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Speeches
UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES
FACULTY OF LAW
25TH ANNIVERSARY DINNER - SYDNEY
The Hon Sir Gerard Brennan, AC KBE
Chief Justice of Australia
18 July 1996
One of the pleasures of judicial life is the friendship and
respect that a judge may enjoy with his or her judicial siblings
whilst both the sibling and the judge are entirely free to agree
or disagree with each other's judgments. I was therefore delighted
when my former Chief, and your present Chancellor, after failing
on some notable occasions to perceive the depth of scholarship,
the irrefragable logic and the profound wisdom of my judgment,
let me know that I was nevertheless to be invited to address
this celebration of the University of New South Wales Law School.
There is much to celebrate, and some challenges to ponder.
Twenty five years ago, when Professor Wootten, the Foundation
Dean, wrote his welcome to the first students, he set out the
credo of the new Faculty. The Law School staff, he wrote, shared
the belief -
- "that law is not an end in itself. It is to be judged
by the extent to which it promotes the well-being of the
people living in society. We believe that the study of the
law should never lose sight of the social problems that
law exists to deal with, and that lawyers should always
be ready to criticise and reform the law.
- We believe that a Law School should not exist in an ivory
tower. Staff and students should build and maintain contacts
with the practising profession, and with the real world
in which lawyers work. On the other hand the Law School
should be a good vantage point from which to stand off and
look at the law and the profession with a detachment the
practitioner can seldom enjoy."
These were lofty aspirations. They set an agenda for the new
Law School that would distinguish it from other like institutions.
The study of law would not be seen merely as a study of particular
laws or as an exercise in abstract criticism of legal concepts.
The law would be seen as a major historical force that works
upon, and is worked upon by, society in its ever-changing forms.
The Law School would not be a mere primary school for professional
legal training; but neither would the law be taught as an abstraction
to which endless speculative thought might be devoted. Knowledge
was to precede critical evaluation. "For every hour in
class", Professor Wootten warned, "you will have to
spend several in the library or in private preparation".
In that year, 227 students were enrolled. In June of this year,
the undergraduate enrolment was 1519, the third largest in the
Commonwealth after Monash and Queensland University of Technology.
Class sizes have been a problem but Dean Redmond notes the Law
School's "insistence on active learning" and, to that
end, its endeavour to keep classes to a small size. He records
that "special tutors are appointed to assist indigenous
students and students whose first language is not English."
The method of teaching and the facilities available to students
have maintained a high pedagogical level: research has been
encouraged and the concurrent functions of teaching and research
have no doubt enhanced each other. Research informing the teaching,
undergraduate questioning and analysis provoking more profound
examination of principle. Contact with other disciplines has
been encouraged, so that the Law School has been integrated
in the wider community of learning. Thus it has contributed
to the fulfilment of one of the leading objects of the University
"to provide a learning environment in which students acquire,
develop and deploy skills of rational thought and critical analysis".
The curriculum described in the current handbook left me regretfully
envious of those who might profit from it. The law course upon
which I entered half a century ago was not nearly so comprehensive.
And there were some less fortunate than I. There was, for example,
the young depositions clerk in the Magistrate's Court who decided
to obtain legal qualifications to fast track his prospects in
the Justice Department. He was studying Snell's "Equity"
when the then Chief Stipendiary Magistrate offered some advice
based on his experience of the "equity and good conscience"
jurisdiction in the Small Claims Court: "Don't bother about
equity, boy," said his Worship, "it applies only in
cases below ten pounds".
Two main conceptions of the role of a law school have vied for
dominance in recent times. The first is that of a professional
training institution; the second is that of an academic institution
devoted to learning about law as a phenomenon and general legal
principles. Although there is a tension between the two conceptions,
heightened by any shortage in resources, the preferred model
seems to be a combination of the two. Hence the Law School has
insisted upon a substantial group of core subjects in which
the general modes of legal reasoning might be acquired and has
offered both specialist electives and practical training which
keep the students attuned to the practical operation of the
law.
The Law School has set standards in legal education that
others have followed. To the Pearce Committee in 1987, the
Law School was a model of "what was possible in legal
education". In 1991 the Independent Monthly
stated:
- "The UNSW law course has long been acknowledged
as the best and most innovative in the country. It led the
way in using small teaching groups, well-prepared study
materials for students, continuous assessment (rather than
end-of-year examinations) and a clinical program in which
students learned the trade through working in community
legal centres. ... UNSW must still be regarded as at least
the equal of any other and is one of a handful of university
courses which show that a good education can and should
be both intellectually stimulating and a good preparation
for work."
