Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T16:27:53.407Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

1 - Introduction: Seeing Further over the Horizon – A World of Limitless Possibilities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2017

Dale Stephens
Affiliation:
Melbourne University Law School
Paul Babie
Affiliation:
The University of Adelaide
Dale Stephens
Affiliation:
University of Adelaide
Paul Babie
Affiliation:
University of Adelaide
Get access

Summary

Judith Gardam was born in Perth, Western Australia, growing up there with her parents and sister and brother. Then, as now, Perth was a relatively isolated city and perhaps because of this, one of Judith's enduring memories as a young woman was the first space flight and orbit of the Earth by Soviet astronaut Yuri Gagarin on 12 April 1961. Asked later about the flight and his view of the Earth, Gagarin recalled:

What beauty. I saw clouds and their light shadows on the distant dear earth … The water looked like darkish, slightly gleaming spots … When I watched the horizon, I saw the abrupt, contrasting transition from the earth's light-colored surface to the absolutely black sky. I enjoyed the rich color spectrum of the earth. It is surrounded by a light blue aureole that gradually darkens, becoming turquoise, dark blue, violet, and finally coal black.

Gagarin had the rare privilege of being able to see further over the horizon than any other person ever had.

Gagarin's tiny Vostok spacecraft passed over Perth during the night of 12 April and this left an indelible impression on Judith. Though she relentlessly asked her father, an engineer, a flood of questions about the spaceflight, her focus was not just on the technical aspects of the event, but rather something more. The event captivated her, and she recalls that it ignited within her a deep sense of curiosity about the broader world and inspired her imagination about unlimited possibilities. For Gagarin, his view further over the horizon only came through riding that Vostok rocket into a low Earth orbit for an hour and 48 minutes on 12 April 1961. Judith, however, spent a lifetime endeavouring to see further over the horizon than anyone else through her chosen field of international law. And beyond the horizon that limits so many of us in what we can imagine for our global community, Judith saw unlimited possibilities. This volume not only tells her story, but it also tells us what she saw over the horizon.

Type
Chapter
Information
Imagining Law
Essays in Conversation with Judith Gardam
, pp. 1 - 10
Publisher: The University of Adelaide Press
Print publication year: 2016

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×