England's Obedient Servant? The History of Australian Tort Law 1901-1945

The aim of the project is to evaluate the traditional view that Australian law simply mirrored English law in the period between federation and the Second World War. The significance of the project is that, through an analysis of both court decisions and reasoning, and wider historical context, our understanding of the nature of legal development in Australia will be enhanced. The outcomes of the research will include a more complex and nuanced view of English law in Australian courts, a better understanding of how and to what extent the Australian context was reflected in Australian judicial decisions, and the creation of a model that can be used to map the history of other areas of private law in Australia.