The JH Plunkett Lecture is an annual Lecture to honour the memory of one of the State’s pivotal Attorneys General. John Hubert Plunkett (1802-1869) arrived in NSW, from Ireland, in 1832. For more than 30 years thereafter he made a major contribution to colonial law and society, serving, inter alia, as Solicitor General and Attorney General. In 1835 he published The Australian Magistrate, the first Australian legal practice book. He was the first Australian lawyer to be granted a commission as Queen’s Counsel. He led Roger Therry, another Irish-born barrister, in the conduct of the Myall Creek Murder trials.

 

2018 JH Plunkett Lecture

The Seventh Annual JH Plunkett Lecture on ‘The Royal Prerogative of Mercy’ was delivered by the NSW Attorney General, the Hon Mark Speakman SC MP on 29 October 2018, chaired by Tim Game SC, the Senior Vice-President of the NSW Bar Association.

 

2017 JH Plunkett Lecture

The Sixth Annual JH Plunkett Lecture, ‘John Hubert Plunkett QC and the Myall Creek murder trials’ was delivered by Mark Tedeschi AM QC on 9 November 2017, chaired by the NSW Attorney General, the Hon Mark Speakman SC MP.

 

2016 JH Plunkett Lecture

The Fifth Annual JH Plunkett Lecture delivered by Professor Mark Finnane on 27 September 2016, and chaired by Arthur Moses SC, Senior Vice President of the NSW Bar Association. Professor Finnane’s lecture was titled, ‘Does the criminal trial have an Australian history? Lessons from the Prosecution Project’.

Professor Finnane discussed the changing patterns of prosecution process and outcomes, and the many actors within the criminal justice process

 

2015 JH Plunkett Lecture

Dr Kelvin Widdows delivered the Fourth Annual JH Plunkett Lecture, in the Common Room of the NSW Bar Association, on 19 October 2015. The Lecture was chaired by Jane Needham SC.

The Lecture was titled ‘Sir John Latham: Judicial Reasoning in Defence of the Commonwealth’.

 

2014 JH Plunkett Lecture

Professor Anne Twomey, of the University of Sydney, delivered the Third Annual JH Plunkett Lecture, in the Common Room of the NSW Bar Association, on 14 October 2014. The Lecture was chaired by the Hon JLB Allsop AO, Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Australia, President of the Forbes Society.

The Lecture examined the exercise of Reserve Powers in Victoria between 1912-1955. A paper, based on the Lecture, has since been published in (October 2014) 39 Australian Bar Review 198.

 

2013 JH Plunkett Lecture

The Hon Justice Michael Pembroke delivered the 2013 JH Plunkett Lecture, in the Common Room of the NSW Bar Association, on 15 October 2013. The lecture was chaired by Greg Smith SC, Attorney-General for the State of NSW.

Justice Pembroke, author of ‘Arthur Phillip: Sailor, Mercenary, Governor, Spy’ (Hardie Grant Books, 2013) spoke of Phillip’s career, life and times.

2012 JH Plunkett Lecture

The Inaugural JH Plunkett Lecture was delivered by the Attorney-General of NSW, Greg Smith SC, whose topic was the contribution of Irish lawyers to the development of an identifiably Australian Legal System in the 19th Century: Plunkett; Roger Therry (1800-1874); Robert Molesworth (1806-1890); Robert Richard Torrens (1814-1884); and George Higinbotham (1826-1892). The lecture was chaired by B A Coles QC, President of the NSW Bar Association.