Ian Freckelton AO KC

University of Melbourne, Melbourne Law School, Faculty Member

Monash University, Law Faculty, Faculty Member

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Ian Freckelton is a King's Counsel in full-time practice as a barrister throughout Australia and is a former Judge of the Supreme Court of Nauru. He is also a Professor of Law and Professorial Fellow in Psychiatry at the University of Melbourne, an Adjunct Professor of Forensic Medicine at Monash University, an Adjunct Professor of Law at La Trobe University, an Adjunct Professor at the Queensland University of Technology and an Adjunct Professor of Health Science at the Auckland University of Technology. He was the Commissioner at the Victorian Law Reform Commission in charge of its reference on Medicinal Cannabis and a member of the Australian Commonwealth Government Advisory Committee on the Medicinal Use of Cannabis. He was a member of the Mental Health Tribunal of Victoria for 25 years and the Victorian Bar Council for 5 years. He is an inaugural member of the coronial Council of Victoria (since 2010). He is an honorary life member of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Psychiatry, Psychology and Law. He is the Editor of the Journal of Law and Medicine and the Founding Editor of Psychiatry, Psychology and Law. He is an elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, the Australian Academy of Law, the Academy of Social Sciences Australia and the Australian College of Legal Medicine.

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Papers by Ian Freckelton AO KC

Public Health Emergencies in Australia

Compassion, Law and COVID-19

Journal of law and medicine, Aug 1, 2020

Levels of personal anxiety are inevitably escalating in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, includ... more Levels of personal anxiety are inevitably escalating in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including individual fear of infection, grief at the loss of loved ones and reactive depression related to loss of employment and livelihood. This article considers the importance of compassion in a range of contemporary and emerging contexts during a time of pandemic. These include: exposure of medical and care professionals to the acute demands of overstretched institutions resulting in adverse mental health outcomes and compassion fatigue; attitudes towards the burgeoning cohort of welfare recipients; and particularly vulnerable groups such as the elderly, and those who are homeless. The article considers how we ought to conceive of compassion in these contexts and makes some suggestions for building future compassion interventions and training.

Regulating professional practice

Professional regulation of medical practitioners has undergone substantial change in recent decad... more Professional regulation of medical practitioners has undergone substantial change in recent decades. While medicine has traditionally been a self-regulating profession, calls for greater oversight of professional practice have encouraged new regulatory models. Using examples from the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, this chapter analyses recent trends in the regulation of medical practice, charting the move from professional self-regulation through to contemporary models of oversight and accountability. The introduction of more rigorous requirements for assessing professional competency – including new requirements for recertification, revalidation, performance, health and the character of practitioners in addition to traditional conduct-based assessments – has been a key feature of the move to contemporary regulatory frameworks. Further developments have also introduced measures to regulate unregistered health practitioners, and to avoid the potential adverse impacts of a ‘brain drain’ that recruiting international health personnel might have on health systems in poorer countries.

COVID-19, Negligence and Occupational Health and Safety: Ethical and Legal Issues for Hospitals and Health Centres

Journal of law and medicine, Apr 1, 2020

The international incidence of health workers being infected with COVID-19 is deeply troubling. U... more The international incidence of health workers being infected with COVID-19 is deeply troubling. Until a vaccine is developed, they are the community's bulwark against the pandemic. It is vital that they be protected to the maximum extent possible. This entails the need for implementation of effective and compassionate protocols to keep their workplace as safe as possible for them, their colleagues and their patients in a context of much as yet not being known about the virus and awareness that some persons infected by it are for a time at least asymptomatic and that others test negative for it when they are prodromal or even already displaying some symptomatology. This has repercussions both for the liability of hospitals and multi-practitioner centres for negligence and also under occupational health and safety legislation. With the commencement of the roll out of biosecurity and disaster/emergency measures by government and escalating levels of anxiety in the general population, it is important to reflect upon the measures that most effectively can be adopted practically and ethically to protect the health and safety of those whose task it is to care for us if we become infected by COVID-19.

Indictable offences in Victoria

Interstate and Overseas Deaths: Jurisdictional and Decision-Making Challenges for Coroners

PubMed, Apr 1, 2019

This editorial addresses the jurisdictional challenges for decision-making about which coroners s... more This editorial addresses the jurisdictional challenges for decision-making about which coroners should exercise jurisdiction over a dead body, when more than one has the potential to do so, including when a tragedy has occurred involving deceased persons ordinarily residing in diverse jurisdictions. It considers the criteria that are applied and should be applied by coroners to assumption of jurisdiction in relation to overseas deaths and reflects on considerations relevant to the exercise of such decision-making. It reviews significant cases, including appellate case law, in relation to coroners' investigations of overseas deaths and concludes by reflecting upon the need for consistent legislation throughout Australia and New Zealand on exercise of jurisdiction by coroners. It considers the expedient of a federal coroner for Australia.

Development of COVID-19 Treatments and Vaccines