Gerard Brennan's articles and speeches : maintaining the law's skeleton of principle / edited by Father Frank Brennan SJ.

Redland Bay, Qld : Connor Court Publishing, 2025.

1st edition

203054

Brennan, F. G. -- (Francis Gerard), -- 1928-2022.

Speeches, addresses, etc -- Australia.

Judges -- Australia.

Vol 1:

1. The common law, liberty and justice

1.1. Law, liberty and morality

1.2. Letter to the Australian during the 1971 state of emergency

1.3. The naming of Magna Carta Place

1.4. Institutions of government in Australian democracy

1.5. Principle and independence: the guardians of freedom

1.6. The common law: law for a time, law for a place

1.7. Law and liberty in the war on terror

1.8. Law for all; justice for each

1.9. The constitution, good government and human rights

2. The legal profession

2.1. Ministers of the third branch of government

2.2. The Bar as ministers of justice

2.3. The Irish and law in Australia

2.4. Opening of the Australian bar conference in Ireland

2.5. Ethics and the advocate

2.6. The duties of the advocate

2.7. Strength and perils: the bar at the turn of the century

2.8. The role of the legal profession in the rule of law

3. The role of judges

3.1. New growth in the law - the judicial contribution

3.2. Judicial qualities of a different kind

3.3. Courts, democracy and the law

3.4. The impact of a Bill of Rights on the judiciary

3.5. Law, politics and public life

3.6. The courts and culture

3.7. Courts for the people - not people's courts

3.8. Why be a judge?

3.9. Judicial independence

3.10. The role of the judge

3.11. Exchange of letters with deputy prime minister Tim Fischer

3.12. The state of the judicature 1997

3.13. The courts and human rights

4. Administrative law reform

4.1. The challenges of administrative law reform

4.2. Review on the merits: a new frontier or beyond the pale?

4.3. The purpose and scope of judicial review

4.4. 20th anniversary of the administrative appeals tribunal

4.5. The mechanics of responsible government

4.6. Early issues for the administrative appeals tribunal

5. The Federal court

5.1. The creation of the Federal Court: 40th anniversary reflection

5.2. The Federal Court 40th anniversary dinner

6. The High Court and the constitution

6.1. Three cheers for engineers

6.2. The mason court and beyond

6.3. The parliament, the executive and the courts

6.4. Centenary of enactment of the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act

6.5. One hundred years on: strengths and strains

6.6. Toast to the high court

6.7. Human rights, international standards and the protection of minorities

6.8. The parameters of constitutional change

7. 'I did it my way'

7.1. Swearing in as Chief Justice

7.2. Retirement as Chief Justice

7.3. Lessons from a life in the law

vol 2:

