The Honourable Justice John Doyle visits Bond for the Eighth Gerard Brennan Lecture

The Eighth Gerard Brennan Lecture and Dinner was held at Bond University on Friday, 24 June 2011.The Brennan Series aims to bring together academics and students of the Bond University Faculty of Law with leaders of the Australian legal profession and judiciary.The Honourable Justice John Doyle Chief Justice of South Australia delivered the Eighth Gerard Brennan Lecture on ‘Imagining the Past, Remembering the Future – The Demise of Civil Litigation’. 

This was followed by dinner with an after-dinner address by Mr Walter Sofronoff QC Solicitor-General of Queensland. The Gerard Brennan biennial public lecture series, inaugurated in 1998, honours the exceptional contribution to the law made by the Honourable Sir Gerard Brennan AC KBE.Sir Gerard was born in Rockhampton on 22 May 1928.He graduated with a BA LLB from the University of Queensland in 1951, after serving as President of the National Union of Australian University Students in 1949.After a distinguished career at the Queensland bar, including appointment as a Queen’s Counsel in 1965, he was appointed in 1976 as a judge of the Australian Industrial Court and the first President of the AAT.In 1977 he became a foundation justice of the Federal Court until his appointment to the High Court of Australia in 1981. He served as the Chief Justice of Australia from April 1995 until his retirement in May 1998.

List of Past Lectures in the Brennan Series

1998 - The Hon. Chief Justice Sir Gerard Brennan AC KBE, ‘The Parliament, the Executive and the Courts:  Roles and Immunities’.

2000 - The Hon. Chief Justice Paul de Jersey, ‘Injecting Insanity? – Whither a Sane Solution’.

2001 - The Hon. Justice Michael Kirby AC CMG, ‘Law, Human Life and Ethical Dilemmas’.

2003 - The Hon. Chief Justice James Spigelman AC, ‘The Truth Can Cost Too Much: The Principle of a Fair Trial’.

2005 - The Hon. David Coltart, Shadow Minister of Justice, Zimbabwe, ‘The Erosion of Law in Zimbabwe (2000-2005) – Its Consequences and International Reaction’.

2007 - The Hon. Christine Lagarde, Minister of Foreign Trade, France, ‘Law: A Source of Appeal and Competitive Edge in the Global Economy’.

2009 - The Hon. Chief Justice Robert French, ‘Oil and Water? International and Domestic Law in Australia’.