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A masterpiece in bringing contract law to life

Judges and legal experts from Australia and internationally joined colleagues, students, family and friends for the virtual launch of Australian Contract Law: Principles and Cases by Dr May Fong Cheong.

Former Justice of the High Court of Australia, The Hon Michael Kirby launched the book in a virtual event at ACU on Wednesday 21 October after the initial launch was postponed due to the pandemic.

Justice Kirby said the book is an excellent textbook for students learning contract law in Australia, with its clear layout and presentation, and “wonderful short reference to cases” including recent and famous older cases and that it is “a practical, attractive, useful, succinct and beneficial book”.

He described the book as a masterpiece, and congratulated Dr May Cheong by saying, “You are a proud academic in Australia. But to those who taught you at the University of Malaya and National University of Singapore they can be very proud of you too. You have brought great skills to Australia. We are proud of you and are grateful for you for preparing such an excellent text which will be a great blessing to the students, and academics and practitioners who use it.”

Dr May Cheong said she was honoured that Justice Kirby had written the foreword to her book and had launched it.

She said, “this is an area which is very dear to my heart. I am passionate about contract law. I wanted to provide an inclusive book for students to understand contract law through first principles –this translates to an understanding of legal principles articulated by the courts and illustrated through the colourful and unique facts, the legal issues and extracts of relevant parts of the judgments. The outcome is a two in one text, Australian Contract Law: Principles and Cases”.

In his Vote of Thanks, ACU Provost Professor Zlatko Skrbis acknowledged the publishers Thomson Reuters for the successful publication of the book, and congratulated Dr May Cheong for her “tireless commitment to the study of law and training of the future generations of legal professionals”.

Professor Skrbis thanked Justice Kirby for his longstanding support and involvement in establishing the Thomas More Law School at ACU and said his “critical interrogation of what we are doing is very much valued and appreciated”.

He also credited Executive Dean of the Faculty of Law and Business Professor Terri Joiner and Dean of the Thomas More Law School, Professor Rocque Reynolds for “enabling the kind of nurturing and intellectually thriving environment that has helped produce this tremendous book.”

In closing, Professor Skrbis read from the foreword of Justice Kirby that the book “is readable, practical and up to date. Now, truly, it is an exposition of Australian contract law. I commend the book to its readers. It will remain useful when student days turn into busy days of legal practice”.