Historical Foundations of Australian Law : Volume I & Volume II

Historical Foundations of Australian Law : Volume I & Volume II
ISBN: 9781862879379
Publication Date: 3 July 2013

Justice McHugh once said that a lack of understanding of legal history was a misfortune, not a privilege.

That was an understatement. As well as being essential for any Australian lawyer, the history underlying and informing the Australian legal system is a uniquely interesting amalgam of English, American and local developments.

The two volumes of Historical Foundations of Australian Law set the very highest standards of analysis and scholarship. Each is introduced by a useful and perceptive commentary by James Watson. Together, they contain 31 essays by distinguished judges and practitioners and academics. Although each essay is self-contained, in combination they yield a rich analysis of how Australian law has reached its present state.

The first volume, Institutions, Concepts and Personalities, contains incisive assessments of key figures such as Sir Owen Dixon and Justice Joseph Story (by Justices Hayne and Allsop respectively), and of key developments such as the establishment of an Australian land law, the reception of the common law, the growth to nationhood, the changing role of precedent and the separation of powers. There are essays on the very early influences on Australian law from the leading early texts (Glanvill and Bracton), from early English statutes and from Roman law. There are essays on the growth of equity, and even a modern dialogue on the Judicature legislation. And there are accounts of legal procedure, which is ultimately the source of much substantive law, and of the jurisprudential figures who have sought to analyse law.

The second volume, Commercial Common Law, complements the first: distinguished judges, practitioners and academics write on many aspects of commercial practice, often viewed through more than one pr...