Amy Barrow is Associate Professor at Macquarie Law School and a member of the Macquarie University Ethics and Agency Research Centre. Together with Sara Fuller (GEOP), she leads the Activism, Rights and Justice Research Stream in the Faculty of Arts.

Amy's research explores how institutional mechanisms, laws and rights activism can be used to advance equality and non-discrimination in society. In her work on these topics, Amy examines how international legal standards filter down from the macro to the micro level. Within her scholarship, Amy researches law in action by drawing on qualitative research methods to consider how international laws and policies are implemented in practice by multiple actors. Amy aims to extend theorising about the promise of law, as well as its limitations, particularly in highly context-specific situations such as in societies experiencing transition. 

Amy is a member of the WILPF Academic Network, a think tank connecting academics and peace activists working on issues of gender, peace and security as well as a founding member of the Everywoman Everywhere Coalition, which grew out of the Initiative on Violence against Women at the Harvard Kennedy School's Carr Center for Human Rights Policy.

Prior to joining Macquarie Law School Amy held posts in the Faculty of Law at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and in the School of Law, University of Manchester, United Kingdom.

• Gender, Equality and the Law
• Law and Society in Asia and the Pacific
• Women, Peace and Security and Societies in Transition
• Human Rights Implementation and Enforcement

Current PhD students:

• Helen Easton, Contested Discourses: A feminist socio-legal examination of legal responses to prostitution in the UK (Principal Supervisor)

Completed PhD students (Macquarie University):

• Humaira Parvin, Women in Bangladesh Police: A Critical Analaysis of the Role of Affirmative Action and Other Policies in Securing Gender Equality in the Public Sector (Principal Supervisor)

Prospective PhD Students

Amy is available to supervise research students in the following areas and welcomes inquiries from prospective students with an interest in utilising socio-legal research methods including empirical research methodologies:

Law and Society in Asia and the Pacific

Gender, Equality and the Law

Implementation and Enforcement of Human Rights

Women, Peace and Security and Societies in Transition

Current teaching:

LAWS5080 Human Rights and Moral Dilemmas

LAW8094 Human Rights and Moral Dilemmas (JD)

LAWS5019 International Human Rights Law

LAWS8087 International Human Rights Law (JD)

Past teaching:

LAWS1010 Introduction to Law and Social Justice

LEX101 Law, Human Rights and Global Governance (2017-2019)

LAWS8018 Research Methodologies (JD)