Rate My Professor Miranda Forsyth

Miranda Forsyth is a Professor in the School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet), College of Asia and the Pacific, at the Australian National University. She holds a BA/LLB (Hons) from the University of Melbourne, an LLM from the University of Connecticut, and a PhD from the Australian National University. Previously, she served as Senior Lecturer in Criminal Law at the University of the South Pacific Law School in Port Vila, Vanuatu.

Miranda Forsyth's research examines how diverse justice needs can be addressed in plural legal settings, with emphasis on the Pacific Islands, particularly Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea. Her interests include legal pluralism, law and society, legal anthropology, restorative justice, crime and violence, and intellectual property law. Current projects explore restorative justice for gender-based and environmental harms, community rule-making as regulatory innovation, and strategies to overcome sorcery accusation-related violence.

She has authored 'A Bird that Flies with Two Wings: Kastom and State Justice Systems in Vanuatu' (ANU E Press, 2009), co-authored 'Weaving Intellectual Property Policy in Small Island Developing States' (Intersentia, 2015), edited 'Talking it Through: Responses to Sorcery and Witchcraft Beliefs and Practices in Melanesia' (ANU Press, 2015), and co-edited 'Hybridity on the Ground in Peacebuilding and Development' (2018) and 'The Palgrave Handbook of Environmental Restorative Justice' (2022). Other influential works include 'The Regulation of Witchcraft and Sorcery Practices and Beliefs' (2016) and 'A Future Agenda for Environmental Restorative Justice?' (2021). Her publications have amassed over 1,773 citations.

Forsyth leads ARC Future Fellowship project 'Overcoming Violence and Building Peace in Conditions of Complexity in PNG' (2024-2029), alongside other funded research on restorative justice and community mechanisms. She received the ANU Higher Degree Research Supervisor of the Month award in July 2022.