The 2009 Australian Legal History Essay Competition

The question for the 2009 Australian Legal History Essay Competition is:

"Who owns this land, anyway? ... Discuss whether Australian history has any lessons for us, today, about the meaning or significance of 'land ownership'. Do so by reference to one or more of: (a) Australia as a 'settled' or 'conquered' territory, and Aboriginal Land Rights; (b) the land titles system (known as the 'Torrens System') devised by Robert Richard Torrens; and/or (c) debate about whether Australia should, as a modern sovereign nation, be a republic."

Read the Description, Conditions of Entry and Guidelines for the 2009 Competition and the associated General Outline.

The Society has written four "Background Research Papers" to assist participants in the Competition.

Paper one: Living with "Property". Living in "Community"

Paper two: Folklore Rules: The Origins and Growth of Australian Law

Paper three: Snapshots in the Mirror: Paradigms for Australia Day

Paper four: By your Deeds Be Known: Episodes in Australasian Legal History

Tony Cunneen, the Senior Studies Coordinator at St Pius X College, provides a teachers perspective on the Background Research Papers for the 2009 Essay Competition.

The Francis Forbes Society

for Australian Legal History

ABN 55 099 158 620

Basement, Selborne Chambers
174 Phillip Street
Sydney NSW 2000
Ph: 02 9232 4055
Fax: 02 9221 1149
enquiries@forbessociety.org.au

The Forbes Society has decided to award three prizes to essayists who submitted entries in the 2008 Australian Legal History Essay Competition: two to Tertiary Students, and one to a Junior High School Student.

The winners in the University or Tertiary Student Categories are Adam Arnold of the University of New South Wales and Sarah Dorn of the University of Melbourne. Each student received a personal prize of $500 and a $1,000 Abbey’s Book Voucher. Each student’s university has also received a prize of $500. Adam’s essay has been published in the Australian Bar Review and on the website of The Australian newspaper

The winner in the Junior High School Category is Ben Nam of Year 8 at St Pius X College at Chatswood in NSW. Ben received a personal prize of $250 and a $250 Abbey’s Book Voucher. His school received a prize of $500 together with a $500 Abbey’s Book Voucher.

Prizes were awarded at a ceremony in the Mitchell Library, Sydney, on 25 February 2009. Sir Gerard Brennan AC KBE was at the ceremony to congratulate the winners. View Sir Gerard's speech.

The Society acknowledges the support given to the Competition by The New South Wales Bar Association, The Division of Law at Macquarie University, The Law Society of New South Wales, Abbey’s Bookshop, The Federation Press, State Records NSW, The State Library of NSW and The Legal Affairs Section of The Australian newspaper. Particular thanks are due to Abbey’s and The Australian.

The Society commends all students who entered the Competition and thanks them, and their respective universities and schools, for their participation. The Society is encouraged by the standard of entries, and the fact that entries were received from essayists across Australia.

The question for the 2008 Competition was:

“How can a lawyer defend somebody he or she “knows” is “guilty”?... What is it to “know” that somebody is “guilty”?... Okay, to be more precise: What are, or should be, the ethical obligations of a lawyer acting for a client who, after being charged with a crime, makes a confidential confession of guilt?” 

Discuss this question from the perspective of a member of the community (who is not a lawyer) using examples drawn from the Dean Controversy (1895-1896) and/or Tuckiar’s Case (1932-1934).

The competition was open to all students enrolled, at any time during 2008, in an Australian secondary school, any undergraduate degree course at an Australian university, and any tertiary course leading to admission as an Australian legal practitioner. It was not confined to students enrolled in formal courses of study in history or law.

Read the Description, Conditions of Entry & Guidelines>

• “Background Information Paper”
• introductions to the Dean Controversy and Tuckiar v The King and
• law reports for In Re Meagher (1896) 17 NSWLR (law) 157 and Tuckiar v The King (1934) 52 CLR 335

The 50th anniversary of Wentworth Chambers

In August 2007 Counsel's Chambers Ltd celebrated the 50th anniversary of the opening of Wentworth Chambers.  To mark the occasion, and to record at least a portion of the company's history, CCL has published a commemorative booklet. The booklet is now available from the Counsel's Chambers web site. Visit the web site >

Tim Castle's Capital Punishment Database

The names, crimes and fate of the 1300 people who were sentenced to death between 1826 and 1837 are contained in the Castle Database. Some were executed, and many others were reprieved by the Governor and the Executive Council only to face a term of transportation to places such as Norfolk Island or Moreton Bay. Visit the database >

On Australia Day, 26 January 2008 the Society announced that James Triggs (a Year 9 Student, in 2007, at Doncaster Secondary College in Victoria), and his school, have been awarded prizes - worth $1,850.00 - for James' Essay entitled "Authority, Democracy and the Rule of Law". An edited version was published in the Australian Bar Review (2008) 30 Aust Bar Rev 221. 

