Associate Professor
Barbara Hocking

Biography

Academic History
Before joining QUT in 1995, Barbara Ann Hocking worked as a researcher with the Australian Law Reform Commission, Sydney University Faculty of Law, the Queensland Law Society and the Queensland Teachers Union. She also worked as an academic at the then newly established Griffith University School of Law from 1990 to 1994. Previously, Barbara was the holder of a Lionel Murphy Foundation Scholarship in 1988 and 1989 and completed her PhD under their auspices with the School of Law at the University of Queensland. Her PhD topic was The Uses and Abuses of the Law of Criminal Conspiracy. From 2002-2003, Barbara was the Assistant Dean, Research with QUT's Faculty of Law. From 2008-2009 she went on leave to work at University of Tasmania Faculty of Law, returning to QUT School of Justice in January 2010. Barbara continues as a Honorary Research Associate at Riawunna Centre at the University of Tasmania.
Research History
Although her PhD dealt with the law of criminal conspiracy, Barbara's research interests now lie mainly in the intersections between the disciplines of science and law, with particular emphasis on genetic technologies, climate change, conservation, bioethics and law. She has also written in the areas of human rights law and tort law. Her first book was Liability for Negligent Words (Federation Press, 1999) and a new book is underway, tentatively titled It’s Only Words? Negligence in a Cyber World, with chapters dealing with new challenges arising for the law of negligence, through new forms of communication such as anonymous 'blogs' and evaluations, facebook, genomics, etc. This  new manuscript is due to Federation Press in early 2011. The ways in which these new words, like those traditionally considered 'misstatements', also travel far afield and cause harm is the central analysis of this book. Barbara’s most recent paper is ‘Of Federalism and Tax Bonuses: Reflections in the Australian Context’ (2010) Common Law World Review (co-author, Scott Guy). Another paper titled ‘The Taxation Exemption of Canadian Indians as Governments and Individuals:  How does this Compare to Australia and New Zealand?’ (co-authors, Fiona Martin, Brad Morse) is in press (Common Law World Review 2011).  
International Research
In 2004, Barbara was awarded the Lilian Penson fellowship of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies (ICS), London and was a visiting researcher both there and at the Centre for Public and International Law at the University of Giessen in 2005. During those visits she did several lectures on Australian human rights, including at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute for Human Rights and Humanitarian law in Lund, Sweden. Since that time her international research work has been the result of the award of both an ARC International Linkage Grant (2003-2005) and an ARC Linkage International Fellowship (ARCIF, 2007-2009) to work on pandemic planning and benefit-sharing of vaccines, with colleagues at the Universities of Giessen in Germany, Hong Kong and Puerto Rico.