Latest Selden Podcast Episodes
Sir Charles Lilley and the Grimley Affair
Selden Society lecture series Australia - March 11, 2024 00:00 - 53 minutesSir Charles Lilley (1827–97) was a towering figure in politics and law in colonial Queensland, but his final years were dogged by controversy. In October 1892, Sir Charles announced his intention to resign as second Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Queensland (1879–93). The catalyst was ...
Queensland Law Society: serving ‘conscientious, honest lawyers’
Selden Society lecture series Australia - October 08, 2023 09:00 - 1 hourA statement praising ‘conscientious honest lawyers’ was published in a Brisbane newspaper in 1874. At that time, the public image of lawyers—barristers, as well as solicitors—was poor. For decades Queensland Parliaments were inclined to agree. The creation of the incorporated Queensland Law Soci...
Mr Justice Harding—a titan of Queensland law
Selden Society lecture series Australia - July 18, 2023 14:00 - 30 minutesGeorge Rogers Harding (1838–1895) was the 5th Judge of the Supreme Court of Queensland and is regarded as one of Queensland’s finest civil lawyers, whose rigorous analytical approach helped to establish the reputation of the Supreme Court. He is also known as one of Queensland’s most influentia...
Lord Denning
Selden Society lecture series Australia - May 11, 2023 14:00 - 52 minutesMany consider Lord Denning (1899–1999) to be the most important English judge of the 20th century. His witty and trenchant judgments are read by law students and cited by legal texts and lawyers in the United Kingdom as well as Australia, Canada and beyond. The Honourable James Douglas uses this...
Sir Frederick Jordan: Australia’s most influential judge?
Selden Society lecture series Australia - December 08, 2022 09:00 - 36 minutesSir Frederick Jordan served as Chief Justice of New South Wales from 1934–1949. His vigorous defence of the rule of law during World War II sometimes put him at odds with the governments of the day and the High Court of Australia, but his fiercely written judgments remain relevant and continue t...
Kidnapping and slavery in Queensland: the 'Jason' and the 'Hopeful'
Selden Society lecture series Australia - September 30, 2022 00:00 - 1 hourIn our latest episode, Dr Andrew Stumer and Professor Emeritus Kay Saunders AO examine two Queensland criminal cases from the late 19th century. With the rapid expansion of sugar production in Queensland in the second half of the 19th century, new sources of labour were sought. In 1871, the S...
Kidnapping and slavery in Queensland: the 'Jason' and the 'Hopeful'
Selden Society lecture series Australia - September 30, 2022 00:00 - 1 hourIn our latest episode, Dr Andrew Stumer and Professor Emeritus Kay Saunders AO examine two Queensland criminal cases from the late 19th century. With the rapid expansion of sugar production in Queensland in the second half of the 19th century, new sources of labour were sought. In 1871, the S...
Making law through practice: examples from commercial law
Selden Society lecture series Australia - July 28, 2022 13:00 - 39 minutesSir Ross Cranston will draw on themes in his recent book, Making commercial law through practice 1830–1970 (Cambridge UP, 2021), emphasising the Australian dimension. He will examine three areas: markets, agency and sales, to show that although the common law provided the backdrop to commercial...
1922: after Ryan, the storm
Selden Society lecture series Australia - April 25, 2022 23:00 - 51 minutesTJ Ryan, as leader of Queensland’s first Labor government to have a majority in the lower house of state parliament, implemented wide‑ranging political, economic and social reforms in the face of opposition from the upper house and resistance from the Supreme Court of Queensland. After his un...
Justices of the US Supreme Court—Chief Justice John Marshall and the establishment of judicial review
Selden Society lecture series Australia - February 03, 2022 08:00 - 47 minutesDuring John Marshall’s long tenure as Chief Justice (1801-1835) a decision of particular importance was Marbury v Madison 5 US 137 (1803), in which Marshall CJ delivered the opinion of the court. The judgment established the key role of the Supreme Court in determining the constitutional validit...
Justices of the US Supreme Court—Chief Justice John Marshall and the establishment of judicial review
Selden Society lecture series Australia - February 03, 2022 08:00 - 47 minutesDuring John Marshall’s long tenure as Chief Justice (1801-1835) a decision of particular importance was Marbury v Madison 5 US 137 (1803), in which Marshall CJ delivered the opinion of the court. The judgment established the key role of the Supreme Court in determining the constitutional validit...
