John Halden ‘Hal’ Wootten (1922-2021) – lawyer, legal academic and the founder of the UNSW Faculty of Law – made a major contribution to the law and public life in Australia. Wootten’s essays on the causes he felt passionately about, including the rights of First Nations peoples, press degradation, the future of legal education, climate change, the Palestinian tragedy, are as fresh and relevant today as when they were written.

Wootten’s vision of what was important lead to a series of interesting jumps in his career, from barrister to law school dean to Supreme Court judge; from Royal Commissioner into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody to Chairman of the Australian Press Council. At all times he sought to ‘live greatly in the law’ – by his values and for those ‘upon whom the law bears harshly’.

In this edited collection of essays, speeches and unpublished work, David Dixon and Andrew Lynch present Wootten’s contribution to shaping a more just society.