Nineteen Eighty Three: A Jurisographic Report on Commonwealth v Tasmania

Abstract

The question we ask in this essay is quite direct: did the Tasmanian Dams case change the conduct of jurisprudence in Australia? To reflect on that question, we stand to the side of the review of the events of 1983 as constitutional decision, and present the jurisprudence of Dams and 1983 in terms of the incidents of legal thinking in the conduct of the office of the jurisprudent. Writing as jurisographers, we reflect historically on the conduct of office of the jurist and jurisprudent, and the writing of jurisprudence. Our account here provides a brief chronicle and record of the patchwork of law projects and engagements that pattern the events of Dams into the scholarly work of jurists in Australian universities.

Keywords: Jurisography, jurisprudence, Commonwealth v Tasmania, history, law journal