ProfessorRoger Magnusson

BA LLB (Hons) (ANU) PhD (Melbourne) GradDip Managing Development (Melbourne)

Roger Magnusson is Professor of Health Law and Governance at Sydney Law School, The University of Sydney, Australia. His research interests are in health law and policy; public health law and governance; and health development. In 2002 he published Angels of Death: Exploring the Euthanasia Underground (Melbourne University Press; Yale University Press) which reported on the practice of “underground” physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia among health professionals working in HIV/AIDS health care in Australia and in San Francisco. Roger’s current research explores legal and regulatory options for preventing non-communicable diseases (cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes) and their risk factors, including tobacco use, obesity, poor diet, and harmful use of alcohol.

Professor Magnusson is internationally recognised for his work in public health law, particularly in the development of legal and regulatory responses to non-communicable diseases (NCDs). He was appointed Co-chair of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Implementation, Monitoring and Accountability for the World Health Organisation's Global Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity, which reported in 2016. He was the lead author of the WHO technical report, Advancing the right to health: the vital role of law (WHO: Geneva, 2017), the result of a collaboration between the World Health Organisation, International Development Law Organisation, the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University, and Sydney Law SChool. Between 2011-2026, Professor Magnusson was an Adjunct Professor of Health Law at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington D.C. He is a member of the Global Health Law Committee of the International Law Association.

Professor Magnusson is a member of the Public Health Scientific and Technical Expert Group which advises the Public Health Division of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC). He was previously a member of the Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies Advisory Committee (TSEAC) of Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), which advised the Australian Government on the risks posed by Creutzfeldt Jakob disease and variant CJD (the human equivalent of “mad cow disease”).

Professor Magnusson has held a range of service roles within Sydney Law School, including as Associate Dean (Postgraduate Coursework), and, from 2020-2023, as Associate Dean (Student Life). He coordinates the Master of Health Law program at Sydney Law School, and was previously Co-Director of Sydney Health Law, the Law School's health law research centre.