Critical decision, 1982: Remembering Koowarta v Bjelke-Petersen

Abstract

This article introduces the writings of jurists, lawyers, scholars and activists who were invited to review and remember the 1982 High Court decision Koowarta v Bjelke-Petersen (‘Koowarta’). The judgment is important doctrinally and is often cited on the legal record. What is less familiar is how Koowarta is also a public trial, an event of law that carries many different accounts of how jurisprudence is experienced in the life of a community. This introduction situates Koowarta as a public trial, and examines the ways in which the articles in this special issue of Griffith Law Review contribute to this account of jurisprudence. In doing so, it argues that there is necessity and purpose in m..