Merthyr House—the home of Sir Samuel Griffith
Selden Society lecture series Australia - December 07, 2021 03:00 - 37 minutesSir Samuel Griffith’s Brisbane home was a grand riverfront estate in the Brisbane suburb of New Farm. It was lavishly furnished with Chippendale furniture and Italian objets d’art and even included a high-ceilinged ballroom at its centre in which Sir Samuel and Lady Julia Griffith held their man...
Mrs Chester’s lost child: inconsolable psychological injury and Justice Evatt’s finest judgement
Selden Society lecture series Australia - September 19, 2021 03:00 - 1 hourAfter her ‘brilliant boy’ drowned in an unfenced trench in 1937, Mrs Chester took legal action against the local council. Although her claim would ultimately be unsuccessful, the dissenting and empathic judgment of Justice Evatt would mark a critical moment in Australian law and its approach to ...
BONUS CONTENT: Mrs Chester’s lost child: inconsolable psychological injury and Justice Evatt’s finest judgment
Selden Society lecture series Australia - September 19, 2021 02:00 - 8 minutesListen to a panel discussion between the Hon Justice Peter Applegarth AM, author Gideon Haigh and Associate Professor Kylie Burns that took place after the lecture 'Mrs Chester’s lost child: inconsolable psychological injury and Justice Evatt’s finest judgment'. This lecture was brought to you ...
Lord Eldon
Selden Society lecture series Australia - June 03, 2021 02:00 - 45 minutesMany leading equity texts and lawyers continue to quote Lord Eldon’s judgments. He is seen by many to be one of the most famous of the Chancery judges in equity law, as he systematised and bought certainty to its principles. Listen to Queensland barrister Andrew Stumer capture the interrelations...
The audacity of Griffith as a law reformer
Selden Society lecture series Australia - April 26, 2021 22:00 - 35 minutesSir Samuel Griffith was undoubtedly the instigator of some of the greatest law reform moments in Queensland history. This lecture attempts to capture the most significant pieces of law reform for which he was singularly responsible for more than a quarter of a century. The range of subjects i...
Justice Mary Gaudron
Selden Society lecture series Australia - February 04, 2021 05:00 - 45 minutesMary Genevieve Gaudron was the first woman to be appointed a justice of the High Court of Australia. Gaudron served on the Court as one of its most influential members for 16 years (1987–2003), and her career has been described as ‘a classic example of talent and industry triumphant over limited...
Private law’s revolutionaries: authors, codifiers and merchants?
Selden Society lecture series Australia - December 15, 2020 02:00 - 48 minutesHas there ever really been a revolution in private law, never mind the law of obligations? Professor Hector MacQueen addresses that question by considering the relationship between law and revolution. Read the paper. View the lecture. Support the Show.
Celebrating Samuel Griffith
Selden Society lecture series Australia - November 24, 2020 22:00 - 58 minutesTo mark our brand new exhibition, The many hats of Sir Samuel Griffith, our latest podcast features the Australian Academy of Law and Selden Society (Australia) webinar, Celebrating Samuel Griffith. The Hon Justice Peter Applegarth AM chairs a distinguished panel, exploring some of the intere...
Lord Atkin
Selden Society lecture series Australia - October 13, 2020 10:00 - 51 minutesAfter discovering a badly decomposed snail at the bottom of a bottle of ginger ale, Mrs Donoghue became ill and then sued the manufacturer. Lord Atkin’s judgment in this case would have a lasting impact on society. Hear the Hon Justice Applegarth AM discuss this case and others that made Lord At...
Lord Atkin
Selden Society lecture series Australia - October 13, 2020 10:00 - 51 minutesAfter discovering a badly decomposed snail at the bottom of a bottle of ginger ale, Mrs Donoghue became ill and then sued the manufacturer. Lord Atkin’s judgment in this case would have a lasting impact on society. Hear the Hon Justice Applegarth AM discuss this case and others that made Lord At...
Supreme Court Fire of 1968
Selden Society lecture series Australia - August 31, 2020 01:00 - 40 minutesIn the early hours of a cold Brisbane morning in 1968, David Bertram Brooks entered the unlocked front door of Queensland’s historic Supreme Court. Resentful of the police and the justice system for his frequent arrests, Brooks made his way to the judges’ chambers and set the building alight. ...
Sir Harry Gibbs CJ
Selden Society lecture series Australia - August 03, 2020 22:00 - 37 minutesSir Harry Talbot Gibbs PC AC GCMC QC served as a Justice of the High Court of Australia for more than 16 years (1970–87), rising to the office of Chief Justice from 1981 to 1987. As a judge of exemplary ability and integrity, with no political affiliations, Sir Harry Gibbs played a key role in m...
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). ...
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...
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...
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...
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