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Professor Simon Young

Professor Simon Young
Name Simon Young
Position Professor (Law and Justice)
Section School of Law and Justice
Office Q430
Location Toowoomba Campus
Phone +61 7 4631 5591
Extension 5591
Email
Qualifications AMusA AMEB , BA Qld , LLB Qld , LLM QUT , PhD UWA
Homepage https://research-repository.uwa.edu.au/en/persons/simon-young
The views expressed on staff homepages may not reflect the views of the University.

Dr Simon Young is a Professor of Law and Justice at the University of Southern Queensland and Deputy Director of USQ's Centre for Heritage and Culture. He previously worked at UWA (2005-2014), QUT (1996-2005) and with a national law firm (1992-1996). He specialises in the areas of First Nations law and policy (particularly native title) and public law (particularly administrative law) - publishing books in those fields in 1997, 2001, 2007, 2008 and 2016 - and articles in Australian, Canadian and UK journals. His postgraduate work on comparative native title was awarded UWA's Robert Street Prize for the PhD thesis making the most significant contribution to its field (2005), and his 2019 analysis of evolutions in Australian native title law was shortlisted for the 2020 Australian Legal Research Awards (Article/Chapter category). He has provided expert advice and/or seminars to various government agencies (in Australia and Canada), various non-government organisations, law reform commissions, courts and tribunals, law firms, barristers and journalists. Simon has received the UWA Blackstone Society Award for Law Teacher of the Year (in 2008 & 2013), the UWA Faculty of Law Excellence in Individual Teaching Award (p/grad & u/grad) (2008), and the USQ Law Student Society Outstanding Lecturer Award (2020 & 2022). In 2023 he was awarded a Fulbright Scholar Award to work on First Nations' water rights at the University of Wisconsin in the US.


  • Comparative Law ( 180106 )
  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Law ( 180101 )
  • Administrative Law ( 180103 )
  • Administrative Law ( 480701 )
  • Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Customary Law ( 450509 )
  • Comparative Law ( 480302 )
  • Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Peoples ( 450500 )
  • Public Law ( 480700 )
  • International And Comparative Law ( 480300 )
  • Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Peoples And The Law ( 450518 )

Administrative Law and Government Accountability
Native Title Law (including comparative)
First Nations Law and Policy
Aspects of Constitutional Law


Adjunct Professor - School of Law, Uni of Western Australia (2014-)
External Fellow - Centre for Public, International and Comparative Law, Uni of Queensland (2017-)
Admitted Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Queensland (1994-)


Member of the Australian Institute of Administrative Law (2004-)
Member of The International Society of Public Law (2020-)


  • Institute for Resilient Regions (IRR)
  • Centre for Heritage and Culture (CHC)

LAW2221/5221 Administrative Law
LAW8709 Comparative Native Title Law & Policy
LAW8716 Government Accountability
LAW2213/5213 Property and Trusts A


25 Years


  • Comparative Law ( 180106 )
  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Law ( 180101 )
  • Administrative Law ( 180103 )
  • Administrative Law ( 480701 )
  • Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Customary Law ( 450509 )
  • Comparative Law ( 480302 )
  • Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Peoples ( 450500 )
  • Public Law ( 480700 )
  • International And Comparative Law ( 480300 )
  • Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Peoples And The Law ( 450518 )