AustLit

'When put to the test, most people have difficulty identifying what justice is, especially when there is tension between proper process and a desired result. Due process is inherent in our conception of justice. But bad process can yield the right result, just as good process can produce the wrong result. The legal system is designed to produce justice. We call it the justice system - sometimes un-selfconsciously, sometimes with bitter irony. It is designed to produce justice according to law. Whether it achieves that goal is not the subject of general agreement.’ 

'In Watching Out, a successor volume to his best-selling Watching Brief, noted barrister and human-rights advocate Julian Burnside explains the origins of our legal system, looks at the way it operates in practice, and points out ways in which does and doesn’t run true to its ultimate purposes. 

'He examines fundamental legal principles, such as the presumption of innocence, explains why good barristers defend bad people, and sets out legal remedies for wrongs done to individuals and groups. 

'The law’s reach is immense, and so is the territory this book covers. Legal aid, class actions, assisted dying, counter-terrorism, unjust verdicts, and the treatment of asylum-seekers are some of the contentious subjects dealt with here. There is also a compelling chapter on the plight of people who are bereft of legal remedies, living on the margins of society, and shocking examples of hate mail that Burnside’s defence of refugees has provoked. 

'Rich with fascinating case studies, and eloquent in its defence of civil society, Watching Out is a beacon of legal liberalism in an intemporate age. '  (Publication summary)

'Pictures in my Heart explores the lives of a group of Afghan refugees who arrived in Australia by boat in 1999 and 2001. They lived and worked in the regional city of Murray Bridge in South Australia on Temporary Protection Visas while awaiting permanent protection. When an important figure in their community committed suicide, they began to participate in a health program that culminated in the artworks, stories and photographs in this book.

'Pictures in my Heart is a deeply personal account of what these men and their families endured, both in Afghanistan and Australia, and how they persevered.' (Publication summary)

'Watching Brief is a collection of essays and meditations on law, justice, human rights, ethics and, ultimately, on what constitutes a decent human society. It is also an impassioned and eloquent appeal for vigilance in an era in which national security trumps democratic principle, where the legal conventions of the new realpolitik owe more to Guantanamo than Geneva, and where respect for law and the principle of respect owed to all human beings are being undermined.

Julian Burnside illuminates many of our current concerns in thoughtful explorations of key historical episodes such as the Guy Fawkes' plot to blow up the British Parliament in 1605 and the Dreyfus case in nineteenth-century France. He also takes us on a fascinating tour of some of the world's most infamous trials, including those of Ned Kelly and Ronald Ryan in Australia, Roger Casement's trial for treason and the notorious Crippen case in Britain, and that of the Scottsboro Boys in the United States.' (From publisher)