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Opening of the Legal Year – Remarks at UK-Australia Reception

Speech delivered by Law Council of Australia President, Mr Greg McIntyre SC, in London on 1 October 2024.

"As President of the Law Council of Australia, It is an honour to be with you this evening.

Thank you to the Law Society of England and Wales for convening this event to bring together visiting representatives of Australia’s legal profession, bar leaders and representatives of [England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland], and Australian lawyers practising here in London, as well as representatives of the Ministry of Justice and Department of Business and Trade.

I am also delighted to be joined by Deputy High Commissioner Elisabeth Bowes and Andrew Sainsbury from the Australian High Commission.

The connections between the legal professions of the United Kingdom and Australia have been developed and strengthened for over 230 years.

Through the fictitious assumption that Australia was terra nullius, or uninhabited land, the laws of England were applied to Australia in 1788. We know the assumption was fictitious because the High Court of Australia said so in the 1992 decision of Mabo v State of Queensland, which I had the privilege of conducting on behalf of the Plaintiffs.

Although the direct application of English law in Australia gradually diminished with the granting of self-governance to the colonies, the advent of federation and the abolition of appeals to the Privy Council, Australia’s legal heritage – both with respect to its laws and its institutions – remains unmistakeably British.1"

Read the full speech below.


1 Gordon Hughes AM, The Law Council of Australia: The People, the Profession and the Institutions (Halstead Press, 2nd ed, 2023) 27. 

Last Updated on 25/10/2024

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