Mrs Chester's lost child: inconsolable psychological injury and Evatt J's finest judgement

A joint event by the Selden Society (Australia) with the support of the SCLQ and the Australia Academy of Law.

Gideon Haigh's latest book The brillant  boy recovers HV 'Doc' Evatt as one of our most compelling and dynamic public figures - in law, politics, history and culture, he was the great agitator against the insular complacency of his era.

Central to Haigh’s portrait of Evatt’s remarkable prime is the case of Max Chester, an immigrant child who drowned in 1937. Evatt’s dissenting judgment marks a critical moment in our law and its approach to psychological trauma.

The lecture was chaired by the Hon Justice Peter Applegarth AM, and author Gideon Haigh will speak about Evatt and the judge’s empathy for Mrs Chester’s suffering. Associate Professor Kylie Burns of Griffith Law School followed Gideon Haigh's talk by commenting on the contemporary relevance of Chester’s case to how inconsolable psychological trauma is currently dealt with by our legal system.

View the event online here

Available on podcast here

Links and additional reading

• QLS Proctor Article
• ABC Radio - Late Night Live
• Chester v Waverley Municipal Council (1939) HCA 25; (1939) 62 CLR 1
• Chester v Council of Municipality of Waverley (1938) NSWStRp 51; (1938) 38 SR (NSW) 603