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Article: International law and Australian sovereignty.(Latham Lecture)(Transcript)
- Article from:
- Quadrant
- Article date:
- July 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Quadrant Magazine Company, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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IT IS A SPECIAL HONOUR to be invited to give the Sir John Latham Memorial Lecture. Sir John Latham's contribution to this country has, I think, been underestimated. Not always fairly, his judicial prowess has sometimes been unfavourably compared with Sir Owen Dixon's.
Lawyers are often criticised, not always justifiably, as being too narrow in focus. That criticism could not fairly be levelled at Sir John. As a student he not only won the Victorian Supreme Court Prize but also graduated in Arts with distinctions in philosophy and logic.
In 1905 he was called to the Bar and commenced to practise. He was certainly not immediately successful--in his first ...