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AbstractFreedom from fear, expressly recognized in the foundational human rights treaties, has been forgotten in human rights discourse. Fear can have profound behavioural impacts. Without recognition of the importance of freedom from fear, the fulfilment of many human rights is compromised, particularly physical security. Politico-legal thought, from Montesquieu and Blackstone, has long identified the significance of security of the person and the tension between liberty and security. Comparative exploration of contemporary case law reveals disparate approaches to the recognition of security of the person as an individual right which the State is obliged to protect. Increasing the salience of security of the person and the dimension of freedom from fear in human rights decision making raises the difficult issue of balancing conflicting rights.

This volume of speeches by Murray Gleeson AC, QC, who served as Chief Justice of New South Wales, then of Australia, for two decades, is, as James Spigelman has put it in his foreword, "a testament to judicial leadership". While his judgments are his most enduring and primary contribution to the law, in hundreds of occasional speeches he explained the role and importance of the rule of law, and of the institutions through which it is maintained.Although Murray Gleeson is known as a judge, he is also one of our great legal writers. The selected papers are models of elegant expression, clarity of thought, deep contemplation and scholarship. They cover several broad themes: the rule of law, advocacy, judging, legal history, the judiciary as an arm of government, the application of legal principle, and international commercial arbitration.As James Spigelman acutely observes, Murray Gleeson's patient and seemingly tireless effort in explaining the significance of the rule of law and legal institutions is "a critical aspect of judicial leadership. That is particularly so in an era, such as the period covered herein, when institutions are being attacked and, even, subverted". These speeches are part of the legacy that Murray Gleeson has bequeathed to his successors in the law and to the Australian community