Seventeenth Geoffrey Sawer Lecture 2014

Geoffrey Sawer was the first Professor of Law at The Australian National University, appointed in 1950 at the age of 40. His fluid and incisive writing, especially on Australian constitutional law and politics, has had a significant impact on succeeding generations of academics, practitioners and judges. In 1998, two years after Sawer’s death in 1996, in honour of this pioneering scholar, the Dean of the ANU College of Law, Michael Coper, with then Centre for International and Public Law Director Hilary Charlesworth, inaugurated the annual Sawer Lecture. Since then, the annual lecture has been delivered by such luminaries as Sir Ninian Stephen, Sir Gerard Brennan, and Professor Leslie Zines.

Ms Deborah Glass OBE is the current Victorian Ombudsman. She was appointed in March 2014; the appointment is for a term of 10 years.

Deborah has recently stepped down as Deputy Chair of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) of England and Wales, completing a 10-year term with the IPCC in March 2014. She was also the IPCC Commissioner for London, responsible for many high profile criminal and misconduct investigations.

Raised in Melbourne and a graduate of Monash University, Deborah practiced as a lawyer in Melbourne before joining Citicorp Investment Bank in Switzerland in 1985. She was appointed to the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission at its inception in 1989 and was instrumental in raising standards for the Hong Kong investment management industry, becoming Senior Director. Upon moving to London in 1998 she was Chief Executive of the Investment Management Regulatory Organisation, which was a self-regulatory body being merged into the Financial Services Authority, until the completion of the merger in 2000. She was then appointed to the UK Police Complaints Authority, and in 2004, became a Commissioner of the newly constituted IPCC. She was appointed Deputy Chair in 2008. Deborah was awarded an OBE for services to the IPCC in the New Year Honours List 2012.