Ben Clarke
LLB (University of Tasmania), LL M (University of Bristol)

Ben teaches Criminal Law, Public International and Comparative Law, and Human Rights Law at The University of Notre Dame Australia (Fremantle campus).

He has published journal articles in a range of areas of law including public international law, human rights law, criminal law, confiscation law and the law of armed conflict, as well as a monograph on International Law s well as a forthcoming book with Rob Imre, and Brian Mooney entitled Responding to Terrorism: Legal, Philosophical and Political Perspectives (Ashgate 4/2008).

His current research includes a conference paper entitled Freedom of Religion and the Punishment of Apostasy: The Challenge of Harmonizing State Practice and Universal Human Rights Norms for AL-Hussein bin Talal University International Conference on “Terrorism in the Digital Age” in Jordan in July 2008.

He is chair of the School of Law Research Committee. Prior to his appointment at Notre Dame in 2001, Ben practised as a criminal defence lawyer for six years, and is a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Courts of Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory, a Practitioner of the High Court of Australia, Solicitor of the Supreme Courts of Queensland and New South Wales, and as a Barrister of the Supreme Court of Tasmania.

Ben is a committee member of the WA Red Cross International Humanitarian Law Unit and also a Member of the American Society of International Law , the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law, the International Commission of Jurists ( Western Australian Branch) and the WA Criminal Lawyers Association.

He is currently writing a PhD thesis which examines the legal status of resistance movements that emerge during enemy occupation of a Sovereign State.