Francis Burt Chambers was delighted to host the 4th annual Sir Francis Burt Oration, attended by over 130 guests including Sally O’Connor, daughter of the late Sir Francis, and her husband Peter.
This year’s Oration was delivered by the Chief Justice of Western Australia, the Honourable Justice Peter Quinlan, who gave a thought-provoking presentation on The Rule of Law in a Social Media Age.
His Honour referred to the significance of laws being objective standards, and highlighted the threat presented to the rule of law by emotivism, expressive individualism and radical subjectivity as often manifested through social media.
The Chief Justice went on to observe that “a culture which tacitly assumes that all evaluative judgments are expressions of subjective personal preference or attitude, will have a great deal of difficulty accepting, or even appreciating, that some evaluative judgments are in fact the application of objective laws and not the whims or preference of individual persons”.
The presentation can be viewed here.
The full text of His Honour’s address may be viewed on the Supreme Court of Western Australia website.
