Dr Christopher Rudge
People_

Dr Christopher Rudge

BA (Hons I) Sydney LLB (Hons) Sydney PhD Sydney
Lecturer
Dr Christopher Rudge

Dr Christopher Rudge is a lecturer at Sydney Law School and a member of Sydney Health Law. Rudge's research encompasses human health and welfare law. Rudge has particular interests in therapeutic goods regulation, health practitioner regulation, social security law, tort and negligence law, health information law, mental health law and criminal responsibility.

After completing his PhD in 2015, Rudge held two postdoctoral fellowships. The first was supervised by Professor Megan Munsie in the Centre for Stem Cell Systems in the Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience (now Anatomy and Physiology) within the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Melbourne. His second fellowship was supervised by Distinguished Professor Emerita Dianne Nicol in the Centre for Law and Genetics at the University of Tasmania. Rudge and his colleagues ran the the world's first citizen's jury on genome editing.

Prior to these fellowships, Rudge was a commissioned research officer at the Medical Council of New South Wales, where he produced an independent report on the application of the 'immediate action' and 'public interest' provisions of the New South Wales health practitioner legislation.

Rudge’s current research includes projects on the risk-based regulation of therapeutic goods, the regulation of human genome editing, the intersection of welfare law and mental illness, and the regulation of medical and health practice.

Between 2015 and 2020, Rudge served as managing editor of the literary journal Philament. He has been the production editor of the Australasian Journal of American Studies since 2016. He is an Associate Editor of Current Issues in Criminal Justice (since 2024) and an editorial board member of Sydney Law Review (since 2025).

  • Health and medical law and ethics (eg, consent, capacity, access to health justice, medical negligence, and psychiatric harm)
  • Regulation of innovative medical treatments and therapies
  • Health practitioner disipline, medical scandals and and scientific ethics
  • Social, cultural, literary and legal history of psychiatry and technological psychiatry
  • Welfare law (both administrative and criminal law) and its interactions with medicine and economics
  • Criminal justice and health law (eg, forensic mental health legislaltion, cognitive impairment of accuseds)
    • LAWS1012 Torts
    • LAWS6877 Mental Illness: Law and Policy
    • LAWS6058 Information Rights in Health Care

    Dr Rudge is available to supervise honours, masters and PhD projects in areas related to his research.

    Current students

    PhD candidates

    • Ms Laura Sefaj, Do Conditions Work? Effectiveness of Supervision imposed on the Registration of Medical Practitioners in NSW (supervisor B; anticipated completion 2031)

    Past students

    Honours

    • Reeve McClelland, 'Prescribing the Proscribed:The Rescheduling of Psychedelic Drugs in Australia' (2024) (A revised version of this Honour's thesis will be published in the Melbourne University Law Review in 2025).

    Master's coursework research projects

    • Lucy Lester, 'Ground not Meant to be Broken: Evaluating the Validity of Continuing Detention Orders made under High Risk Offender Legislation after Fardon, Benbrika and Garlett' (2023) (Nancy Gordon Smith Postgraduate Prize for candidate for highest aggregate LLM examination mark)
    • The University of Sydney Nano Institute Kickstarter Grant, 'eEVs for AONs'. Investigators: R Davis, W Chrzanowski, C Rudge ($35,000 awarded 1 Jan 2025)
    • Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF), Stem Cell Therapies Mission (APP2007623): Improving decisions about access to stem cell interventions. Chief Investigators: Lipworth W, Stewart C, Munsie M, Kerridge I, Lysaght T, Hooker C, Petersen A, Tanner C, Gyngell C, Rudge C
    • Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) Genomics Health Futures Mission:Genome Editing: Formulating an Australian Community Response.
    • Collaborating with researchers from the Project on Psychedelics Law and Regulation (POPLAR) at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School in a three-year initiative to examine the ethical, legal, and social implications of psychedelics research, commerce, and therapeutics.
    • Member, Australian Association of Bioethics and Health Law
    • Member, Society for Literature, Science and the Arts
    • Member, Australian Neuroethics Network
    • Member, Biopolitics of Science Research Network
    • Associate editor, Current Issues in Criminal Justice (2024–present)
    • Editorial Board member, Sydney Law Review (2025–present)
    • Production editor, Australasian Journal of American Studies (2016–present)
    • Project to Publication Fellowship, Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions (2017)
    • Dean's Citation for Excellence in Tutorials (2013), University of Sydney
    • Australian Postgraduate Award (2010–2014), University of Sydney
    • Managing editor, Philament: A Journal of Arts, Literature and Culture (2015–2021)
    Project titleResearch student
    Do conditions work? Effectiveness of supervision imposed on the registration of medical practitioners in NSWLaura SEFAJ

