The Australian Women's Register

Summary

Jocelynne Scutt has worked consistently in her capacity as lawyer, activist and writer to improve the lives of women generally and by changing the laws on rape and domestic violence. She founded the feminist publisher, Artemis and was a member of the Women’s Electoral Lobby in both Canberra and Sydney.

A graduate in law from the University of Western Australia in 1969, Scutt undertook postgraduate studies in law at the University of Sydney, Southern Methodist University and the University of Michigan in the United States, and Cambridge University in England. She has worked with the Australian Institute of Criminology and as director of research with the Legal and Constitutional Committee of the parliament of Victoria. From 1981-82 she worked at the Sydney Bar and then was Deputy Chairperson of the Law Reform Commission, Victoria. In 1986 she returned to private practice in Melbourne. She served as the first Anti-Discrimination Commissioner of Tasmania from 1999-2004. In 2007 she accepted a judicial post on the Fiji High Court.

Scutt is a member of the UN Committee Against Trafficking, a International Alliance of Women (IAW) representative on International Criminal Court Coalition (ICC Coalition) and a board member of the Women’s History Network in the United Kingdom. She was called to the English Bar in 2014.

Jocelynne Scutt was interviewed by Nikki Henningham for the Trailblazing Women and the Law Oral History Project. For details of the interview see the National Library of Australia CATALOGUE RECORD.

Details

Events

• 2001

  Inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women