Professor Ivan Shearer

Professor Ivan Shearer is Emeritus Professor of Law at the University of Sydney, having retired from the Challis Chair of International Law of that University in 2003. Professor Shearer recently became an Adjunct Professor in the School of Law, University of South Australia. He previously taught at the University of New South Wales (1975-1993) and the University of Adelaide (1965-1972). He has held visiting positions at the Australian National University, the University of Melbourne, Indiana University, Bloomington, the United States Naval War College, Newport, and All Souls College, Oxford.

Professor Shearer is a member of the Bars of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia, and has appeared in cases before the higher Australian courts including the High Court of Australia. He served as a Senior Member of the Australian Administrative Appeals Tribunal from 2004 to 2008. He is a member of the Panel of Arbitrators of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, The Hague. He has served in two recent international arbitrations and in two cases before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, Hamburg.

Since 2001 Professor Shearer has served as an elected member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee. In March 2007 he was elected Vice-President of the Committee for a term of two years.

In 1995 he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).

Bachelor of Laws

Master of Laws

Doctoral of Juridicial Science

• His particular fields of teaching and research are general international law, jurisdiction in international law, the law of armed conflict, the international protection of human rights, the law of the sea, and international criminal law.

Starke’s International Law (11th ed.), Butterworths, London, 1994, 629 pp.

Extradition in International Law, Manchester University Press, Manchester, 1977, 283 pp.

D.P. O’Connell (I.A. Shearer, editor), The International Law of the Sea, Clarendon Press, Oxford, Vol 1 (1982), Vol.2 (1984), 1201 pp

“Extradition and Asylum in Australia” in International Law in Australia (1st ed. By D.P. O’Connell), Stevens, London, 1965, pp.558-594; (2nd ed. By K.W. Ryan, Law Book Co., Sydney, pp. 179-209

“The Current Framework of International Extradition” in A Treatise on International Criminal Law (M. Cherif Bassiouni and Ved P. Nanda, eds.), Thomas & Co., Springfield, Illinois, 1973, pp. 326-335

“The Legal Position on Aliens in National and International Law in Australia” in The Legal Position of Aliens in National and International Law (J. Abr. Frowein and T. Stein, eds.) Springer Verlag, Berlin, 1987, pp. 43-90.

“International Humanitarian Law and Naval Operations” in Quatre études du droit international humanitaire, Institut Henry-Dunant, Genève, 1985, pp. 17-34.

“Restrictions on the Right of Capture” in The Law of Naval Warfare (N. Ronzitti, ed.) Nijhoff, Dordrecht, 1988, pp. 183-191.

“Internal subdivisions of international tribunals”, in Australian Law and Legal Thinking Between the Decades: A Collection of 13 Australian Reports to the 13th Congress of the International Academy of Comparative Law (A. Tay, ed.), Faculty of Law, University of Sydney, 1990, 257-263.

“International Law and the Gulf War” in Whose New World Order? (M. Bustelo and P. Alston, eds.), Federation Press, Sydney, 1991, pp. 69-84.

“High seas: drift gillnets, highly migratory species and marine mammals”, in The Law of the Sea in the 1990s: A Further Framework for International Cooperation (E.L. Miles and T. Kuribayashi, eds.), Law of the Sea Institute, Honolulu, 1992, 237-258.

“A New Approach to Joint Development: The Case of the Timor Gap Cooperation Treaty”, in D. Kim, C.H. Park, S.H. Lee, and J.H. Paik (eds), Exploring Maritime Cooperation in Northeast Asia: Possibility and Prospects, Institute of East and West Studies, Yonsei University, Seoul, 1993, 15-36.

“Current Law of the Sea Issues”, in R. Babbage and S. Bateman (eds), Maritime Change: Issues for Asia, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1993, 47-68.

“Navigation Issues in the Asia-Pacific Regiona”, in J. Crawford and D.R. Rothwell (eds), The Law of the Sea in the Asian Pacific Region, Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, 1994, 199-222.

“The Implications of Non-Treaty Law Making: Customary Law and its Implications”, in P. Alston and M. Chiam (eds), Treaty-Making and Australia, Federation Press, Sydney, 1995, 93-103.

“Recent Developments in International Criminal Law Affecting Enforcement of International Humanitarian Law”, in W. Maley (ed), Shelters from the Storm: Developments in International Humanitarian Law, Australian Defence Studies Centre, Canberra, 1995, 285-297.

“The Debate to Assess the Need for New International Accords”, in R.J. Grunawalt, J.E. King, and R.S. McClain, Protection of the Environment During Armed Conflict, International Law Studies 1996, Vol. 69, (Naval War College, Newport R.I. 1997), 546-555.

“Enforcement of Laws Against Delinquent Vessels” in D. MacKinnon and D. Sherwood (eds), Policing Australia’s Offshore Zones, Wollongong Papers on Maritime Policy No. 9, University of Wollongong, 1997, 239-266.

