BOOK REVIEWS barrassment led their forces to destroy cricket (Alan Davidson, Richie Benaud everything as they retreated: rations, crops, and Ian Meckiff), Robertson describes his towns and villages; and then a bombing family as ‘a middle-class family in a mid- campaign of total destruction was un- dle-class house in a middle-class suburb, leashed. It continued for over another with a Hills hoist in the backyard and a two years (including for over a year when small car in the carport’. They took the the only outstanding issue at the ongoing Fairfax Morning Herald rather than peace talks was in relation to prisoner repa- Packer’s Telegraph, which was taken by the triation), ‘systematically bomb[ing] town ‘working-class neighbours’ or Murdoch’s by town’ and killing about three million Daily Mirror, which was taken by ‘those mostly non-combatants. It seems likely with no class at all’, including ‘the men in that biological weapons were deployed; our street…who beat their wives’. and atomic strikes were only very narrowly Good Leaving Certificate results, in- avoided. The expressed purpose was to cluding coming second in the state in his- induce ‘a more cooperative attitude at the tory, led to Sydney University, university truce talks’, but a more accurate descrip- tion quoted by Pembroke was a ‘war by tantrum’. And so American defeat in the Korean conflict led to its mistakes being repeated in and, later, Iraq. The These are the rollicking of the American bombing went unpun- ished and America has continued to refuse Rather His Own Man adventures of an exceptional to sign various international treaties. Pres- ident Trump’s suggestion that America no - Reliable Memoirs talent with an unwavering longer wishes to be the world’s policeman By is hardly consistent with its maintenance commitment to human rights of military bases around the world and allied with, one suspects, a its insistence that peace in Korea can Each year, I make a point of warning the only be achieved by a conflict (military new readers on the Bar Course that what- large dollop of good fortune. or diplomatic) between the United States ever intellectual stimulation they may pro- and North Korea. It is clear that peace in vide, their own cases are not interesting. Korea requires, rather than an increasing Anyone who has ever attempted to enter- involvement of the United States, the en- tain a dinner party with tales of equitable couragement of increasing rapprochement estoppel or the second limb in Barnes v between the North and the South (build- Addy should, by now, have realised that to politics (including as SRC president) and ing on measures such as the unified ice be the case, or else lack self-awareness and, friendship with people such as Michael hockey team at the 2018 Winter Olympics most likely, invitations to dinner. Crimi- Kirby, Richard Walsh (the editor of Oz and the leaders’ recent handshake) and a nal barristers often make better dinner magazine), Gareth Evans, John Bannon withdrawal of American forces. companions since their cases are generally (former premier of South Australia), David A treaty between the United States and more factually interesting, but the content Marr and Jim Spigelman. His position as North Korea of whatever type will never is not always well-received or appropriate; editor of the School magazine Black- be sufficient to ensure peace in the Korean and the caricature of the ageing silk with acre included a successful campaign for the peninsula: Korea should never have been his war stories has always been one of the setting up of a new Law and Social Justice divided and it needs to be reunified. worst offenders. course. This is a book that is extremely and con- Geoffrey Robertson is a wonderful His law career began at Allen Allen & sistently easy to read, but with sufficient exception. He has had an extraordinary Hemsley in 1966 and included a telephone well-sourced detail to leave the reader and successful career. Although born in call from John Kerr (then a judge of the better informed on what has become one of Sydney, he made his name in London, Commonwealth Industrial Court) seeking the essential topics of the day. I was at var- arriving only a few years after Germaine his assistance in the defence of his son, ious times astonished, angry, worried and Greer, Clive James, Robert Hughes and who had been arrested at an anti-Vietnam in despair at what Pembroke describes as Barry Humphreys. As such, it would be rally. Kerr then introduced him, at ‘a small ‘the ignorance and intransigence of some easy to dismiss Rather His Own Man – Re- dinner party’, to the then chief justice of men and women’. It was never anything liable Memoirs as the pompous (a word he Australia, Garfield Barwick. Talent and other than enjoyable and thought provok- uses to describe himself) war stories of a the contacts he had made at university ing; and its scope, content and timing is tall poppy ex-pat. propelled Robertson on. such that it should be read by anyone with That, however, would be completely inac- After a bizarre CIA-funded Far-East an interest in the current situation in Korea curate and unfair. These are the rollicking Student Leader Scholarship in California or indeed in America’s ongoing efforts to adventures of an exceptional talent with an (including catching up ‘with an old friend, shape and dictate events across the globe. unwavering commitment to human rights Nick Greiner’), a Rhodes scholarship allied with, one suspects, a large dollop of led him to Oxford and then the Bar. He Reviewed by Anthony Cheshire SC good fortune. Add in a bucket of popcorn became involved in the successful defence and it might even make a good film – I in the Oz obscenity trial and by 1974 suspect Robertson would choose George he was fulfilling his ‘boyhood dream to Clooney, a personal friend, to play him. appear, wigged and gowned, addressing Brought up in Eastwood with a love of a jury beneath the dome on tennis (Lew Hoad and Ken Rosewall) and which stands the iconic golden statue of

