APPOINTMENTS TO STAND

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23477, 4 November 1941, Page 8

APPOINTMENTS TO STAND

♦ Sydney Law School

Posts

POSITION OF N.Z. PROFESSORS

(Received November 4, 1.30 a.m.) SYDNEY, November 3.

The appointments of Professor Julius Stone, Professor of Law at Auckland University College, and Professor James Williams, Professor of English Law at Victoria University College, tp posts in the Sydney Law School, were approved by the Sydney University Senate last evening. The senate thus reversed a recent decision to rescind its motion appointing the two New Zealand professors, which has caused heated controversy among lawyers and members of Parliament and within the university.

The reappointment of the professors has now nearly led to the resignation of the University Professorial Board, which would be tantamount to an

expression of no-confidonce in the Chancellor (Sir Percival Halse Rogers), and consequently have grave effects upon the administration of the university. The Professorial Board, who recommended the New Zealand professors, claimed that a high question of principle was involved as to where the final authority for university appointments lay. It is understood that the claims of the two men were regarded as outstanding, irrespective of personal interviews.

The appointment of Professor Stone was to the Chair of Jurisprudence, and of Professor Williams as Dean of the Faculty of Law. Among the principal supporters of the motion to revoke tbo appointments was Sir Percival Halse Rogers, It was urged that in fairness to the claims of men absent from Australia, particularly those on active service. the appointments should be deferred. A feature of the controversy was the attack on the senate by Mr Abram Landa. Labour member for Bondi. He accused the senate of Nazi and Fascist tactics in seeking to preyentMhe appointment of a Jew. Professor. Stone, to one of (he vacancies. Professor Stone, who is Dean of tne Faculty of Law at Auckland University College, is 34 years of age. He was educated at the City of Leeds School, Qxford University, and Harvard University. He was assistant lecturer in law at. University College, Hull, in 1930, a Rockefeller Fellow m 1930-31, assistant professor of the famous Harvard Law School from 1933 to 293 C, and professor of international law at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy for the same period. From 1936 to 1939 he was lecturer in law at Leeds University. He holds the following degrees: 8.A., 8.C.L.. D.C.L. (Oxon), S. J. D, (Harvard), and LL.M. (Leeds). Professor Williams, who has been Dean of the Faculty of Law at Victoria University College since 1934, was educated at Auckland Grammar School and obtained his LL.M. degree at Auckland University College in 1928. He was awarded a travelling scholarship in law and studied at Clare College, Cambridge; where he gained the degree of Ph.D.