William Jethro Brown (29 March 1868 – 27 May 1930), commonly referred to as Jethro Brown, was an Australian jurist and Professor of Law. Early life Brown was the son of James Brown, a farmer, and his wife Sophia Jane, née Torr, and was born at Mintaro, South Australia. Brown was educated at Stanley Grammar School, Watervale, South Australia, and taught for a while at Moonta Mines State School. He then studied at St John's College, Cambridge, graduating in 1890 with a double first class in the law tripos. He was called to the bar of the Middle Temple in 1891 and elected Macmahon student at St John's College in 1892. Law career In 1893 Brown was appointed professor of law and modern history at the University of Tasmania and held this position until 1900 (apart from 1898 when he acted as professor of law in the University of Sydney). In 1898 he published as a pamphlet Why Federate, which had been read before the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science. It was a crucial year for the cause of Federation, and Brown did good service in pointing out that the difficulties were mostly of a mechanical character. In 1899 appeared his thoughtful study The New Democracy, and in 1900 he left Australia to become professor of constitutional law and history at University College London. In the following year he was appointed professor of comparative law at the University College of Wales. He was examiner for the Cambridge law tripos 1902–1905, and for the University of London from 1905–1906. In 1906 he became professor of law at the University of Adelaide, holding the position for 10 years. His The Austinian Theory of Law, an edition with critical notes and excursus of lectures I, V and VI of Austin's Jurisprudence and of his Essay on the Uses of the Study of Jurisprudence, was published in 1906 and was reprinted several times. In 1912 he published The Underlying Principles of Modern Legislation, which was welcomed as a real contribution to political thought; a fifth edition appeared in April 1917. In this volume Brown points out that the likelihood of greatly increased state activity in the future throws a great responsibility on the teacher and the brains and character of the community; and that problems will arise that will demand enlightened statesmanship no less than reforming zeal. Brown did not attempt to