A History of the Independent Bar of South Australia (Updated Edition)

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A History of the Independent Bar of South Australia (Updated Edition)

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

John Emerson Publishing Solutions

$90.00 | 2020 | Paperback full colour interior | 298 pp
978-0-6450056-1-5

$120.00 | 2020 | Hardback full colour interior | 298 pp
978-0-6450056-0-8

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.

Excerpts from the original Foreword by Sir Anthony Mason

Click for list of contents

Acknowledgments 

Author’s Note 

Preface by the Hon. C J Legoe AO QC

Foreword by Sir Anthony Mason AC KBE 

PART ONE – History and Development 

I Revised 2020 Introduction

2 Expansion: From 1964 till 2020

PART TWO – Bluestone

4 Adelaide Chambers: The Bluestone Phenomenon 

PART THREE – Silks

5 Queen’s and Senior Counsel Appointments 1974-2020

Conclusion 

Bibliography 

Index 

About the author

Dr John Emerson is the author of the original History of the South Australian Independent Bar published in 2006. He is also the author of First Among Equals: Chief Justices of South Australia since Federation (2006) and of John Jefferson Bray: A Vigilant Life (2015). He founded the University of Adelaide Press in 2008.

john [at] jjemerson.com

© 2023 John Emerson. All rights reserved.