John Bray CLE - Facts without trial: fact-finding in appellate courts
- Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2025, 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm
- Location: Courtroom 8, Sir Samuel Way Building (and online)
- Cost: $35 / $25 student/conc.
- More information:
- Contact: Belinda MacQueen +61 8 8313 5800
- Email: alumni@adelaide.edu.au
We hope you can join us for Facts Without Trial: Fact-Finding in Appellate Courts with speakers Dr Anne Carter, Dr Joe McIntyre and Dr Anna Olijnyk ²¹²Ô»åÌý°ä³ó²¹¾±°ù Damian O'Leary SC.
Adversarial fact-finding is the foundation upon which judicial decisions are built. However, appellate courts are sometimes forced to make assessments of fact in circumstances where there has not been a trial – ‘facts without trial’. Part of the challenge of these ‘facts without trial’ is that in these cases, appellate courts are often confronted by matters beyond the immediate interests and knowledge of the parties, involving broader social facts and extended implications.
This session explores the interplay between theory, process and institutions that informs the ways in which appellate courts make findings of fact. It follows a workshop on this topic in November 2024, which brought together leading judges, practitioners and academics to reflect upon these issues.
Speakers
is a Senior Lecturer at Adelaide Law School, University of Adelaide. She teaches and researches in the field of public law. Her research focuses on the role of courts in relation to the other branches of government: a topic that encompasses elements of constitutional law, administrative law and procedure. She is Director of the Public Law and Policy Research Unit and Convenor of the SA Chapter of the Australian Association of Constitutional Law.
is a Senior Lecturer at Adelaide Law School. She completed her undergraduate studies at 91×ÔÅÄ, the BCL and MPhil at the University of Oxford and a PhD at University of Melbourne. Her PhD research investigated the role of facts in proportionality reasoning in constitutional law, and was subsequently published. She has also recently published an edited collection (with Joe Tomlinson, York University) on Facts in Public Law Adjudication. Anne has research interests in public law, evidence law and comparative law, and has published both in Australia and internationally. Prior to becoming an academic Anne worked as a practising lawyer and judge’s associate.
 is an Associate Professor at the University of South Australia, who specialises in judicial theory and legal institutions. He has previously taught in Canada and the UK, and worked for the SA Crown-Solicitor’s Office before entering academia. His book ‘The Judicial Function’ was published in 2019 and built upon his PhD dissertation undertaken at the University of Cambridge. His work spans a range of disciplinary boundaries, including constitutional and administrative law, legal theory, civil justice and socio-legal studies. His recent works has looked at diverse topics such as judicial independence, judicial discipline and justice technology, and most relevantly on the impacts of legal illiteracy on the administration of justice. He is co-editor of ‘Sovereign Citizens and Pseudolaw’ published in February 2025.
Chair
practices in all areas of public and general commercial law and has specific expertise in administrative, constitutional, electoral, migration, native title and discrimination law. Prior to joining the independent bar in 2016, Damian was counsel in the crown counsel section of the Crown Solicitor’s Office (SA) and prior to that worked at the Australian Government Solicitor in Canberra and the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department. Between 2009 and 2011, Damian was Counsel Assisting the then Commonwealth Solicitor-General, Stephen Gageler SC. He appears regularly in both Federal and State jurisdiction.