The topic was 'Authority, Democracy and the Rule of Law - What does it all mean for us today? Does Australian History provide any insights?'

Essayists were invited to discuss those questions, referring to one or both of:

(a) The Rum Rebellion, 1808; and/or

(b) The Waterloo Creek Massacre and its aftermath, 1838.

View the 2007 Competition Guidelines

View Background Research Papers

The Rum Rebellion, 1808: A Lesson in Nation Building, which Justice Peter Young described as "probably the most balanced account of the Rum Rebellion" (2008) 82 ALJ 7 at p.8.

Aboriginal Colonists and the Law, 1838

With assistance from the Public Purpose Fund, the Forbes Society proposes to publish on this web site electronic copies of important research papers not otherwise readily available, together with selected primary material.

The Magistracy in New South Wales, 1788-1850, by John McLaughlin
[Ch. 1-3] [Ch. 4-6] [Ch. 7-9] [Ch. 10-12] [Ch. 13-Conclusion] [Bibliography]  | View whole document [Warning: 59MB]

Supreme Court Judges' Dinner - A speech by the Hon J P Slattery AO QC, 1 February 2007 [Find out more]

Of the people, by the people, for the people: Law-making in New South Wales, 1843-1855, A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of New England, November 2006, by Kerry Fraser Mills, M.A. LLB. (University of Sydney) [Abstract - Intro ] [Ch. 1-3] [Ch. 4-6 ] [Ch. 7-9] [Ch. 10-11] [Appendices ] [Conclusion] [Bibliography]

The NSW Legal Profession at Gallipoli

Based largely upon military records, Tony Cunneen has written a working paper on the involvement of NSW lawyers in Australia's  Gallipoli campaign in the First World War. It is entitled Engaged to Act on Another Front. [View the paper]

The Law at War: A Social History of the NSW Legal Profession in 1916

This work-in-progress report is the second in a series describing research into the actions of members of the New South Wales Legal Profession in the First World War. It should be read in conjunction with the first in the series, Engaged to Act on Another Front. [View the paper ]

These papers are intended to stimulate comment and further information about the characteristics of the legal community’s involvement in World War I. Further papers will cover the years 1917 to 1919. Tony invites comments, corrections, criticism and the provision of research assistance from members of the legal profession, their families and the public generally so that this area of Australian social history can be elaborated. 

[ Contact Tony via e-mail ]

View our archive of articles about the latests initiatives of the Forbes Society.

"Just what does 'guilty' mean?", The Australian, 4/4/2008

"Penal colony history just a web link away", The Australian, 24/03/2008

"In Australia's early days, justice was dark and deadly", The Australian, 14/09/2007

"Laying down the law in a new land", Sydney Morning Herald, 31/01/2005

"History in the dock", Sydney Morning Herald, 31/01/2005

"Power and pain in old Sydney", Sydney Morning Herald, 1/02/2005

"A chief justice who once ran foul of the law", Sydney Morning Herald, 25/10/2004

• encourage the study and advance the knowledge of the history of Australian law
• publish and promote, for the benefit of the public, books, journals, periodicals and other literary publications
• arrange and promote, for the benefit of the public, continuing education
• promote the compilation of authentic records relating to Australian and Indigenous law.

Members of the council of the Forbes Society

For enquiries about membership of the Forbes Society, contact the Secretary of the Forbes Society, Geoff Lindsay SC

Ph: (02) 9232 6003
Fax: (02) 9233 7416
secretary@forbessociety.org.au

Become a member (application form in PDF)

Existing members - membership renewal 08/09

Forbes Flyer: The newsletter of the Francis Forbes Society

The Forbes Flyer is designed to be an informative reference source for members of the Forbes Society. It contains information about events of historical significance, articles about legal research and details of future lectures and other activities the Forbes Society. Autumn 2009 is now available online

Annual reports of the Forbes Society

The Forbes Society's 2008 annual report is available online.

The Forbes Lecture

For more information about the 2007 and 2008 Forbes Lectures, see the 2008 annual report.

Learn more about the Francis Forbes Lectures.

Other Forbes Society publications

Australian Journal of Legal History

Sir Francis Forbes was the first chief justice of New South Wales, between 13 October 1823 and 1 July 1837.

An informative summary on the career of Sir Francis Forbes and other chief justices may be obtained from the history pages of the web site of the NSW Supreme Court.

Federation Press has recently published, as part of its series on the Lives of the Australian chief justices, a book on the life of Sir Francis Forbes. A review of this title was published in the Winter 2002 edition of Bar News.