8. Enduring community values

8.1. Law, ethics and medicine

8.2. Law and professional standards

8.3. Evil in man

8.4. Commercial law and morality

8.5. A critique of criticism

8.6. Law in search of a principle

8.7. Profession or service industry: the choice

8.8. The third branch and the fourth estate

8.9. Human rights, disability and education

8.10. Law and ethics for Members of Parliament

8.11. Donald Horne's Australian compact

8.12. Australian values and the Australian social conscience

8.13. Australian values and The Australian Quarterly

8.14. Raymond Gaita's common good

8.15. Scrutiny's role in the rule of law

8.16. A celebration of scholarship

8.17. The accountability roundtable

8.18. A letter in support of onshore asylum seekers --8.19. Keeping government honest

9. Aboriginal rights --9.1. Oral submissions to the Woodward Royal Commission on Land Rights

9.2. The case for land rights

9.3. Queensland's shortcomings on land rights

9.4. Memorandum for the minister of Aboriginal affairs on the Land Rights Bill

9.5. Aboriginal land claims: an Australian perspective

9.6. Reconciliation

9.7. Scholarship and the Mabo case

9.8. This country: a reconciled republic?

9.9. The Indigenous Barristers' Trust

9.10. Settling with indigenous peoples

9.11. Indigenous Australians and the law

9.12. Indigenous lawyers conference

10. The republic

10.1. The republic Australia forum

10.2. First letter by Zelman Cowen, Anthony mason and Gerard Brennan

10.3. Second letter by the 3 knights

10.4. Third letter by the 3 knights

10.5. A way to a republic

10.6. A detailed pathway to a republic

11. Law and religion

11.1. Ecumenical service for opening of the legal year

11.2. The peace of Thomas More

11.3. The independence of Thomas More

11.4. The vocation of the Christian lawyer

11.5. Australasian Christian legal convention

11.6. Address to Christian lawyers

11.7. Address to Catholic Lawyers Association

11.8. The role of a Catholic law school

12. Religion and life

12.1. National prayer breakfast at Parliament House

12.2. Faith in contemporary society

12.3. Address to graduates at the Sydney College of Divinity

12.4. Launch of the Centre for an Ethical Society

12.5. Address to the Salvation Army

12.6. Graduation address at Charles Sturt University

12.7. Faith and reason

12.8. A public attestation of faith and thanks

13. Catholic social teaching

13.1. Address to the National Catholic Education Commission

13.2. Address to the Catholic Commission For Justice, Development and Peace

13.3. Address to the Society of St Vincent de Paul

13.4. 'The sky is red': address to the Thomas More society

13.5. Correspondence on conscience with Cardinal George Pell

13.6. Address to Catholic school principals

13.7. Centenary of the missionaries of the Sacred Heart

13.8. Heart and mind in social justice

13.9. Testimonial to the parish priest

13.10. Parish 125th anniversary

14. Human rights beyond our shores

14.1. The significance of the Beijing statement

14.2. Domestic law in international relations

14.3. Australia and the rule of law

14.4. Judge Weeramantry's quest towards one world

14.5. A reflection on the Tokyo war crimes trials

15. Tributes to Gerard Brennan

15.1. Eulogy - Sir William Deane AC KBE KC

15.2. Homily- Fr Frank Brennan SJ

15.3. A family tribute - Madeline Brennan KC

15.4. Brennan's constrained compassion - Patrick Keane AC KC

15.5. 'The legacy of Sir Gerard Brennan to Australian public law' -Justice Stephen Gageler AC

15.6. High Court special sitting of remembrance.

Vol 1: This rich collection of articles and speeches by Sir Gerard Brennan, spanning over half a century, reveals his humanity, his morality, his perspicacity, but above all else, his commitment to the practical implementation of the rule of law within a democratic state. His essential message was that the rule of law must recognize the individual dignity of every person. Yet in delivering justice according to law, the judicial role required disciplined restraint to avoid breaching the appropriate division of powers. Sir Gerard's extra-judicial writings demonstrate his sophisticated antennae for this delicate balance. Like an engineer attending complex machinery or a surgeon operating, he delivered justice without fracturing the skeleton of our legal system. - From the Foreword, Gerard Carney, Executive Associate to Sir Gerard Brennan. Vol 2: Looking back on his public life in the law, Sir Gerard Brennan said, 'It has been a great adventure to have been in the company of those whom I have respected for their devotion to justice according to law, not least when we have not been unanimous in our definitions of the law.' In these two volumes of my father's extra-judicial writings and speeches, I set out some of the key landmarks, some of the many quandaries, and many of the little nudges made by him in his contribution to the law and to what he was fond of calling a free and confident nation. His contributions to administrative law and the jurisprudence of judicial review have been set out in The Brennan Legacy: Blowing the winds of legal orthodoxy edited by Professors Robin Creyke and Patrick Keyzer in 2002. Jeff Fitzgerald published a detailed biography Sir Gerard Brennan: The Law's Good Servant in 2024. Hopefully this collection, letting him speak for himself, can complement existing publications reflecting on his judicial method and achievements. This second volume contains his views on Aboriginal land rights, an Australian republic and international recognition of human rights as well as key insights into faith and reason which he shared with Christian lawyers and Catholic social service organisations. - Fr Frank Brennan SJ, editor.

Includes index.

Volume 1: Justice according to law

Justice according to law

Volume 2: Law in accord with justice

Law in accord with justice

9781923224698

9781923224704

2 volumes (xlviii, 602, vi, 526 pages) : photographs ; 25 cm