We Are What We Write

Abstract

Ever since I published my first legal article in 1969 – of all places, in the Jaipur Law Journal, published by the University of Rajasthan – I have spent my professional life writing. The writing seems to have been passable enough: my first book won a prize; my second book says on the back cover that I am ‘a master of English prose’ (though I may have written that myself); and my most recent book – as I proprietorially and presumptuously call the multi-authored Oxford Companion to the High Court of Australia – received widespread acclaim for its hidden treasures and subtle pleasures. Yet I have never before been publicly introspective about it. This is the first time I have been asked to share my thoughts on the art of legal writing.