Rule of Law: a novel, and The Politics of Decency

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Rule of Law: a novel, and The Politics of Decency

Winton Higgins, author of a recently published novel, Rule of Law (Brandl & Schlesinger, 2016), will be visiting Wellington from Sydney from 23 April to 30 April 2017 for a series of events around his latest book. While in the city, he will also be speaking on ‘The Politics of Decency’, giving a talk to Wellington’s secular Buddhist community, and running a daylong workshop.

On Wednesday 26 April, Winton will be in conversation with Sir Anand Satyanand about Rule of Law at Unity Books in Willis St from 12 noon to 12:45pm. Sir Anand Satyanand GNZM QSO KStJ is a former lawyer, judge and ombudsman. He was the 19th Governor-General of New Zealand and is Chair of the Commonwealth Foundation.

On Thursday 27 April, Winton will give a talk titled ‘The Politics of Decency’ at St Andrew’s on The Terrace. The event runs from 12:30pm to 2pm, and is a collaboration between St Andrew’s Trust for the Study of Religion and Society and One Mindful Breath, Wellington’s secular Buddhist community.

Also, Winton will give a talk to One Mindful Breath at 7:30pm on Wednesday 24 April at the Quaker Centre in Moncrieff St, Mt Victoria, and run an all-day secular Buddhist workshop on Saturday 29 April at the Home of Compassion in Island Bay.

About Rule of Law

In the midst of World War II, the Allies promised to punish prominent German perpetrators of atrocities at war’s end. When the war was at last ending, the Allies had to agree on how to honour this promise. Summary executions by firing squad beckoned as the expedient way to do this. But the US war secretary, Henry Stimson, dissented: he agitated for a public trial before an international tribunal, one following due process and conducted in four languages. He wanted this trial to found an international rule of law that would represent a giant leap forward by outlawing aggressive war and crimes against humanity.

Stimson prevailed. His victory unleashed an unprecedented human drama in the bomb-ravaged city of Nuremberg – a drama played out in the glare of international publicity, one involving thousands of participants, many of whom were as war-damaged as the city in which they had to play their parts. The novel follows four of these participants as they face the challenges of the pioneering trial, the daily struggles of life in a shattered city haunted by its immediate Nazi past, and the urgent demands of their private lives.

‘A fascinating novel that captures the drama of history’s most important trial, which laid the foundation for international criminal law. This gripping account uses fiction to bring to life the personalities, principles and philosophies that contributed to the delivery of justice at Nuremberg.’

– Geoffrey Robertson QC

‘This is a gripping story of one of the great moments in history. When the victorious Allies of the Second World War decided to put the tyrants of the Nazi regime on public trial for crimes against humanity, the symbolism was electric. The drama was overwhelming. The emotions wretched. And it had to be worked out in conditions of bombed out devastation and with no effective precedents. Across the pages walk historical characters, some of them familiar. But interwoven with their lives are human tales of great power, added by the author to remind us that this was a raw human drama. Once started, I could not put this book down.’

– Hon Michael Kirby, past justice of the High Court of Australia and chair of the UN commission of inquiry on North Korea

Biographical note

Winton Higgins was born in Sydney in November 1941. After surviving the Japanese midget submarine attack on Sydney Harbour of 31 May 1942, he grew up on a sheep and cattle station in central Australia, 55km outside Walgett, NSW, in Tennant Creek, and back in Sydney. He graduated in arts and law from Sydney University and practised at the Bar for three years until 1969 when he moved to Europe, where he gained postgraduate qualifications in social science at the universities of Stockholm and London (LSE).

He did research and taught in Adelaide 1972–5, before his appointment as a lecturer in politics at Macquarie University, Sydney. He left this institution in 2000 as an associate professor. Since then he has been an associate in international studies at the University of Technology Sydney, while also engaging in creative writing. Winton won the NSW Writers’ Centre’s short short story competition in 2002.

Winton has cultivated a wide range of interests in his intellectual life, and three of them have come to dominate: social-democratic theory and practice, especially under the aegis of the Swedish experience 1928–76; genocide studies, with special reference to the Holocaust; and standardisation. He has been a board member of the Australian Institute of Holocaust and Genocide Studies since its inception in 2000. Winton also teaches an annual course at the Aquinas Academy on various ethical, social and political topics.

Since 1987, Winton has been a Buddhist practitioner, and a teacher of insight meditation since 1995. He has contributed to the development of a secular Buddhism internationally and is a senior teacher for Sydney Insight Meditators and Secular Buddhism in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Winton’s meditation teaching has developed towards non-formulaic insight practice based on the Buddha’s original teachings, while his dharmic orientation inclines towards a secular Buddhism. He fosters interest in the original teachings and their affinity with modern streams of thought and progressive social commitments. He and his partner Lena live in Sydney and have 2 daughters and 2 grandchildren. His website is at wintonhiggins.org, and much of his dharma writing can be found at secularbuddhism.org.nz/resources/documents/#wh.

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