“The Relationship Between International Law and Domestic Law”, B.R. Opeskin and D.R. Rothwell (eds), International Law and Australian Federalism, Melbourne University Press, 1997, 34-68.

“Jurisdiction”, in S. Blay, R. Piotrowicz, and M. Tsamenyi (eds), Public International Law: An Australian Perspective, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1997, 161-192.

“The Role of the Law” in C. Hawksley, S. Tao, and C. Baldwin (eds), Preservation and Protection of the Marine Environment, Centre for Maritime Policy, University of Wollongong, 2002, 16-22.

“Rules of Conduct During Humanitarian Intervention” in A.E. Wall (ed), Legal and Ethical Lessons of NATO’s Kosovo Campaign, International Law Studies Vol. 78, Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island, 2002, 71-83.

“Oceans Management Challenges for the Law of the Sea in the First Decade of the 21st Century” in Alex G. Oude Elferink and Donald R. Rothwell (eds), Oceans Management in the 21st Century: Institutional Frameworks and Responses, Martinus Nijhoff, Leiden/Boston, 2004, 1-17.

“The Implementation of the Covenant in Domestic Law: The Case of Australia” in Nisuke Ando (ed), Essays on the 25th Anniversary of the Human Rights Committee, Raoul Wallenberg Institute, 2004.

“A Revival of the Just War Theory?” in M.N. Schmitt and J. Pejic (eds), International Law and Armed Conflict: Exploring the Faultlines – Essays in Honour of Yoram Dinstein, 1-20 (Martinus Nijhoff, Leiden/Boston, 2007).

“Extradition and Fugitive Offenders” in Australian Commentary on Halsbury’s Laws of England, Chapter 64, Butterworths, Sydney, 1991, pp. 1-38.

Encyclopedia of Public International Law (R. Bernhardt, ed.), prepared under the auspices of the Max Planck Institute of Foreign Public Law and International Law, Heidelberg, published by North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1981-90, Entries for:- (a) “Association of South-East Asian Nations”, Vol. 6 (1983), 25-28; (b) “Colombo Plan”, ibid., 78-80; (c) “Regional Cooperation and Organisation: Pacific Region”, ibid., 319-324 (d) “South-East Asia Treaty Organization”, ibid., 345-348; (e) “Submarines”, Vol. 11 (1989), 326-328; (f) “Collisions at Sea”, ibid., 63-65.

“Succession d’états et les traités non-localisés « , 68 Revue générale de droit international public (1964), 5-55.

“Non-extradition of nationals”, 2 Adelaide Law Rev. (1966), 273-309.

“Recent developments in the law of extradition”, 6 Melbourne University Law Rev. (1967), 186-208.

“Recognition and enforcement of foreign criminal judgements”, 47 Australian L.J. (1973), 585-591.

“Extradition without treaty”, 49 Australian L.J. (1975), 116-122.

“Australia and the law of the sea”, 1 Australia’s Maritime Horizons (1982), 1-8.

“Grotius and the law of the sea”, 26 Bulletin of the Australian Society of Legal Philosophy (1983), 46-65.

“The teaching of international law in Australian law schools”, 9 Adelaide Law Rev. (1983), 61-78.

“Fisheries legislation: the case for cooperation in enforcement”, 2 Amity International (Bulletin of the International Law Association of Thailand) (1986), 4-7.

“Australia and the law of the sea”, 24 Archiv des Völkerrechts (1986), 22-40.

“Problems of jurisdiction and law enforcement against delinquent vessels”, 35 Int. & Comp. Law Q. (1986), 320-343.

“International law and refugees in South-east Asia”, 13 Thesaurus Acroasium (1987), 431-468.

“Rules of engagement and the implementation of the law of naval warfare”, 14 Syracuse J. Int. L. & Com. (1988), 767-778.

“Extradition and Human Rights”, 68 Australian Law Journal 451-455 (1994).

“Australia’s new maritime zones”, 69 Australian Law Journal (1995), 26-29.

“The Toonen Case”, 69 Australian Law Journal (1995), 600-609.

“The Mekong Basin Agreement; border bridges”, 69 Australian Law Journal (1995), 491-494.

“The decision in the East Timor Case”, 69 Australian Law Journal (1995), 949-954.

“The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea: Strategic and Military Implications for Australia” (The Blamey Oration) 16 Journal of the Royal United Services Institute of Australia (1995), 49-57.

“Extraditing Heads of State”, 10 Public law Review 179-184 (1999).

“A Pope, Two Presidents and a Prime Minister: The Tragic History of East Timor”, 7 ILSA Journal of International Law 429-440 (2001).

“International relations between Australia and Taiwan: Behind the Façade”, 21 Australian Yearbook of International Law 113-132 (2001).

“Military Activities in the Exclusive Economic Zone: The Case of Aerial Surveillance”, 17 Ocean Yearbook 548-562 (2003).

“In Fear of International Law”, 12 Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 345-378 (2005).

“Australia, the United States and the Rule of Law in International Affairs: Comparisons and Contrasts” (2005) 26 Adelaide Law Review 191-210.