Given the shift in the balance of alliances in the “Pacific Century”, a shift in mindset is needed to better reflect the world in which lawyers are practising, said one partner.
All legal issues, Dentons partner Donald Robertson said, are global in nature.
The world is full of global value chains, and Australia is “deeply intertwined” in both a legal and geopolitical sense, he submitted. As such, he posited, “we need to look beyond the traditional sources of law (we must see the English legal system as only one of many that guide our thinking)”.
“We have to work out how global issues are challenging us. That means we need to be more aware of the global regulatory regimes in international treaties and other international instruments,” he argued.
“The biggest challenge for lawyers today is to change our own mindset about what sort of world we live in. We can no longer afford to think of ourselves as ‘Australian lawyers’ alone.”
The comments follow Mr Robertson’s recent outline of the legal issues surrounding AUKUS, the new trilateral security and defence pact between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Last year, Mr Robertson spoke with Lawyers Weekly about how Australian lawyers could and should react if then-presidential nominee Joe Biden decided to rejoin the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