The Journal of the NSW Bar Association [2018] (Spring) Bar News 125 BOOK REVIEWS

Lady Justice’. An encounter with a judge Court. There are limits to his membership gella Lawson, were followed by marriage in in court convinced him to abandon his of the establishment: the title to these his 40s to and an introduction Australian ‘nasal vowel sounds’ in order to memoirs derives from the comment of to many famous names from the London be able to say ‘Fuck Art, Let’s Darnce’ (as a permanent secretary that torpedoed a arts scene. In the final paragraph of the printed on an allegedly indecent T-shirt) proposal to appoint him to an important book, he records that in 2017 he and Lette and thus be understood. European judicial position: ‘But…he is… ‘decided to uncouple’ and how he ‘had al- The war stories follow thick and fast: rather his own man, isn’t he?’ ready taken a skinny dip in the fountain of defending Gay’s the Word bookshop on So what has driven Robertson this far youth, falling in love with (and, amazingly, charges of importing indecent literature; and apparently continues to drive him on? being fallen in love by) a much (but not defending the managing director of It is clear that there is a passionate sense of too much) younger professor of law from Matrix Churchill, which had been accused human rights and justice, but where does Eastern Europe’. of smuggling arms to Saddam Hussein, that come from? Although able to trace his That sudden revelation led me back to his which it had in fact done, but at the in- ancestry back to a possible link with Kaiser self-description as pompous and not suffer- stigation of MI6; defending journalists Wilhelm, there does not appear to be any ing fools, traits of which I realised there accused of revealing the government eaves- had been no hint in the book. Although dropping powers of GCHQ; defending titled Reliable Memoirs and no doubt re- Gay News on a charge of blasphemy for liable, they are perhaps missing some of its poem ‘The Love That Dares to Speak the depth of emotional intimate reflection Its Name’; defending Peter Wright in the He is a founder and head of (which generally differentiates a memoir Spycatcher trial; defending the broth- from an autobiography) that might enable el-keeper Cynthia Payne; defending IRA , the reader fully to understand the man. suspects; defending a drug dealer who had That is not to detract from what is a been entrapped by the police; defending which has a philosophy of fabulous and enjoyable read that I would from a libel action brought commitment to the legal aid recommend to lawyer and non-lawyer by Mohamed Al-Fayed in the Cash-for- alike, but I hope someone out there is plan- Questions scandal; defending the Sunday system and a model of half their ning a full and in-depth biography. In the Mirror from a privacy action brought by meantime, this book could perhaps have Princess Diana; defending cases being on full commercial been titled more accurately (albeit perhaps from his exclusion from the United King- less catchily): Professional Reflections and dom; advising the Greek government in rates in order to support the War Stories with Hints of What Makes Me relation to seeking the return of the Elgin Tick. Marbles from London; representing former other half being pro bono. Labour party leader Michael Foot in a libel Reviewed by Anthony Cheshire SC action against Rupert Murdoch personally for a headline that claimed that Foot had been a KGB agent; and acting for Human Rights Watch in upholding the validity of clue there. There is a hint in the structure General Pinochet’s arrest in London. of this book, which begins with the story Robertson’s practice in human rights of his father crash landing his Wirraway took him to courts all round the world and aircraft on the roof of a home in the small included many death row cases, includ- bush town of Chiltern and ends with the ing establishing the important principle death and funeral of each of his parents. that keeping a prisoner on death row for Robertson paints an affectionate portrait a prolonged period was torture, which of his parents, marked and largely defined meant that the death penalty had to be by the war and the depression. His father’s commuted. career in the bank eventually left them There are various pleas for reform, in- well off, but his father would still walk cluding a plea for refugees to be welcomed; miles rather than pay for a taxi for himself a proposal to introduce a Magnitsky law and his mother is described by Robertson so that the overseas assets of tyrants and as being self-effacing and teaching by corrupt officials could be frozen; and a quiet example and giving to others. He suggestion that Barack Obama should be sums up his philosophy as ‘I could never the next head of the Commonwealth, for do anything of which my mother would which he is eligible by virtue of his father disapprove’. having been born in Kenya. We are probably all shaped by our par- Robertson’s career and his proposals for ents, but the mechanism by which we adopt reform might suggest a rebel, but he is also certain characteristics from them and a part of the establishment. He is a founder reject others is seldom clear and is certainly and head of Doughty Street Chambers, not in the case of Robertson. Thus, while which has a philosophy of commitment to his mother had no time for ‘the limelight’, the legal aid system and a model of half Robertson is clearly very comfortable there their cases being on full commercial rates and it would probably be fair to say that he in order to support the other half being craves it and delights in it. pro bono. He was appointed as a Recorder A dazzling array of girlfriends, including (a part-time Judge), a bencher at the Inns Bel Mooney (a journalist then married to of Court and a five year term as an appeal Jonathan Dimbleby), Jeananne Crowley judge at the United Nations War Crimes (an Irish actress), Jennifer Byrne and Ni-

126 [2018] (Spring) Bar News The Journal of the NSW Bar Association