    Publications

    Book Chapters

    • Rudge, C., Nicol, D. (2023). Bioethical Decision-Making About Somatic Cell Genome Editing: Sickle-Cell Disease as a Case Study. In Erick Valdés, Juan Alberto Lecaros (Eds.), Handbook of Bioethical Decisions. Volume I: Decisions at the Bench, (pp. 49-77). Cham: Springer Nature. [More Information]
    • Lipworth, W., Wiersma, M., Ghinea, N., Hendly, T., Kerridge, I., Lysaght, T., Munsie, M., Rudge, C., Stewart, C., Waldby, C. (2021). The Oversight of Clinical Innovation in a Medical Marketplace. In Graeme Laurie, Edward Dove, Agomoni Ganguli-Mitra, Catriona McMillan et al (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Health Research Regulation, (pp. 287-295). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [More Information]
    • Rudge, C. (2019). Novel Readings: Mind- and Emotion-Reading Devices in the Mid-Twentieth Century and in Philip K. Dick's The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. In Jarrad Cogle, N. Cyril Fischer, Lydia Saleh Rofail, Vanessa Smith (Eds.), Portable Prose: The Novel and the Everyday, (pp. 37-56). London: Lexington Books.

    Journals

    • Rudge, C. (2024). Challenging Pandemic Law: From Vaccine Mandates to Judicial Review of Vaccine Approvals. Journal of Law and Medicine, 31(2), 225-243.
    • Rudge, C., Stewart, C. (2024). Injecting Tighter Regulation: Implications of the TGA's Clampdown on Cosmetic Injectables Advertising. Journal of Law and Medicine, 31(3), 464-482.
    • O'Connor, M., Rudge, C., Stewart, C. (2024). Sexual Boundary Violations by Doctors - Context, Regulatory Consequences and Preventive Strategies. Journal of Law and Medicine, 31(1), 70-87.

    Edited Journals

    • Rudge, C., Worthy, B. (2017). New Waves: Twenty-first-century Feminisms. Philament, 23.

    Magazine / Newspaper Articles

    • Rudge, C. (2024). Choosing a new doctor? Their sexual misconduct may soon be on the record. The Conversation.
    • Rudge, C., Foong, P. (2024). FDA approves first gene-editing therapy. BioEdge.
    • Rudge, C. (2024). How old’s too old to be a doctor? Why GPs and surgeons over 70 may need a health check to practise. The Conversation. [More Information]

    Report

    • Nicol, D., Paxton, R., Niemeyer, S., Curato, N., Dryzek, J., Rudge, C., Pemberton, S., Veri, F. (2022). Genome Editing: Formulating an Australian Community Response: Report to Decision Makers, Stakeholders And Members of the Public.
    • Rudge, C. (2018). Regulating Medical Practitioners in the Public Interest: A Qualitative Review of Public Interest-based Decisions of the Medical Council of NSW under s150 of the Health Practitioner Regulation (National Law) Act 2009 (NSW): Medical Council of NSW.

    2024

    • Rudge, C. (2024). Challenging Pandemic Law: From Vaccine Mandates to Judicial Review of Vaccine Approvals. Journal of Law and Medicine, 31(2), 225-243.
    • Rudge, C. (2024). Choosing a new doctor? Their sexual misconduct may soon be on the record. The Conversation.
    • Rudge, C., Foong, P. (2024). FDA approves first gene-editing therapy. BioEdge.

    2023

    • Rudge, C., Nicol, D. (2023). Bioethical Decision-Making About Somatic Cell Genome Editing: Sickle-Cell Disease as a Case Study. In Erick Valdés, Juan Alberto Lecaros (Eds.), Handbook of Bioethical Decisions. Volume I: Decisions at the Bench, (pp. 49-77). Cham: Springer Nature. [More Information]
    • Rudge, C. (2023). Botox and fillers to come under greater scrutiny by the medical regulator. Will it be too little too late? The Conversation. [More Information]
    • Wilson, K., Rudge, C. (2023). COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates: A Coercive but Justified Public Health Necessity. UNSW Law Journal, 46(2), 381-425. [More Information]

    2022

    • Rudge, C. (2022). "Policing, Mental Illness and Media: The Framing of Mental Health Crisis Encounters and Police Use of Force" by Katrina Clifford, London, Routledge, 2021. Current Issues in Criminal Justice, 34(3), 334-338. [More Information]
    • Rudge, C., Attinger, S., Kerridge, I., Lipworth, W., Stewart, C. (2022). A New Priority Pathway for Biologicals in Australia: Contextualising and Evaluating the Proposed Reforms. Journal of Law and Medicine, 29, 677-699.
    • Nicol, D., Paxton, R., Niemeyer, S., Curato, N., Dryzek, J., Rudge, C., Pemberton, S., Veri, F. (2022). Genome Editing: Formulating an Australian Community Response: Report to Decision Makers, Stakeholders And Members of the Public.

