Marcia Neave AO

Prior to her role as Commissioner, for nine years she was a Justice of the Court of Appeal at the Supreme Court of Victoria.

Ms Neave was a legal academic for many years. She held chairs at Adelaide University, and later at Monash University and then Australian National University. She was also a visiting Professor on three occasions in New York University’s Law School’s Global Law Program.  In 2006 she became the first academic in Victoria’s history to be appointed to the Court of Appeal.

Throughout her career, Ms Neave has always been passionate about how the law relates to women and responds to their needs. In the early 80’s she took leave from the university and became Research Director and a part-time Commissioner at the New South Wales Law Reform Commission, which, among other things, examined property division and support after the breakdown of de facto relationships.

In 1985 she chaired the Victorian Inquiry into Prostitution, which recommended decriminalisation of sex work, removal of most sanctions against sex workers, and the use of planning controls to coordinate the locations of brothels.

In the Queen’s Birthday Honours of 1999, Ms Neave was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for her services to the law, and in 2001, she was awarded the Centenary Medal.

In 2001 she became the Foundation Chair of the Victorian Law Reform Commission. This enabled her to play a key role in modernising Victorian law, including recommending changes that addressed some of the systemic disadvantages faced by women and children within the legal system, in particular victims of domestic victims and sex offences.

The Hon. Marcia Neave is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, and a life member of the Australian Institute of Judicial Administration.