Senior Lecturer

Career Summary

I did law at the University of Tasmania, qualifying for the LL B with first class honours in 1971. In that year I was awarded the Rhodes Scholarship for Tasmania and completed an M Phil in Politics at Oxford University from 1972-1975. In 1976, I was appointed as Lecturer in the Law School at the University of Tasmania and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1991.

Units Taught

Research Interests

I have a long term interest in constitutional jurisprudence, including issues such as why constitutions are binding and how they should be interpreted. I also have strong interests in Tasmanian Constitutional and Administrative Law and Tasmanian Environmental Law, especially in the cause celebres which are thrown up on a regular basis such as the resignation of Richard Butler as Governor of the State and the termination of the RPDC assessment of Gunns pulp mill by the State government. I am currently working on aspects of the assessment and regulation of the mill both at Commonwealth and State level.

Selected Publications:

• M Stokes, 1994, 'Constitutional Commitments, not Original Intentions; interpretation in the Freedom of Speech Cases', Syd LR, 16, pgs. 250-73
• M Stokes, 1990, '“Is the Constitution a Social Contract?”', Adel Lr, 12, pgs. 249-291
• M Stokes, 2007, 'The Interpretation of Legal Terms Used in the Definition of Commonwealth Powers', FLR, 35, pgs. 241-64
• M Stokes, 2007, 'Contested Concepts, General Terms and Constitutional Evolution', Syd LR, 29, pgs. 683-712
• M Stokes, 2004, 'The Resignation of Richard Butler as Governor of Tasmania', UTLR, pgs. 207-42
• M Stokes, 2000, 'Legal Independence and Tests for Law', Australian Journal of Legal Philosophy, 25, pgs. 37-78
• M Stokes, 1994, 'Formalism, Realism and The Concept of Law', Law and Philosophy, 13, pgs. 115-159

Full Publication List