Alice Tay

Alice Erh-Soon Tay AM FASSA (1934–2004) was an Australian academic lawyer, an eminent jurisprudence and comparative law scholar. She was president of the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission from 1998 to 2003.[1]

Professor

Alice Erh-Soon Tay

AM FASSA
President of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission
In office
1998–2003
Preceded bySir Ronald Wilson
Succeeded byJohn von Doussa
Personal details
Born1934
Singapore
Died2004
NationalityAustralian

Early life and education

Tay was born in Singapore in 1934. She was admitted to the Singapore Bar in 1957[2] and practiced as a criminal lawyer.[3] In 1959 she moved to the new law department at the University of Malaya (now the National University of Singapore).[2][4] She moved to Australia in 1961. Four years later she obtained her PhD from the Australian National University.[2]

Professional career

Tay had a long academic career at the University of Sydney, with 26 years as the Challis Professor of Jurisprudence from 1975. She was a part-time Commissioner of the Australian Law Reform Commission from 1982 to 1987.[5] During her time at the ALRC, she contributed to several major inquiries — including The Recognition of Aboriginal Customary Laws (ALRC 31, 1986); Privacy (ALRC 22, 1983); Contempt (ALRC 35, 1987) and Matrimonial Property (ALRC 39, 1987).[2] In 1985, Tay was made a Member of the Order of Australia, for her contributions to teaching and research in law.[6] She was elected a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia in 1986[7] and was awarded an LLD (honoris causa) from the University of Edinburgh in 1989.[2]

Personal life

Tay married political philosopher and Marxist scholar Eugene Kamenka after her arrival in Australia. He died in 1994 and she remarried Guenther Doeker-Mach shortly before her death in April 2004.[1]

Tributes

A street in the Canberra suburb of Watson is named after her. The gazetted notice of the ACT Government noted her role in "court interventions regarding the MV Tampa".[8]

The Annual Alice Tay Lecture in Law and Human Rights was established in 2005 by the Herbert and Valmae Freilich Foundation at the Australian National University. This lecture was established to acknowledge both Tay's championship of human rights in Australia and her contributions as a member of the Foundation's board over a number of years.[9]

References
  1. "A champion of human rights". University of Sydney. Retrieved 4 January 2017.
  2. Editors. "Obituary: Professor Alice Erh-Soon Tay". Australian Law Reform Commission Reform Journal. Australian Law Reform Commission (85): 43.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  3. Dellios, Alexandra. "Tay, Alice Erh-Soon (1934–2004)". The Encyclopedia of Women & Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia. Retrieved 4 January 2017.
  4. Julia Horne. "The Cosmopolitan Life of Alice Erh-Soon Tay" (PDF). University of Sydney. Retrieved 5 January 2017.
  5. "Memories of Professor Alice Ehr-Soon Tay: Interview with the Honourable Michael Kirby" (PDF). Michael Kirby. Retrieved 5 January 2017.
  6. It's an Honour, Government of Australia
  7. "Academy Fellow – Professor Alice Tay FASSA". Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. Retrieved 3 October 2020.
  8. "Tay Street". Planning ACT. Retrieved 23 May 2017.
  9. "Past events". Herbert & Valmae Freilich Foundation. Retrieved 25 September 2018.
Legal offices
Preceded by
Sir Ronald Wilson 		President of the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission
1998–2003		 Succeeded by
John von Doussa


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