Amelia Thorpe

Professor Amelia Thorpe of the University of New South Wales School of Law specializes in planning, property and environmental law with a focus on mobility and urban governance. Her sociolegal approach integrates professional experience in public interest environmental law and planning, including acting as Commissioner in the Land and Environment Court of NSW and membership on the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority.

• BEnvDes & BArch (Hons), University of Western Australia
• BPolSt (Hons), Murdoch University
• BA (Jurisprudence), Oxford
• LLM, Harvard Law School
• PhD, Australian National University

Her research explores urban governance through projects like Owning the Street: The Everyday Life of Property (MIT Press, 2020) and current $2M+ in competitive funding including:

• Australian Research Council Linkage Project (2025-2028): Aboriginal-led pathways
• James Martin Institute Policy Challenge Grant (2023-2024): Data-driven mobility
• Reliable Affordable Clean Energy CRC (2020): EV infrastructure

She has held visiting appointments at UC Berkeley, McGill, and Paris IAS. Her 12 PhD supervisees include:

• Matthew Idiculla (constitutional law)
• Amarnath Boopalam Manjunath (street vendors)
• Alice Palithorpe (climate displacement)

Major awards include:

• Australian Legal Research Awards (2022)
• Legal Innovation Index winner (2016)
• Vice-Chancellor’s Teaching Excellence (2014)