Authoritative Legal Titles

Edited by Tom Gray, Martin Hinton and David Caruso
Barr Smith Press
$90.00 GST FREE | 2012 | Paperback | 978-0-9871718-3-2 | 610 pp

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Any observer of advocacy in Court will be struck by the dissimilarity of advocates’ styles, mannerisms, eloquence and the manner or mode of persuasion.

The power of persuasion is innate, idiosyncratic and unpredictable. There is a danger in attempting to teach a particular style of manner of delivery.

This publication approaches advocacy in an entirely different way. The reader of the publication is at times entertained, and other times subjected to concentrated study.

Some authors write in an elegant manner, others in a scholarly fashion. Pragmatic advice is the approach of yet others. Each author through their essay displays their own unique style of persuasion.

The editors have eschewed any thought of attempting any degree of homogeneity. The authors have wanted the student, the reader and the critic to identify and respect these differences.

They are the very essence of advocacy.

Foreword by the Hon. John Doyle AC KC, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of South Australia 1995-2012
Barr Smith Press, University of Adelaide, 290 pages
$75.00 GST FREE | 2006 | Hardback | 9780863968365

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Part history, part biography, First Among Equals takes us on a journey through the history of the State of South Australia as we follow the lives of the five Chief Justices who completed their term in the twentieth century.

The book begins in the genteel South Australia of the last days of Queen Victoria when the Post Office and Town Hall Towers were the tallest structures in the Adelaide skyline.

Its dominating personality then was Chief Justice Sir Samuel Way. He was also Lieutenant-Governor, Chancellor of the only university, and presided over the organizations that governed the Children’s Hospital, Art Gallery, Museum, Library, Zoo and Botanic Gardens.

The twentieth century unfurled and the role of the Chief Justice in South Australia evolved. The State grew more sophisticated and the Courts expanded considerably.

It achieved it final form under Len King, Chief Justice from 1978 until 1995, whose legacy is the form it holds now.

About the author
Dr John Emerson has published two legal histories and one judicial biography.
John founded the University of Adelaide Press in 2009 and now provides consulting services to academic institutions and learned societies.

Foreword by Martin Hinton KC, Director of Public Prosecutions, South Australia
Barr Smith Press, University of Adelaide, 956 pages
$170.00 GST FREE | 2019 | Hardback | 978-1-925261-88-2

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956 pages plus over 250 illustrations from the era

From Martin Hinton’s Foreword
I recall first diving into Hague’s History when as Solicitor-General I was required to trace the origins and content of the executive power of the State in order to understand the power that a contemporary Governor may wield on the advice of his or her Ministers.

On another occasion I turned to Hague for his treatment of the establishment of the Supreme Court for the purpose of tracing the scope and content of the Court’s jurisdiction.

More recently it was the work Hague had done on the first petit and grand juries that assisted in an analysis of the protection afforded by trial by jury.

In each case the origins of important legal institutions were critical to understanding the structure and purpose of contemporary equivalents.

August 2019

About the author
Ralph Meyrick Hague (1907-1997) had a distinguished career in the law in South Australia and was awarded a CBE for his contributions to law and legal learning.

As well as writing his own legal histories, he amassed a collection of around 40,000 books, donated after his death to the University of Adelaide Library.

Includes the original Foreword by Sir Anthony Mason, Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia 1987-1995
by John Emerson

John Emerson Publishing Solutions
$72.00 | 2020 | Paperback full colour interior | 298 pp | 978-0-6450056-1-5
$90.00 | 2020 | Hardback full colour interior | 298 pp | 978-0-6450056-0-8

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From Sir Anthony Mason’s Foreword
The emergence of a separate Bar has enhanced the quality of advocacy in South Australia, just as it has done in Western Australia. In both States, the majority of judges are now appointed from the ranks of the Bar.

John Emerson’s work is much more than a simple history of the Bar. The photographs and the short biographical notes bring to life the personalities and the bluestone buildings which house their Chambers. One of the buildings may have been in earlier use by the one profession which can justly claim to have a longer history than the legal profession.

John Emerson also provides us with a perceptive account of the condition of the legal system in England at the time of the South Australian settlement and what that meant for the establishment of a legal system in the new colony.

In addition, he outlines the legal and political issues which related to the emergence of a separate Bar and the differences between South Australia and the approaches taken in the eastern colonies, particularly New South Wales.

This book is a model history of a profession.

Foreword by the Hon. Justice Stephen Gageler AC of the High Court of Australia
Eds. Martin Hinton and John M. Williams

University of Adelaide Press
$72.00 | 2018 | Paperback | 978-1-925261-79-0 | 394 pp
$96.00 | 2018 | Hardback | 978-1-925261-72-1 | 394 pp

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From Justice Gageler’s Foreword
The notion of the Crown, no less than the notion of the people, is a value‑laden abstraction. Within a system of representative and responsible government, the two abstractions are intertwined. The notion of the Crown is capable of appreciation only in its relation to the notion of the people, and only then in the sweep of history and with an understanding of the practical working of democratic and administrative processes.

Both notions bring with them a sense of unity and continuity. But it is in the notion of the Crown that there is captured that expectation of tempering privilege with responsibility which characterises our fundamental attitude to institutions of government.

Because it is a notion that is not the product of the law, the Crown defies legal definition. Aspects of its operation and application have been described by lawyers, and aspects of its legal incidents and legal consequences have been identified. But its contours have never been mapped.

Perhaps because it has defied definition, it has been a source of both fascination and frustration over many years to many lawyers, whose professional habit of mind has often led them on a quest for greater precision than the subject matter of their study will bear.