Dr. Maria Bhatti is Senior Lecturer in Law and JD Program Lead at WSU, where her research sits at the intersection of law, religion, and society. She specialises in international and comparative law, religious and secular legal frameworks, and Islamic finance and dispute resolution. Bringing a distinctive perspective to international comparative law, Maria examines how different legal systems engage with religious matters, the relationship between religious and secular legal orders, and the influence of religion on law and society more broadly. Her research is oriented toward cultural understanding, legal empowerment, and social justice, with the broader goal of building a more inclusive society in which diverse communities thrive.

She publishes in leading journals including the UNSW Law Journal, the Australian Journal of Human Rights, and Monash University Law Review, and is the author of Islamic Law and International Commercial Arbitration (Routledge, 2019), which earned her the distinguished Emeritus Professor H. P. Lee Student's Publication Prize from Monash University. She also regularly contributes public scholarship to ABC Religion and Ethics, engaging broader audiences on questions of law, religion, and pluralism in contemporary society. Her research has a sustained focus on equity and access to justice for Muslim communities in Australia.

She is a Whitlam Institute Research Fellow 2026, an appointment recognising research with a commitment to social justice and the public good. Maria holds LLB and LLM degrees from the University of Melbourne and a PhD from Monash University, where her doctoral research examined the relationship between religious and secular law through the lens of international commercial arbitration. At the School of Law, she teaches "Islam, International Law and Human Rights" and "Equity and Trusts", and supervises PhD students in her areas of research expertise.