Professor Douglas Guilfoyle joined UNSW Canberra in 2018. His principal areas of research are maritime security, the international law of the sea, and international and transnational criminal law. Particular areas of specialism include maritime law-enforcement, the law of naval warfare, international courts and tribunals, and the history of international law.

He is a 2022-2025 Australian Research Council Future Fellow, working on the project "Small States' use of law of the sea litigation against greater powers" (FT210100186). He is also a non-resident fellow at the Sea Power Centre - Australia and was a Visiting Legal Fellow at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (2018-2019).

He is the author of Shipping Interdiction and the Law of the Sea (CUP 2009) and International Criminal Law (OUP 2016); and the editor of Modern Piracy: Legal Challenges and Responses (Elgar 2013). His research work is informed by his consultancy to various government and international organisations.

He was previously a Professor of Law at Monash University, Reader in Law at University College London, and has worked as a judicial associate in the Australian Federal Court and the Australian Administrative Appeals Tribunal. He has also practised as a commercial litigation solicitor in Sydney.

He was a Gates Cambridge Trust scholar and Chevening scholar during his graduate study at the University of Cambridge.