John Howe

Professor John Howe is currently Associate Dean (Research) at the Melbourne Law School, where he is a member of the Centre for Employment and Labour Relations Law and Director of the Melbourne Regulation and Design Network. John's research interests include labour law and policy, regulatory design, and social procurement. He has written extensively on the role of the state in regulating employment and labour markets, and on the intersection between state-based regulation and corporate governance. John is presently engaged in research on the history of Australian labour law and policy since the Second World War. He is also continuing his longstanding research on regulatory enforcement of minimum employment standards, which includes a project funded by the Paul Ramsay Foundation investigating the use of data science to prevent wage underpayment. In addition, John is Chief Investigator on an ARC Discovery project investigating the plural regulation of labour disputes in Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam.

John has also worked in senior leadership and governance roles in practice and the academy. Since 2021, he has been a Board Director at the Victorian Workplace Injury Commission. He was Secretary of the Australian Labour Law Association between 2005 and 2009, and Chair of the international Labour Law Research Network from 2015-2019. He was Deputy Dean of the Melbourne Law School from 2013-2016, and Director of the Melbourne School of Government from 2017-2023. He is a member of the Editorial Committee of the Australian Journal of Labour Law, and was an Editor of the AJLL from 2015-2023. Prior to commencing an academic career, John worked in private legal practice, and also as a researcher for public policy and advocacy organisations in Washington DC.