The Laureate Program in International Law at Melbourne Law School is funded by the Australian Research Council's Laureate Fellowship scheme from 2015 to 2020, and led by Professor Anne Orford. It establishes a new interdisciplinary research team, working on a major project entitled Civil War, Intervention, and International Law.

The Laureate Program combines historical research, legal analysis, and critical theorising to develop a conceptual framework that can better grasp the changing patterns and practices of intervention, and make sense of the rapidly changing roles and responsibilities of external actors in the context of civil war. It brings together leading scholars in law, the social sciences, and the humanities, world-class early career researchers, and innovative practitioners to enhance the capacity of international law to respond to major social and political transformations. 

A major emphasis of the Laureate Program is on training a new generation of researchers capable of responding to pressing global challenges, and creating sustained international collaborations with leading scholars and practitioners working at the cutting-edge of legal and institutional developments in the field of international peace and security. The Program hosts a series of visiting fellowships, workshops, policy roundtables, and conferences aimed at building a community of innovative scholars and practitioners working globally on the foundational issues at stake in debates about intervention.