List of justices of the High Court of Australia
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The High Court of Australia is composed of seven justices: the chief justice of Australia and six other justices. There have been 57 justices who have served as justices of the High Court since its formation under the Judiciary Act 1903. Under Section 71 of the Australian Constitution, the judicial power of the Commonwealth of Australia is vested in the court,[1] and it has been the highest court in the Australian court hierarchy since the passing of the Australia Act 1986.
In a May 2017 speech, Justice Virginia Bell observed that "few Australians outside the law schools are likely to be able to name the Chief Justice, let alone the puisne justices of the High Court".[2]
History
Initially, there were three justices of the High Court – Chief Justice Sir Samuel Griffith, Justice Sir Edmund Barton and Justice Richard Edward O'Connor.[3] The number was expanded in 1906, at the request of the justices, to five, with the appointment of Justices Sir Isaac Isaacs and H. B. Higgins. After O'Connor's death in 1912, an amendment to the Judiciary Act 1903 expanded the bench to seven. For most of 1930, two seats were left vacant due to monetary constraints placed on the court by the Depression. The economic downturn had also led to a reduction in litigation and consequently less work for the court. After Isaacs retired in 1931, his seat was left empty, and in 1933 an amendment to the Judiciary Act officially reduced the number of seats to six. However, this led to some decisions being split three-all. With the appointment of William Webb in 1946, the number of seats returned to seven, and since then the court has had seven justices.[4] since 2021[update]Template:Dated maintenance category (articles)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". there have been 55 justices, 13 of whom have been chief justice.
Appointments to the court were for life until 1977, when a mandatory retirement age of 70 was established, though several post-1977 justices have retired before reaching the age of 70 (William Deane resigned as a justice to be appointed governor-general).
Composition of the High Court
There have been 57 justices of the High Court; fifty have been men and seven women. The first female justice was Mary Gaudron who was a justice from 1987 to 2003. Susan Crennan was a justice from 2005 to 2015, and Virginia Bell from 2009 to 2021. Susan Kiefel was the first woman to be appointed Chief Justice of Australia. She was appointed in 2017 and had been a justice from 2007 to 2017. Of the seven current justices, four are men, including the chief justice, and three are women. Michelle Gordon was appointed in 2015 and Jacqueline Gleeson in 2021, replacing Bell. Jayne Jagot replaced Justice Keane on the court in 2022, giving women a majority on the High Court for a period of just over a year.
Thirteen politicians, serving or former, have been appointed to the High Court of Australia. Nine justices have served in the Parliament of Australia: Edmund Barton, Richard O'Connor, Isaac Isaacs, H. B. Higgins, Edward McTiernan, H. V. Evatt, John Latham, Garfield Barwick, and Lionel Murphy. All but Evatt were appointed after their parliamentary service; Evatt resigned from the bench in order to pursue his federal political career, although he had previously served in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly. In addition to the above, four justices served in colonial parliaments: Samuel Griffith, Charles Powers, Albert Piddington and Adrian Knox, although all concluded their political careers more than 10 years prior to their appointments. The most recent justice to serve in state or federal parliament is Lionel Murphy.
The majority of justices have come from the eastern states, particularly New South Wales (29 justices), Victoria (16 justices) and Queensland Queensland (8 justices). It was not until 1979 that a justice was appointed from Western Australia. There has never been a justice from South Australia. Robert Beech-Jones was born in Tasmania but went to university in Canberra and spent most of his career in Sydney.
Most justices had previously served as judges of other Australian courts prior to their appointment to the High Court. Prior to the creation of the Federal Court of Australia in 1976, this was primarily the Supreme Courts of the States. Since 1976, a number of justices of the Federal Court have been appointed to the High Court. A small number of justices served on both a State Supreme Court and the Federal Court before being appointed to the High Court.
List of justices
The current judges are listed in bold on the table below.