    2021

    • Rudge, C., Ghinea, N., Munsie, M., Stewart, C. (2021). Regulating autologous stem cell interventions in Australia: Updated review of the direct-to-consumer advertising restrictions. Australian Health Review, 45(4), 507-515. [More Information]
    • Lipworth, W., Wiersma, M., Ghinea, N., Hendly, T., Kerridge, I., Lysaght, T., Munsie, M., Rudge, C., Stewart, C., Waldby, C. (2021). The Oversight of Clinical Innovation in a Medical Marketplace. In Graeme Laurie, Edward Dove, Agomoni Ganguli-Mitra, Catriona McMillan et al (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Health Research Regulation, (pp. 287-295). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [More Information]
    • Rudge, C. (2021). The Therapeutic Goods Administration has the power to stop misleading advertising. So why can't it stop Craig Kelly's texts? The Conversation.

    2020

    • Ghinea, N., Munsie, M., Rudge, C., Stewart, C. (2020). Australian regulation of autologous human cell and tissue products: implications for commercial stem cell clinics. Regenerative Medicine, 15(2), 1361-1369. [More Information]
    • Rudge, C., Munsie, M. (2020). The promise of stem cell treatments: what are they and how are they regulated down under? Precedent, (156), 25-31.
    • Stewart, C., Kerridge, I., Waldby, C., Lipworth, W., Munsie, M., Lysaght, T., Rudge, C., Ghinea, N., Eckstein, L., Neilsen, J., et al (2020). Unconventional Practice, "Innovative" Interventions and the National Law. Journal of Law and Medicine, 27(3), 574-589.

    2019

    • Rudge, C. (2019). Novel Readings: Mind- and Emotion-Reading Devices in the Mid-Twentieth Century and in Philip K. Dick's The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. In Jarrad Cogle, N. Cyril Fischer, Lydia Saleh Rofail, Vanessa Smith (Eds.), Portable Prose: The Novel and the Everyday, (pp. 37-56). London: Lexington Books.
    • Rudge, C. (2019). The Brain at Attention, under Hypnosis, and on Mescaline: Aldous Huxley's Techniques for Actualizing Human Potential. In Dana Sawyer, Julian Piras, Uwe Rasch (Eds.), Aldous Huxley and Self-Realization: His Concept of Human Potentialities, His Techniques for Actualizing Them, and His Views of Their Social Consequences, (pp. 103-147). Zurich: LIT Verlag.

    2018

    • Rudge, C. (2018). Regulating Medical Practitioners in the Public Interest: A Qualitative Review of Public Interest-based Decisions of the Medical Council of NSW under s150 of the Health Practitioner Regulation (National Law) Act 2009 (NSW): Medical Council of NSW.

    2017

    • Rudge, C., Worthy, B. (2017). New Waves: Twenty-first-century Feminisms. Philament, 23.
    • Rudge, C. (2017). The Goldwater rule prevents psychiatrists diagnosing Trump from afar but some say there's too much at stake. The Conversation.

    2016

    • Rudge, C. (2016). Facing Precarity. Philament, 22, 1-26.

    2015

    • Rudge, C. (2015). The Shock of Dysrecognition: Biopolitical Subjects and Drugs in Dick's Science Fiction. In Not known (Eds.), The World According to Philip K. Dick, (pp. 30-47). TBC. [More Information]

    2013

    • Rudge, C. (2013). Actants at any Depth: Bruno Latour and Henri Bergson at the Surface of Science. Philament, 19.

    Selected Grants

    2021

    • Improving decisions about access to stem cell interventions, Kerridge I, Stewart C, Hooker L, Rudge C, Department of Health and Aged Care (Federal)/MRFF - Stem Cell Therapies
    • Improving decisions about access to stem cell interventions, Lipworth W, Stewart C, Munsie M, Kerridge I, Lysaght T, Hooker L, Rudge C, Tanner C, Gyngell C, Department of Health and Aged Care (Federal)/MRFF - Stem Cell Therapies

    In the media

    Television

    Newspaper (etc) quotations, radio interviews and podcasts