AustLit

'Sir Owen Dixon is the most renowned jurist Australia has ever produced. His lasting significance stems not only from a mastery of the technique of the common law, but from his involvement in many of the most important decisions in Australia’s legal history. During the course of his long tenure on the High Court of Australia, Dixon oversaw the development of virtually every branch of the law. This volume contributes to the understanding of Dixon’s jurisprudence, his judicial method and present-day significance. It ranges widely over the various branches of the law which were enriched by his contributions. The contributors include leading scholars and jurists from across Australia. The essays which comprise the volume are arranged in three sections. The first takes up a number of fundamental questions going to the character of Dixon’s judicial philosophy. Space is devoted to an assessment of the nature and merits of ‘legalism’, as well as a study of Dixon’s views of the Privy Council. The second section is concerned with his contributions to public law, including his decisions in respect of the criminal law. The third section is concerned with his judgments in private law, including his influence on real property, equity, contract and tort.'   (Publication summary)

'Introducing his May it Please Your Honour, a history of the Supreme Court of Western Australia (with Geraldine Byrne, 2005), the eminent Australian historian Geoffrey Bolton wrote that readers would "encounter the law in Western Australia not as a bloodless study ... but as a vigorous and lively contributor to the health of a democratic society".The present authors confront a similar problem as readers in the early 21st century seem to find judicial biography of distant Australian years to be too remote to be interesting and to be too legal for historians and too historical for lawyers. That prima facie impression has proved repeatedly to have been an error of judgement - especially when made without reading the relevant volumes.That is a pity as, of the 17 subjects in this series, nearly all lived interesting lives in exciting times that contain many lessons for the future. Sir Francis Villeneuve Smith, the present subject, is no exception. But, unlike other Australian Chief Justices of the 19th century, he was the offspring of an English merchant and a very dark-skinned Haitian woman. He inherited her sable complexion and suffered outrageous taunts and slurs on that account throughout his remarkable career.Born in Haiti (1819) but educated in London and called to the English Bar he was a prize-winning scholar who, to general surprise, returned to the semi-rural estate his father created near Hobart.Admitted to the Tasmanian Bar, F. V. Smith was an immediate success professionally and politically, being fourth Premier (post Responsible Government); Supreme Court Judge 1860-1870; and Chief Justice 1870-1885. His adventures along the way make for absorbing reading while again revealing important ingredients in the "health of a democratic society". (Publication summary)

'Twenty-five years after Elliott Johnston’s thorough and prescient Report on the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, juvenile justice, freedom of speech, racial discrimination, human rights and a referendum on constitutional ‘recognition’ of Indigenous Australians remain subjects of contestation, national debate and international scrutiny.'

'In this collection, 17 distinguished Indigenous and non-Indigenous jurists, scholars and community leaders show common cause with Johnston. They pursue better ways of understanding social values, justice and equality expressed through issues of native title, incarceration rates, cultural protection, self-determination and rights of Indigenous peoples. They look to the law as a site of hope and an instrument of public education and principled change.' (Source: The Federation Press website)