I am honoured to have been elected a director of the Australian Academy of Law at its AGM on 25 September 2017, having been a Fellow of the Academy since 2014. My colleague Dr Nuncio D’Angelo was also elected as the other new board member.
The work of the Academy is evident in the range of its immediate past and upcoming events. Its recent presentations have been from:
- The Future of Australian Legal Education conference in Sydney, with the keynote speaker being Professor Martha C. Nussbaum, of Chicago;
- Mr Ed Santow, our Human Rights Commissioner, in Darwin; and
- His Excellency Judge James Crawford AC, SC, FBA of the International Court of Justice, in Sydney.
Up-coming presentations organised for the remainder of this year are from:
- The Hon Justice Michelle Gordon of the High Court of Australia, in Melbourne, this Monday 23 October – Corporations and Corporate Insolvency Jurisdiction of the Federal Court – From Passer-by to Chameleon Lodger;
- Professor Sarah Derrington, in Brisbane – Trends in Legal Education;
- Emeritus Professor Gillian Triggs, in Adelaide – The Rule of Law in a Post-Truth Environment; and
- The Hon Robert French AC, in Perth – Rationality and reason in administrative law – would a roll of the dice be just as good?
The third of our Sydney ethics events – 20 November
The third in the series of our law and ethics debates is being held in Sydney on 20 November. The topic is
“How to be ethical in the practice of law: can it be taught?”
The venue will be the Ceremonial Court of the Federal Court of Australia, Level 21, Law Courts Building, Queen’s Square, Sydney
The Hon Patricia Bergin SC, formerly Chief Judge in Equity in the Supreme Court of NSW has agreed to moderate the debate. The panelists are Professor Lesley Hitchens, Arthur Moses SC, Professor Adrian Evans, Dr Simon Longstaff, Dr Justine Rogers and Paul Monaghan.
Essay prize
The Academy has also just announced the winner of its annual $10,000 essay prize, on the topic:
“The legislative challenge of facilitating climate change adaptation for biodiversity”.
The Academy
The President of the Academy is The Hon Kevin Lindgren AM, QC, and its board members are the Hon Justices Alan Robertson and John Digby; Emeritus Professors David Barker AM, Rosalind Croucher AM, Michael Coper, Adrian Bradbrook and the Hon Emeritus Professor Ralph Simmonds; Professors Paul Fairall, Bee Chen Goh, Les McCrimmon and Brian Opeskin; Mr Russell Miller AM; Dr Nuncio D’Angelo, and myself.
The patron of the Academy is the Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia, the Hon Susan Kiefel AC.
Please contact me if you need to know more.
Michael Murray
Photo: Timor Sea, from Darwin.
