Selden Society lecture series Australia

Join a variety of judicial officers, legal professionals and academics for this informative and provocative series of legal history lectures. Each episode presents a single story uncovering a unique aspect of our common law past. This might be literature or language, a fascinating event or item, a significant person, or the development of a legal idea. These lectures are recorded in the Banco Court, Brisbane, and are now available to the world.

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Selden Society lecture series Australia

Lord Denning

May 12, 2023 • Supreme Court Library Queensland • Season 3 • Episode 32

Many consider Lord Denning (1899–1999) to be the most important English judge of the 20th century. His witty and trenchant judgments are read by law students and cited by legal texts and lawyers in the United Kingdom as well as Australia, Canada and beyond. The Honourable James Douglas uses this lecture to examine Lord Denning’s life and judicial philosophy, as well as Denning’s willingness to reconsider precedent and reform legal principles.

About the speaker
The Honourable James Douglas QC was educated at The University of Queensland, graduating Bachelor of Arts (1971) and Bachelor of Laws (1973) and awarded the Comparative Law Prize in that year. He served as an associate to his father, the Honourable James Archibald Douglas (1972), and to Sir Harry Gibbs on the High Court of Australia (1973–74). He was admitted to the Bar in 1973 and undertook study at Emmanuel College Cambridge, graduating Bachelor of Laws (1976) and Diploma in Legal Studies (1979). He was appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court of Queensland in 2003 and retired in 2020.

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