CEREMONY OPENS WINDOWS TO THE PAST.

The article reports on the Opening of the Legal Year ceremonies conducted by the Law Institute of Victoria, which can be traced back to a tradition started by London, England judges 400 years ago. In Australia, the first celebration of the tradition was done in Melbourne in 1946 upon the orders of then Chief Justice Sir Edmund Herring. The service at the ceremonies includes prayers, hymns and anthems designed to give legal practitioners a way to recommit to the primacy of the Rule of Law. Tradition also tells that judges fast before the ceremony.