Alice Erh-Soon Tay (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 The Australian Human Rights Commission is the national human rights institution of Australia, established in 1986 as the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) and renamed in 2008. It is a statutory body funded by, but oper ...

from 1998 to 2003.

Early life and education

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

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies an ...

Professional career

Tay had a long academic career at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's ...

, with 26 years as the Challis Professor of Jurisprudence from 1975. She was a part-time Commissioner of the

Australian Law Reform Commission The Australian Law Reform Commission (often abbreviated to ALRC) is an Australian independent statutory body established to conduct reviews into the law of Australia. The reviews, also called inquiries or references, are referred to the ALRC by ...

from 1982 to 1987. 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). In 1985, Tay was made a Member of the Order of Australia, for her contributions to teaching and research in law. She was elected a Fellow of the

Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia The Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA) is an independent, non-governmental organisation devoted to the advancement of knowledge and research in the social sciences. It has its origins in the Social Science Research Council of Austr ...

in 1986 and was awarded an LLD (honoris causa) from the University of Edinburgh in 1989.

Personal life

Tay married political philosopher and Marxist scholar

Eugene Kamenka Eugene Kamenka (4 March 1928 – 19 January 1994) was an Australian political philosopher and Marxism, Marxist scholar. Biography Kamenka was born in Cologne in 1928 and migrated to Australia with his parents in 1937. He was educated at the S ...

after her arrival in Australia. He died in 1994 and she remarried Guenther Doeker-Mach shortly before her death in April 2004.

Tributes

A street in the Canberra suburb of Watson is named after her. The gazetted notice of the

ACT Government The Government of the Australian Capital Territory, also referred to as the Australian Capital Territory Government or ACT Government, is the executive authority of the Australian Capital Territory, one of the territories of Australia. The lea ...

noted her role in "court interventions regarding the

MV Tampa MV ''Tampa'' was a roll-on/roll-off container ship completed in 1984 by Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. in South Korea for the Norway-based firm, Wilhelmsen Lines Shipowning. In 2001, the vessel was at the centre of the Tampa Affair when its ...

". The Annual Alice Tay Lecture in Law and Human Rights was established in 2005 by the Herbert and Valmae Freilich Foundation at the

. 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.

References

External links

*
Alice Tay lectures at the Herbert & Valmae Freilich Project for the Study of Bigotry at the ANU
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tay, Alice 1934 births 2004 deaths Australian people of Chinese descent Australian women lawyers Singaporean emigrants to Australia Members of the Order of Australia Australian National University alumni University of Sydney faculty Fellows of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia