Law and Justice: Do They Meet?
UNSW Law’s flagship public lecture series Justice Talks kicks off for the year on 27 March with a wide-ranging talk by Justice of the NSW Court of Appeal Ronald Sackville.
Published on the 25 Mar 2013
The Hon Ronald Sackville. Photo: Diane Macdonald
- Justice Ronald Sackville delivers the first UNSW Justice Talks lecture for 2013
UNSW Law’s flagship public lecture series Justice Talks kicks off this month (27 March) with a wide-ranging talk by Justice of the NSW Court of Appeal Ronald Sackville.
The talk – Law and Justice: Do They Meet? Reflections From A Confused Career – looks at the relationship between law and justice and the perceived gap between lawyers’ aspirations and reality.
The Justice Talks series is designed to expose the complexities of the law in practice through the insights of judges and other prominent figures in residence at UNSW Law.
In the first talk, Justice Sackville explores his own ideas of justice as they have been influenced by the various roles he has performed over many years: legal academic, Royal Commissioner, law reformer, practising barrister and judge. He will consider the law as a force for social justice, the notion of ‘access to justice’, the constraints on judges who promise to do ‘justice according to law’ and Australian concepts of the rule of law.
“For centuries lawyers have not enjoyed a good press,” Justice Sackville says. “Outsiders and many within the legal community see a yawning gap between the professed aspirations of lawyers and the reality, with some lamenting the ‘lost lawyer’.
“Yet for most lawyers a belief that they serve justice, in one form or another, is central to their motivation as members of a learned profession.”
Upcoming speakers for 2013 include:
- Former President of the NSW Court of Appeal the Hon Keith Mason (7 May)
- Former Federal Court Judge the Hon Margaret Stone (6 August)
- Former NSW DPP Nicholas Cowdery (15 October)
What: “Law and Justice: Do They Meet? Reflections From A Confused Career" by Justice Ronald Sackville
When: Cocktail reception 6pm - talk 6.30-7.30pm, 27 March 2013
Where: The Tyree Room, Scientia building, UNSW Kensington campus
Registrations: www.law.unsw.edu.au/justicetalks
Media contact: Steve Offner, UNSW Media Office, 02 9385 1583
About Justice Sackville: Justice Sackville served as a Judge of the Federal Court of Australia from 1994 to 2008 and is now an acting judge of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of NSW. He was Dean of the UNSW Law School between 1979 and 1981 and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from UNSW in 2002. His many other achievements have included serving as Commissioner for Law and Poverty on the Australian Government Commission of Inquiry into Poverty (1973-1975); Chairman of the South Australian Royal Commission into the Non-Medical Use of Drugs (1979-1981); Chairman of the NSW Law Reform Commission (1981-1984); and Chair of the Access to Justice Advisory Committee (1993-1994). He was also an Assistant Commissioner of the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (1992).