Matthew Harding joined the Law School as a lecturer in 2005.
Matthew graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1998 with first class honours degrees in law and in arts. He also holds a Bachelor of Civil Law degree (with distinction) and a D.Phil from the University of Oxford. During his time as a postgraduate student in Oxford, Matthew held Chevening and Clarendon Fund Scholarships and, during 2002-3, a research fellowship funded by the Andrew Mellon Foundation. His D.Phil thesis was on the moral foundations of fiduciary law. Prior to undertaking postgraduate study, Matthew also worked as a solicitor for Arthur Robinson & Hedderwicks (now Allens) in Melbourne.
Matthew has taught Torts and the Process of Law, History and Philosophy of Law, Property II - Acquisitions and Dealings, Equity and Trusts, and Trusts in the LL.B programme, and Trusts in the JD programme. Matthew's published work deals with issues in moral philosophy, fiduciary law, equitable property, land title registration, and the law of charity. He is currently researching and writing on a number of topics: the principles of land registration (with Dr Robin Hickey of Queen's University, Belfast); the circumstances in which a court of final appeal may overrule its own decisions (with Professor Ian Malkin of the Melbourne Law School); human rights and discretionary decision-making in private law; and the definition, regulation and taxation of the not-for-profit sector in Australian law. This last project, which Matthew is working on with Associate Professors Ann O'Connell and Miranda Stewart of the Melbourne Law School, recently received funding in the form of an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant for 2010-2012.
