Ashleigh Barnes

Ashleigh is a DPhil candidate in Human Rights Law at the University of Oxford. Ashleigh is undertaking research supervised by Kate O’Regan on the Australian implied freedom of political communication and comparative constitutional law. Ashleigh is a Rhodes Scholar.

In 2019, Ashleigh obtained the Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) with Distinction and was awarded the Law Faculty Prize in Medical Law and Ethics. Ashleigh is a qualified Australian lawyer (2018) and university medallist from the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), where she completed her Bachelor of Arts (French) and Bachelor of Laws with First Class Honours in 2017. Prior to coming to Oxford, Ashleigh worked as a judges’ associate (or tipstaff) in the New South Wales Supreme Court and taught undergraduate students at UTS. She has also worked as a solicitor and as a research assistant at a range of Australian and international organisations.

Ashleigh is a Graduate Research Resident at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, the Graduate Teaching Assistant in Family Law and the co-chair of Oxford Pro Bono Publico.

Ashleigh is passionate about human rights law, constitutional law, criminal law, family law and medical law and ethics.