Selden Society Australian Chapter
cordially invites you to
Associate Professor Warren Swain
on Lord Mansfield
Thursday 11 June 2015
5.15pm for 5.30pm
Banco Court, Level 3, Queen Elizabeth II Courts of Law
415 George Street Brisbane
RSVP by 4 June 2015 [email protected]
Please join us for drinks after the lecture on the Banco Court terrace
William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield
by Jean Baptiste van Loo
Oil on canvas, circa 1737
749 mm x 622 mm
Given by Society of Judges and Serjeants-at-Law, 1877
National Portrait Gallery (NPG 474)
Lord Mansfield
11 June—5.15pm for 5.30pm
Lord Mansfield (William Murray)
(1705–1793) was instrumental in the
development of English commercial law.
Image frame is a graphic element only and does not depict the actual work as framed.
He was educated at Christ
Church, Oxford (1727), then
practised at the Bar for 26 years
(1730–1756). Like Sir Edward
Coke, he held the offices of
Solicitor-General (1742–1754)
and Attorney-General
(1754–1756).
ordering a slave who had been recaptured
in England to be set free.
Lord Mansfield’s reputation for
“characteristic aloofness from
personal or popular prejudices”
was tested in 1780, after his town
house in Bloomsbury Square was
set alight in the Gordon Riots
and he was required to preside at
the trial of the instigator (Lord
Gordon). Gordon was acquitted.
Associate Professor Warren Swain is an Associate
Lord Mansfield served as the
Warren Swain
Chief Justice of the Court
Professor of Law in the TC Beirne
on Lord Mansfield
of King’s Bench for 32 years
School of Law, The University of
(1756–1788). During this key
Queensland. He was previously
period of England’s ascent as a mercantile
a Stipendiary Lecturer in Law at Hertford
power, his judgments were instrumental
College and Oxford University Law Faculty,
in developing the common law to meet
Lecturer in Law at the University of
the growing needs of commercial practice.
Birmingham and Lecturer in Law at Durham
In particular, his judgments shaped the
University. He is Professor elect at the Faculty
law in relation to bills of exchange, marine
of Law, The University of Auckland, New
insurance and intellectual property — and
Zealand. In 2014, he was Academic-inhe drew upon equitable concepts to create
Residence at the Supreme Court Library
the groundwork for the later development of
Queensland. His research is concerned with
doctrines of estoppel and restitution.
the history of private law and intellectual
More famously, in dealing with
Somersett’s case (1772), Lord Mansfield
was required to consider the position
of slavery under the common law —
history in so far as it relates to law. He is also
interested in legal biography. He recently
published The Law of Contract 1670–1870
(Cambridge University Press, 2015).
RSVP by 4 June 2015 [email protected]
Please join us for drinks after the lecture on the Banco Court terrace
For enquiries call 07 3247 5434
Selden Society