Dr
Jessica Hambly
Senior Lecturer
LLB (KCL/ Paris 1); BCL (Oxon); MSc (Bristol); PhD (Bristol).

Dr Jessica Hambly is a Senior Lecturer at the ANU College of Law, and Co-Director of the Law Reform and Social Justice program.

She is a socio-legal scholar with interests in: access to justice for people seeking asylum; asylum law and procedure; refugee rights; gender and migration; legal professions and radical lawyering; inclusion and participation in 'legal spaces'; court and tribunal (including online) architectures. Jess' work uses socio-legal and legal geography methodologies, particularly relating to materiality, spatiality, temporality and chrono-politics.

Jess's PhD was a socio-legal study of the role of lawyers in UK asylum appeals, funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council. Jess has worked with a number of grassroots migrant and refugee rights organisations including Bristol Refugee Rights, Lesvos Legal Centre, and Samos Legal Centre.

Current projects include:

  1. Thinking transnationally about asylum appeals and design of review mechanisms and procedures. A co-authored book 'Inside Asylum Appeals: Access, Participation and Procedure’ (Gill, Hoellerer, Hambly, Fisher) is due out late 2023.
  2. Thinking critically about constructions of vulnerability and trauma in migration law. This strand of research considers, for example, possibilities and limits of trauma-informed lawyering, and medicalisation of vulnerability in asylum procedures.
  3. Casting a spatio-temporal lens on law, lawyers and social movements. Jess will teach a new course on Law and Social Movements in 2024 drawing on innovative socio-legal and legal geography methodologies.
  4. Funded project: 'Anglo-Indians and the ‘White Australia’ Policy: Constructions of the ‘Desirable Migrant in Australian Immigration Law’.

Past research projects include as a postdoctoral researcher on 'ASYFAIR' - a comparative study of asylum appeal procedures around Europe, where she conducted ethnography at the French National Asylum Court and research interviews in the Greek asylum system, and as a researcher on 'The Citizenship and Law Project', focusing on children's citizenship rights.

Appointments

  • Co-Director, Law Reform and Social Justice, 2021-
  • Member, Academic Staff and Higher Degree Research Committee, 2020-2021
  • Board of Directors, The Yoga Impact Charity 2020-2022

Significant research publications

  • with Gill, N. et al. (2022) 'Rethinking commonality in refugee status determination in Europe: Legal geographies of asylum appeals' Political Geography Vol. 98
  • Hambly, J. (2021) ‘International Refugee Law in Crisis: Islands, Incarceration and Neo-refoulement During Covid-19’ Australian Yearbook of International Law.
  • Hambly, J., Gill, N. and Vianelli, L. (2020) 'Using multi-member panels to tackle RSD complexities' Forced Migration Review 65 Recognising Refugees
  • with Gill, N. et al. (2020) 'What’s Missing from Legal Geography and Materialist Studies of Law? Absence and the Assembling of Asylum Appeal Hearings in Europe' Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers
  • Hambly, J. and Gill, N. (2020) ‘Law and Speed: Asylum Appeals and the Techniques and Consequences of Legal Quickening’ Journal of Law and Society 47(1), 3-28
  • Hambly, J. (2019) ‘Interactions and Identities in UK Asylum Appeals: Lawyers and Law in a Quasi-legal Setting’ in Gill, N. and Good, A. (eds), Asylum Determination in Europe: Ethnographic Perspectives. Palgrave Socio-Legal Studies Series
  • Prabhat, D. and Hambly, J. (2018) ‘A Brave New British Citizenry? Reconceptualizing the Acquisition of British Citizenship by Children’ Studies in Law, Politics, and Society Sarat, A. (ed) Vol. 76, 25-47
  • Prabhat, D. and Hambly, J. (2017) ‘The Practice of Immigration and Nationality Law: Setting Boundaries of Specialization at the Margins’ Onati Socio-Legal Series Vol. 7(7), 1509-1531 (from paper at ‘Working the Boundaries of Law’ workshop, Onati, 2016)
  • Prabhat, D. and Hambly, J. (2017) ‘Bettering the Best Interests of the Child Determination: Of Checklists and Balancing Exercises’ International Journal of Children’s Rights Vol.25 (3-4), 754-778

