50th Anniversary: The Great Law Week Debate - "The more laws, the less justice" (Cicero)

Mr Sam Whitney, Mr Tim Rankin,
Ms Elizabeth King, the Honourable
Justice Christine Thornton,
Associate Professor Adam McBeth,
the Honourable Professor Nahum Mushin,
Ms Catherine Dunlop, Associate Professor
Paula Gerber, Mr Richard Attiwill QC,
Ms Melinda Scaringi,
Professor Marilyn Pittard.

Our annual Great Law Week Debate was recently held during National Law Week. This year, a team of prominent Monash Law alumni competed against a team of current Monash Law staff on the highly controversial topic “The more laws, the less justice” (Cicero).

The Monash Law alumni team, arguing the affirmative case, consisted of Mr Richard Attiwill QC (BA 1992, LLB(Hons) 1992), a Queen’s Counsel since 2013, followed by Ms Catherine Dunlop (BEc 1993, LLB 1995), a highly regarded Partner at Maddocks and a lifelong member of the Monash Association of Debaters (MAD), and as third speaker, Ms Elizabeth King (LLB 1994), a well renowned barrister and academic.

The successful Monash Law staff team who argued the negative case, consisted of Associate Professor Paula Gerber (LLB 1985, LLM 2003), President at Kaleidoscope Human Rights Foundation and Deputy Director of the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law, followed by the Honourable Professor Nahum Mushin (BJuris 1967, LLB 1971), a retired Family Court Judge, and as third speaker, Associate Professor Adam McBeth (BA 2000, LLB(Hons) 2000, PhD 2007), Deputy Director of the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law and Convenor of the mooting program.

The moderator was Mr Tim Rankin (BA, LLB), current Monash Law student and 2014 Monash Law Students’ Society President. The event was chaired by Professor Marilyn Pittard, Associate Dean, International and Engagement, Monash Law Faculty.

The Monash Law staff team were judged to be the successful team by both the judging panel (the Honourable Justice Christine Thornton of the Family Court of Australia, Ms Melinda Scaringi from the Victoria Law Foundation and Mr Sam Whitney, the President of the Monash Association of Debaters) and the audience vote. The judging panel were swayed by the Monash Law staff team’s use of concrete examples to support their case with reference to family, human rights and refugee laws. However both teams were congratulated on their considered arguments, breadth of discussion and passionate presentations.

Read more and view photos.

For those of you who are also MAD alumni, please find out more about the MAD Alumni Association and membership.