The NSW Bar during the Spanish flu pandemic

26/06/2020

Bar history

The New South Wales Bar, and our system of justice, was tested by the Spanish flu pandemic of 1919. Much of what happened is eerily familiar to us today: political discord, confusion over the efficacy of face masks, hard questions over the health and safety of jurors and challenges to the constitutionality of border closures and quarantine regulations. The Bar Association commissioned Juliette Brodsky to produce this two-part video, examining the history of the NSW Bar during the last pandemic.