Rate My Professor Stephen Gray

Stephen Gray serves as an Associate Professor and Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Law at Monash University. He is also affiliated with the Castan Centre for Human Rights as an Associate. Gray obtained his PhD from Monash University in 2008, with research centered on the 'stolen wages' issue affecting Indigenous people in the Northern Territory. Additionally, he holds an LLM from the University of Melbourne, which explored legal avenues for the protection of Aboriginal art. Prior to his academic career at Monash, he accumulated 16 years of professional experience in the Northern Territory, where he specialized in Indigenous legal issues, intellectual property law, and criminal law. Notably, he led the research efforts for the Northern Territory Intervention website, which was released by the Castan Centre for Human Rights in February 2016.

His scholarly work focuses on Aboriginal affairs, Indigenous legal issues—including the Stolen Wages debate and protections for Indigenous art and culture—criminal law, intellectual property, human rights, and Malaysian politics and law. Gray has an extensive publication record, including books such as Criminal Laws Northern Territory (second edition, 2012), Brass Disks, Dog Tags and Finger Scanners (2012), The Protectors (2011), and the crime novel The Artist is a Thief (2001). Among his influential articles are "The Northern Territory Intervention: An Evaluation" (2015), "The Elephant in the Drawing Room: Slavery and the ‘Stolen Wages’ Debate" (2007), "Protest law and the First World War: the case of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)" (2018), "Indigenous laws and the ‘woke culture wars’" (2025, Alternative Law Journal), "The pearling industry and Australia's 'deep connection with enslavement': analysing a slavery and stolen wages claim" (2025, Monash University Law Review), "Robust watchdogs, toothless tigers, or kangaroo courts? The evolution of Anti-Corruption Commissions in Australia" (2024, University of New South Wales Law Journal), and "Disadvantage and the automated decision" (2022, Adelaide Law Review). Furthermore, he contributes to the academic community as a board member of the Alternative Law Journal.