Reflecting Will and Preference in Decision Making

Keynote Speakers
PROFESSOR
Rosalind Croucher AM
PROFESSOR
Gerard Quinn
Professor Croucher, BA(Hons) LLB PhD
AMusA FRSA FACLM(Hon) FAAL TEP, was
appointed to the Australian Law Reform
Commission (ALRC) in February 2007, and
in December 2009 as President. Prior to
this she was Dean of Law at Macquarie
University (November 1999–February
2007), where she still holds a Chair. She
has lectured and published extensively,
principally in the fields of equity, trusts,
property, inheritance and legal history.
At the ALRC Professor Croucher has led
eight law reform inquiries and is currently
leading the inquiry into encroachments
on traditional rights and freedoms. In
2011 she was recognised as one of the 40
‘Inspirational Alumni’ of UNSW, where
she gained her PhD in 1994. In 2014
Professor Croucher was acknowledged for
her contributions to public policy as one
of Australia’s ‘100 Women of Influence’
in the Australian Financial Review and
Westpac awards; and for her ‘outstanding
contribution to the legal profession’ role
in supporting and advancing women in
the legal profession she was awarded the
Australian Women Lawyer’s award. In the
Australia Day Honours list, 2015, Professor
Croucher was made a Member of the Order
of Australia (AM) for ‘significant service to
the law as an academic, to legal reform and
education, to professional development,
and to the arts’.
Gerard Quinn is a professor of law at the
National University of Ireland (Galway).
He holds degrees in political science
(B.A.) and law (LL.B.) from the National
University, is a qualified barrister-at-law
(B.L., Kings’ Inns) and a graduate of
Harvard Law School (LL.M., S.J.D.).
He has had a varied career in public
service. He was a former Director of
Research at the Irish Government’s Law
Reform Commission and has served
two terms on the Irish Human Rights
Commission. He has served on other
Government bodies such as the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs Joint Committee on human
rights and the Government’s Commission
on the Status of Persons with Disabilities.
He is currently a Presidential appointee
to the Council of State which provides
constitutional law advice to the President
of Ireland.
He currently sits on the scientific
committee (advisory board) of the
European Union Fundamental Rights
Agency (Vienna). He has worked as a
temporary civil servant in the European
Commission (EU) on equality policy
and also rose to be First Vice President
of the Council of Europe’s Social Rights
Committee (a treaty monitoring body on
economic and social rights in Europe).
He has directed large studies for the
UN Office of the High Commissioner for
Human Rights and led the delegation of
Rehabilitation International during the
drafting of the new UN treaty on the rights
of persons with disabilities.
Because he has led several large scale
EU-funded research projects and
PhD networks he has been declared a
‘Champion of EU Research’ by the Irish
Government (Dept. of Enterprise, 2011).
He has been a joint honoree with
Senator Tom Harkin of the United States
International Council on Disability (2014)
and received a Presidential Award from
Rehabilitation International in 2009 for
his work in drafting the UN Convention on
the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. He
sits, and has sat, on many advisory boards
including those of the Soros-Open Society
Foundations Human Rights Initiative
(Washington DC), and Human Rights
Watch disability programme (NYC).
He directs a Centre on International
Disability Law & Policy at the National
University of Ireland which is one of
the first of its kind in the world with
a dedicated masters (LLM) and PhD
programme in international disability law.
He holds an adjunct chair in the National
Academy of Legal Studies and Research
(NALSAR), Hyderabad, India, is a former
Visiting Fellow at Harvard Law School
(2007), a former visiting professor at the
University of Haifa (2015), Israel, and a
Distinguished Visiting Professor at the
University of New South Wales, Sydney,
Australia (2015).
His most recent publications include
Readings on the Studies of the UN Convention
on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities,
Guinn G., and Jing Li (Eds), (People’s
Publishing House, Beijing, 2015) and
Genetic Discrimination: Transatlantic
Perspectives on the case for a European Level
Legal Response, Quinn, G., Blanck, P., and De
Paor A., (Eds.) (Routledge, London, 2014).
His current research interests include
legal and other theories of personhood,
the impact of scientific breakthroughs on
concepts of personhood, the implications
of the move away from guardianship to
supported decision-making, the philosophy
of ‘home’ and the law regarding the right
to community living and especially the
use/misuse of the EU Structural Funds.