Then, in 1994, a post-Pearce review concluded with a resounding
tribute:
- " What is probably most remarkable from the case
study is the stability and consistent success of the NSW
school. The mission, style of teaching, curriculum, student
profile and resources have essentially been unchanged since
the mid 80s. Yet there is no evidence to suggest that the
school is stagnating or being threatened by the new schools.
We found some instances where NSW is still the model that
some others strive towards. The impact of Pearce has been
to reinforce the core values and practices of the school,
not to change them in any significant way."
Now all this provides a sound basis for celebration. It indicates
an active Faculty, reciprocating with the undergraduate body,
each of them deriving stimulus from the other. It indicates
an appreciation of the law both as a conceptual phenomenon and
as a set of practical rules for the organization of social relationships
and institutions. Yet there are, I suggest, some challenges,
inadequately acknowledged, that face all law schools. They merit
mention to a gathering that commemorates the edifice built on
that first credo in the 1971 Handbook.
A report by Christopher Roper on the Career Intentions of Australian
Law Students contains much food for thought. DEET published
a brief summary of the highlights in the report that sets out
in priority the reasons why students study law:
- "The most popular reason for studying law was an
interest in the subject matter of the law.
- The second ranking reason was that doing law, as part
of a double degree, would increase career options.
- The third ranking reason was that being a general degree,
law provided a good basic training for a number of occupations.
- Although not as high ranking as these reasons, the more
altruistic reason that law was seen as a way of making a
contribution to the community, had some support amongst
students.
- Reasons which related to prestige or high income were
very lowly ranked. Similarly entering law simply because
of students' high HSC marks was a very insignificant reason."
Now these are the views of the elite group who achieve entry
into our Law Schools. The motives for studying law have become
increasingly self-regarding, altruism losing the precedence
it once possesses. This has been noted by Professor Andrew Goldsmith
in the 1995 Monash University Law Review in an article catchily
entitled: "Warning: Law School Can Endanger Your Health".
There are no doubt economic and structural reasons for what
Prof. Goldsmith calls the "progressive loss of idealism
among law students", but the question must be asked whether
that loss of idealism can be turned around. The Law School is
a place and a time in which attitudes and ambitions are formed;
it is an institution in which values that underlie the important
principles of law can be expounded; it creates an intellectual
climate in which the social utility of the law and the profession
which practises law can be critically examined; and, most significantly,
it provides an opportunity for pointing the way to changes in
attitude and in professional structures that will more fully
respond to altruistic ideals. Let me recall another passage
from the 1971 handbook:
- "we believe that a Law School should have and communicate
to its students a keen concern for those on whom the law
may bear harshly, either because they cannot afford its
services, or because it does not sufficiently recognise
their needs, or because they are in some way alienated from
the rest of society. The poor, the aborigines, the handicapped,
the deviants, all need their champions in the law as elsewhere."
Now these are words of generality. But they can be translated
into action. The law student of today is no doubt concerned
about the prospects of future employment, but the concern need
not be overstated. Statistics show that law students do extremely
well in the employment race. The real risks are not in getting
employment but in getting and retaining satisfaction in a legal
career. Too often the search for the pot of gold at the end
of the rainbow finds only bitter ash; frequently, the only and
unsatisfying reward of hours of grinding work is pecuniary;
sadly, the intensity of legal work produces disruption in familial
relations. Unless the self-regarding reasons for undertaking
the study of law encounter a contrary set of values in the Law
School, the student enters upon a career that contains the risk
of disillusionment.
Yours is a law school that can assume a leadership in the programme
of professional satisfaction, turning around the cynicism that
oftentimes seems to affect those who regard law as the means
by which battles can be won for profit, instead of a civilizing
influence that facilitates the peace and progress of society.
In this adventure of the next 25 years, I wish you well. I thank
you on behalf of the Judiciary for equipping competent lawyers
to service the courts , particularly the Courts sitting in this
State. I congratulate not only the University, the Deans, the
Faculty and the visiting lecturers, but also the students who
have together made the Law School an integral part of a community
of learning. The repute stands high. The prospects of the future
are higher yet.
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