President and Commissioner
The Honourable Marcia Neave AO has had a career as a judge, royal commissioner, law reformer, public policy maker and academic.
In 2006, she became the first academic in Victoria’s history to be appointed as a judge of the Court of Appeal, Supreme Court of Victoria. She retired from the bench upon her appointment as Chair of the Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence in 2015.
Commissioner Neave has previously held chairs at Adelaide University, Monash University and the Australian National University, and on three occasions, was a visiting Professor to New York University’s Law School’s Global Law Program. She is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and a life member of the Australian Institute of Judicial Administration.
Before her appointment to the bench, Commissioner Neave was the foundation Chair of the Victorian Law Reform Commission and led an inquiry tasked with making recommendations to ensure that the criminal justice system was responsive to the needs of complainants in sexual offence cases. She had previously held roles as a Research Director and part-time Commissioner at the New South Wales Law Reform Commission. In 1985, she chaired the Victorian Inquiry into Prostitution.
In the Queen’s Birthday Honours of 1999, Commissioner Neave was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for her services to the law, and in 2001, she was awarded the Centenary Medal.