Professor Jeffrey McGee and Professor Penelope Crossley have been appointed as DFAT's Visiting Legal Fellows for 2026-2027.
The Visiting Legal Fellow Program encourages greater dialogue between the department and academia, including emerging international legal issues.
The Department looks forward to engaging with Professor McGee and Professor Crossley over the next two years.
Professor Jeffrey McGee
Professor Jeffrey McGee is a Professor of Climate Change, Marine and Antarctic Law at the Faculty of Law and the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania. In 2025, he was a Visiting Professor at the Polar Research Cooperation Centre, Kobe University, Japan. He is an internationally recognised expert on Antarctic law and geopolitics, with extensive experience in research, policy engagement, and international collaboration. He serves on the editorial boards of leading international journals in international environmental law, and polar and oceans law. Professor McGee has served as an academic adviser to Australian delegations to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting and the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources. He was a lead investigator on the Australian Research Council Discovery Project Geopolitical Change and the Antarctic Treaty System (2019-24) and is currently a lead investigator on the project Eyes South: Revealing Dual Use Technologies in Antarctica (2025-28). His work focuses on providing pragmatic, policy-relevant legal advice to government.
Professor Penelope Crossley
Professor Penelope Crossley is a Professor of Energy Law at the University of Sydney and a senior expert legal advisor to UNESCAP, advising on the legal and policy aspects of financing the energy transition. Her research, supported through multi-year Australian Research Council funding, examines the regulatory frameworks needed to accelerate renewable energy deployment and the governance settings required to deliver a just, efficient, and resilient transition. Her work has informed key international organisations, including the International Renewable Energy Agency, and has been cited in policy discussions on decarbonisation, energy market reform, and investment in clean energy infrastructure across the Asia-Pacific. Drawing on deep expertise in international energy law, electricity market governance and regulatory innovation, Professor Crossley develops policy and regulatory designs grounded in leading international best practice and has led capacity-building initiatives in Asia to support policymakers and regulators to build investment-ready legal frameworks that remain aligned with sustainability and system resilience. Professor Crossley is highly industry-engaged. She chairs the Australian Product Listing Review Panel, which determines whether solar panels, inverters and batteries qualify for listing under the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme established by the Renewable Energy (Electricity) Act 2000 (Cth). She also chairs the Monitoring and Compliance Panel for the New Energy Tech Consumer Code, overseeing retailer compliance with enhanced consumer protections under a scheme that now has over 2,000 industry signatories nationwide.
