Chief Justice attacks governments' xenophobic populism
One of New South Wales's top jurists has attacked “xenophobic” populist policies by governments, which he says proves equality and fairness must be protected by the courts.
NSW Chief Justice Tom Bathurst delivered the speech to the NSW Law Society on Wednesday night to officially open the legal term.
“It should give us pause that one of the most serious threats to the rule of law in Australia was grounded in xenophobia,” Chief Justice Bathurst was quoted as saying by the Daily Telegraph.
He went on to describe a 1888 incident in which the NSW Government ordered police to stop Chinese passengers from leaving a ship in Sydney Harbour, sparking a stoush with legal luminaries at the time.
The Chief Justice said the example showed the courts, not the government, had a leading role in promoting equality and fairness.
He said then Premier Sir Henry Parkes’ “inflammatory” language, in which he described the move as necessary for peace and stability in the colony, would have proved familiar if uttered today.
Politicians irresponsibly riding waves of popular sentiment were not the only targets of the speech, however.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports “needlessly wordy” lawyers also came in for a lashing.
He suggested judges were failing to properly explain themselves in a manner that connected with the public they served.
"I regret to inform my fellow judges here tonight that very few people actually read the decisions that we spend so long considering and crafting," Chief Justice Bathurst said.
"Courts must take an active role in explaining what we do and why."
He urged judges and lawyers to embrace plain English, invoking another near two century-old example of a lawyer explaining the concept of giving someone else an orange.
The chief justice quoted Arthur Symonds, who suggested in 1835 a lawyer may describe the transaction as giving “you all and singular, my estate and interest, right, title, claim and advantage of and in that orange, with all its rind, skin, juice, pulp and pips..."
A Sydney lawyer, Chief Justice Bathurst quipped, might today also wonder about the legalities of an “orange infused latte to be served in a repurposed jam jar in Surry Hills."
