About the Author

Julian Burnside, QC, is an Australian barrister who specialises in commercial litigation and is also deeply involved in human rights work, in particular in relation to refugees. He is a past president of Liberty Victoria, and is also passionately involved in the arts- he is the chair of Melbourne arts venue fortyfivedownstairs, and is chair of the Mietta Foundation. He has published a children's book, Matilda and the Dragon, and is also the author of From Nothing to Zero, a compilation of letters written by asylum-seekers held in Australia's detention camps, Wordwatching, a collection of essays on the uses and abuses of the English language, and Watching Brief- reflections on human rights, law, and justice.

Reviews

"Watching Brief astounds with the range of subject matter covered and the brilliant narrative which emerges from that range. Watching Brief incites the compulsion of the thriller in a text which covers autobiography and recent political and legal history against a background of the more distant human rights struggles on which the foundation stones of modern democratic practice and theory are based. And that's not all." -- Stephen Keim Queen's Counsel

"Watching Brief is cool and rational, providing uncomfortable detail in succinct prose. Burnside wants Australians to confront what is done in their name. Detaining asylum-seekers is wrong and illegal, and decent people should demand change. . . . Like Zola in 1898, Burnside accuses his nation's most senior leaders of complicity in injustice, of duplicity in their public statements. He condemns attacks on human rights and consequences for those wrongly and secretly imprisoned. . . . Watching Brief is his argument for a new approach to human rights policy. Julian Burnside has produced a brief that deserves a wide audience and careful judgement." -- Glyn Davis, the Age

"Watching Brief provides a fascinating patchwork of thoughts and responses that gives an insight into the atmosphere and political climate surrounding key human rights issues over the past decade." -- Tilda Hum, Precedent

"It's a fascinating read for anyone who burns with a passion for human decency and an interest in ethics." --Sunday Telegraph

""Watching Brief" astounds with the range of subject matter covered and the brilliant narrative which emerges from that range. "Watching Brief "incites the compulsion of the thriller in a text which covers autobiography and recent political and legal history against a background of the more distant human rights struggles on which the foundation stones of modern democratic practice and theory are based. And that's not all." -- Stephen Keim Queen's Counsel