Courting Power: Isabelle Reinecke in-conversation with Lenore Taylor

Courts aren’t just there to settle divorces, sentence law-breakers and resolve corporate disputes. A healthy legal system, one that ensures access, transparency and accountability, is fundamental to democracy. When the system works, the courts act as a check on government power, holding our politicians and bureaucrats to account.

In Courting Power, Isabelle Reinecke, founder of Grata Fund, Australia’s first strategic litigation funder and incubator, takes us through the trials and triumphs of some of the public interest cases she has helped bring about—from one launched by Torres Strait Islanders to establish the federal government’s duty of care regarding climate change, to a High Court case on remote housing rights in the Northern Territory, and Doctors for Refugees’ successful challenge to government gag laws, among others. Isabelle praises transparency infrastructure like our freedom-of-information system, which underpins checks and balances such as the media, a dynamic political opposition and independent voices, while…