Sydney Law School
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Sydney Law School |
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| Established | 1855 |
| Type | Public |
| Dean | Professor Ron McCallum |
| Staff | 172 |
| Students | 3200 |
| Location | Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
| Campus | Urban |
| Affiliations | University of Sydney |
| Website | www.law.usyd.edu.au |
Sydney Law School comprises the University of Sydney's Faculty of Law. It is housed in the Phillip Street Campus of the University, also known as University Chambers. It was the first Law School to be established in Australia. The law school places special emphasis on international and comparative law, maintains a strong profile in taxation, corporate and criminal law, and delivers programs in specialist areas such as environmental and health law.
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[edit] Campus
The Law School is bounded by Elizabeth Street, King Street, and Phillip Street. It is in the heart of Sydney's legal and business districts. It faces the Supreme Court of New South Wales. The building consists of 13 dedicated levels, three of which are underground. Levels one and two house "Harvard-style" lecture theatres. Level three houses a car park and other amenities. Level four is the ground entrance level, and houses the assembly hall, a foyer, and some offices. Level five houses University of Sydney Union premises, including the office of the Sydney University Law Society (SULS). Levels seven to ten house the Sydney University Law Library. Level 12 is the Law School's Information Desk. The building was constructed in 1969 in the brutalist architectural style. Busts of classical orators and jurists adorn the Phillip Street entrance, while the University of Sydney crest is found on the Elizabeth Street and Phillip Street entrance. The Law School is located near St James railway station and is serviced by a bus stop outside its entrance on Elizabeth Street.
[edit] Move to main campus
The Sydney Law School has changed locations several times in the past, but has always remained in the centre of the city because of the tradition of teaching by practitioners, and for easy access to the courts and members of the profession. However, the University of Sydney asserts that with changes in the mode of teaching, the advantages of being integrated into the University's main campus has been deemed by them to outweigh the convenience of a central location.[citation needed] As a result, a new law school is under construction at the main Camperdown campus, adjacent to Fisher Library and on the site of the former Edgeworth David building. The projected completion date of the new building is the start of 2009. Initial plans to sell the Law School were not realised, when it was discovered that a New South Wales law (University of Sydney (Law School Site) Act 1967) reserved the site for the teaching of law.
[edit] Law Links
Internally, Sydney Law School encompasses many of the state's legal fraternities, centres, and legal research institutes, and jointly hosts the Australian Centre for Environmental Law (ACEL), the Centre for Asian and Pacific Law in the University of Sydney (CAPLUS), the Centre for Health Governance, Law and Ethics, the Institute of Criminology (University of Sydney), the Julius Stone Institute of Jurisprudence, the Ross Parsons Centre of Commercial, Corporate and Taxation Law, and the Sydney Centre for International and Global Law (SCIGL) as well as the Australian Network for Japanese Law (ANJeL).
Externally, Sydney Law School has partner programs with many of the world's leading law schools, and as of 2007, is the only law school in Australia as well as in the southern hemisphere, to have a law exchange programme with Harvard Law School, as well as several other notable Ivy League and Russell Group law schools including: NYU Law School, Cornell Law School, the University of Glasgow and the University of Bristol.
[edit] Alumni
Sydney Law School has produced a diverse and prominent group of alumni. Although it has produced relatively few prime ministers (at a total of four), it has dominated the High Court (24 judges out of a total of 41). Almost all justices of the Supreme Court of New South Wales have graduated from Sydney Law School. The following is a list of prominent graduates:
[edit] High Court of Australia
- Chief Justices of the High Court of Australia (in chronological order):
- Sir Samuel Griffith
- Sir Garfield Barwick
- Sir Anthony Mason
- Murray Gleeson
- Other Justices of the High Court (in chronological order):
- Sir Edmund Barton
- Richard O'Connor
- Albert Piddington
- Sir George Rich
- Dr H. V. Evatt
- Sir Edward McTiernan
- Sir Dudley Williams
- Sir Frank Kitto
- Sir Alan Taylor
- Sir Victor Windeyer
- Sir Cyril Walsh
- Sir Kenneth Jacobs
- Lionel Murphy
- Sir William Deane
- Mary Gaudron
- Michael Kirby
- William Gummow
- Dyson Heydon
- Susan Crennan
[edit] Other legal professions
- Marie Beuzeville Byles - First woman to practice as a lawyer.
- Geoffrey Robertson - lawyer and author.
- Kim Santow - Justice of the New South Wales Supreme Court; Chancellor of the University of Sydney
- Jim Spigelman - Present Chief Justice of the New South Wales Supreme Court.
- Julius Stone - late leading legal theorist.
- Lucy Turnbull - lawyer; former Lord Mayor of Sydney.
[edit] Politics
- President of the United Nations General Assembly (1948-1949), Dr H.V. Evatt
- Governors-General of Australia - Sir John Kerr, Sir William Deane
- Prime Ministers of Australia (in chronological order):
- Premier of New South Wales:
- Thomas Rainsford Bavin
- Neville Wran
- During the Australian constitutional crisis of 1975, the leaders of all branches of the Australian government were Sydney Law School alumni:
- Sir John Kerr, Governor General (1974-1977)
- Sir Garfield Barwick, Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia (1964-1981)
- Gough Whitlam Prime Minister (1972-1975)
- In 1999 to 2001, again the leaders of all branches of the Australian government were Sydney Law School alumni:
- Sir William Deane, Governor General (retired 2001)
- Murray Gleeson, Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia
- John Howard, Prime Minister
[edit] Academic
- Rhodes scholars (in chronological order):
- Vincent John Flynn 1927
- David Hargraves Hodgson 1962
- Geoffrey Robertson 1970
- Malcolm Turnbull 1978
- Tony Abbott 1981
- Gordon Edward Christopher Fell 1987
- Jenifer Gae Klugman 1988
- Andrew Scott Bell 1990
- Angus James Taylor 1991
- Scott Michael Nixon 1992
- Peter Raymond Barnett 1995
- Evan Denis Fountain 1996
- Michael Anthony Izzo 2000
- Gregory Owen-Joseph O'Mahoney 2002
- Alexander Cameron 2004
- Jonathan Bonnitcha 2005
- Kate Brennan 2006
