Intellectual Militant Stood Against All Injustice

The Age

Saturday December 9, 2006

HARRY GLASBEEK - Harry Glasbeek is professor emeritus and senior scholar, Osgoode Hall Law School, Toronto, and visiting professorial fellow, Victoria University

JULIAN PHILLIPS,

LAWYER, ANTI-DISCRIMINATION ACTIVIST,

23-4-1926 - 11-11-2006

IN 1969 or 1970, a group of academics on a flight to Wellington to attend a law teachers' conference was confronted by boxes to be ticked off on a landing form. "Race?" it inquired. Julian Phillips wrote: "Human."

Phillips was my teacher and a lawyer who expected law to live up to its ideals.

The law teachers on that flight thought they were modern, with-it people. We were sanguine that we were not racists. We were sure that we were "cool". We had dressed down, confident that we did not need the trappings of formal clothing to convince anyone of our gravitas. Phillips, as was always to be the case, was dressed in a custom-made suit, a white, subtly checked shirt decorated by a conservative tie. He was the epitome of legal respectability. But, when the time came to challenge authority, to defend a basic principle, it was he, not us wannabe progressives, who stood up. Phillips then, and always, spoke truth to power.

Like all of us, he was, in part, a product of his family and material circumstances. Like all of us, he had agency and he could choose between the various paths those circumstances made available. He rejected the easy choices and this is what made him the remarkable man he was.

Born in Johannesburg into a family that was comfortably off, he was a white boy in a society where that always counted for far too much. He attended an elite public school and then did a commerce-law degree at the University of Witwatersrand. By 1949, he was on his way, reading for the bar at London's Inner Temple, at the time headed by Gerald Gardiner, who became Lord Chancellor of England.

Phillips worked with Gardiner and, as was to be the case whenever he worked with people, became his trusted colleague and close friend.

When he returned to South Africa, his innate sense of fairness caused him to challenge the status quo that privileged him. As a lawyer who believed in the liberal rule of law, he was angered by South Africa's political and legal treatment of blacks and coloureds. He loved the traditions of law - indeed, traditions of any kind that reflected style and gentility, such as cricket - and stringently adhered to its established methodologies and procedures.

His legally conventional approach gave enhanced legitimacy to his radical efforts to get racial justice in white men's courts. He was effective because of his credibility as a fine professional.

He was briefed by the firm of Mandela and Tambo, and the extraordinary contributions he made were appreciated. When, after his triumphal release, Mandela came to Australia, Phillips was the one person he insisted on visiting.

Sharpeville convinced Phillips and his wife, Norma, that rational legal processes were not arresting the descent into evil. He considered settling in Canada - he had formed close relations with Canada's Prime Minister John Diefenbaker when he was delegated by a major opposition party to persuade him to vote to let South Africa remain part of the Commonwealth - but decided on Australia. He had also formed a friendship with Zelman Cowen, who went on to be Governor-General.

At Melbourne University law school, he was soon appointed sub-dean and was a remarkable teacher, insisting on the technical exactitude that had adorned his practice, and on the need to use law in a socially enlightened manner. He was always morally and materially helpful to students in need. Frequently, he did pro bono legal work for students in trouble with the law. He was a dynamo of innovative thought.

Phillips' academic post did not lead to traditional scholarship as much as it helped him find new opportunities to hone his intellectual militancy. He found new ways to advance the cause of equality, and he concentrated on gender equity and on equitable employment conditions. He brought ideas and ideals from his newly acquired knowledge of Scandinavian developments; he used study leaves to learn Swedish to ensure that nothing was lost in translation.

His knowledge and commitment to justice was prized by the political and legal elites. The federal ALP appointed him chairman of the Victorian Committee on Discrimination in Employment, and he also made the foundation chairman of the Victorian Government's Equal Opportunity Council.

With judges, he worked on law reform committees to overcome anti-gay practices and to modernise the law on competence and compellability of witnesses. Rupert Hamer took his advice on the need to curtail the cross-examination of rape victims. He harnessed his intellect and drive to motivate politicians and policymakers of all stripes who shared his belief that dignity and respect should be accorded to all.

Phillips, who was a lawyer's lawyer, a mensch, has died of renal failure in a hospice in Kew. He is survived by his children, David, Fiona and Lisa.

© 2006 The Age

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