Will the High Court show Australian law has reached rock bottom?

La Trobe University law professor Patrick Keyzer believes it will, not that he said it in those words. What amounted to the same thing, he told Chip Legrand in today’s Sydney Morning Herald that the High Court will likely dismiss the appeal – and keep an innocent man in jail. The Australian system of law has failed so dramatically in Cardinal Pell’s case that I fear she could be right.

Does this academic lawyer understand that a High Court dismissal will cause an explosion of contempt around the world for Australia? Probably not. He appears so wrapped up in his academic bubble that the Cardinal’s fate is of no account. As long as the technical processes of the law are satisfied, what could he care?

A dismissal will rock and split Australia for decades to come.