted in constitutional and other litigation, and worked on law reform. He has also taught constitutional law at the University of Notre Dame; tutored at the UWA Law School He has won various awards—the Australian Red Cross International Humanitarian Law Moot National Champion, the Richard Kiwanuka Prize in International Humanitarian Law and the Graduates’ Association Prize in Political Science.