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Ms Miiko Kumar

Profile

Degrees/Education

  • BA/LLB Syd

Professional Affiliations

  • Barrister, New South Wales Bar Association
  • Legal Practitioner, Supreme Court of New South Wales
  • Roll of Legal Practitioners, High Court of Australia

Courses Taught

  • Civil and Criminal Procedure
  • Evidence
  • Advanced Evidence

Areas of Interest

  • Evidence
  • Civil and Criminal Procedure
  • Comparative Evidence Law


Brief Biographical Detail

Miiko Kumar is a Barrister and a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Law at the University of Sydney. Miiko teaches both compulsory and elective courses in Evidence and Procedure. She joined the Faculty of Law at the University of Sydney as a part-time lecturer in 1996 and as an Adjunct lecturer in 2004. She took up a full-time position in the Faculty in 2006.

Miiko was admitted as a solicitor in 1996 and called to the Bar in 2001. As a solicitor, she worked at the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (NSW) and Crown Solicitor's Office . She was a law reform officer at the Australian Law Reform Commission and worked on the adversarial system of litigation inquiry; Managing Justice, A Review of the Federal Civil Justice System, Report No 89 (2000). As a barrister, some of the significant cases that she has appeared in are Bashford v Information Australia (2004) 218 CLR 366, Palmer Bruyn & Parker Pty Ltd v Parsons (2001) 208 CLR 388, Cremona v RTA (2001) 35 MVR 19, Village Building Co Ltd v Canberra International Airport Pty (2004) 210 ALR 114 and Dasreef Pty Ltd v Hawchar (2011) 243 CLR 588.

Miiko was an Advisory Committee Member and Consultant on the Australian Law Reform Commission’s review of the Evidence Act; Uniform Evidence Law, Report No 102, (2005). Miiko is the co-author of Companion to Uniform Evidence Law with Stephen Odgers SC and Dr Elisabeth Peden, which was first published in 2004 (fourth edition published in 2012) and Principles of Civil Procedure in New South Wales (second edition published in 2012, with Dorne Boniface and Micheal Legg). Miiko is also the examiner for the NSW Bar evidence exam and is a member of the Exam Working Party Committee of the NSW Bar Association.

Publications

Books and edited works | Book Chapters | Journal Articles | Book Reviews | Conference & Invited Papers | Media Comments

Books and edited works

  • Peden, E, and Kumar, M, Uniform Evidence Law, LexisNexis Case Summaries, 2012.
  • Kumar, M, Odgers, S & Peden, E, Uniform Evidence Law: Cases and Materials, Thomson Reuters (4th ed, 2012)
  • Boniface, D, Kumar, M, & Legg M, Principles of Civil Procedure in New South Wales, Thomson Reuters (2nd ed, 2012)
  • Guest Editor (with D Hamer), Special Issue: ‘21st Century Challenges in Evidence Law’ (2011) 33(3) Sydney Law Review
  • Kumar, M, Odgers, S & Peden, E, Uniform Evidence Law: Cases and Materials, Thomson Reuters (3rd ed, 2009)
  • Boniface, D & Kumar, M, Principles of Civil Procedure in New South Wales, Lawbook Co.: Australia (2009)
  • Kumar, M, Odgers, S & Peden, E, Companion to Uniform Evidence Law, Thomson (2nd ed 2007)
  • Odgers, S, Peden, E & Kumar, M, Companion to Uniform Evidence Law, Thomson (2004)

Book Chapters

  • Kumar, M, 'Evidence Law' in R Krever (ed), Mastering Law Studies and Law Exam Techniques (7th edition), LexisNexis: Australia (2011) 200-209

Journal Articles

Book Reviews

  • Review of ‘C Raj Kumar, Corruption and Human Rights in India: Comparative Perspectives on Transparency and Good Governance (OUP India, 2011), ISBN 978-0-19-807732-9, 212 pages’ (2011) 18 Australian International Law Journal 275
  • Kumar, M, 'Uniform Evidence by Jeremy Gans and Andrew Palmer (2010) Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, 398pp, IBSN 978-0-195-56729-8' (2011) 33(1) Sydney Law Review 151-156

