Excursions in the Law

In 40 years as a barrister and judge Peter Heerey AM QC has observed and sometimes taken part in memorable legal events.

This work is partly a collection of recollections; a murder trial, a Privy Council appeal, the leading High Court decision on the liability for barristers’ negligence and the cause célèbre of Professor Orr and his dismissal by the University of Tasmania.

There are also studies of notable historical and legal figures: Andrew Inglis Clark, Sir Owen Dixon, Abraham Lincoln, Justice Antonin Scalia and others as well as some of his professional colleagues.

From time to time Peter’s work has included periods in other lands: the American South, Quebec, Vanuatu and Ireland. Vivid impressions of their historical backgrounds and some current personalities are recorded.

Law is looked at from a literary perspective. There are discussions of the commercial and litigious issues in The Merchant of Venice, post modernist analysis of legal issues and storytelling in the law.

TASMANIAN STORIES
Andrew Inglis Clark: The Man and his Legacy
Andrew Inglis Clark and Cricket
The Supreme Court of Tasmania: Its First Century 1824-1924
The Orr Case Revisited
Hobart – A Guide for Innocent Mainlanders

THE JUSTICE BUSINESS
The Victorian Bar: Some History and a Little Lore
Memories of the Battle of Hastings
The Judicial Herd: Seduced by Suave Glittering Phrases?
A Question of Judgment
Judges at Work
A Towering Figure of the Law
Counsel’s Baggage
Judgment Writing
The Ballad of Briginshaw
Chettyar’s Case
Down with Defamation!
Jeff Sher’s Farewell
Ode to His Honour Judge Ross
Ode to His Honour Judge Gebhardt

IN OTHER LANDS
A Last Hurrah – Privy Council Days
Law in Vanuatu
Canada and Quebec
The Traveller’s Return
Away Down South in Dixie
The Years of Lyndon Johnson
Justice Antonin Scalia
Abraham Lincoln – Patent Lawyer
How Judges Think
A Night at the King’s Inns
An Officer and a Spy

LAW AND LITERATURE
The Merchant of Venice and the Trade Practices Act
Truth, Lies and Stereotype: Stories of Mary and Louis
Storytelling, Postmodernism and the Law
Aesthetics, Culture, and the Whole Damn Thing
Rediscovering Rhetoric

PUBLIUS
Bracket (“Bracket”) Creep
Colonising Language
Historical Dating
Latinophobia

The Honourable Peter Heerey AM QC was born in Hobart, Tasmania. After graduating from the University of Tasmania and working as a solicitor he practised for 23 years at the Victorian Bar, being appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1985. He sat for 19 years as a judge of the Federal Court of Australia, including duty as President of the Defence Force Discipline Appeal Tribunal and a Deputy President of the Australian Competition Tribunal. His work on the Federal Court mainly involved intellectual property, competition law, administrative law and tax.

Since retiring in 2009 he has served as Chair of the Australian Electoral Commission and returned to the Bar specialising in advice, arbitration and mediation.