Search
This area does not yet contain any content.
Justinian News

The law and its miracles ... Party allies selected for judicial elevation in Qld ... Justice Jenni Hill's brother ... More entries for the Golden Tortoise award ... Federal Court muddles the maths, again ... Theodora reports ... Read more >>

Politics Media Law Society


Rupert World ... Lord Moloch’s pal Doug the Diva – driving Washington spare … News UK’s model for unionism … What next for the Washington Post? … Concealed coal lobbyists running an anti-Teal campaign … More corruption busting for Stinging Nettle … The litigation industry spawned by Lehrmann ... Read on >> 

The eagle cracked

Free Newsletter
Justinian Columnists

Party time for Dicey ... Heydon's book - a pathway to rehabilitation ... The predatory man and the clever intellect - all wrapped up in the one person ... Academic tome and cancel agenda ... Despite the plaudits the record of abuse doesn't vanish ... Book launch with young associates at a safe distance ... Procrustes thinks out loud ... Read more >> 

Blow the whistle

 

News snips ...


 

 

Justinian's Bloggers

Governance turmoil at Tiny Town Law Society ... Night of the long knives ... Lakeside in Canberra ... ACT Law Society upheaval over governance changes ... Bodies carted out of the council room ... Blood on the carpet ... Fraught litigation another distraction ... From Gang Gang ... Read more >> 

"One wonders whether a murderer who later contributes to society might be treated better that Heydon has been." 

Janet Albrechtsen in The Australian seeking the resurrection of former justice Dyson Heydon whose sexual predations ruined the legal careers of young women associates at the High Court ... April 11, 2025 ... Read more flatulence ... 


Justinian Featurettes

Letter from Rome ... Judges on strike ... Too much "reform" ... Berlusconi legacy ... Referendum on the way ... Constitutional court inflames the Meloni regime with decision on boat people ... Insults galore ... Silvana Olivetti reports ... Read more >> 


Justinian's archive

Tea is for Tippy ... Life of a tiffstaff ... Bright, ambitious and, when it comes to the crucial things, hopeless ... Milking the glory of the gig ...  Introducing Tippy, our new blogger filing from within the concrete cage at Queens Square ... From Justinian's Archive, March 15, 2010 ...  Read more >> 


 

 

« Damp spirits | Main | Glorious Accession Day »
Tuesday
Feb222022

On a search for whimsy

What do law students do during the summer break ... Start a newspaper ... A counterpoint to the law's dry stuff ... First edition of Amicus Courier online now ... From Djokovic to haiku ... Eamonn Murphy reports 


 

For the law student, a semester of learning can be rather tedious. A textbook chapter the length of a novella; a selection of judgements, some brilliant, others turgid; a ream of legislation; a lecture, a tutorial, a seminar, a study group, mooting, negotiations, note-taking, networking - all in one's first week. 

Recently, these activities have been relegated to the digital world: technical glitches, bleary eyes and restless legs are the new norm. The law student is exhausted.

The summer holidays came as a blissful repose. The law student sleeps in, reads novels, nabs a summer job, wanders the racks of mothballed vintage shops, and lazes on blistering sands before wading into the deep. However, when all this is too much, we create a newspaper.

Amicus Courier is the Sydney University Law Society's panacea for any dull aspects of the Law School's curriculum. The paper's editor-in-chief, Ariana Haghighi, writes of the law's "whimsical" side, one that tends to be absent from our studies. 

Lectures are dominated by a meticulous focus on black-letters and semantic interpretation, memorising rules and elements and dates and pinpoints; Amicus Courier brings welcome colour and spiritedness to our learning.

Haghighi's eight editors and nine additional contributors have sought out the law's whimsy. 

Brianna Ho addresses tort liability when artificial intelligence makes a medical diagnosis.  

Marlow Hurst discusses the Sydney Law School's migration to the battle stations of World War II, replicating a law degree on the field to combat a 70 percent decline in enrolment. 

Anson Lee and Justin Lai satirise the legal side of the Djokovic debacle, and I explore the treatment of domestic animals in Spanish divorce settlements. 

The haiku also makes an appearance, representing a selection of cases in verse: Anthony-James Kanaan paints the 1773 case of Scott v Shepherd as follows ...

"Do not throw a squib
Through a market square or else:
Liability."

The paper's whimsy does not preclude piercing dissections of the current legal climate. Amelie Roediger explores the limits of intellectual freedom in Australian tertiary education, and Mikaela Nguyen examines the ramifications of passing the Religious Discrimination Bill and amending the Sex Discrimination Act

Where William Price proposes solutions to the Sydney housing crisis, Mae Milne questions the limitations of "smart contracts" in dispute resolution. 

The stories are varied and detailed, allowing students to write on whatever takes their fancy.

A few weeks ago, at the dinner table, my father mentioned a recent episode of the ABC's Law Report - one that explored how Australian consumer law developed from a pair of itchy underpants. 

Everyone chortled at the quaint idea that consumer law owed much of its origin to woollen long johns. 

We need some of the fun that the curriculum lacks. Our semesters are brief, our coursework extensive, and we can't necessarily expect whimsy throughout the year. In the holidays, however, the law student can be free. 

The first edition of Amicus Courier is out online. It's a fun distraction as the drudgery of the semester returns.

Reader Comments

There are no comments for this journal entry. To create a new comment, use the form below.
Member Account Required
You must have a member account on this website in order to post comments. Log in to your account to enable posting.