A recent meeting between the Queensland Law Society and its Nauru equivalent could see the two legal bodies collaborating more closely.
QLS representatives, including CEO Matt Dunn, met Nauru Law Society’s President Barina Duburiya for the first time in September.
Matt said the meeting was productive and involved an interesting discussion about the different complexities of the Queensland and Nauru professions.
“They’re really dealing with some very complex and interesting legal issues that the rest of the region, like us in Queensland, could probably learn quite a lot from,” he said.
“There are some interesting human rights issues around placement, resettlement, visas and immigration.
“But they’re also dealing with some complicated issues around climate change and its effects on populations in very low-lying coastal areas and what that means in its impact on property, ownership rights and displacement.”
The conversation also turned to negotiating a memorandum of understanding, which Matt said could involve mutual support and educational exchanges.
“The QLS has got MOUs with a number of law societies throughout the Pacific and also into Asia as well,” he said.
“We’ve never met with the Nauru Law Society before, so this was a new and fresh start.
“These things can take a little while to gain some momentum, but they can be very productive.”
Matt said relationships such as this were reflective of the Society’s membership and offered support across the broader legal profession in the region.
“We’ve got some practitioners who operate practices across a couple of jurisdictions and operate across a couple of countries and that’s a bit of a new and interesting model,” he said.
“There’s a bit of a discussion about how the Pacific can come together, and Queensland being a part of that sounds really exciting.
“It’s an interesting concept about how practice across borders is starting to become more common and then to ask, how do we all cooperate and support each other to make that work?”