Latest Lecture series Podcast Episodes
Katie McKinney | John James Audubon's Quadrupeds of North America
Polk's America - July 16, 2020 17:00 - 29 minutes ★★★★★ - 8 ratingsAs the publication of his masterpiece The Birds of America wound down, an exhausted but restless John James Audubon embarked on his final project to catalogue the mammals of North America. The result was The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, which comprised 150 folio color prints of Americ...
Lord Mansfield
Selden Society lecture series Australia - June 09, 2020 22:00 - 43 minutesIn this episode Professor Warren Swain examines Lord Mansfield and his influence in developing the common law to meet the growing needs of commercial practice. In particular, his judgments shaped the law in relation to bills of exchange, marine insurance and intellectual property and he drew up...
Sir Edward Coke
Selden Society lecture series Australia - May 19, 2020 22:00 - 53 minutesBarrister, legal scholar, parliamentarian, and judge, Sir Edward Coke (1552–1634) was at the very centre of some of the most dramatic moments in England's legal history including the trials of the Earl of Essex (1600), Sir Walter Raleigh (1603) and the conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot (1605). ...
Sir Edward Coke
Selden Society lecture series Australia - May 19, 2020 22:00 - 53 minutesBarrister, legal scholar, parliamentarian, and judge, Sir Edward Coke (1552–1634) was at the very centre of some of the most dramatic moments in England's legal history including the trials of the Earl of Essex (1600), Sir Walter Raleigh (1603) and the conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot (1605). ...
Candice Candeto | Robert Stewart's Natchez Furniture Shop
Polk's America - April 10, 2020 17:00 - 26 minutes ★★★★★ - 8 ratingsBorn within a year of James K. Polk, Robert Stewart's life and career parallels the 11th President's in many ways. Stewart's business in antebellum Natchez, Mississippi, has much to teach us about craft, labor, business, and society in Polk's America, as well as the decorative arts of the too-of...
Law and politics in McCawley's case
Selden Society lecture series Australia - April 06, 2020 14:00 - 43 minutesThe appointment of Thomas William McCawley to the Supreme Court of Queensland in 1917 was a decision destined to provoke controversy. The challenge to his appointment was based on what were called 'purely legal and constitutional grounds', but personal motives, partisan manoeuvring and ideologic...
Douglas Shadle | Anthony Philip Heinrich and the American Symphonic Landscape
Polk's America - March 20, 2020 22:00 - 33 minutes ★★★★★ - 8 ratingsMusicologist and author Dr. Douglas Shadle traces the origins of American symphonic music through the experiences of Anthony Philip Heinrich, William Henry Fry, and George Frederick Bristow. These composers were contemporaries of many of Europe's classical music masters, yet they were shut out o...
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor
Selden Society lecture series Australia - March 02, 2020 14:00 - 50 minutesIn this episode of the podcast, the Hon Margaret McMurdo AC pays tribute to the life and work of Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to be appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Throughout her long and distinguished legal career, Justice O’Connor bore witness to changi...
John Holtzapple | The Fate of Mary Rogers
Polk's America - February 11, 2020 21:00 - 28 minutes ★★★★★ - 8 ratingsOn July 28, 1841, Mary Rogers was found dead in the Hudson River at 20 years of age. Speculation swirled: Was it gang violence? A botched abortion? Was she murdered by her fiancé, who later committed suicide? Mary Rogers' murder was never solved, although its sensationalized presence in the medi...
Lord Bingham of Cornhill
Selden Society lecture series Australia - February 03, 2020 14:00 - 53 minutesLord Thomas Bingham of Cornhill was described in his obituary as the greatest English judge since the Second World War. He was the first modern judge to hold all of the positions of Master of the Rolls, Lord Chief Justice, and Senior Law Lord. In this lecture, the Honourable Justice James Edel...
Using and proving history in constitutional cases
Selden Society lecture series Australia - January 06, 2020 14:00 - 50 minutesWhat role does history play in the law, and how are claims about history proved? This lecture explores this question through a series of case studies, with a particular focus on constitutional cases. Claims about law and claims about history are interwoven in the common law. With its apparent ne...
Episode 4: Barry Gidcomb | The Governorship of James K. Polk
Polk's America - January 02, 2020 21:00 - 24 minutes ★★★★★ - 8 ratingsIn 1839 James Polk was elected the 9th governor of Tennessee. Polk's tireless campaigning led the Democrats to a stunning victory that thrust Polk into the national spotlight. On this episode Dr. Barry Gidcomb of Columbia State Community College discusses the governorship of James K. Polk and ho...
Oliver Wendell Holmes and the First Amendment
Selden Society lecture series Australia - December 02, 2019 14:00 - 1 hourOliver Wendell Holmes Jr (1841–1935) was a scholar and jurist of indisputable brilliance, widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential judges in the English speaking world. Of all of his opinions, nothing defines his life’s work better than his famous approach to the First Amendm...
