Journey Towards Justice - Student Legal Studies Day - Parliament House
Report by Lynne Gordon, EIE Marketing Co-ordinator
What an amazing event! We had an overwhelming response from Schools eager for their Legal Studies students to hear from those at the top of their field in the Legal and Justice system.
200 students and their teachers were crammed in to the prestigious theatrette at Parliament house, sitting on the floor, down the aisles and up the stairs, eager to hear the pearls of wisdom that will motivate them to a life of working in Law.
The speakers were awe inspiring! Beginning with the Attorney General and Minister for Justice John Hatzistergos MLC, we were given an understanding of his role, and all of the areas where he is involved in the Legal process. What a busy man!
Next came Public Defender Mark Ierace SC, who enlightened all with his fascinating personal stories on legal defence, forensics and the Japanese Legal system. He also practised as an international criminal lawyer and was a Senior Trial Attorney in the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, based in The Hague, in the Netherlands. In that capacity, he led the prosecution team against the Bosnian
Serb General (General Galic) who from 1992 perpetrated the Siege of Sarajevo (the state capital of Bosnia) for two years. Over those two years, General Galic, who commanded approximately 18,000 soldiers, gave orders to his sniper, mortar, artillery and tank units to deliberately target civilians, leading to the deaths of over a thousand civilians, and the serious injury of at least 10,000. He was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment.
We then had an interesting presentation from the Director of the Department of Public Prosecutions for NSW Nicholas Cowdery AM QC BA LLB. He gave students a clear understanding of the role of the Department, stressing the importance of the process of the legal system not something that can be swayed by comments in the media.
The Honourable Greg James QC was formerly a Judge of the New South Wales Supreme Court and Royal Commissioner. He provided remarkable insight into the difficulty that Judges face in terms of applying appropriate sentencing once a person has been charged with a crime. He is also President of the New South Wales Mental Health Review Tribunal where he is charged with enquiring into the care, detention and treatment of all
persons suffering mental disorder who must be detained or treated involuntarily, heading a Tribunal of approximately 100 professional members conducting about 10,500 hearings per year. His compassion when sharing examples of cases of those with mental illness shone through.
Sam Macedone LL.B is an accredited Specialist Criminal Lawyer with over 36 years experience. His talk on the fallibilities of the Legal system, especially when people are charged and sentenced to prison when they are innocent, was particularly thought invoking. His discussion on the increasing reliability on Forensic evidence, and the changes in the methods of police
interrogation was very interesting. His passion for the protection of innocent people, and seeing justice done was inspiring.
Duty Officer David Firth from Newtown LAC gave the audience a Police perspective. His talk on the increase in domestic violence and crime together with the frequency of repeat occurrences was particularly worrying. He reinforced the importance of organisations like Enough is Enough and they work they do to help victims of crime.
Enough is Enough Founder & CEO Ken Marslew then spoke from the perspective of a victim of crime. He formed the organisation following the murder of his son Michael. He shared with the students the importance of restorative justice, where the offenders are confronted by their victims and forced to take ownership of their actions, and how much this assists them in the rehabilitation process. He also challenged the students to make a difference in their
lifetime, to fight for justice and social responsibility.
Our final speaker for the day was Steve Hudson, an ex offender who gave a personal account of his experience in prison. He painted a picture of how terrible the deprivation of freedom really is and how frightening prison life can be. He also praised the work of Enough is Enough, and the need for change in the prison system to enable offenders to experience a rehabilitation process whilst serving time, not an apprenticeship for a life of crime.
The day was extremely well received with comments from students such as informative, awesome speakers, definitely helpful for legal studies, great.
We are very grateful to all the speakers who gave of their valuable time to share their wisdom and help and inspire the next generation of "Legal Eagles".
