On the evening of Thursday, 12 July a group comprising Law School academics, the DVCR (Mike Brooks) and the DVCA (Pascale Quester), several Federal Court judges and legal practitioners in the field of intellectual property, Law Library staff, and interstate visitors here for the Australasian Intellectual Property Conference, met in the Moot Court.
The purpose of the occasion was two-fold. Firstly, to honour Professor Bill Cornish, an alumnus of this Law School, whose research and teaching career as professor at the London School of Economics and at Cambridge University mark him as a leader in the fields of intellectual property, modern English legal history, and restitution. Melissa de Zwart introduced Professor Cornish and highlighted the outstanding elements of his work.
The occasion was also arranged to thank Professor Cornish, now retired, for a very generous gift he made to the Law Library in 2011. Peter Jacobs, Law Librarian, told those present just what this gift represented: equivalent to 70% of the Law Library’s annual book-buying budget. The impact of this generosity is that the Library has been able to purchase major works in several fields, books whose cost would have otherwise been prohibitive, and so to raise the standard of this collection for students and researchers.
Professor Cornish was pleasantly surprised at the significance of his donation, and went on to briefly recall his enjoyment being a law student here, and the very different world it was — with only 20 students in his undergraduate group. The gathering then enjoyed some food and other refreshments, and the chance to meet Professor Cornish and his wife Mrs Lovedy Cornish. Professor Cornish gave the plenary address before the recent Australasian Intellectual Property Conference held in Adelaide.
Law Librarian Peter Jacobs, Professor Bill Cornish and Dr Melissa De Zwart
