William Harrison Moore - Later Career

Later Career

In 1899, Moore prepared a report for the University calling for greater practical involvement with the business community, in addition to the formal and theoretical elements of the curriculum, which, despite not being immediately adopted, formed the basis for the University's commerce degree when it was introduced in 1925. Moore published several more books in the early 1900s, including Imperial and Local Taxation in 1902 and The Act of State in Relation to English Law in 1906.

From 1907 to 1910, Moore served as an official adviser on constitutional matters to the Government of Victoria, serving under Premiers Sir Thomas Bent and John Murray, and advised several conservative leaders in federal politics. From time to time, Sir Ronald Munro-Ferguson also consulted Moore on questions of constitutional law. In 1917, Moore was made a Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) and a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1925.

In the early 1920s, Moore worked with Leo Cussen on preparatory work the latter's second consolidation of Victorian law, particularly with respect to the Imperial Acts Application Act 1922. Cussen would later complete the consolidation in 1928.

Moore retired from the Law School in 1927, and was appointed professor emeritus the following year. In May 1928, and again in 1929 and 1930, Moore was appointed as the Australian delegate to the League of Nations. He had previously contributed to the League's efforts to codify international law, having attended universities throughout Europe in 1928, after participating in the Rome conference that revised the Berne Convention. Moore was also part of the Australian delegation to the Imperial Conference of 1930, which ultimately led to the Statute of Westminster. As a member of the Australian executive committee of the Institute of Pacific Relations, he led a delegation to Shanghai, China in 1931 to attend a conference on Pacific relations.

Shortly before his death in 1935, Moore was elected an honorary member of the Society of Comparative Legislation (now part of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law). His last work was a paper for the Society's journal, submitted shortly before his death, on the topic of inter-governmental legal actions within Australia and Canada.