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Article Excerpt
Watching Brief: Reflections on Human Rights, Law and Justice (Scribe, 2007), by Julian Burnside.
Julian Burnside's latest book is a lucid account of two key issues in Australian law and politics: Australia's abysmal treatment of asylum seekers who arrive by boat and the daunting powers that Australia's security agencies have acquired since 2001.
From these two key concerns the book diverges to explore a number of related themes and anecdotes. In this way Watching Brief is unlike a straight-laced legal brief. The first part of the book contains two pieces about Burnside's secondary and tertiary education, and the final a series of case summaries about the death penalty and miscarriages of justice, mainly from English and American history.
Most of the sections in Watching Brief were originally speeches or articles in newspapers or journals. Two of the strongest chapters, about mandatory detention and David Hicks, first appeared in Arena Magazine, in 2001 and 2007. The case summaries all originally appeared in Victorian Bar News. Six chapters were originally speeches.
At times the work has a whimsical style, as in Burnside's reflections on life at Melbourne Grammar. More often it is impassioned, particularly where he recounts the 'record of Australia's shame' regarding asylum seekers. Holding it all together is the clarity of Burnside's expression. He explains legal concepts accessibly and presents his arguments in...
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