Frank Kitto Lectures

2012

Friday
23 November

The Honourable Bob Debus
Lawyer, journalist and former Attorney General, Minister for Corrections, Minister for Environment and Minister for Emergency Services in NSW and Federal Minister for Home Affairs

"The Devils Triangle: civil liberty and the relationship between the law , the media and the parliament"

Link to a pdf of the lecture.

An independent legal system, a free press and an elected parliament are the basic institutions of democracy. Nevertheless at historical times of threat and fear both editorial opinion and public attitudes can easily turn against the fundamental values of justice that have been supported by lawyers and the law or centuries.

Friday
23 September 2011

5.30pm

John Dillon Lecture Theatre (LT4)
W42 EBL Building

Robert Shenton French - Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia

"What were they thinking? Statutory Interpretation and Parliamentary Intention" (Audio file and video file available)

Robert Shenton French was appointed Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia in September 2008. At the time of his appointment he was a judge of the Federal Court of Australia, having been appointed to that office in November 1986. He graduated from the University of Western Australia in science and law. He was admitted in 1972 and practised as a barrister and solicitor in Western Australia until 1983 when he went to the Western Australian Bar. From 1994 to 1998 he was President of the National Native Title Tribunal. At the time of his appointment he was an additional member of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory and a member of the Supreme Court of Fiji. He was also a Deputy President of the Australian Competition Tribunal and a part-time member of the Australian Law Reform Commission. From 2001 to January 2005 he was president of the Australian Association of Constitutional Law. Chief Justice French was appointed a Companion in the General Division of the Order of Australia in 2010.

2010

Thursday
28 October

The Hon. Justice James Allsop
President of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of NSW

"Good faith and Australian contract law: a practical issue or a question of theory and principle?"

2009

Monday
2 November

Professor Keith Ewing
from Kings College London

"Torture, Human Rights and the Rule of Law"

Professor Ewing is a leading public law scholar. He has co-authored important texts on civil liberties including Freedom Under Thatcher: Civil Liberties in Modern Britain and The Struggle for Civil Liberties: Political Freedom and the Rule of Law in Britain (both with Professor Conor Gearty). His most recent work, The Bonfire of the Liberties: New Labour, Human Rights, and the Rule of Law, is soon to be published by Oxford University Press.

2008
12 October

Hon. Greg James QC
President, Mental Health Review Tribunal

“Mental Health Law Reform in New South Wales”

Greg James has had a fine and distinguished career in the legal profession as a criminal barrister. He has been an Australian War Crimes Prosecutor and on the Criminal Trial and Appeal  Counsel; he has served as a Supreme Court Judge, worked in the NSW Law Reform Commission and the Royal Commission, and been President of the NSW Mental Health Review Tribunal.

2007
17 April

Professor Adam Tomkins
Glasgow University

"The Rule of Law in Blair's Britain"
http://www.une.edu.au/news/archives/000747.html
"The post-September 11 'terrorist age' has presented real challenges to the rule of law," Mr Lunney said. "While we might be familiar, to some extent, with what is happening in Australia, it is very important and instructive to see what is happening in the United Kingdom. That legal system is the one from which we draw our roots, including our fundamental commitment to the rule of law, and so it is interesting to see how these challenges have been dealt with in the United Kingdom. It is clearly important for the general public, as well as academics, to gain a better understanding of how the rule of law is working in Australia in the post-September 11 era, and an awareness of what is happening in our closest 'neighbour' (in legal terms) adds to that understanding."

2006
9 August

Professor John McMillan
Commonwealth Ombudsman

"Rethinking the Separation of Powers"

2005
23 September

Honourable Justice Keith Mason, A.C
President of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of NSW

Officially opens the "Sir Frank Kitto Moot Court"

http://www.une.edu.au/news/archives/000352.html

The President of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of NSW, the Honourable Justice Keith Mason, A.C., officially opened the State's newest "moot" courtroom last Friday [23 September].

The courtroom, at The University of New England, is specially designed to allow UNE law students to "moot" (i.e., engage in hearings of hypothetical court cases).

Justice Mason (pictured here during the opening ceremony) said the new Moot Court was as good as anything of its kind he had seen. "It's a tribute to the people who planned it," he said.

Watched by the guests at the opening ceremony (including Armidale magistrate His Honour Michael Holmes, and Armidale Dumaresq Mayor Councillor Peter Ducat) Justice Mason unveiled a plaque, naming the courtroom the "Sir Frank Kitto Moot Court". Sir Frank Kitto, who died in Armidale in 1994, was a Justice of the High Court of Australia (1950-1970), Chancellor of The University of New England (1970-1981), and the inaugural Chairman of the Australian Press Council (1976-1982). Justice Mason reviewed some of Sir Frank Kitto's outstanding qualities as a judge, including his distinguished prose style, his "rigorous application of logic from established principles", and his "capacity to detect a fallacy at a hundred paces".

Professor Stephen Guest
Professor of Legal Philosophy, Faculty of Laws,
University College London

"Judging and Justice" - Sir Frank Kitto and Legalism
http://www.une.edu.au/law/journal/pdfs/unelj-2005-2-guest.pdf

2002
8 August

Dr Sev Ozdowski OAM 
Australian Human Rights Commissioner and Disability Discrimination Commissioner

"Human Rights" - The Australian and International Perspective.

http://www.scu.edu.au/research/cpsj/human_rights/bio_oam.html
http://ozdowski.com/publications.html

2001
23 March

Justice Michael Kirby
Justice of the High Court of Australia

"The future of human rights"

Justice Kirby, a Justice of the High Court of Australia, has a distinguished record in human rights. He undertook a mission to South Africa in 1992-3 for the International Labour Organisation to examine that country’s labour laws. He has served as a Member of the Global Commission on AIDS of the World Health Organisation, and as a Special Representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations on human rights for Cambodia. In 1994 he acted as the Independent Chairman of the Constitutional Conference of Malawi, and in 1996 he was appointed to the International Bioethics Committee of UNESCO

2001
31 May

Nicholas Cowdery
Director of Public Prosecutions

"Getting Justice Wrong"

1999
27 May

Roderick P. Meagher
NSW Supreme Court

“Sir Frederick Jordan’s Footnote”

Michael Kirby
High Court of Australia

“Kitto and the High Court of Australia – Change and Continuity”

Sir Anthony Mason
Chief Justice, High court of Australia

“Equity and Contract – A Dance to the Music of Time”