Hilary Charlesworth is Harrison Moore Professor of Law and a Melbourne Laureate Professor at Melbourne Law School. She is also a Distinguished Professor at the Australian National University. Her research includes the structure of the international legal system, peacebuilding, human rights law and international humanitarian law, international legal theory, particularly feminist approaches to international law, and the art of international law. Hilary received the American Society of International Law’s award for creative legal scholarship for her book, co-authored with Christine Chinkin, 'The Boundaries of International Law'. She was also awarded, with Christine Chinkin, the American Society of International Law’s Goler T. Butcher award for ‘outstanding contributions to the development or effective realization of international human rights law’. In 2021, the International Studies Association conferred a Distinguished Scholar award on Hilary.

Professor Charlesworth is a member of the Institut de Droit International and served as Judge ad hoc in the International Court of Justice in the Whaling in the Antarctic case (Australia v Japan) (2011-2014) and in the Arbitral Award of 3 October 1899 case (Guyana v Venezuela).