• Charles Sturt appoints Professor Mark Nolan as Director of the Centre for Law and Justice
• Professor Nolan brings extensive academic and teaching experience to the role
• The Centre offers courses in law, criminal justice and public safety and security

Charles Sturt University is pleased to welcome Professor Mark Nolan as the new Director for the Centre for Law and Justice.

Professor Nolan has extensive experience teaching undergraduate and postgraduate law subjects and a strong research background spanning legal psychology, criminal law, military discipline law and human rights law.

He joined the Centre as Director last month, after a successful 18-year career in teaching and administrative positions at the Australian National University (ANU) College of Law.

Professor Nolan will oversee the Centre’s teaching, research, and community outreach activity by its staff in Bathurst, Port Macquarie, Orange and Canberra.

Executive Dean of the Charles Sturt Faculty of Business, Justice and Behavioural Sciences Professor Tracey Green welcomed Professor Nolan to the University and congratulated him on his new role.

“Charles Sturt University is delighted to welcome Professor Mark Nolan as Director of the Centre for Law and Justice,” Professor Green said.

“Professor Nolan has a strong interdisciplinary academic background well-suited to the Centre and brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the role.

“He will play an integral role in leading the Centre’s staff to train highly-qualified and skilled graduates in law, public safety and security, and criminal justice.”

Professor Nolan said it is a pleasure to join a regional university and he looks forward to connecting with staff and students as well as professionals and community members across the University’s regional footprint.

“Having collaborated on research and consultancies with Charles Sturt University staff and taught in the University’s terrorism and forensic psychology subjects in the past, it is exciting to join the University and new and familiar colleagues,” Professor Nolan said.

“Leading the dedicated and experienced staff in the Centre for Law and Justice, many of them with rich professional as well as academic backgrounds, will be a pleasure and a privilege. 

“The mixture of law, criminal justice, plus public safety and security teaching and research focus in the Centre is a natural fit for me, and I am proud to be joining a team that can inspire professionals and graduates in these important areas who will graduate well placed to shape their communities.

“As someone who left Kempsey, NSW, in 1990 to study science and law in far, far away Canberra, this new position is an overdue and welcome regional homecoming for me.”

Professor Nolan is an interdisciplinary legal scholar with qualifications in law, honours and doctoral training in social psychology, and a Master of Asian and Pacific Studies majoring in Thai language.

He held a range of administrative positions at ANU, including Higher Degree Research Director, Associate Dean (Education), Director of the Juris Doctor Program, and Director of Postgraduate Programs.

Earlier this year he was awarded life membership of the National Judicial College of Australia in recognition of his long-serving role in judicial education, hosting visiting judicial officers at ANU, and as a conference organiser bringing together judicial officers, practitioners, academics, and other professionals including psychiatrists and psychologists.

He is widely published on the subject of law and legal psychology, and in 2015 co-authored the book Legal Psychology in Australia with Charles Sturt Professor Jane Goodman-Delahunty.

Upon his appointment at Charles Sturt, Professor Nolan remains an Honorary Professor (adjunct) at the ANU College of Law.

The Centre for Law and Justice offers undergraduate courses in law via online study and criminal justice and public safety and security at the University in Bathurst and Port Macquarie.

These courses are delivered by the Centre’s team of highly qualified and experienced legal practitioners, researchers, criminologists, sociologists, philosophers, and policing scholars.