EDITOR'S OPINION Jason MacLaurin SC Editor, Brief | Barrister, Francis Burt Chambers
This is a bumper edition of Brief with a special feature celebrating the (COVID delayed) 50th anniversary of the District Court, which was actually commenced on 1 April 1970. While the more formal (and, importantly, social) aspects of celebrating the District Court’s anniversary were deferred for a year, this is an experience shared with many. This includes those who were unfortunate enough to have their scheduled weddings bumped for a year, the only silver lining, from a legal perspective, being the community’s enhanced appreciation of the Australian Consumer Law in the fallout, involving irate brides and grooms on the one hand, and reception centres, caterers, DJs, bakers, and Bucks and Hens Night venues and associated service providers on the other. While deferred weddings are an unfortunate outcome from COVID, many viewers of the recent series of Married at First Sight are no doubt wishing that those particular weddings had been put off until that iconic date of the 25th of Never. The much-appreciated contributors to the District Court’s 50th anniversary celebration provide informative insights into the Court, its importance and service to the community, the personalities involved in it, as well as its handling of present day challenges and future. Brief is privileged to have both Chief Judge Wager’s article on the History of the Court and an interview, which provide valuable insights. We also have Judge Gething and his associte’s article about technology and the Court, and Richard Utting’s reflections from apractitioner’s perspective. It is a quirky fact that the Court’s first day was April Fools’ Day 1970. On the same day, John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s April Fools’ Day joke was to announce they were undergoing mutual/dual sex change operations. Today, this would barely raise an eyebrow, would hardly be recognised as a jest, and, given the nature of celebrities nowadays, probably lead to outpouring of Twitter copycat announcements. Lennon and Ono may well have been early trailblazers of the COVID lockdown and quarantine lifestyle, voluntarily doing much the same thing with their 1969 “Bed-ins for Peace” , though their choice of hotels for their “quarantine” were not exactly spartan, being the Hilton Hotel in Amsterdam and
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Montreal’s Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel. April Fools’ Day does remind us of the importance of humour in all aspects of life and in particular towards leaders and powerful figures. IThe history of the Court Jester is an telling example of a character whose purpose was what is now described as “speaking truth to power”, being to keep check on the egos and hubris of leaders and the elite classes Remarkably, for times in which seditious or irreverent proclamations were often rewarded with a trip to the tower, the stocks, or the executioner, jesters were afforded extraordinary indulgences and protections, and were generally beloved and respected by their rulers. It is also a happy example of an equal opportunity profession, as there are many legendary female jesters – including Astaude du Puy, jester to Charles I of France and his Queen Henrietta Maria and La Jardinière, Jester to Catherine de Médicis (although as to the latter, history does not seem to record much to laugh about in de Médicis reign). The character of Rigoletto, of Verdi’s great opera, is based on the jester Triboulet who served French Kings Louis XII and Francis I of France (to opera lovers, Rigoletto would be familiar as the inspiration for the modern concept of “lock up your daughters”). Triboulet, whose jests were so cutting against the elitist class that he was not infrequently physical abused and threatened, came up with a brilliant and lawyerly-crafty response when he complained to King Francis I about a nobleman’s threat to beat him to death. When the King told him “If he [the nobleman] does, I will hang him a quarter of an hour afterward”, Triboulet replied “Ah, Sir!— “couldn’t you contrive to hang him a quarter of an hour previously?” Jester “Archie” Armstrong (to James VI) went too far in his jibes against influential people and was punished by being discharged from the King’s Court, having “his coat pulled over his head”, which seems an odd punishment, but one that probably foreshadows the modern self same phenomenon engaged in by celebrities emerging from a hotel after an illicit affair, or a criminal defendant leaving Court. Perkeo, jester to Heidelberg’s Elector Palatine Charles III Philip, is a Heidelberg legend honoured by a statue standing over a huge vat in that city, in tribute to what
was an apparently incredible capacity for drinking wine, which, so the story goes, is all he drank, until, in his 80’s, he fell ill and the town doctor made him drink water, whereupon he died the next day. Another great anniversary from this time 51 years ago is Wynns wines, in 1970, perfecting the “bag in a box” and “chateu cardboard” wine cask , that had been previously developed and marketed by Angoves and Penfolds. The Americans had used “Bag-in-a-box” packaging as early as 1955 to transport battery acid, a fact which gives rise to jokes which almost write themselves about cask wine, and which no doubt would have been seized upon immediately by the likes of Perkeo, Archie Armstrong, Triboulet, Astaude du Puy, and La Jardinière. This bumper edition of Brief has a variety of articles to make sure there is something for everyone. The he Law Society’s Tax Committee is a regular contributor to Brief, and we have Jonathon Leek on the Family Trust Distribution Tax. We also have Executive Director Libby Fulham’s important item on the Legal Practice Board’s online CPD management system, Justice Melissa Perry on Issues of Legality and Best Practice, and UWA lecturers Tamara Tulich, Ben Reilly and Sarah Murray’s informative articles on The National Cabinet. We also have a number of reports upon social events, so please be sure look at the social pages to find your photo! Endnotes 1
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It is difficult to ascertain how many fell for the hoax, though it might be accepted that, given the angst at the time about Ono’s apparent potential for disrupting the band, that it was believed by irate hard core Beatles fans, and perhaps also by Paul, John and Ringo. And is fair to say that many in the legal profession entered into lock down or quarantine looking like Paul and Linda McCartney and ended up looking like John and Yoko. It is unclear whether things are going to get better for de Médicis’ reputation given that last week it was been announced that Samantha Morton, who played the villainous Alpha on “The Walking Dead” will star as the “nefarious” Catherine de Medici in the series “The Serpent Queen”. The History of the Court Jester by Magda Romanska 24/3/2014 Boston Lyric Opera, blog.blo.org Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). “Armstrong, Archibald”. Encyclopædia Britannica. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. Perkeo Perkeo of Heidelberg: The dwarf-jester who was in charge of the largest wine barrel in the world, Jan 2, 2017 Marija Georgievska 2/1/2017 thevintagenews.com https://australianfoodtimeline.com.au/tag/1970s. Older readers will fondly remember Orlando’s Coolabah wine cask, launched in 1973, which became famous with the advertising campaign “Where do you hide your Coolabah?”
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