Guide to the Papers of John F. Ley, 1970-1981
Collection context
Summary
- Collection number:
- MS 8247
- Creator:
- John F. Ley
- Extent:
- 2.1 metres and (14 boxes)
- Language:
- English
- Preferred citation:
- Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of John F. Ley, National Library of Australia, MS 8247, [box number and series and/or file number]'.
- Availability:
- Available
- Access conditions:
- Available for research. Not for loan.
Background
- Content Summary:
-
Most of the papers were accumulated by John Ley during the period 1972-75 when he was Legal Counsel to the Speaker and Private Members of the Papua New Guinea House of Assembly and Legal Officer of the Constitutional Planning Committee. After wide consultations throughout the country, the Committee prepared a report making recommendations for the post-independence Constitution of Papua New Guinea. There are also a small number of papers dating from the early years of independence.
There is a range of papers including minutes of meetings, transcripts of debates, agenda papers, discussion papers, correspondence, memoranda, notes, speeches, reports, submissions, briefings, newspaper articles, journal articles and conference papers.
The correspondents include John Momis, C.J. Lynch, I.F. Tarua, Julius Chan, Michael Somare and E. Wolfers.
- Biographical Note:
-
John Francis Ley was born in Melbourne on 19 December 1938, matriculated at Wesley College, Melbourne, in 1955, and obtained an LL.B. at the University of Melbourne in 1960. After admission to the Victorian Bar as a barrister and solicitor in 1961, he worked as a solicitor in several law firms in Melbourne until 1963. He went to the Territory of Papua New Guinea in October 1963 as a legal officer in the Department of Law. He worked in the Public Solicitor's Office at Port Moresby, appearing principally as defence counsel in Supreme Court criminal cases. Between June 1966 and September 1969 he was Deputy Public Solicitor in Rabaul, but at times acted as Public Solicitor in Port Moresby.
During 1969-70 Ley studied at the University of London, graduating with a LL.M. in October 1970. In September-October 1970 he travelled through West and East Africa, meeting with academics and some political leaders to discuss aspects of the decolonisation process in Ghana, Kenya, Zambia, Tanzania and Uganda.
From October 1970 to January 1976 Ley was Legal Counsel to the House of Assembly, with responsibility for advising the Speaker and members of the Assembly on legislation and legal issues generally. Between October 1972 and August 1974 he was Legal Officer to the Constitutional Planning Committee, which prepared recommendations for Papua New Guinea's independence. From August 1974 until shortly after independence he was again Counsel to the House of Assembly. In that capacity, he advised the Nationalist Pressure Group and the Country Party (which formed after the Committee's report was tabled in the Assembly) during the debates on the Committee's report and later on the several drafts of the Constitution prepared by the Government's constitutional draftsmen.
From 1976 to 1995 Ley worked as Principal Legal Officer and then as Senior Assistant Secretary in the Commonwealth Attorney-General's Department in Canberra. He dealt with a range of areas of law and legal policy including legal aid, constitutional review, criminal law, administrative law, occupational health and safety law, environmental law, and air and road transport law. In early 1981 he participated in a conference and a workshop in Papua New Guinea organised by the General Constitutional Commission, a body charged with reviewing all aspects of the 1975 Constitution, as amended. Since 1995 Ley has worked from time to time as a legal policy consultant.
- Provenance:
-
The papers were donated to the National Library by John Ley in December 1997.
- Arrangement:
-
Some groups of files in the collection formed natural sequences, but in general the arrangement of the papers into six series and the order of files within the series has been imposed by the Library.
Nearly all the papers had been kept by Ley in manila and other kinds of folders, usually with a title. The Library has transferred the contents of the files into envelope folders but it has not broken them up or rearranged the contents. Some of the folders were thick and it was necessary to divide the contents into two or more folders. When this has been done small Roman numerals have been added to the titles on the folders. Thus Citizenship (i) and Citizenship (ii) indicate that the original single folder has been divided into two parts, whereas Newspaper cuttings, 1974 and Newspaper cuttings, 1974 indicate that there were always two folders of cuttings for that year.
Indexed terms
- Names:
- John F. Ley
Access and use
- Conditions Governing Access:
- Please refer to the collection's catalogue record for the access conditions (http://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn2185665).
- Conditions Governing Use:
- Copying and publishing of unpublished manuscript material is subject to copyright restrictions. For such material, written permission to publish must be obtained from the copyright holder(s). Copying of unpublished material for research purposes is permissible 50 years after the death of the creator of the material.
- Preferred citation:
- Items from this collection should be cited as '[Title or description of manuscript item], Papers of John F. Ley, National Library of Australia, MS 8247, [box number and series and/or file number]'.
- Location of this collection:
-
Parkes PlaceCanberra ACT 2600, Australia
- Contact: