Dr Jacob Deem

Research interests

I specialise in public law research, bringing together interdisciplinary expertise in law, public policy and psychology to study the crucial relationship between citizens and governing legal/political institutions, with a particular emphasis on constitutional law and federalism. I led the 2021 Australian Constitutional Values Survey to investigate Australians’ attitudes towards a First Nations Voice. I am a Chief Investigator in the ARC Discovery Project 'Mapping and Harnessing Mistrust: The Australian Constitutional Values Survey 2023-2027', examining how institutions can better harness mistrust (healthy scepticism) to promote citizen confidence in government decision-making.

I have also provided consultancy advice to the Commonwealth and Queensland governments, and have worked with community legal centre partners on significant issues involving online self-help and videoconferencing technologies.