Forbes members – call to renew memberships and 2021 Forbes Lecture

01/06/2021

Forbes Lecture – 9 June: The Forbes Lecture will be presented by Gideon Haigh, the author of a recently released book on Chester v Waverley Corporation, on Wednesday 9 June 2021, starting at 5.15pm. A link to the book on the publisher’s website: https://www.simonandschuster.com.au/books/The-Brilliant-Boy/Gideon-Haigh/9781760856113

The Lecture will be held in the Banco Court, and will also be available using the Court’s remote facilities (bearing in mind Covid-19 restrictions on public gatherings). We are very grateful for the use of the Supreme Court facilities, courtesy of Chief Justice Bathurst. Registration is required (admission is free).

Please use this link 9 June 2021 Forbes Society - Gideon Haigh lecture (Banco Court) 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 use this link 9 June 2021 Forbes Lecture - Gideon Haigh lecture (remote viewing) to register attendance by remote viewing. The link will be included in your remote registration confirmation email.

If you have any queries, please email membership@forbessociety.org.au. Alternatively you may contact the Secretary: Simon Chapple secretary@forbessociety.org.au or Treasurer: Carol Webster SC treasurer@forbessociety.org.au. Questions on the evening could be directed by email to the Secretary or Treasurer.

Renewing Memberships for 2021-22: Forbes members are invited to renew their membership of the Francis Forbes Society for the 2021/2022 financial year. Memberships are renewed annually, and will run for the period to 30 June 2022. The Society is dedicated to studying and documenting the history of Australian law. Its membership includes legal practitioners, academics, journalists and students. Benefits of membership include timely notification of legal history events via updates emailed to members from time to time and opportunities to obtain discounts on publications from time to time published or arranged by the Society.

This year, we have introduced two new categories of membership, and increased the annual membership fees for ordinary and corporate members. The two new categories of membership are for secondary school students ($15 incl GST) and for a School with nominated teacher contact (we envisage a Legal Studies or History teacher) ($50 incl of GST). A renewal / application form is available here: FFS Membership application and renewal 2021-22 and also attached. We ask you to complete the renewal / application and return it as soon as possible to the address on the form or email to membership@forbessociety.org.au. Please feel free to forward to others who might be interested in membership of the Society.

Forbes Fund: Members know that one of the Society’s objects is to encourage and promote research into Australian legal history, and it maintains a fund for that purpose to which donations may be made – the Francis Forbes Fund.

The Society supports an annual Essay prize for the best paper presented at the ANZLHS Conference, judged by a panel appointed by the Editor of law & history. 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”. In 2019 the Society was able to support through the Fund: (1) Digitisation of the notebooks of Sir Keith Officer and Sir Robin Sharwood (Professor Mark Lunney (UNE), Dr Tanya Josev, Melbourne Law School and Ms Carole Hinchcliff, senior law librarian at Melbourne) – see https://digitised-collections.unimelb.edu.au/handle/11343/236008. Professor Lunney advises that in addition to what was planned, a notebook of KH Bailey, originally thought to be from his time at university in Melbourne but now thought to be from his first year in Oxford, has also been included. The final stage of the project was to involve some summaries and synopsis of the content of a selection of the notebooks. (2) A Biographical Dictionary of Barristers and Solicitors in Early NSW, 1824-1861 (Peter Moore, through the University of Adelaide) 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. The Society encourages donations to the Francis Forbes Fund to enable us to continue to support such worthy projects. All donations to the Forbes Fund of $2.00 or more are tax deductible. There is provision for a donation on the membership renewal form, or a separate form for donations is available here: Fund Donation Form 2021 on the web site http://www.forbessociety.org.au at DONATIONS.

Upcoming Dates (in Banco Court):

• 9 June - Forbes Lecture to be presented by Gideon Haigh, author of a recently released book on Chester v Waverley Corporation, starting at 5.15pm. The Lecture will be chaired by Forbes Society President, the Hon JLB Allsop AO, Chief Justice, Federal Court of Australia

• 28 June - legal history tutorial by Dr Henry Kha of Macquarie University “Quo Vadis? The Road to English Divorce Law Reform”

• 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

• 28 August - (new event) legal history tutorial by Nicole Graham of Sydney Law School

• 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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