Behind every government there is an impressive team of hard-working lawyers. In Australia, the Solicitor-General leads that team. A former Attorney-General once said, 'The Solicitor-General is next to the High Court and God.' And yet the role of government lawyers in Australia, and specifically the Solicitor-General as the most senior of government lawyers, is under-theorised and under-studied. The Role of the Solicitor-General: Negotiating Law, Politics and the Public Interest goes behind the scenes of government – drawing from interviews with over 45 government and judicial officials – to uncover the history, theory and practice of the Australian Solicitor-General. The analysis reveals a role that is of fundamental constitutional importance to ensuring both the legality and the integrity of government action, thus contributing to the achievement of rule-of-law ideals. The Solicitor-General also works to defend government action and prosecute government policies in the court, and thus performs an important role as messenger between the political and judicial branches of government. But the Solicitor-General's position, as both an internal integrity check on government and an external warrior for government, gives rise to competing pressures: between the law, politics and the public interest. The office of the Solicitor-General in Australia has evolved many characteristics across the almost two centuries of its history in an attempt to navigate these tensions. These pressures are not unique to the Australian context. The understanding of the Australian position provided by this book is informed by, and will inform, comparative analysis of the role of government lawyers across the world.

3. Is the constitution to blame.

Australia and World Crisis, 1914-1923 is the second volume in a pioneering two-volume history of Australian defence and foreign policy. It is based on wide-ranging research in collections of personal and official papers in Australia, Britain, the United States and Canada. Linking up with the first volume, The Search for Security in the Pacific, it offers a new and path-breaking understanding of Australia's relations with the world from the outbreak of the First World War to the making of peace in Europe and the Pacific. This study explores a number of fundamental issues that shaped Australia's response to the world in this era, such as race and culture, geopolitics and security, domestic divisions and ideas of loyalty, and the philosophies and personalities of the chief policy makers. From the outset of this global conflict Australia was involved in a 'hot war' in Europe against Germany and its allies, and in a 'cold war' in the Pacific against Japan. The British Australians, for reasons of sentiment and interest, supported the Mother Country, but even as they did so they were deeply concerned about Japan's ambitions. As a result Japan figured prominently in Australia's approach to the war and the peace. Indeed for the Australians the 'cold war' did not come to an end until the Washington Conference of 1921-2, when Japan with the other Pacific powers agreed to limit naval building and to respect existing territories in China and the Pacific. In tracing out this story, the book throws light on many particular aspects of the 'hot' and 'cold' wars. They include the origins of Asian studies in Australia, intelligence gathering, the secret service and loyalty leagues, the fear of Japan in the conscription controversy, Irish Catholics and the Anglo-Irish War. The labour movement and the Bolshevik revolution, the ideological clash of the American President and the Australian Prime Minister over peacemaking, the visit of the Prince of Wales, 'Britishness' and the failure of the idea of Greater Britain all influenced the development of Australia's defence and foreign policy. At the end of the book there is an attempt to provide an assessment of Australia's leadership through these testing times and to point out the significance of this experience for a later generation of Australia policy makers.

Australia and World Crisis, 1914–1923 is the second volume in a pioneering two-volume history of Australian defence and foreign policy. It is based on wide-ranging research in collections of personal and official papers in Australia, Britain, the United States and Canada. Linking up with the first volume, The Search for Security in the Pacific, it offers a new and path-breaking understanding of Australia's relations with the world from the outbreak of the First World War to the making of peace in Europe and the Pacific. This study explores a number of fundamental issues that shaped Australia's response to the world in this era, such as race and culture, geopolitics and security, domestic divisions and ideas of loyalty, and the philosophies and personalities of the chief policy makers. From the outset of this global conflict Australia was involved in a 'hot war' in Europe against Germany and its allies, and in a 'cold war' in the Pacific against Japan. The British Australians, for reasons of sentiment and interest, supported the Mother Country, but even as they did so they were deeply concerned about Japan's ambitions. As a result Japan figured prominently in Australia's approach to the war and the peace. Indeed for the Australians the 'cold war' did not come to an end until the Washington Conference of 1921–2, when Japan with the other Pacific powers agreed to limit naval building and to respect existing territories in China and the Pacific. In tracing out this story, the book throws light on many particular aspects of the 'hot' and 'cold' wars. They include the origins of Asian studies in Australia, intelligence gathering, the secret service and loyalty leagues, the fear of Japan in the conscription controversy, Irish Catholics and the Anglo-Irish War. The labour movement and the Bolshevik revolution, the ideological clash of the American President and the Australian Prime Minister over peacemaking, the visit of the Prince of Wales, 'Britishness' and the failure of the idea of Greater Britain all influenced the development of Australia's defence and foreign policy. At the end of the book there is an attempt to provide an assessment of Australia's leadership through these testing times and to point out the significance of this experience for a later generation of Australia policy makers.

Consisting of selected memorandum opinions advising the President of the United States, the Attorney General, and other executive officers of the Federal Government in relation to their official duties.