Victoria
University
School of Law
Melbourne, Australia
4 – 7 JULY 2005
The 2006 ALTA conference was hosted by the Victoria Law School
at its historic Queen Street campus in Melbourne from 4th
to 7th July 2006. Whilst being a small campus it
meant some crowding but also meant everything was close together
and led to great camaraderie amongst the over 200 people
attending.
The conference theme of ‘legal knowledge: learning,
communicating and doing’ marked a return to examining the role
of the law school in contemporary legal education.
The conference proper started on the Wednesday morning with our
keynote speaker Professor Bryant Garth, Dean of the School of
Law at South Western University in California and former
Executive Director of the American Bar Foundation. His talk on
the role of lawyers in shaping legal knowledge and legal
systems, set the tone for the conference, and for other keynote
sessions on research, teaching, practicing and publishing in
law.
As is usual the myriad interest group sessions were at the heart
of the conference and provided forums for lively discussion and
debate on countless and diverse legal issues. Special thanks are
due to the Interest Group Convenors for their hard work and also
to those who presented papers.
Our social events started with welcome drinks at the
University’s Flinders Street campus. The next evening was an
informal dinner at the Old Melbourne Gaol with the highlight
being a presentation on Ned Kelly by John Phillips, former
Victorian Chief Justice. Our final dinner looking down on
Melbourne from the 41st floor of the Rialto Building
was a great evening to wound up our social events, even if some
delegates were a little the worse for wear the next morning.
If success is judged by the many complimentary comments made by
delegates then the conference was a great success. However,
smoothly run and successful conferences do not run themselves.
Special thanks must go to the conference organisers, Bron Hewitt
and Danielle Russom from Victoria University and the many staff
and students who helped behind the scenes. Thanks are also due
to our many generous sponsors, the plenary speakers, the
delegates, caterers and even the Melbourne weather which stayed
fine and mild throughout the conference.
The 2007 conference in July is being held at the University of
Western Australia and I wish them every success. I am sure the
conference will be both informative and very enjoyable despite
all the hard work needed to get to that stage!
Vanessa Mitchell
2005-06 ALTA Conference Secretary
