aes26 International Evaluation Conference: Full Schedule

Presenter and chair information page, resources for conference presenters, authors and session chairs.

11:00am ACST

Wednesday September 16, 2026 11:00am - 11:30am ACST

Authors: Caitlin Morton, Maggie Hawkins (Attorney General's Department)
This session poses the question – how should we evaluate legal policy? Evaluators across all sectors encounter legal frameworks, yet few forums explicitly address how law itself can and should be evaluated. This session seeks to help carve out that space within evaluation practice.

Strong approaches to evaluating legal policy are critical to achieving just, fair, and secure society - the remit of the Attorney-General's Department. In this session, past and current evaluators from the AGD reflect on observations, challenges, and conversations, and invite discussion on what it looks like when legal policy is working well. We present an overview of existing dialogue on this question, and argue that it is critical to examine the social and ethical foundations of legal policy, the principles that inform legal policy, and how the law can support the operation of impactful legal policy.

We will investigate how law does and does not align with the beliefs and assumptions of the communities it touches, and how law is interpreted and put into practice. Together we will explore localisation as a major challenge and opportunity in evaluating legal policy – noting the persistent regional/metro divide in accessing legal services, and diversity between communities and across states, which always requires collaboration.

This session is critically important to evaluators as law touches all public policy, which in turn impacts the operations of not just federal governments, but local and state governments, private businesses, community organisations, not-for-profits, and more.

Chair

Lindsay Reilly

Speakers

Caitlin Morton

Independent Consultant

I’m Dr Caitlin Morton, I’m passionate about turning knowledge into power to help people solve the world’s biggest problems. I do this as an independent evaluator based on Awabakal Country in Newcastle, NSW Australia. I can help you use data and evidence to improve outcomes by... Read More →

Magdeline Hawkins

Evaluation Lead, Attorney General's Department

Wednesday September 16, 2026 11:00am - 11:30am ACST
Waterfront 1 Stokes Hill Rd, Darwin City NT, Australia

Ethics and integrity

Format Short paper
Audience Level Advanced, Intermediate
Industry Public administration and safety
ID 262

aes26 International Evaluation Conference

11:00am ACST

Lindsay Reilly

Caitlin Morton

Magdeline Hawkins

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