Forbes Society – first legal history tutorial and other dates

14/05/2021

Our first Legal History tutorial: Our first tutorial will be held on Tuesday 18 May at 5.15 pm. It will be delivered by the Secretary of the Society, Dr Simon Chapple and is titled ‘Themes in Australian Legal History and the development of succession law’.

At this event the winners of the 2020 Essay Competition will be formally presented with their certificates and prizes, together with book prizes kindly provided by Federation Press.

The tutorial will be held in the Banco Court, and streamed using the Court’s remote facilities (bearing in mind Covid-19 restrictions on public gatherings). Registration is required (admission is free).

Please use this link tutorial registration to register attendance in person. There are limits on in person attendance, we will advise if we will be unable to admit all those who register (on a first in time basis). Please email remote link request if you would like a link to attend remotely – we will send the link to remote attendance on Tuesday morning.

Our second tutorial will be delivered on Monday 28 June by Dr Henry Kha of Macquarie University.

We are most grateful to Chief Justice Bathurst for the use of Banco Court.

Forbes Fund: We take this opportunity to remind members and friends about the Francis Forbes Fund. Members will recall that the Society’s objects include encouraging and promoting research into Australian legal history.

The Society supported the publication by the 2019 Forbes lecturer, Professor Anne Twomey (Sydney University) of Pitt Cobbett's grand opus "The Government of Australia" through the Fund. The book "The Constitution and Government of Australia, 1788 to 1919" by William Pitt Cobbett and edited by Anne Twomey was published by Federation Press in October 2019.

In 2020 grants from the Fund included the support of projects at Macquarie University: by Dr Kate Gleeson, Sinead Ring, Kim Stevenson “Legal Responses to Historical Child Sexual Abuse: Critical and Comparative Perspectives” and by Dr Henry Kha “The Unification of Australian Divorce Law under the Matrimonial Causes Act 1959” and at Sydney University: Professor Barbara McDonald, Dr Ben Chen, Dr Jeffrey Gordon, “Dynamic and Principled: The Influence of Sir Anthony Mason”.

The Society encourages donations to the Francis Forbes Fund to enable us to continue to support such worthy projects – a form for donations is available here: Forbes Fund Donation Form and on the web site http://www.forbessociety.org.au at DONATIONS. All donations to the Forbes Fund of $2.00 or more are tax deductible.

Upcoming Dates (in Banco Court):

• 18 May (new event) - legal history tutorial by Dr Simon Chapple and presentation to 2020 Essay Competition prize-winners
• 9 June - Forbes Lecture to be presented by Gideon Haigh, the author of a recently released book on Chester v Waverley Corporation, starting at 5.15pm. The Lecture will be chaired by Forbes Society, the Hon JLB Allsop AO, Chief Justice, Federal Court of Australia
• 28 June (new event) - legal history tutorial by Dr Henry Kha of Macquarie University
• 19 August - Plunkett Lecture to be given by the Hon Justice Jacqueline Gleeson of the High Court and chaired by the Attorney General, the Hon Mark Speakman SC MP
• 22 September - Legal history tutorial by the Hon TF Bathurst AC, Chief Justice of NSW, on The History of Sentencing Law.

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