A Matter of Records: The Federal Court, The National Archives and 'The National Estate' in the 1970s

Abstract

Australian scholars of law and history have duties to the places and institutions in which we practice our activities, to show adequately the conduct of the encounters between laws, and the histories of lives that have experienced those laws. This includes being conscious of the diverse range of records and sources that are needed to tell these law stories (the institutional to the unofficial; film to interview; diary to case law; legislation to memoir). It also means being conscious of the diversity of styles and genres of writing (reports, chronicle and fragments as much as articles, reviews and scholarly monographs) that are required to shape those records into narrations and dissertation..