Speeches to note: international law and Australian domestic law

09/07/2009

Chief Justice Robert French delivered the 2009 Brennan Lecture, "Oil and Water? International Law and Domestic Law in Australia" on 26 June at Bond University. The chief justice sought to provide an overview of some issues surrounding the nature of international law and its sources, and the ways in which it impacts upon Australian domestic law. He observed that:

the story about the role of international law and our domestic law is not told simply by describing its consideration in the courts. Much of the interaction takes place at the level of legislative, administrative and commercial practice which will never see the inside of a courtroom...It is also important that we do not allow legal insularity to hamper our national engagement with international legal systems. We should derive from these systems such benefits as they may offer to the development of our own law and our more effective interaction with other countries, particularly those in our region.

View the full text of the lecture >

**9 July 2009 **

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