Catherine Greentree

Dr Catherine Greentree teaches and researches in the areas of constitutional law, administrative law, and criminal law. Catherine completed her PhD at Macquarie Law School. Catherine also has a degree and post-graduate diploma in Psychology, and degrees in Law (Hons) and Social Science from Macquarie University. Whilst undertaking her law degree, Catherine was Assistant Editor for Empirical Musicology Review, which is an international journal that facilitates debate and scholarship surrounding the history, theory, psychological benefits, and social, political, and cultural facets of music. Catherine joined the Macquarie Law School as a sessional academic in 2012, and as part of the Foundations teaching team, Catherine established and ran the Foundations Constitutional Law Moot and was a joint recipient of the 2013 Vice-Chancellor’s Award and 2013 Faculty of Arts Teaching Award for Programs that Enhance Learning for the Foundations of Law unit.  

Catherine was admitted as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, and primarily practiced in family law, commercial law, property law, and criminal law. Catherine also undertook a 9-months internship at the New South Wales Law Reform Commission, where she worked on numerous major reports and consultation papers, including: Penalty Notices; Sentencing; and Young People with Cognitive and Mental Health Impairments in the Criminal Justice System.

Catherine has published in the highly competitive University of New South Wales Law Journal on the issues of: constitutional interpretation; constitutional history; the nature and limits of government power; and the interrelationship between constitutional and criminal law with an examination of the prerogative of mercy. In particular, Catherine’s research focuses on the expansion of executive power, and how an historical constitutional approach to constitutional interpretation could lead to a greater understanding of the development and use of the Crown’s powers in Australia.