Conference & Invited Papers

  • Kumar, M, 'Closed Procedure: protecting the national interest?', Current Issues in Civil Justice Conference, Melbourne Law School, 25 and 26 February 2013.
  • Kumar, M, 'Incompetent lawyers: non-evidence of children', Criminal Evidence and Procedure Workshop, Melbourne Law School, 5-6 February 2013.
  • Kumar, M, 'Inferences from absent evidence to calculate commercial loss', Commercial Law Reform in Asia, University of Sydney and University of Hawaii, Sydney Law School, 4 August 2012
  • Kumar, M, ‘Update on Expert Opinion Evidence: Dasreef Pty Ltd v Hawchar’ , Australian Lawyers Alliance Seminar, Sydney, 11 July 2012
  • Kumar, M, ‘Secrets kept in the national interest: developments in public interest immunity’ paper presented at the Fifth Criminal Procedure Discussion Forum at the Yeditepe University Faculty of Law, Istanbul, Turkey on 21-22 May 2012
  • Kumar, M, ‘Keeping Mum: Suppression Orders in the Rinehart Litigation’ presented at the Early to Mid Career Research Workshop on Civil Litigation, ANU College of Law, Canberra, 17 February 2012
  • Kumar, M, ‘Dasreef v Hawchar and the admissibility of expert evidence’ paper presented at the NSW Young Lawyers 2011 Annual One Day Evidence Act CLE Conference, Sydney, 29 October 2011
  • Kumar, M, 'Secrecy in Australia's Terrorism Trials: Would a Human Rights Act Make a Difference?' paper presented at 21st Century Challenges in Evidence Law: International and Comparative Perspectives, Sydney Law School, 24-25 September 2010
  • Conference Convenor (with D Hamer) 21st Century Challenges in Evidence Law: International and Comparative Perspectives, Sydney Law School, 24-25 September 2010
  • Kumar, M, 'Commentary: “Canada's Response to Terrorism” by Professor Kent Roach' (Presented at the International Anti-Terrorism Symposium, Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law, Sydney, 6 August 2010).
  • Kumar, M, ‘Secret Witnesses, Secret information and Secret Evidence – Australia’s Response to Terrorism’, paper presented at the Fifth Criminal Procedure Discussion Forum at the University of Aix-Marseille III, Aix-en-Provence, France, 10-11 June 2010
  • Kumar, M, ‘The interaction of human rights law with evidence’ paper presented at Young Lawyers Conference on Human Rights, Sydney, 9 May 2009
  • Kumar, M, ‘Adducing and admissibility of evidence’, papers presented to Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority for Litigation Skills Training Conference, 4 February 2009
  • Kumar, M, ‘Right to a fair and public trial’ presented at W(h)ither Human Rights: 25th Law and Society Conference 2008, University of Sydney, 12 December 2008
  • Kumar, M, ‘Criminal Law Update - Discretions’, presented at the College of Law Conference, Sydney, 30 November 2007
  • Kumar, M, ‘Complaint Evidence - Intersection of Credit and Hearsay Rules’, presented at the Sydney Law School Postgraduate Conference, University of Sydney, 24 November 2007
  • Kumar, M, ‘Evidence Workshop’, presented at the Legalwise conference, 20 September 2007
  • Kumar, M, ‘Hearsay', presented at the Legal Aid Commission Criminal Law Conference, 2 August 2007
  • Kumar, M, 'Evidence lecture for Bar examinations', presented at the NSW Bar Association, Sydney, 29 June 2007
  • Kumar, M, ‘Discretions to Exclude Evidence’, presented at the College of Law conference, Sydney, 26 February 2007
  • Kumar, M, 'Evidence lecture for Bar examinations', presented at the NSW Bar Association, Sydney, 2 February 2007
