At 6:30pm on Thursday 22 November 2018, in the TRiSS Seminar Room (on the 6th floor of the Arts Block (map and directions)) in Trinity College Dublin, the Honourable Russell Brown, Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, will deliver a keynote lecture on the topic of Indeterminacy in the Duty of Care Analysis to launch the Palles Society for Private Law. The event will be chaired by His Excellency Kevin Vickers, Ambassador of Canada to Ireland. Admission is free, but booking (via Eventbrite) is essential.
The Society understands private law in very broad terms, and Christopher Palles was its unrivalled master. Chief Justice Keane has written that “his reputation as a judge has always been remarkably high” and Professor VTH Delany described him as “the greatest of the Irish judges”. Palles was the last Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer in Ireland from 1874 until 1916; and his judgments are still cited today all over the common law world. In Rhodes v OPO [2015] UKSC 32 (20 May 2015) [62] Lady Hale and Lord Toulson described him as “eminent”. In R v Trade Practices Tribunal, ex parte Tasmanian Breweries Pty Ltd [1970] HCA 8 (24 March 1970) [6] Kitto J said that Palles CB had been “repeatedly cited … and … relied upon” in the High Court of Australia. And, as recently as 2014, in R v Hutchinson [2014] 1 SCR 346, 2014 SCC 19 (CanLII) (03 July 2014) McLachlin CJ and Cromwell J for the Supreme Court of Canada followed a judgment of Palles CB from 1884. Finally, in Murtagh v Minister for Defence [2018] IESC 37 (31 July 2018) [36] Peart J (sitting as a judge of the Supreme Court) commented
There is perhaps still much to be said in favour of Palles CB who is attributed as saying that “a judge should keep his mouth shut and his mind open: when he opens his mouth he shuts his mind” …
Justice Russell Brown is a puisne justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. He received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of British Columbia in 1987 and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Victoria in 1994. He also received a Master of Laws in 2003 and a Doctor of Juridical Science in 2006, both from the University of Toronto. From 2004 to 2013, he was a Professor of Law at the University of Alberta. He was admitted to the Bar of British Columbia in 1995 and to the Bar of Alberta in 2008. He became a judge of the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta in 2013; he was elevated to the Court of Appeal of Alberta in 2014; and he was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada in 2015. He is the author of Pure Economic Loss in Canadian Negligence Law (LexisNexis Canada, 2011), as well as articles, chapters and essays on tort law, property law and civil justice.
Kevin Vickers (pictured left) was appointed as the Ambassador of Canada to Ireland in January 2015. He previously served as the Sergeant-at-Arms of the House of Commons. He is the recipient of the Queen’s Jubilee Medal, the Canada 125 Medal, and the RCMP Long Service Medal.
Justice Brown’s lecture is presented by the Palles Society for Private Law in association with the Private Law Research Group in the School of Law, Trinity College Dublin, which facilitates scholarly research, academic collaboration, and extensive public engagement, on all areas of private law, nationally and internationally. It is supported by the Events Fund of the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (FAHSS), Trinity College Dublin.
Justice Brown’s lecture is kindly sponsored by the Ireland Canada Business Association.
1.5 CPD points will be available for this event.
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