On behalf of the TC Beirne School of Law and its staff, I welcome you to our website. The TC Beirne School of Law is the oldest and most prestigious law school in Queensland. It is also one of Australia’s leading research-intensive law schools. While we are proud of our traditions, our sights are very firmly set on the future. We see ourselves as a law school whose mission, focus, and culture are distinguished by four features.
First, as educators we offer our students high quality, professionally attuned degree programmes that educate them in and about the law. The learning experience we offer is distinguished by its rigour, depth, and conceptual sophistication, and by an emphasis on the development in students of skills in analytical reasoning that will enable them to continue their educational journey long after they have left us.
Secondly, the TC Beirne School of Law is distinguished by a commitment to “discovery” – to the generation of new ideas and perspectives by undertaking leading edge research. Our mission, however, is to go beyond the mere pursuit of discovery. Our mission requires us not just to work away in our ivory towers – in our case that should perhaps be sandstone towers – but to communicate our discoveries within the various communities within which we operate – the academic, the professional and the society as a whole.
Thirdly, therefore, we seek to engage with the legal profession and the wider community for the betterment of society. We do this through our teaching and our research. By educating students in the law and by instilling in our students a strong sense of social responsibility, we contribute to a better and more equitable system of justice for all. And by undertaking research that makes a significant and positive contribution to the body of knowledge, and by communicating that knowledge through our teaching, and to the legal profession and wider community, we nurture and improve the shining jewel in the intellectual inheritance of civilisation that is the law.
Finally, the TC Beirne School of Law is distinguished by its staff. It almost goes without saying that the staff are leaders in their respective fields. What truly distinguishes the TC Beirne School of Law is that we – the staff of the Law School – are here because we are passionate about the law and legal education.
As you browse this website, you will see these distinguishing features manifested in everything that we do – in the profiles of staff, in the descriptions our degree programmes, in our engagement activities, and in our research activities. We welcome you.
Professor Ross Grantham
Head of School and Dean of Law