Pauline, The Hon Andrew Bell, the Chief Justice of NSW, gave his Opening of Law Term address on 6 February and made news headlines with his remarks on a number of current issues. Law students at Paul’s in 2025 would do well to reflect on the matters His Honour has raised, particularly for those shortly to embark on their practical legal training. Andrew states that the costs for this graduate diploma, essential to be admitted into law practice in NSW, “may well present a significant barrier to entry to the legal profession”. He has been able to address some of the issues with the College of Law in Sydney and is about to launch an independent survey through the Legal Professional Admission Board.
His address also reaches deep into the issue of racial, religious and ethnic hatred, activities which have recently become the leading items on our nightly news and, quite rightly, widely condemned as a ‘stain on the soul of our city’ (Archbishop Anthony Fisher, 3 February 2025). He has highlighted the spread of antisemitism in Sydney and attacks on innocent people and destruction of property. Andrew commented: “Freedom from fear is a cardinal element of a liberal democracy as is the freedom to practice or indeed not to practice a religion” and “the lessons of history cannot and must not be forgotten”.
The Chief Justice also called on the judicial profession to consider strongly the largely unregulated sources of information through social media platforms and the “Truth Decay”[1] of our society. A new Supreme Court Practice Note has been promulgated to deter the legal profession’s use of Gen AI – another topic that will be of great interest to Paulines as our University opens-up the usage of Gen AI for student work.
Judicial independence is another of Andrew’s themes and he addresses the use of the USA Presidential Pardons as “gravely undermining the rule of law in the United States”.
- To read the full transcript of Andrew Bell’s speech follow this LINK.
- ABC News report CLICK HERE
[1] the diminishing role of facts and analysis in American public life. See: https://www.rand.org/research/projects/truth-decay.html