Refereed journal articles

  • with Gill, N. et al. (2022) 'Rethinking commonality in refugee status determination in Europe: Legal geographies of asylum appeals' Political Geography Vol. 98
  • Hambly, J. (2021) ‘International Refugee Law in Crisis: Islands, Incarceration and Neo-refoulement During Covid-19’ Australian Yearbook of International Law.
  • Hambly, J., Gill, N. and Vianelli, L. (2020) 'Using multi-member panels to tackle RSD complexities' Forced Migration Review 65 Recognising Refugees
  • with Gill, N. et al. (2020) 'What’s Missing from Legal Geography and Materialist Studies of Law? Absence and the Assembling of Asylum Appeal Hearings in Europe' Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers
  • Hambly, J. and Gill, N. (2020) ‘Law and Speed: Asylum Appeals and the Techniques and Consequences of Legal Quickening’ Journal of Law and Society 47(1), 3-28
  • Prabhat, D. and Hambly, J. (2018) ‘A Brave New British Citizenry? Reconceptualizing the Acquisition of British Citizenship by Children’ Studies in Law, Politics, and Society Sarat, A. (ed) Vol. 76, 25-47
  • Prabhat, D. and Hambly, J. (2017) ‘The Practice of Immigration and Nationality Law: Setting Boundaries of Specialization at the Margins’ Onati Socio-Legal Series Vol. 7(7), 1509-1531 (from paper at ‘Working the Boundaries of Law’ workshop, Onati, 2016)
  • Prabhat, D. and Hambly, J. (2017) ‘Bettering the Best Interests of the Child Determination: Of Checklists and Balancing Exercises’ International Journal of Children’s Rights Vol.25 (3-4), 754-778

Book chapters

  • Hambly, J. (2019) ‘Interactions and Identities in UK Asylum Appeals: Lawyers and Law in a Quasi-legal Setting’ in Gill, N. and Good, A. (eds), Asylum Determination in Europe: Ethnographic Perspectives Palgrave Socio-Legal Studies Series

