Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Monday 16 May
6:15 PM - 7:15 PM
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”. Martin Luther King’s sentiment still underpins many of the key legal documents set up to promote human rights in Victoria and beyond. But are the bold aims of human rights discourse too idealistic for the legal system to sustain in practice? How difficult is it to develop and enforce laws that promote a rights-based culture? What happens when rights clash? Can we do better? Join our panellists in a discussion of human rights in theory and practice.
This event is the official launch of Law Week – and of Victoria Law Foundation’s Better Information Handbook – so stick around afterwards for free drinks and further discussion.
Featuring
Debbie Mortimer
Debbie Mortimer SC is a Melbourne barrister whose areas of practice include matters relating to civil liberties, constitutional law, discrimination law, equal opportunity, human rights, and freedom of information.
Julian Burnside
Julian Burnside is a Melbourne barrister. He joined the Bar in 1976 and took silk in 1989. He specialises in commercial litigation, and has acted in many very contentious cases - the MUA Waterfront dispute; the Cash-for-Comment enquiry; cases for Alan Bond and Rose Porteous - but has become known for his human rights work and has acted pro bono in many refugee cases.
He is an outspoken opponent of the mistreatment of people who come to Australia seeking protection from persecution. His latest book is Watching Out: Reflections on Justice and Injustice (Scribe).
Alan Attwood
Alan Attwood, author and journalist, is a Walkley-award winner and former New York correspondent for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. He has been editor of The Big Issue magazine since 2006.
Alan was born in Scotland and immigrated to Australia with his family when he was four. He has worked as an abalone packer, dishwasher, schoolbook salesman and mail sorter, but mainly as a journalist, specialising in not specialising.
In a 35-year career he has written for publications ranging from The Sunday Times, London, to Time magazine and covered events as diverse as the first free elections in South Africa, soccer in Northern Greece, political intrigue in Morocco, a US presidential campaign and four Olympic Games.
He won a Walkley Award for coverage of sport in 1998 and subsequently was a columnist for the Age. He is also the author of two published novels, Breathing Underwater and Burke’s Soldier.
Rob Stary
Rob Stary is a Melbourne criminal defence lawyer who runs his own firm in Footscray.
Rob describes the acquittal of Jack Thomas in 2008 as the most significant case he’s been involved in. Thomas, the first person charged under Australia’s anti-terrorism laws, was set free after a six-year battle. Stary was also in the thick of another major terrorism case, the Benbrika trial in the Victorian Supreme Court. He defended five of the 12 men accused of belonging to a Melbourne terrorism cell. One of Stary’s clients was acquitted, two were partially acquitted and two were found guilty. He’s now defending three Melbourne men charged with terrorism offences for allegedly supplying aid to Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers, and has previously defended several of the protesters who clashed with police during the G20 summit in 2006.