Garfield Barwick and the Rule of Law

Alister Henskens SC, the Member for Wahroonga in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly and the shadow attorney-general, delivered the tenth Sir Garfield Barwick Address in Sydney in October 2023. The address was introduced by Dr Ashley Tsacalos, a trustee of the Sir Garfield Barwick Address Foundation. We are publishing below edited versions of both speeches.

A shley Tsacalos: My interest in Sir Garfield Barwick started when I read his autobiography, A Radical Tory , in my first year of law school in 1995, and I have been fascinated by his achievements and accomplishments ever since. The extent of my interest led me to start a PhD through the University of Sydney in 2003 to examine Barwick’s appellate advocacy in constitutional law cases. The fundamental question which my thesis aimed to answer was whether Sir Garfield Barwick’s reputation as one of Australia’s greatest appellate advocates, especially in constitutional law cases, was justified.



The thesis concludes...

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