Of Newspapers and Law Reviews

Abstract

I am a bill of rights sceptic. A good number of the peer reviewed law journal articles I have written in the last decade or so, plus a bunch of book chapters, have been related to the issue of bills of rights, about a couple of dozen such pieces. Since arriving in Australia four years ago, I have also written dozens and dozens of newspaper opinion pieces, many of them arguing against enacting a bill of rights. Then, in late May 2009, it was pointed out to me that in the most recent issue of the Alternative Law Journal Nicola McGarrity of the Gilbert & Tobin Public Law Centre had written a piece taking issue with my and former New South Wales Premier Bob Carr’s views. In criticising me McGarrity cites but three pieces of mine, namely one newspaper piece, a radio interview and a talk I gave at Parliament – though in the case of the last of these she appears merely to refer to the title of my talk there (a catchy one, I confess) with only a single passing quote from that talk and no analysis or refutation of the substantive claims in that talk. Meanwhile not a single one of my peer reviewed articles or book chapters is mentioned, cited or discussed.

JEL Classification: k00