Chief Justice Spigelman AC to present St Thomas More Society lecture
Thu Nov 09 2006'Lions in Conflict: Bacon, Coke and Ellesmere, the Years of Elizabeth'
Date: Tuesday, 14 November 2006? Time: 5.30 pm Place: Banco Court, Level 13, Law Courts Building, Queens Square, Sydney Cost: Free
Between 1999 and 2003 the chief justice delivered a series of lectures for the St Thomas More Society, subsequently published under the title 'Becket and Henry â The Becket Lectures'. The chief justice is to give a further series of lectures on the interconnecting careers of, and rivalry between, Francis Bacon, Edward Coke and Lord Ellesmere from the last decade of the reign of Elizabeth I and through the reign of James. The lectures will consider the dramatic events in which they were engaged: the persecution of the Jesuits, the Essex rebellion, the Gunpowder Plot, a range of state trials, the sacking of Coke and the impeachment of Bacon. The themes will encompass religious conflict, judicial independence, the nature of treason, the use of torture, the power of the monarchy, the developing role of parliament and judicial activism versus fidelity to the law. The first lecture will concentrate on the late Elizabethan period until the accession of James.