Nicholas Hasluck

Former WA Supreme Court judge Nicholas Hasluck is our couchee ... Jurist and author - his latest work, Legal Limits, examines the connections between law and literature 

Hasluck: problem with mathsNicholas Hasluck AM, QC studied law at the University of Western Australia, then Wadham College, Oxford, before returning to Australia to become a practising lawyer in Perth.

He served as a part-time President of the Equal Opportunity Tribunal (WA) for 10 years prior to his appointment to the Supreme Court of Western Australia in May 2000.

He has now retired from the bench.

He is the author of 11 works of fiction including The Bellarmine Jug, winner of The Age Book of the Year Award. 

His latest book is Legal Limits, from The Federation Press, in which he examines the "outer limits of the law" and its connection with literature. 

Along the way, there are ruminations on the preventative detention of sex offenders, restrictions on freedom of speech, and the constitutional conventions at play in the dismissal of the Whitlam government. 

Hasluck served as Chair of the Literature Board of the Australia Council and later as Chair of the Commonwealth Writers Prize.

He was recently awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters by the University of Western Australia. 

Here he is, on the Couch, giving us a glimpse of himself and his work ... 

Describe yourself in three words. 

In three words - no good at maths.

What are you currently reading? 

Joseph Roth's novel "Left and Right". He was schooled in the Habsburg era where the  bureaucrats used to say: "The situation is hopeless but not serious - we have seen it happen many times before." 

What's your favourite film?

Colonel Redl (of whom the Archduke asked: "But is he a patriot for me?").

Who has been the most influential person in your life? 

My wife Sally Anne - for her many qualities, but above all for her integrity.

What is your favourite piece of music?

Québécois: Valse Frotenac from the ABC Swoon series. My novel "The Country Without Music" will tell you why - it presumes the French settled the west coast of Australia. 

What is in your refrigerator? 

Ice kept for medicinal purposes.

What is your favourite website?

Freshwater Bay Press. 

What do you recommend as a hangover cure?

A shot of whisky kept for medicinal purposes, cooled by the aforesaid ice.

What is your greatest weakness? 

No good at maths.

Do you miss being a judge?  

People sometimes say: "Come here and look at the sunset." When I was a judge I would say: "Can I just look at it, or will I have to write a fifty page judgment about it?" Now I say: "Isn't it beautiful - it's great to be alive!"

Why did you want to be a lawyer? 

Curiosity.

Literature and the law: of the two what has been the more rewarding or uplifting, for you?

Financially - the law; sunset-wise - literature.

How does the law inform your writing?   

It echoes Yeats: in dreams begin responsibilities.

What prompted you to write your latest book Legal Limits? 

Fifty years in the law.

What's your most glamorous feature?

A 1994 telemovie featuring Hugh Jackman from the WA Performing Arts Academy. His first screen role is long forgotten but not by me, being based on my novel "Quarantine".

If you were a foodstuff, what would you be?

A pizza pie - life keeps taking another piece of me.

What human quality do you most distrust?

Self-righteousness.

Whom or what do you consider overrated?

Most time-saving gadgets.

What would your epitaph say?

Like Spike Milligan: "I tried to tell you I wasn't feeling well."

What comes into your mind when you shut your eyes and think of the word "law"? 

The calm but inscrutable gaze of Franz Kafka.