The Tasmania Law Reform Institute is celebrating 25 years with a familiar message: we’re here to support the Tasmanian community.
From a charter of human rights to the more humane questioning of witnesses, same-sex couples’ rights to the current examination of Tasmania’s coronial system, the Institute’s efforts have centred on supporting the community work through its problems together.
Director Professor Jeremy Prichard said it was the Institute’s mission to provide independent advice on the effectiveness of our legal system.
“We focus on our independent and scholarly research and we do that as well as we can,” Professor Prichard said.
“We provide that for the community and the Parliament to consider.
“That's our contribution and the role that we play for the Tasmanian community.”
A celebratory gathering at The Forest – attended by Attorney-General Guy Barnett, Vice-Chancellor Professor Rufus Black, board members and former directors Emeritus Professor Kate Warner and Adjunct Associate Professor Terese Henning – recently marked the 25-year milestone. Adjunct Associate Professor Brendan Gogarty, a former acting director, was unable to attend.
The Institute was formed in 2001, adopting a successful model from Canada that embedded it in the University but also in partnership with the Law Society of Tasmania and the Department of Justice.
It replaced several previous law reform models and was headed by its first director, Professor Warner, who would later serve as Governor of Tasmania.
Professor Warner said pioneering work on a human rights charter for Tasmania, which was updated in 2024, was among the highlights of her time at the Institute, along with the outlet for research it provided to students.
“As an academic, you're so often writing and preaching to the converted,” Professor Warner said.
“You don't always have much impact outside the academic world. But once you engage in law reform, you do.”
The Institute has produced around 80 reports in its quarter of a century. Referrals for projects can come from individuals, organisations and MPs, including the Attorney-General. The Institute’s board decides which referrals will be accepted on the basis of their significance, likelihood of being implemented and available capacity.
Associate Professor Henning said the aim had always been a fairer legal system - and a kinder Tasmania.
“People sometimes underestimate the positive effect that reforms will have for certain parts of the community, but the minimal effect that they will have for the majority of the community,” Associate Professor Henning said.
“They’re not going to impinge on the rights of the majority in any substantial way but somebody else's are going to be elevated in a way that is really meaningful and important to them.
“That is terrific for achieving a more liveable community, a more accepting community, and which makes it a kinder place.”
She said Professor Warner had set the direction from day one.
“Professor Warner played an incomparable role as the first director of the Institute, elevating law reform to levels not seen before in Tasmania and making the Institute part of the molecular makeup of the Tasmanian legal landscape,” Associate Professor Henning said.
Subsequent directors Associate Professors Henning and Gogarty, and Professor Jeremy Prichard, have since cemented its place there.
Professor Prichard said the Institute’s high-quality work was testament to its staff, and in particular Principal Research Fellow Dr Rebecca Bradfield who has written 23 reports in two stints with the organisation.
He said the partnership model, research focus and campus home give the Institute its strength.
“It demonstrates what a lot of other law reform bodies around the world would just love to have, which is the support of the judiciary and the Parliament and the Department of Justice,” he said.
Not every report has changed the law or every recommendation adopted, but the Institute’s influence has travelled far and wide. Their work is regularly referenced in parliaments, public debate and media.
“We always we like to see recommendations acted upon but sometimes it doesn't happen,” Professor Warner said.
“But it's nevertheless a very useful educative exercise – when people read these reports and they're publicised, it can make people think twice.
“It can change attitudes.”
Read more about the Tasmania Law Reform Institute.