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Colin Golvan

Colin Golvan is a Queen's Counsel at the Victorian Bar, and author of plays staged by the Melbourne Theatre Company and Playbox Theatre.

Colin Golvan reviews 'The Jews in Australia' by Suzanne D. Rutland

March 2006, no. 279 01 March 2006
It is one of the ironies of Jewish life in Australia that it is at once thriving and dying. The Jewish community drew its contemporary renaissance from the influx of postwar Jews from major centres in Eastern Europe, which were annihilated by the Nazis and their collaborators. Mostly victims of anti-Semitic persecution, the immigrants of the 1930s to 1950s brought a deep awareness and love of thei ... (read more)

La Trobe University Essay | 'Copyright, Guns and Money: Copyright and Culture in the Digital Age' by Colin Golvan

August 2005, no. 273 01 August 2005
In the teaching of copyright, it is usually said that copyright is an economic right. In Arnhem Land, they think otherwise. In 1990, I attended a meeting of Aboriginal artists in Maningrida. These artists had been involved in a copyright infringement case concerning the unauthorised reproduction of works of art on T-shirts. The case had settled, and the purpose of the meeting was to discuss the di ... (read more)

'A win for Namatjira' by Colin Golvan

ABR Arts 06 November 2017
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers should be aware that this commentary contains images or names of people who have since passed away. Following a concerted media and legal campaign, the Namatjira Legacy Trust has succeeded in securing the ownership of the copyright of Albert Namatjira following a recent resolution of claims made by the Trust against the long-time copyright owner Legen ... (read more)

'The Copyright of Albert Namatjira' by Colin Golvan

April 2017, no. 390 14 March 2017
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers should be aware that this commentary contains images or names of people who have since passed away. You see them driving from Kings Canyon to Alice Springs, the majestic ghost white river gums depicted so faithfully in the paintings of Albert Namatjira. You would think you were looking at a Namatjira painting. And then there is the vista of the craggy ... (read more)

'The Copyright of Albert Namatjira' by Colin Golvan

ABR Arts 14 March 2017
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers should be aware that this commentary contains images or names of people who have since passed away. You see them driving from Kings Canyon to Alice Springs, the majestic ghost white river gums depicted so faithfully in the paintings of Albert Namatjira. You would think you were looking at a Namatjira painting. And then there is the vista of the craggy ... (read more)

'The god of cheaper prices: New threats to our literary culture from the Productivity Commission' by Colin Golvan

November 2016, no. 386 24 October 2016
The federal government has been promoting the innovation economy, but is considering recommendations for legal reform which will undermine the financial and cultural interests of creators. This conflict captures the tension around real reform in this area. Are they being serious? The recommendations are contained in the report of the Productivity Commission, an independent panel which reviews opti ... (read more)

Colin Golvan reviews 'Australia's Boldest Experiment: War and Reconstruction in the 1940s' by Stuart Macintyre

April 2016, no. 380 30 March 2016
What is it about wars and the military that produce so much innovation and capacity? This a big and bold book which takes the contemporary collective awareness of Australia's wartime efforts on the battlefield and reflects on the building of the country on the back of the victory in 1945. It also invites the question of how best we can address the imperatives of building social infrastructure. 19 ... (read more)

Arcadia (Sydney Theatre Company)

ABR Arts 15 February 2016
Many wonderful things have been written about this sprawling gem of a play since it was first staged in 1993. Two decades later, it still bamboozles, delights, and moves its audience in its uncompromising search for meaning in love and science. This was a production in genuine homage to one of the great plays of modern times. First, though, a note of deepest praise for the Sydney Theatre Company, ... (read more)

Letter from Tel Aviv

ABR Arts 31 December 2014
Tel Aviv and I go back a few decades. I lived there in the early 1980s, working as a journalist. I fell in love with it then and my romance with the city endures. It is not because it is beautiful or historic (it is barely 100 years old), though the area does have a timeless and much-recorded pre-history. Tel Aviv is badly planned, and many of the buildings are ramshackle and as tenuous as the shi ... (read more)

Colin Golvan reviews 'Excursions in the Law' by Peter Heerey

December 2014, no. 367 01 December 2014
What’s on a judge’s mind? Litigants and advocates would love to know. Former judge Peter Heerey answers that question in his latest book, a compendium of writing over many years, covering a vast array of topics and in myriad forms. Heerey displays his abiding affection for his Tasmanian roots with an essay on the Tasmanian member of the group of authors of the Australian Constitution, Andrew ... (read more)
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