  • Kumar M, ‘Evidence Series’,Chair for College of Law, 16 May 2006
  • Kumar M, ‘Review of the Evidence Act’, paper presented at the Commercial Law Association of Australia, 17 March 2005
  • Kumar M, ‘Using the Evidence Act – tips for commercial litigation’ – presented to solicitors at Corrs Chambers Westgarth, November 2004
  • Kumar M, ‘Expert Evidence and Hearsay’, paper presented for Civil Litigation Masterclass Conference, Darling Harbour, 1 November 2004
  • Kumar M, ‘Trade Practices Act and Negligence’, paper presented at APLA Conference with Christopher Hodgekiss SC, July 2004
  • Kumar M, ‘Evidence Update’, Paper presented on recent decisions on the Evidence Act, The College of Law, May 2004
  • Kumar M, ALRC, Issues Paper 28, Issues Paper 28, Review of the Evidence Act 1995, 2004 (consultant on inquiry)
  • Kumar M, ‘Evidence Update’ presented at The College of Law, 2003
  • Kumar M, ‘Evidence Revisited’, The College of Law, 24 September 2002
  • Kumar M, ‘Evidence Revisited’, The College of Law, March 2002
  • Kumar M, ‘Privilege – An update’, paper presented for the Principles and Practice of Commercial Litigation, Faculty of Law, University of NSW, November 2001
  • Kumar M, ‘Evidence Revisited – Hearsay’, The College of Law, July 2001
  • Kumar M, ‘Evidence Gathering and the Unrepresented Litigant’, paper presented at the Annual Administrative Decisions Tribunal Professional Development Day, 26 October 2001
  • Kumar M, ‘Evidence for arbitrators’, The Institute of Arbitrators and Mediators Australia at the University of Adelaide National Advanced Arbitration Course 2000, 2001, 2002
  • Kumar M, ‘Recent Developments in Evidence’, Paper presented at Crown Solicitor’s Office, December 2000
  • Kumar M, ‘Recent Decisions on the Evidence Act’, The College of Law, May 2000
  • Kumar M, ‘Enforcement of Civil Judgments in NSWUNDP Training of Procurators from Vietnam’ for The Centre for Asian and Pacific Law in the University of Sydney, Paper has been presented on April 2000, March 2000, September 1999 and June 1999.
  • Kumar M, ALRC, Issues Paper 23, Review of the adversarial system of litigation: Technology and litigation 1998 (co-wrote)
  • Kumar M, ALRC, Issues Paper 22, Review of the adversarial system of litigation: Rethinking family law proceedings 1997 (co-wrote)
  • Kumar M, ALRC, Issues Paper 20, Review of the adversarial system of litigation Rethinking federal civil litigation 1997 (co-wrote)
  • Kumar M, ‘The Admissibility of Past Sexual History Evidence in NSW’, Australian Law Teachers’Conference 1997 for the Evidence and Procedure Interest Group University of Technology, Sydney, October 1997
  • Kumar M, ‘Reforming Primary Dispute Resolution in the Family Court of Australia’, Masters of Dispute Resolution and the Law for course titled 'Court Based Dispute Resolution' University of Technology, Sydney, September 1997
  • Kumar, M, ‘Case Management, Evidence and Procedure in the Family Court of Australia, The College of Law, Paper was presented on three separate occasions.
  • Kumar M, ‘Character, Credit and Hearsay Evidence’, Country Solicitors’ Conference 1997, organised by the Legal Aid Commission (Orange)
  • Kumar M, ‘Hearsay Evidence’, The Legal Aid Commission’s Duty Solicitors Annual Conference 1997, July 1997
  • Kumar M, ‘Expert Evidence in Sexual Assault Cases’, Paper presented to Masters of Psychology students, The University of Sydney, October 1996