Amanda Whitfort
Associate Professor Amanda Whitfort, BA(Hons)(Monash), LLB (Monash), LLM(London), MSc (Edinburgh)
Associate Professor Amanda Whitfort, BA(Hons)(Monash),LLB (Monash), LLM(London), MSc (Edinburgh) was admitted in 1994 as a barrister and solicitor in Australia, and has extensive practical experience in criminal law and prosecutions. After becoming the first local resident of Hong Kong to pass the Overseas Bar Qualification Examination in 2005, she was also admitted to the Hong Kong Bar.
In 2008, Professor Whitfort was awarded a Public Policy Research Grant from the Hong Kong government to provide a comparative review of the animal welfare laws of Hong Kong. In partnership with Dr Fiona Woodhouse, Deputy Director (Welfare) of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, she successfully completed this review in 2010. In 2009 she also developed and began teaching Animal Law and Rights, the first internationally focused Animal Law course in Asia. In 2011, she was awarded the HKU Law Faculty's Knowledge Exchange award for her transfer of animal welfare related legal knowledge to the SPCA (Hong Kong), the Hong Kong government and the Hong Kong public. In the same year she was awarded a government funded Public Impact Knowledge Exchange grant to review Hong Kong's local wild animal conservation legislation. In 2016, Professor Whitfort secured two further grants to study Hong Kong's legislative powers to regulate international trade in endangered wild animals and sentence offenders for wildlife crimes.
Professor Whitfort's research and knowledge exchange in animal related laws have resulted in significant legislative and policy change for Hong Kong. In 2017, she was awarded the University of Hong Kong's highest award for public benefit, the Knowledge Exchange Excellence Award in recognition of her work's outstanding societal impact.
Professor Whitfort has published and presented her research internationally on Criminal and Animal Law and is the leading authority on Animal Welfare Law and Wildlife Crime in Hong Kong. She currently sits on the Hong Kong government's Legal Advisory Group to the Agriculture Fisheries and Conservation Department.