The Australian Journal of Competition and Consumer Law (AJCCL)  is now in its 25th year of publication –  a significant milestone!

In a recent editorial, the Journal’s General Editor Ron Desiatnik said: “Whether it be in reference to the longevity of a marriage, the length of a friendship, or the serving out of a prison sentence, continuity for 25 years is an accomplishment.”

AJCCL_25.1_front cover with border

Ron has been with the Journal since the inaugural issue in March 1993, which started life as the Trade Practices Law Journal after its muse, the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth). The Journal was renamed in 2011 to its current one, in keeping with the Act’s change of name to the Competition and Consumer Act 2011 (Cth). Just as its namesake legislation has evolved, so too has the journal, which has become a record of the developments in jurisprudence, policy and practice that the last 25 years has engendered.

Since that very first issue, Ron has been instrumental in developing the Journal into the publication that it is today – to its core of articles, the Journal has grown to one that includes editorials, case notes, succinct reports discussing and analysing legislative and judicial developments, as well as commentary relating to the national regulatory bodies. While concentrating on Australian law, the Journal also reports on the trade practices jurisprudence in other regions of the world. There is even the odd cartoon.

“This growth, and the variety of the forms it took, came about through an aspiration which has been consistent over 25 years – to be innovative.

“Other aims have been to seek only to publish work which covered current issues, had a practical inclination and which was not only well written, but eminently readable. In short, to publish a law journal which lawyers, judges, academics, students and government officials interested in competition and consumer law, would want to read.

“There was in 1993, and all the more now, a ‘trade practices scene’ and the Journal has been its forum.

“The Journal’s aim is to continue to publish writings that inform, probe, stimulate and provoke. We hope to remain a publication which is a cornerstone of competition and consumer law practice and jurisprudence, one which readers look forward to reading, and we will strive to achieve that aim. Nothing less is good enough.”