Product Description
In 40 years as a barrister and judge Peter Heerey AM QC has observed and taken part in memorable legal events.
This book is partly a collection of recollections: a murder trial, a Privy Council appeal, the leading High Court decision on the liability for barristers’ negligence and the cause célèbre of Professor Sydney Sparkes Orr and his dismissal by the University of Tasmania.
It is also a journey into the past and to other lands – both real and fictional. Notable historical and legal figures such as Andrew Inglis Clark, Sir Owen Dixon and Abraham Lincoln are profiled. Travels to the American South, Quebec, Vanuatu and Ireland provide the basis for stories that capture the culture, history and personalities of these countries.
Some pieces look at legal issues in literary terms; others the converse, as where The Merchant of Venice is analysed from a commercial, economic and forensic perspective.
With a lawyer’s eye for detail and a writer’s keen sense of place and people, Heerey’s stories will entertain and illuminate.
Tasmanian Stories
1. Andrew Inglis Clark, the Man and his Legacy (2009) 83 ALJ 199 (5600)
2. Andrew Inglis Clark and cricket (597)
3. Hobart – a Guide for Innocent Mainlanders
4. Supreme Court of Tasmania: Its First Centenary, Book Review (1998) 72 ALJ 315 (1280)
5. The Orr Case Revisited (1200)
The Justice Business
6. The Victorian Bar: Some History and a Little Lore (2013) 87 ALJ 528 (5400)
7. Memories of the Battle of Hastings (2000) Victorian Bar News, Spring, 30 (3000)
8. The Judicial Herd: Seduced by Suave Glittering Phrases? (2013) 87 ALJ 460 (2400)
9. A Question of Judgment Australian Literary Review, June 2009, (4200)
10. Judges at Work, Victorian Bar News (1200)
11. Sir Owen Dixon, Book Review (2250)
12. A New ACCC, Victorian Bar News (240)
13.
14. Counsel’s Baggage (2013) 153 Vic Bar News 88 (400)
15. The Ballad of Briginshaw (270)
16. Chettyar’s Case (280)
17. Down With Defamation (140)
18. Jeff Sher’s Farewell (240)
19. Ode to Judge Ross (140)
20. Ode to Judge Gebhardt (180)
In Other Lands
21. A Last Hurrah – Privy Council Days (1986) Victorian Bar News, Spring, 30 (3000)
22. Law in Vanuatu (1992) Victorian Bar News 56 (2250)
23. Canada and Quebec Vic Bar News (4800)
24. The Traveller’s Return (720)
25. Away Down South in Dixie (1994) 68 ALJ 641 (4200)
26. The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Book Review, Australian Book Review (1409)
27. Justice Antonin Scalia, Book Review, Victorian Bar News (3027)
28. Abraham Lincoln – Patent lawyer, Victorian Bar News (850)
29. How Judges Think, Book Review, Victorian Bar News (1600)
30. A Night at the King’s Inns (1120)
31. An Officer and a Spy, Book Review, Australian Book Review (894)
Law and Literature
32. The Merchant of Venice and the Trade Practices Act (2010) 84 ALJ 112 (2070)
33. Truth, Lies and Stereotype: Stories of Mary and Louis (1996) 1 Newc LR 1 (16800)
34. Storytelling, Postmodernism and the Law (2000) 74 ALJ 681 (7000)
35. Aesthetics , Culture and the Whole Damn Thing, 15 Law and Literature 295 (7956)
36. Rediscovering Rhetoric, Book Review (2009) 83 ALJ 486 (3500)
Publius
37. Bracket (“Bracket”) Creep
38. Colonising Language
39. Historical Dating
40. Latinophobia
Peter Heerey is to be commended for a book which contains a collection of papers and other writings on such avariety of topics.
Daniel Klineberg, Bar News, Autumn 2015
There is plenty of engagement on show here from a mind full of ceaseless enquiry. The book is a testament to the foolhardiness of the provision in the Australian Constitution (introduced by referendum in 1977), which has resulted, as Heerey well demonstrates, in many of our best legal minds being lost to the bench at what can be the all too- premature age of seventy.
Colin Golvan, ABR, December 2014
The book brings to mind the (regrettably unacknowledged) lines of the famous poet, Anon: Life’s not for cranky fulmination but enjoyment. And wordsmiths to that worthy end deserve employment.
Ross Macaw, Australian Club, November 2014
Heerey’s book is an enjoyable read that demonstrates his wide range of abilities as a wordsmith and his love of the English language.
Dr Richard Schulte, Queensland Law Reporter, October 2014
