Hon. Dr. Robyn Layton AO QC

Robyn is a former Supreme Court Judge of South Australia. Prior to her Supreme Court appointment, she was a barrister and Queen’s Counsel, and a judge in various jurisdictions. As a judge, Robyn developed and delivered judicial training courses on issues such as vulnerable witnesses including children and women giving evidence in court. She co-authored a Bench Book on Children as Witnesses, for all Australian judges. She is an accredited judicial educator and a Fellow of the Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute in Canada.

Robyn is an adjunct professor at Justice and Society, University of South Australia. She holds a Master of Laws and is a Doctor of the University of South Australia. She works independently as a judicial education and program development consultant. Since completion of her terms as a member and later the Chair of the Committee of Experts on Application of Conventions of International Labour Office (ILO), Geneva in 2008, as an ILO consultant she delivers training for judges and lawyers in labor law and human rights standards internationally.

As a consultant for the Asian Development Bank (ADB), she has undertaken a number of gender capacity building projects and technical assistance: a Gender Development Poverty Reduction Project for Women (Cambodia, Kazakhstan, and the Philippines); Strengthening Women’s Resilience to Climate Change and Disasters (Fiji, Lao PDR, and Mongolia); Legal Literacy for Women (Afghanistan and Pakistan); and currently Promotion of Gender Responsive Systems (Timor-Leste and Fiji).

During her work in Pakistan, in addition to the training of some 600 judges with other consultants, she set up Pakistan’s first gender-based violence court. Her work included developing the practice directions providing for gender-sensitive approaches to women and children giving their evidence, court structural changes, and use of remote video facilities. She later co-authored the ADB knowledge product Court Companion on Gender-Based Violence Cases.

Robyn has received national awards for her work relating to law, human rights, women, children and indigenous peoples including Member of the Order of Australia (OA) (2012); The South Australian, Australian of the Year (2012) and Australian Woman Lawyer Award (2016).