Dr Jason Harkess is a barrister practising in the areas of criminal and administrative law, regularly appearing as trial counsel prosecuting jury trials in the criminal jurisdiction and applications for judicial review in the civil jurisdiction. He is a regular presenter of seminars on the subject of evidence and has lectured law at Monash University since 2007. He served as Chief Examiner of the Victorian Bar Entrance Examinations from 2013 to 2023 and is a current member of the Victorian Legal Admissions Board’s Academic Course Appraisal Committee.
From 2018 to 2022, Dr Harkess served as a part-time member of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and determined over 900 appeals brought against the Commonwealth by foreign citizens (including asylum seekers) whose visas had been refused or cancelled under the Migration Act 1958 (Cth). In 2021, he was a Detention Review Officer appointed under the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008 (Vic) to determine appeals brought by individuals detained in hotel quarantine as part of the Victorian state government’s COVID-19 pandemic response. He is the current Treasurer for the Australian Institute of Administrative Law (Victorian Chapter).
Dr Harkess was awarded his doctorate following the completion of an inquiry into the moral implications arising out of anti-competitive cartel conduct, with particular reference to Australia's criminal cartel laws that were introduced by the Trade Practices (Cartel Conduct and Other Measures) Act 2009 (Cth).
