Professor Des Butler

Before joining the Faculty of Law full-time in January 1989 Des was employed by Brisbane solicitors Feez Ruthning (now Allens Arthur Robinson) and practised in the areas of commercial litigation (specialising in insurance litigation) and banking and finance. A former law medallist and dux of the then QIT (now QUT) Law School, he also tutored Torts part-time in the Faculty from 1985-87. He became a senior lecturer in 1995, Associate Professor in 2001 and Professor in 2004. He was appointed Assistant Dean, Research from November 1997 to 2002 and was acting Dean in February 2002. In 1996 he completed his doctorate on the topic “Evaluation of Judicial Approaches to Determining Tortious Liability for Psychiatric Injury Independent of Physical Injury Caused by Negligence in Australia and England”. His major publications include:

• Butler and Duncan, “Maritime Law in Australia” (1992) (Legal Books)
• the tutorial book Butler, “Contract Law: Questions and Answers” (1st edn 1999, 2nd edn 2005, 3rd edn 2009, 4th edn 2012) (Lexis Nexis)
• the monograph Butler and Rodrick, “Australia Media Law” (1st ed 1999, 2nd edn 2004, 3rd edn 2007, 4th edn 2012) (Thomson Lawbook)
• the monograph Willmott, Christensen, Butler and Dixon “Contract Law” (1st edn 2001, 2nd edn 2005, 3rd edn 2009) (OUP)
• the monograph Butler, “Employer Liability for Workplace Trauma” (2002) (Ashgate)
• the monograph Butler, “Damages for Psychiatric Injury” (2004) (Federation Press)
• the monograph Butler and Mathews, “Schools and the Law” (2007) (Federation Press)
• the casebook Butler, Christensen, Dixon and Willmott, “Contract Law Casebook” (2009 OUP).

He is also a member of the editorial board of the international Torts Law Journal. He has written numerous articles, particularly in the areas of liability for psychiatric injury, negligence, defamation, contract law, privacy and teaching innovation. He was lead Chief Investigator for the project “Teachers Reporting Child Sexual Abuse: Towards Evidence-based Reform of Law, Policy and Practice” which attracted an Australian Research Council Discovery grant in the amount of $250,000 for the 2006-2008 period, Chief Investigator for the project “Cyberbullying: An Evidence-Based Approach to the Application and Reform of Law, Policy and Practice in Schools” which attracted an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant in the amount of $180,000 for the 2008-2010 period and is a Chief Investigator for the project “A Legally-Informed Intervention for Schools to Prevent and Intervene in Cases of Cyberbullying” which attracted an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant in the amount of $143,000 for the 2011-2014 period. He was also lead Chief Investigator for the cyberbullying in schools project which was funded in the amount of $15,000 by a Law Faculty Special Projects grant. Des received Law Faculty awards for Research Excellence in 1992, 2003 and 2011 and for Achievement in Research in 2004. He received a University Award for Outstanding Academic Contribution for his research in 2000 and a Vice-Chancellor’s Performance Fund Award for Achievement in Research in 2008. Des has been involved in creating multi-media projects designed to enhance learning in law since 1990. He wrote and produced the CECL computer tutorial and its later online version OSCaR in Contracts; wrote portions of and produced all video segments for the Crimson Parrot project and was a leading member of design and management teams for the Law Sim template, as well as writing and producing modules using the template for the units Contracts (the “Whiskey Bravo” modules), and Torts (the “Vlad’s of Matavia” module). He also created “The Merlin Affair”, a multimedia program fully integrated into the teaching and learning of Media Law. In addition he wrote and produced “Viva: the Video”, an instructional video for students undertaking oral examinations and created “The Contracts Vignettes” video podcasts, a series of online multimedia segments for Contract Law students. This was the first use of podcasting in the Law Faculty. He then created “Air Gondwana”, an online suite of modules designed to give students instruction in the theory and practice of negotiation, the project being funded by a $22,000 University Small Teaching Grant. He followed “Air Gondwana” with  “The OO Files”, a new suite of online tutorial modules in Contract Law; “Entry into Valhalla”, a series of modules combining video podcasts and vignettes concerning professional ethics; “Black Sceptre”, a module that teaches negotiation skills to Entertainment Law students; “The Sapphire Vortex”, a series of modules in Criminal Law depicting a sequence of criminal offences and subsequent court proceedings combined with commentary by real world barristers; and “Mosswood Manor”, a module for further developing negotiation skills in the Trusts unit.  These innovative programs all utilise images and machinima created using the “Second Life” virtual environment.  This was the first use of “Second Life” in the Faculty and University. In 2006 he was awarded a prestigious national Carrick Australia Award for Teaching Excellence in the Law, Economics, Business and Related Fields category. He has also received a Law Faculty Teaching Excellence Award in 2004, a Vice-Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 2005 for his innovations in teaching and learning, particularly “The Merlin Affair”, a University Innovator’s Award in 2006 (nominated by students) for “The Merlin Affair”, a Law Faculty Citation for Contribution to Student Learning in 2007 for “The Contracts Vignettes” podcasts and a Vice Chancellor’s Performance Fund Citation for Contribution to Student Learning in 2008 for “Air Gondwana”. In 2008 he was the inaugural winner of another prestigious award, the Lexis-Nexis/Australasian Law Teachers Association Award for Excellence and Innovation in the Teaching of Law and in 2009 was awarded an Australian Learning and Teaching Council (formerly Carrick Institute) Teaching Fellowship for a project involving the development of the “Entry into Valhalla” program for teaching professional ethics and the transfer of the knowledge of producing cost-effective multimedia to other academics.  Also in 2009 he was an investigator on a team led by Professor Sally Kift that was awarded an Australian Learning and Teaching Council Grant in the amount of $215,000 for a two year project entitled “Curriculum renewal in legal education: articulating final year curriculum design principles and a final year program”. Research interests

• Liability for Psychiatric Injury
• Negligence
• Contract Law
• Media Law
• Defamation
• Contempt