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A big picture view of the law
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The Melbourne Law Masters is giving Ian Cayzer the chance to reset and pursue new career options
The Melbourne Law Masters is giving Ian Cayzer the chance to reset and pursue new career options
CAYZER PREVIOUSLY worked as an analyst and regulatory consultant, and was drawn to the Melbourne Law Masters (MLM) for the opportunity to explore new pathways in the law.
“I wanted to take a step back and get a bigger picture view of the values and forces driving the development of our system and government,” he says.
“The masters was a chance for me to reset and go in a different direction.”
For Cayzer, a track and field enthusiast, one highlight of the course is the ability for students to draw in their own areas of interest. In a subject on global governance, Cayzer took the opportunity to write a paper comparing the international trade law and anti-doping systems.
“The anti-doping system is something I’ve always been curious about through my interest in track and field,” he says.
“I found it’s a really interesting area where non-government groups and organisations like the International Olympic Committee and the World Anti-Doping Agency have set up regulatory systems that have gradually become a part of the formal legal structure, in a way that transforms domestic systems.”
“It raises some really interesting issues around the sovereignty of states, local governance and how much control we have over these processes.”
The structure of the masters program, in which many subjects are taught intensively over one week, means that students benefit from “total immersion” in the subject matter, according to Cayzer. It also makes for a unique form of interaction between classmates.
“You get to come together for a week with the same people, meaning that you get to know them in a way that you don’t really when you just turn up once a week for an hour at a time,” Cayzer says.
“I’ve met a lot of brilliant people from all over the world – I’ve taken classes alongside foreign judges, in-house counsel in multinational corporations and advisers to foreign governments.”
Cayzer credits the course with helping him to push his boundaries further and consider things from a different perspective.
“I took Adversary System: Bases and Corollaries, which is a really big picture look at our legal system, taught by former High Court justice Kenneth Hayne and current High Court Justice Michelle Gordon,” Cayzer says.
“Coming from a non-practical background, it was really challenging. But the chance to be taught by two people who have thought so deeply about every possible issue connected with our system was a great experience.”
Now in his final semester of the MLM, Cayzer is looking forward to taking the next step in his career.
“I’d love to work for a government department or regulator, or to work on similar regulatory issues in a private firm,” Cayzer says.
“I like the idea of flexibility, of not just specialising in a single area of law but dealing with a broad range of issues relevant to an organisation – from regulation and the criminal law issues involved right through to contractual and employment issues.”
Find out more about the Melbourne Law Masters at: law.unimelb.edu.au/study/masters
