The Tuning Cymbal : Selected Papers and Speeches of the Hon Robert French AC

The Tuning Cymbal : Selected Papers and Speeches of the Hon Robert French AC
ISBN: 9781760022402
Publication Date: 23 June 2020

This collection of papers and speeches draws on the career of one of Australia’s leading jurists, the Hon Robert French AC.

The book is divided into ten parts, each reflecting an aspect of French’s career such as Indigenous issues, human rights, public law, commercial dispute resolution and the judicial system. French’s contributions are put into context through commentaries by leading legal academics and practitioners including Professor Megan Davis, Fiona McLeod AO SC, Professor Anne Twomey, Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon and Chief Justice Tom Bathurst AC.

The result is a rich and polyvocal account of French’s contribution to the law.

From the book: “Here was Chief Justice French in 2009 stating unequivocally that the Mabo decisions and the Native Title ACT recognised Indigenous rights without undermining Australia’s sovereignty and could provide the basis for a treaty agreement: Such an agreement could recognise and acknowledge traditional law and custom of indigenous communities across Australia, their historical relationship with their country, their prior occupancy of the continent and that there are those who have maintained and asserted their traditional rights to the present time. … I ripped this brief SMH extract featuring Robert French’s comment out of the newspaper. I carried it many places with me, as PhD students tend to do. It was a reminder to me, as an Aboriginal public lawyer who was specialising in constitutional law, that I had to keep some faith with the institutions that I had studied.” – Professor Megan Davis

Publication sponsored by The Australian Academy of Law.