Professor

Career Summary

Margaret graduated in 1985 with First Class Honours in Law. After completing the Legal Practice Course, she did her articles with Page Seager in Hobart and was admitted to practice as Barrister and Solicitor and then worked as a legal practitioner primarily in the civil litigation area, including workers compensation and personal injury actions. After some part-time lecturing involvements, she was appointed in a full-time academic role in 1987. Since then, she has pursued her career through the University of Tasmania culminating in her appointment to a Personal Chair in 2003. In 1992, she completed a PhD which was published in the UK by Oxford University Press (Voluntary Euthanasia and the Common Law). She was Associate Dean for Research 2003-2004 and has served as Deputy Head of School since 2005. She has been involved in University administration in senior roles including as member of the Graduate Research Board and Chair of the Human Research Ethics Committee. She is also a member of the Faculty of Law Executive Committee. She has participated extensively in community activities and is currently member of the Royal Hobart Hospital’s Clinical Ethics Committee and Honorary Consul for Switzerland. Margaret has maintained strong links with practice through quasi-judicial tribunal work including past involvements with the Commonwealth Social Security Tribunal and the Tasmanian Guardianship and Administration Tribunal and is currently member of the Anti-Discrimination Tribunal. She has had a fulfilling teaching career, having received recognition for excellence in teaching through the Teaching Excellence Award in 1992 and Teaching Merit Certificates. Margaret is registered with the University as a postgraduate supervisor and has been responsible for the supervision or co-supervision of a number of successful postgraduate students (both PhD and LLM candidates) as well as being involved as consultant supervisor for quite a number of other candidates.

Units Taught

Research Interests

The bulk of Margaret’s research has been in the health law area which has been her primary interest since the very outset of her academic career. This has been reinforced through a number of her professional involvements including her work as Chair of the University Human Research Ethics Committee and her past work with the Tasmanian Guardianship and Administration Board which deals with health law issues at the 'coal face'. Margaret has published on a range of subjects in this field, however her principal areas of expertise are in relation to end-of-life issues, especially euthanasia which was her PhD area and aspects of genetics, especially the issues of genetic discrimination and privacy.

She has been involved as Chief Investigator on a number of Australian Research Council funded collaborative research projects where her work has focused on issues of regulation, privacy and discrimination, including a current project on biobanking involving also consent issues. She led the ARC funded Genetic Discrimination Project (undertaken by a team comprising also Professor Sandy Taylor and Associate Professor Barlow-Stewart) which has attracted significant interest nationally and internationally (www.gdproject.com). Through this work, she has gained recognition as a leading legal scholar and commentator in this area as reflected in invitations to address national and international forums, referee articles for national and international journals, contribute articles, book chapters, reviews and forum pieces and to give opinions to the media. She has been invited to give plenary/keynote presentations at international and national conferences including for an ELSI symposium for the International Congress of Genetics in Berlin in 2008 and for an international conference organized by Genome Canada in 2008. She has also written and contributed to numerous submissions to public inquiries, mostly in the health law area. She is a member of a number of editorial boards including for the Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, Australian Health Law Bulletin and the Australian Journal of Family Law.

Although she has pursued a number of distinct subject streams in her research, there have been some useful intersections between various streams which she has been able to exploit, particularly in relation to aspects of health law and family law – for example, in relation to artificial reproduction and surrogacy and medical treatment of minors. Key research related achievements include:

• Co-founder & Deputy Director of Centre for Law & Genetics now a highly respected Centre in the national and international arena
• Instrumental in the establishment of the Biotechnology Health & Environment Network: Ethical, Legal & Social Intersections (BHENELSI) initiative; an online, multidisciplinary cross-institutional, international professional network
• Appointed as resident consultant with the Australian Law Reform Commission in connection with its joint Inquiry with the Australian Health Ethics Committee of the NHMRC into the Protection of Human Genetic Information
• Consultant for the NHMRC Human Genetics Advisory Committee
• Invited expert in roundtable meetings for the Victorian Law Reform Commission on Assisted Reproductive Technology
• Member of the Federal Privacy Commissioner’s Health Leader’s Forum
• Member of the Advisory Board to the Australian Twin Registry

Selected Publications:

• M Otlowski, S Taylor, K Barlow-Stewart, M Stranger and S Treloar, 2007, 'The Use of Legal Remedies in Australia for Pursuing Allegations of Genetic Discrimination: Findings from an Empirical Study', International Journal of Discrimination and the Law , 9, pgs. 3-35
• M Otlowski, 2007, 'Donor Perspectives on Issues Associated with Donation of Genetic Samples and Information: An Australian Viewpoint', Journal of Bioethical Inquiry , 4, pgs. 135-150
• M Otlowski, 2005, 'Exploring the Concept of Genetic Discrimination’ ', Journal of Bioethical Inquiry , 2, pgs. 165-176
• M Otlowski, 2004, 'An Exploration of the Legal and Socio-Ethical Implications of Predictive Genetic Testing of Children', Australian Journal of Family Law , 18, pgs. 147-169
• M Otlowski, 2000, 'Resolving the Conundrum: Should Insurers be Entitled to Access Genetic Test Information?', Insurance Law Journal , 11, pgs. 193-215
• M Otlowski, 1999, 'Re Evelyn - Reflections on Australia's First Litigated Surrogacy Case', Medical Law Review , 7, pgs. 38-57
• M Otlowski, 1997, 'Voluntary Euthanasia and the Common Law ', Oxford University Press (UK)

Full Publication List

Current and Supervised Project/s:

• The use of paediatric samples in Biobank Research - the legal issues?
• Conversations Between Judges and Children: Judicial Conferencing in Contested Australian Family Law Proceedings
• Are our children being adequately protected? Cross jurisdictional issues between the Family Law Court and Magistrates Court in relation to children affected by domestic violence.