Christine Ernst wins $65,000 coveted prize A lot is happening. It feels like the calm before the storm at the moment, but in a good way": Christine Ernst. She has worked for a High Court judge, rubbed shoulders with Kevin Rudd at the UN and published articles on human rights law. Now Sydney lawyer Christine Ernst, 27, has become the first person to win the prestigious Sir Ninian Stephen Menzies scholarship to study international law at Oxford University. Ms Ernst, an aspiring human rights barrister from Homebush in the city's west, impressed a four-member panel including a Federal Court judge and a law professor to take out the $65,000 prize. One of Australia's original over-achievers: Sir Ninian Stephens, right, seen here with former Prime Minister Bob Hawke. "It's a very exciting time," said Ms Ernst, who is days away from giving birth to her first child with husband Ben. It feels like the calm before the storm at the moment, but in a good way. The University of Sydney graduate plans to explore whether Australia should follow the lead of the UK and New Zealand and enact a bill of rights, as well as how existing laws in the country protect basic rights and freedoms. The practice of human rights law is fairly confined in Australia because we don't have a bill of rights. That might change in the future. Even if it doesn't, I see space for increasing resort to human rights principles using the laws that we do have already. The Menzies Foundation set up the Sir Ninian Stephen scholarship in International Law this year in honour of one of Australia's original over-achievers. Sir Ninian, 90, is a former judge of the Supreme and High Courts, Governor-General, Chairman of the Northern Ireland peace talks and a judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. Ms Ernst is on track for a similarly glittering CV. A former associate to High Court judge Susan Kiefel, a coveted job involving legal research and editing draft judgments, she interned with the Australian Mission to the UN in New York in 2008. Later, Ms Ernst travelled to Geneva with the chair of the UN committee championing the rights of disabled people. "I was in New York when the GFC happened," Ms Ernst said. Kevin Rudd was the Prime Minister at the time. I met him and his wife and Stephen Smith. The chairman of the Menzies Foundation, Brian Doyle, said the scholarship was awarded to a student with very high academic qualifications and Ms Ernst "came through with flying colours." "Leadership...is one of the personal qualities that we look for," he said. We see in her a commitment and enthusiasm and an energy for life and for study. She will be a real contributor to Australia when she comes back after fulfilling this scholarship. He said a large donation from the federal government, along with contributions from the legal profession and others, meant the scholarship could be awarded annually in perpetuity.