The Francis Forbes Society supports the study and presentation of Australian legal history.  Each year the Francis Forbes Society distributes funds to support the study and documentation of the history of Australian law.  Any grant from the Francis Forbes Fund must be made to a Deductible Gift Recipient (typically a university with which the research project is associated). 

The Society invites applications for funding from researchers (including early career academics). Applications should be sent to secretariat@forbessociety.org.au and should include a short description of the research project, an explanation of how the funds sought will support the research, and how the research project will advance the Society’s aims. The deadline for applications is 5pm on 31 May 2026.

On 7 May 2026, Dr Paula Byrne (Western Sydney University) will present a legal history tutorial titled, “Law in the New Democracy”.

This tutorial is concerned with some of the detailed legal information available in the surviving NSW court records of the 1850s. One can trace the thinking of the Attorneys General, the misgivings of the Judges and the attitudes of the Bar. It derives from research for Law In the New Democracy, but also involves later work. Some of the findings are – that in the 1850s no legal official recalled Murrell, that John Huburt Plunkett was not entirely the man we have assumed and that the New South Wales Bar can be proud of some of its efforts in arguing for the rights of Aboriginal people. Further details of the event together with the registration link will be provided next week.  At this legal history tutorial she will explore themes emerging from her published book, Law in the New Democracy.

This is an in person event – if you are unable to attend in person, to receive details for online viewing please register here –  the viewing link will be in the emailed confirmation you will receive after registering.  No registration is needed to attend in person.

Other upcoming events:

On 19 May 2026 at 5.15pm in Court 13A, there will be a Joint presentation with the Ngara Yura Committee of the Judicial Commission of NSW Towards Truth. Towards Truth is a partnership between the Indigenous Law Centre and the Justice and Equity Centre (formerly the Public Interest Advocacy Centre or PIAC).  The project is researching the vast body of laws and policies that have impacted Aboriginal people since 1788, broken down into four main ‘themes’ – Country, Kinship, Law and Culture, and People. The presenters will focus on the current Towards Truth subjects: contemporary policing and criminal offences, and the present work on historical policing.  The event will be chaired by Hon. Justice Phillip Boulton, Supreme Court of NSW, and the panellists will include Anna Harding (Project Director of Towards Truth), Jonathan Hunyor (CEO of the Justice and Equity Centre), Shane Phillips (CEO Tribal Warrior) and Kate Sinclair (Solicitor, Strategic Litigation, Justice and Equity Centre).

Please register for this event – for in person attendance register at Ngara Yura – Towards Truth 19.05.26 (in person) – see  register now  

If you are unable to attend in person, to receive details for online viewing please register at Ngara Yura – Towards Truth 19.05.26 (online) – the viewing link will be in the emailed confirmation you will receive after registering. 

On 30 April 2026, Professor Alecia Simmonds (University of Technology Sydney) will present a legal history tutorial in which she will explore themes emerging from her research project ‘Race, Legal Status and Subjecthood and Defamation Actions across the 19^th and 20^th centuries’. This is an in person event – if you are unable to attend in person, to receive details for online viewing please register here –  the viewing link will be in the emailed confirmation you will receive after registering.  No registration is needed to attend in person.

The 2025 Annual General Meeting of the Francis Forbes Society for Australian Legal History was held on Tuesday 25 November 2025 

The Model of a Modern Solicitor General

The Solicitor General for New South Wales, Michael Sexton SC, delivered the Fourteenth Annual Plunkett Lecture titled “The Model of a Modern Solicitor General” on 23 October 2025 in Banco Court, Level 13 Law Courts Building, 184 Phillip St Sydney. Michael Sexton SC was appointed Solicitor General in 1998.

John Hubert Plunkett, for whom this annual Lecture is named, 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. See JH Plunkett Lecture for prior lectures.