On Nov 8, 2017, the IBA, est. 1947, held its 2017 Annual Conference in Sydney, Australia. The Honourable George Brandis QC attended the conference and delivered a key-note speech.

Brandis pointed out that the global order faces ominous challenges which threaten its stability and imperil the institutions of nation states.  Brandis added that it is the obligation of lawyers to ensure that these challenges do not compromise the very rule of law which we seek to defend.

“Upholding the rule of law may involve words of controversy, it may extend up to the powerful, or to those thinking above the law, the marginalised or the despised. Lawyers who do so, serve the finest traditions of our profession,” he said.

Brandis’s speech was preceded by Chief Justice of Australia Susan Kiefel AC, who addressed the importance of the independence of lawyers, outlining that those practicing it must be able to exercise independent judgement and have the ability to act free from external pressures.

That followed an initial address by IBA President Martin Šolc, referring to an ancient Chinese curse. Šolc said that although we may not fully realise it, we are living through very difficult times. “We are experiencing the erosion of certain values we have long taken for granted – primarily core values related to the rule of law,” he said.

[Introduction to Brandis]

The Honourable George Brandis QC has been Australia's Attorney General since 2013. A fixture of the Abbott and Howard administrations, and now active under Malcolm Turnbull, Brandis acts as a member of the Senate for Queensland, is vice-president of the executive council and leader of the government in the Senate.

After prodigious spells at the at the University of Queensland and the University of Oxford, Brandis took a position at one of Australia’s largest private practice law firms before taking the bar in Brisbane in 1985, where he played an instrumental part in several successful cases.

First entering politics in 2000, and after a short spell as Minister for the Arts and Sport in 2007, his ministerial career gained credence in 2013 when he was named Minister of the Arts by Tony Abbott.