Law Council Australia, NSW Law Soc & NSW Bar should learn from & stop lecturing Asia's lawyers: High Court's Pell decision, defamation decisions suggest that Australia's judicial system is in need of urgent reform

by Ganesh Sahathevan


Former Law Council president Arthur Moses saw 
promotion of the rule of law in Asia
as one of the LCA's priorities.. He obviously
did not think that there was any problem in
Australia, or in NSW, where he was once 
President of the NSW Bar.

The High Court Of Australia decided 7-0 that the majority of the Supreme Court Of Victoria misjudged the matter of George Cardinal Pell. In doing so the High Court took the unprecedented step of assessing the conduct of the jury in the initial case, thus judging that the most senior judges in Victoria failed to get their basics right.

 Elsewhere in the country defamation law reform is being pursued because judges and lawyers seem to have gone off the rails with regards defamation awards to the point where on senior defamation judge, Judith Gibson  was driven to state:

"We can't have enormously expensive litigation driving people to have to sell their homes or go bankrupt.
"That's not a system of law that is going to attract admiration and respect from other countries or large companies wanting to do business in Australia."
Judge Gibson is calling on her profession to be more courageous and agitate for legal reform.
"If we don't affect changes, we are going to have a significant loss of faith in the courts as the significant provider of justice, and that is a matter of great concern."

Faced with a similar situation with regards defamation laws Malaysia's Bar Council actively pursued errant judges, lawyers and litigants. More recently the Bar Council has challenged the appointment of a former chief justice. 


In Australia on the other hand Law Council Australia, and in particular the NSW Bar Association and NSW Law Society have remained silent, and instead focused their energies on lecturing Malaysian and other lawyers on the shortcomings of their judicial systems:
Will Australia's barristers boycott legal work in Malaysia in protest of the perceived lack of independence it its judiciary?

Law Council Australia can help remove Minshen Zhu''s cover that adds to his capacity to defy Australian security: That would be better than Arthur Moses SC lecturing HK lawyers to stand-up to China

The Law Society NSW, NSW Bar, the NSW Law Society and other state law and bar associations have much to do here in order to stop the rot. The High Court's decision in the matter of George Cardinal Pell makes that abundantly clear.


END

NOTE 
In 2000 and 2001 the NSW Supreme Court's decision in the matter Carlovers & Ors V Sahathevan gave lawyers in Malaysia useful ammunition in their fight against a judiciary that had abused defamation laws in that country. By 2020 however the Chief Justice NSW Tom Bathurst,as chairman of the NSW LPAB has not only re-written the facts of the Carlovers case, but has also re-interpreted the decision as if it were in favour of the plaintiff Vincent Tan, who was found by a Malaysian Royal Commission to have interfered with the judiciary. 

See Also

SEE on the Department Of Justice NSW website

Review of model defamation provisions-Ganesh Sahathevan 


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