Tim McCormack is a Professor of Law at the University of Tasmania. He is also Special Adviser on War Crimes to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague and an honorary Professorial Fellow at Melbourne Law School. Tim was appointed a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law in 2010 and appointed by the Premier of Tasmania in 2021 to support Prof Kate Warner in mapping out a Pathway to Truth-Telling and Treaty with Tasmania’s Aboriginal People.

Biography

Tim graduated from the University of Tasmania with honours in Law in 1982 and completed his PhD in International Law at Monash University in 1990. He was the inaugural Australian recipient of the Golda Meir Postdoctoral Fellowship to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and developed a global reputation for his expertise in international humanitarian law and in international criminal law during 28 years at Melbourne Law School. Tim has held a number of significant international appointments including as:

• James Barr Ames Visiting Professor, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts (2016) and Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School (2020);
• Senior Fulbright Fellowship (2015-16);
• Charles H Stockton Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence, US Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island (2015-16);
• International observer (with Lord David Trimble) for Phase II of the Government of Israel’s Turkel Commission of Enquiry Into Israel’s Processes for the Investigation of Alleged Violations of International Humanitarian Law, Jerusalem (2011-2013);
• Law of War expert adviser to Lt Col Michael ‘Dan’ Mori for the defence of David Hicks before the US Military Commission, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (2004-07);
• Amicus Curiae on International Law Issues to the Judges of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in the trial of Slobodan Milosevic, The Hague (2002-2006);
• Foundation Director, Asia-Pacific Centre for Military Law – a collaborative initiative of the Melbourne law School and the Australian Department of Defence’s Legal Division, Melbourne Law School (2001-10);
• Foundation Australian Red Cross Professor of International Humanitarian Law, Melbourne Law School (1996-2010).

Tim was a National Vice-President of Australian Red Cross (1999-2002) and chair of the Australian Red Cross National Advisory Committee on International Humanitarian Law (1994-2002). He was awarded the Australian Red Cross Medal for Outstanding Volunteer Service in 2001 and the Australian Red Cross Distinguished Service Medal in 2014 for more than 20 years of voluntary commitment to the promotion of understanding of and respect for International Humanitarian Law. He has participated in multiple Australian Government delegations to multilateral treaty negotiations in New York, Geneva, The Hague and Rome and he has provided expert international law advice to a number of Australian Government departments. He is a member of the advisory boards of academic institutions in Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, Israel and Australia and also a member of editorial advisory boards of academic journals in the US, the UK, the Netherlands, Indonesia, New Zealand and Australia.

Tim is editor-in-chief of the world’s first academic book series dedicated to International Humanitarian Law (published with Brill Nijhoff in Leiden). His most recent book, co-edited with Suzannah Linton and Sandesh Sivakumaran, is entitled Asia Pacific Perspectives on International Humanitarian Law, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge (2019). For more details, please refer to Tim McCormack's CV (PDF 346KB)

Career summary

Qualifications

• PhD, Monash University, Australia, 1990. Thesis: Israel’s Bombing of the Iraqi Nuclear Reactor and Self-Defence in International Law
• LLB (Hons), University of Tasmania, Australia, 1982.