Address by the Honourable J J Spigelman Ac Chief Justice of New South Wales Federal Law Review: 40th Anniversary Dinner Canberra, 28 October 2004
| DOI | 10.22145/FLR.33.1.1 |
| Published date | 01 March 2005 |
| Date | 01 March 2005 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
ADDRESS BY THE HONOURABLE J J SPIGELMAN AC
CHIEF JUSTICE OF NEW SOUTH WALES
FEDERAL LAW REVIEW: 40TH ANNIVERSARY DINNER
CANBERRA, 28 OCTOBER 2004
The role of student-edited law reviews and whether or not they have a future has been
the subject of controversy for many decades.1
When Justice Michael Kirby published a defence of law reviews a few years ago, he
said: 'To justify a new journal, the publisher must offer something that current journals
do not provide. As well, law schools, proliferating in such number, need to
differentiate their products.'2
From 1935 when Melbourne University Law School commenced to publish Res
Judicatae, which became the Melbourne University Law Review in 1957, until today when
there are almost 30 university law reviews, the Federal Law Review is the only one that
identified a specialist field from the outset. In 1964 it became the seventh university
law review following Melbourne, Queensland, Western Australia, Sydney, Tasmania
and Adelaide. Sir Kenneth Bailey, then Solicitor-General of the Commonwealth in a
Foreword to the first issue of the review emphasised the distinctive contribution that
the focus of attention on federal matters would make to Australian legal literature.
For anyone launching a new and different product it is of crucial significance to
have the insight to identify a growth area. Those who chose to emphasise federal
jurisdiction as an area of specialisation in 1964 displayed one of the most impressive
feats of perspicacity in all of Australian legal academic history. It is only necessary to
mention some of the events of the next decade or two which gave rise to so significant
an expansion of federal jurisdiction as to constitute the most dramatic change in the
administration of justice since the creation of the Commonwealth.
Within a decade or so the High Court would liberate the corporations power and
the external affairs power, the Family Court and Federal Court would be established,
the Commonwealth Parliament would pass the Trade Practices Act, adopt the
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1 See Fred Rodell, 'Goodbye to Law Reviews' (1936) 23 Virginia Law Review 38; republished in
(1999) 73 Australian Law Journal 593 with commentary by John Gava at 597; Bernard
Hibbitts, 'Last Writes?: Reassessing the Law Review in the Age of Cyberspace' (1996) 71
New York University Law Review 615; Symposium in (1996) 30 Akron Law Review 173; Justice
Michael Kirby, 'Welcome to Law Reviews' (2002) 26 Melbourne University Law Review 1;
John Gava, 'Law Reviews: Good for Judges, Bad for Law Schools?' (2002) 26 Melbourne
University Law Review 560; Marilyn Pittard and Peter Heffey, 'Ancora Imparo: The Historical
Role of the Law Review in University Scholarship' (2003) 29 Monash University Law Review
278. See most recently Richard A Posner, Against the Law Reviews (2004) Legal Affairs
<http://www.legalaffairs.org/issues/November-December-
2004/review_posner_novdec04.msp>.
2 Kirby, above n 1, 2.
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