The trials of Oscar Wilde
Selden Society lecture series Australia - November 04, 2019 14:00 - 53 minutesIn Victorian England the work of the courts was a subject of immense public interest, with the leading barristers of the day enjoying celebrity status. In this era there was no litigation more closely followed than the trials of Oscar Wilde. This fascinating lecture, presented by The Honourable ...
Next Witness panel discussion
Selden Society lecture series Australia - October 01, 2019 03:00 - 46 minutesThis month we have a special edition of the podcast featuring a panel discussion on the relationships between art, aesthetics and justice. The event was a part of the recent Next Witness exhibition in the library featuring the works of contemporary Australian artist Julie Fragar. Inspired by...
Episode 3: Erik Schmeller | Conspiracy, Slavery, and the Great American Land Pirate
Polk's America - September 19, 2019 21:00 - 28 minutes ★★★★★ - 8 ratingsWhat does it mean to be a nation of conspiracy theorists? Dr. Erik Schmeller of Tennessee State University digs into the deep roots of conspiracy theory in America from the assassination attempt of Andrew Jackson to the life and legend of the Great American Land Pirate, John A. Murrell. featurin...
The Dobell Case
Selden Society lecture series Australia - September 05, 2019 04:00 - 1 hourOne of the world’s leading art prizes, The Archibald Prize, has been the battleground for debates and disputes about the definition of portraiture since its inception in 1921. It was established in 1919, pursuant to the will of Mr J F Archibald (a former editor of The Bulletin). Its annual exhib...
Episode 2: Mark Cheathem | Presidential Campaigning in the Age of Jackson
Polk's America - August 08, 2019 16:00 - 24 minutes ★★★★★ - 8 ratingsDr. Mark Cheathem is an award-winning author and the project director and co-editor of the Papers of Martin Van Buren. His most recent book, The Coming of Democracy: Presidential Campaigning in the Age of Jackson, examines the presidential campaign of 1840 and the impacts this consequential elec...
Rhetoric and reality: the making of English medieval legislation
Selden Society lecture series Australia - July 02, 2019 02:00 - 51 minutesIn this lecture, Professor Paul Brand looks at the different rhetorics of legislation enacted during the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, a period when the initiative in legislation still clearly lay with the King and his advisers (rather than with the Commons in parliament) and also a...
The Irish convict doctor who delivered Dick Atkin—Dr O'Doherty
Selden Society lecture series Australia - June 04, 2019 01:00 - 46 minutesLord Atkin's first encounter with a doctor was in 1867, when Dr Kevin O'Doherty attended his birth in Brisbane. Twenty years earlier O'Doherty had been transported to Tasmania for his advocacy of Irish nationalism. By 1867 he was a leading surgeon in Brisbane, and, like his friend Robert Atkin, ...
Lord Atkin – Judicial courage and the decorum of dissent
Selden Society lecture series Australia - May 09, 2019 03:00 - 31 minutesThis lecture explores Lord Atkin’s famous dissent in the 1941 case of Liversidge v Anderson, where he sought to strike down a wartime internment decision that had been given without reasons. More about the case can be found in the Supreme Court Library’s online exhibition celebrating Lord Atkin....
Lord Atkin – Judicial courage and the decorum of dissent
Selden Society lecture series Australia - May 09, 2019 03:00 - 31 minutesThis lecture explores Lord Atkin’s famous dissent in the 1941 case of Liversidge v Anderson, where he sought to strike down a wartime internment decision that had been given without reasons. More about the case can be found in the Supreme Court Library’s online exhibition celebrating Lord Atkin....
Episode 1: Candice Candeto | Crafted by Conscience
Polk's America - April 24, 2019 16:00 - 27 minutes ★★★★★ - 8 ratingsIn the inaugural episode of the Polk's America Podcast, James K. Polk Home and Museum curator, Candice Candeto, explains the new exhibit, Crafted by Conscience: Material and Belief in Polk's America. Also, the host takes you on a walk through the gallery highlighting some of the objects on loan ...
Mabo v State of Queensland (No. 2)
Selden Society lecture series Australia - April 08, 2019 14:00 - 54 minutesThis episode of the podcast gives a first-hand account of one of the most important judgments ever delivered by the High Court, Mabo v the State of Queensland (No.2). It was presented as part of our 2016 lecture series. The presenter is the Honourable Margaret White AO, who acted as junior couns...
Leading cases of the common law – McKenzie v McKenzie [1971] P 33
Selden Society lecture series Australia - March 04, 2019 14:00 - 43 minutesThis lecture examines the celebrated 1971 English case of McKenzie v McKenzie, in which the Court of Appeal unanimously affirmed the important principle that any person conducting proceedings in court is entitled to quiet assistance from a person of their choice. 2019 marks fifty years since the...
Guns and judges: Antonin Scalia and the right to bear arms
Selden Society lecture series Australia - January 23, 2019 14:00 - 47 minutesAntonin Scalia was a prominent and controversial member of the Supreme Court of the United States: February marks the anniversary of his unexpected death in 2016. The lecture is presented by the Honourable Justice Glenn Martin, judge of the Supreme Court of Queensland. A video of the lecture an...
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