Conference papers & presentations

  • 2023 'Studying the Speedscape of Asylum Courtrooms' (with Gill, N.) Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting (Denver).
  • 2022 'Rewriting Refugee and Migration Law: The Case of S99' (with Sanmuhanathan, N.) International Association of Refugee and Migration Judges (Newcastle, AU).
  • 2022 ‘The Global Northern Lens in Assessments of Sexual Orientation Claims in France, Germany and the UK’ (with Hoellerer, N. and Rifath, R.) Association for the Study of the World Refugee Problem (AWR) International Migration Conference (online, hosted by Friedensau Adventist University (ThHF, Germany).
  • 2022 ‘Medicalisation of Vulnerability as a Technology of Cruelty’ at Resistance, Migration and the Medical Border Workshop (online, hosted by University of Melbourne).
  • 2021 ‘What’s missing from legal bordering practices?' (with Nick Gill et al.) Royal Geographical Society - Institute of British Geographers Annual International Conference (online/ UK).
  • 2020 'Crucibles of Crisis: Covid 19 and the Greek Island Hotspots' Australian Yearbook of International Law Covid-19 and International Law Workshop, ANU Law
  • 2020 'Law and Speed - Asylum Appeals and the Techniques and Consequences of Legal Quickening' The Society of Legal Scholars Conference (Virtual / Exeter, UK)
  • 2019 ‘Law and the Speedscape of Asylum Appeals at the French National Asylum Court’ ASYFAIR Mid-project Review Workshop, University of Exeter.
  • 2018 ‘Appellant Participation in Asylum Appeals in the UK and France’ LSAANZ, Legal Intersections Research Centre, University of Wollongong, New South Wales. Supported by SLSA Early Career Bursary.
  • 2018 ‘Administrative Alienation: Comparing Appellant Participation in Asylum Appeals’ Kaldor Centre for Refugee Law, Emerging Scholars Network Meeting, UNSW, Sydney. Supported by Kaldor Centre Travel Bursary.
  • 2017 ‘Lawyers in UK Refugee Tribunals’ and Author meets Reader Session with Prabhat, D. – ‘The Force of Law Unleashed? Lawyers and Legal Formalism’ Law and Society Association Conference, Mexico City.
  • 2015 ‘Rebels with a Cause: The Working Lives of Advocates in Refugee Tribunals’ GLSA, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto.
  • 2015 ‘Decision-making in Asylum Tribunals and the Role of Legal Representatives’ Research for Change Forum, University of Bristol Law School.
  • 2014 ‘(Un)Professional Relationships and the Struggle for Expertise in Asylum Appeals’ European Asylum Adjudication Procedures Workshop, Bern, Switzerland
  • 2014 ‘Advocacy and Judging in Asylum Appeals’ Refugee Law Initiative Workshop, Senate House.
  • 2014 ‘Asylum Advocates and Tribunal Adjudication: Complexifying the Workgroup’ SLSA Annual Conference, Robert Gordon University Aberdeen.
  • 2013 ‘Advocacy in Asylum Tribunals: Developing a Methodology’ Legal Research Network Summer School, Université Lille Nord de France.
  • 2013 ‘Communities at the Edge: Barriers to Justice at the UK Asylum Tribunal’ Law on the Edge Conference, Canadian Law and Society Association and the Law and Society Association of Australia and New Zealand, UBC Vancouver.
  • 2012 ‘Kylie and Cocktails: Constructing Gender and Sexuality in the Asylum Tribunal’ Critical Legal Studies Conference, Stockholm.
  • 2012 ‘Gender and Judging in the UK Asylum Tribunal’ Law and Society Association Conference, Hawai'i.

Commissioned reports

Other

  • Hambly, J. (2021) Submission to Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants for report on pushback practices
  • Hambly, J. (2020) 'Islands, Detention, and Refugee Rights in 'Crisis" ANU International Law and Covid-19 Essay Series.
  • Hambly, J. (2018) ‘Cut-Price Justice at the French National Asylum Court.’ Border Criminologies Blog, Available at: www.law.ox.ac.uk/research-subject-groups/centre-criminology/centreborder...
  • Hambly, J. (2018) ‘Court on Strike: French asylum reforms trigger months of action at the CNDA’ Socialist Lawyer 79 pp. 10-11
  • Hambly, J. and Carver, N. (2017) ‘Brexit and Unemployment: Where Bureaucracy Becomes Brutal’ Available at: www.opendemocracy.net/natasha-carver-jessica-hambly/brexit-where-bureauc...
  • Prabhat, D., Hambly, J., Valdez, S. (2016) ‘Children’s British Citizenship: Exposing Barriers to Registration’ Policy Bristol Report
  • Prabhat, D., Hambly, J., Valdez, S. (2015) ‘Registration of Children as British Citizens’ Policy Bristol Report

PhD supervision

  • Micheil Paton - 'Applying Design Principles to Law Reform'
  • Matthew Osborne - 'The Backlash against the International Rule of Law: A Case Study of Seaborne Asylum-Seekers'

LLM Masters thesis supervision

  • 2020 Natasha Chabbra - 'From treaty to field : A case study of the role of international law in sexual and gender-based violence programming in humanitarian emergencies'

Honours thesis supervision

  • 2022 Claire Gay - 'What does Australia’s approach to Ukrainian refugees in 2022 tell us about the development and operation of Australian refugee law and policy?'

Past courses

  • LAWS1202 Lawyers Justice and Ethics
  • LAWS1201 Foundations of Australian Law
Jessica Hambly

Research themes

Law and Gender
Law and Social Justice
Legal Theory
Migration and Movement of Peoples

Contacts

Jessica.Hambly@anu.edu.au
ANU College of Law, Bld 6, Fellows Rd, Acton ACT 2600