Karena Viglianti

Karena graduated with First Class Honours in Law from the University of Technology, Sydney. She completed her thesis for her Honours degree on the role of the High Court in protecting democracy and is interested in the fundamental role played by Constitutions in the maintenance of democratic ideals and processes in common law countries.

Karena has a range of legal and policy experience through the roles she has held in private practice as a barrister, solicitor and as General Counsel advising various governments and governmental agencies and some of Australia’s largest publicly listed companies. Karena has worked as a consultant and project manager advising on regulatory policy and has liaised with Commonwealth and State Governments across a range of policy areas. Karena has also held roles on the Young Barristers’ Committee and the NSW Law Society’s Government Solicitors’ Committee providing advice to those Committee’s and their respective professional associations.

Karena has designed and taught compliance programmes for clients and employees and delivered papers to clients and colleagues across a range of areas. She has also lectured in Property Law at UNSW and UTS and Commercial Law, Trade Practices and International Commercial Arbitration at UTS. Karena will commence her doctorate in 2012 and will be engaged as a teaching fellow in the Law Faculty.

Research Topic
Karena’s topic of investigation is the role of the Commonwealth Executive in the development of policy and laws for Australia and what role the concept of “responsible government” plays and can continue to play in this context.

Real World Outcomes
Karena hopes that one of the outcomes of her thesis will be a better understanding of the role intended by the founders to be played by the Executive under the Commonwealth Constitution. The thesis will include the theoretical and historical context of the Executive’s role and will provide recommendations on best practice for policy development in Australia. The recommendations will be tailored to focus on the concept of accountability of the Executive as a fundamental design mechanism of the Constitution for ensuring policy development in any area of Commonwealth power.