Madeleine Bowater

Founder & Co-chair

Gold Coast, Australia

Australian (yes, bogan is a language of its own), conversational Afrikaans

International Criminal Law, International Environmental Law, Sources of Law, and International Courts' Procedure and Evidence

Hey, I'm Mads! I recently graduated with degrees in Psychological Science and Laws (First Class Honours) specialising in International and Comparative Law. I decided I was going to be a prosecutor when I was 12 years old and bought a book on forensic science at my school's book fair. The crime scene pictures it contained were wildly inappropriate for children, but I fell in love with the Court process and justice system. Like any love affair, I became quickly aware of its flaws, so decided to pair psychological science with law to better understand how crime can be prevented, addressed, and recovered from.

It wasn't until my penultimate year of university that I stumbled into Public International Law in a meet-cute worthy of Spielberg. I had applied for a moot competition in criminal law, but I instead received an offer of placement on my university's Jessup Public International Law team. I immediately closed the email, opened a new tab, and googled "public international law". Two years later and we're still going steady. That was also how I met Mak and we formed a friendship over 2am coffees and passionate debates!

I'm now studying a Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice towards admission as a legal practitioner and building a very 2020 career... working part-time as a graduate with a virtual law firm, building a content creation business for the legal and justice sector, and remotely running the global A33I team alongside Mak.

Other random things you might like to know about me:
I LOVE books. I have a growing collection of more than 350 across every genre, but I also love the environment (and my wallet), so they're almost all thrifted!
I LOVE learning. Some days you'll find me randomly surfing Wikipedia (reliable, I know), watching TED talks, or just reading a text book.
I'm outgoing and can chat with almost anyone, but I'm 99% introverted so need a week to recover after networking.

Fun fact, skill, or little known tidbit about me...

I can say the alphabet backwards (and Mak and I always fight over who gets to use this fun fact); I'm a creative - photography, lettering, design & branding; I'm kinda true crime obsessed; and, I'm a staunch advocate of the Oxford comma.