Dale Smith

Professor Dale Smith is a Professor at Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne, where he joined in 2014. Prior to this appointment, he served as a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Law at Monash University. He graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1998 with first class honours degrees in Law and Arts, and holds a Master of Arts in Philosophy from the University of Melbourne as well as a D.Phil. in Law from the University of Oxford. Smith has undertaken visiting fellowships including a Visiting Fellow position at the Surrey Centre for Law and Philosophy, University of Surrey in 2019, and a Visiting Academic role at the Faculty of Laws, University College London in 2012. At Melbourne Law School, he was formerly Associate Dean (Research), and currently serves as Director of Staff Development, Co-Convenor of the Legal Theory Workshop, and is affiliated with the Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies. He is a member of the Australian Society of Legal Philosophy, past Treasurer of the society, and past Editor of the Australasian Journal of Legal Philosophy, now known as the Journal of Legal Philosophy. Smith is an experienced supervisor of doctoral students working on legal, moral, and political philosophy, constitutional theory, and the philosophy of human rights.

Dale Smith’s research focuses primarily on analytic legal philosophy, especially the jurisprudential writings of Ronald Dworkin, theoretical aspects of statutory interpretation, and anti-discrimination law in collaboration with Colin Campbell. His publications have appeared in leading journals including the Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Legal Theory, Law and Philosophy, the Modern Law Review, Law Quarterly Review, and the University of Toronto Law Journal. Notable works include the co-edited volume Law Under a Democratic Constitution: Essays in Honour of Jeffrey Goldsworthy (Hart Publishing, 2019), with his chapter ‘What Is Statutory Purpose?’; ‘Distinguishing Between Direct and Indirect Discrimination’ (with Colin Campbell) (2023) 86 Modern Law Review 307–330; ‘Should Courts Follow Mistaken Statutory Precedents?’ in Philosophical Foundations of Precedent (Oxford University Press, 2023); ‘The Grounding Requirement for Direct Discrimination’ (with Colin Campbell) (2020) 136 Law Quarterly Review 258–283; ‘The Practice-based Objection to the “Standard Picture” of How Law Works’ (2019) 10 Jurisprudence 502–531; and ‘Is the High Court Mistaken About the Aim of Statutory Interpretation?’ (2016) 44 Federal Law Review 227–255. He is currently working on a monograph concerning statutory interpretation.

Professional Email: dale.smith@unimelb.edu.au