Current justices
Template:Current High Court of Australia justices
Seats of the High Court
This following chart illustrates the composition of the High Court. It indicates the seven seats of the court, and who has occupied each seat at different points in the court's existence. The red portions represent the future part of a judge's term and show the date at which they are bound to retire from the court (although they may choose to retire before that date). The blue portions of a judge's term show a period in which that judge was chief justice. <timeline>
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from:start till:17/10/1919 shift:($dx,0) text:Griffith from:start till:17/10/1919 color:cj mark:none from:18/10/1919 till:31/03/1930 shift:($dx,0) text:Knox from:18/10/1919 till:31/03/1930 color:cj mark:none from:20/12/1930 till:12/09/1976 shift:($dx,0) text:McTiernan from:20/09/1976 till:18/06/1982 shift:($dx,0) text:Aickin from:30/07/1982 till:15/08/1997 shift:($dx,0) text:Dawson from:22/09/1997 till:04/06/2015 shift:($dx,0) text:Hayne from:09/06/2015 till:19/11/2034 shift:($dx,0) text:Gordon from:28/03/2025 till:19/11/2034 color:red1 mark:none
bar:Second seat color:green2 width:25 mark:(line,white) align:left fontsize:S
from:start till:07/01/1920 shift:($dx,0) text:Barton from:05/02/1920 till:31/01/1950 shift:($dx,0) text:Starke from:08/02/1950 till:09/07/1961 shift:($dx,0) text:Fullagar from:22/09/1961 till:31/03/1972 shift:($dx,0) text:Owen from:07/08/1972 till:20/04/1995 shift:($dx,0) text:Mason from:06/02/1987 till:20/04/1995 color:cj mark:none from:21/04/1995 till:09/10/2012 shift:($dx,0) text:Gummow from:10/10/2012 till:05/07/2028 shift:($dx,0) text:Gageler from:06/11/2023 till:28/03/2025 color:cj mark:none from:28/03/2025 till:05/07/2028 color:red2 mark:none
bar:Third seat color:green3 width:25 mark:(line,white) align:left fontsize:S
from:start till:18/11/1912 shift:($dx,0) text:O'Connor from:11/02/1913 till:01/10/1935 shift:($dx,0) text:Gavan_Duffy from:22/01/1931 till:01/10/1935 color:cj mark:none from:11/10/1935 till:07/04/1952 shift:($dx,0) text:Latham from:11/10/1935 till:07/04/1952 color:cj mark:none from:03/09/1952 till:03/08/1969 shift:($dx,0) text:Taylor from:20/09/1969 till:28/11/1973 shift:($dx,0) text:Walsh from:08/02/1974 till:06/04/1979 shift:($dx,0) text:Jacobs from:21/05/1979 till:13/02/1989 shift:($dx,0) text:Wilson from:14/02/1989 till:01/11/2005 shift:($dx,0) text:McHugh from:01/11/2005 till:02/02/2015 shift:($dx,0) text:Crennan from:03/02/2015 till:30/11/2020 shift:($dx,0) text:Nettle from:01/12/2020 till:09/01/2039 shift:($dx,0) text:Steward from:28/03/2025 till:09/01/2039 color:red3 mark:none
bar:Fourth seat color:green4 width:25 mark:(line,white) align:left fontsize:S
from:12/10/1906 till:21/01/1931 shift:($dx,0) text:Isaacs from:02/04/1930 till:21/01/1931 color:cj mark:none
from:16/05/1946 till:16/05/1958 shift:($dx,0) text:Webb from:12/06/1958 till:29/11/1974 shift:($dx,0) text:Menzies from:10/02/1975 till:21/10/1986 shift:($dx,0) text:Murphy from:06/02/1987 till:02/02/1998 shift:($dx,0) text:Toohey from:03/02/1998 till:31/08/2007 shift:($dx,0) text:Callinan from:04/09/2007 till:05/11/2023 shift:($dx,0) text:Kiefel from:30/01/2017 till:05/11/2023 color:cj mark:none from:06/11/2023 till:01/01/2035 shift:($dx,0) text:Beech-Jones from:28/03/2025 till:01/01/2035 color:red4 mark:none
bar:Fifth seat color:green5 width:25 mark:(line,white) align:left fontsize:S
from:13/10/1906 till:13/01/1929 shift:($dx,0) text:Higgins from:04/02/1929 till:13/04/1964 shift:($dx,0) text:Dixon from:18/04/1952 till:13/04/1964 color:cj mark:none from:27/04/1964 till:11/02/1981 shift:($dx,0) text:Barwick from:27/04/1964 till:11/02/1981 color:cj mark:none from:12/02/1981 till:21/05/1998 shift:($dx,0) text:Brennan from:21/04/1995 till:21/05/1998 color:cj mark:none from:22/05/1998 till:30/08/2008 shift:($dx,0) text:M Gleeson from:22/05/1998 till:30/08/2008 color:cj mark:none from:01/09/2008 till:29/01/2017 shift:($dx,0) text:French from:01/09/2008 till:29/01/2017 color:cj mark:none from:30/01/2017 till:09/01/2044 shift:($dx,0) text:Edelman from:28/03/2025 till:09/01/2044 color:red5 mark:none
bar:Sixth seat color:green6 width:25 mark:(line,white) align:left fontsize:S
from:05/03/1913 till:22/07/1929 shift:($dx,0) text:Powers from:19/12/1930 till:02/09/1940 shift:($dx,0) text:Evatt from:15/10/1940 till:31/07/1958 shift:($dx,0) text:Williams from:08/09/1958 till:29/02/1972 shift:($dx,0) text:Windeyer from:01/03/1972 till:11/05/1982 shift:($dx,0) text:Stephen from:25/06/1982 till:11/11/1995 shift:($dx,0) text:Deane from:06/02/1996 till:02/02/2009 shift:($dx,0) text:Kirby from:03/02/2009 till:28/02/2021 shift:($dx,0) text:Bell from:01/03/2021 till:06/03/2036 shift:($dx,0) text:J Gleeson from:28/03/2025 till:06/03/2036 color:red6 mark:none
bar:Seventh seat color:green7 width:25 mark:(line,white) align:left fontsize:S
from:06/03/1913 till:05/04/1913 shift:($dx,0) text:Piddington from:05/04/1913 till:05/05/1950 shift:($dx,0) text:Rich from:10/05/1950 till:01/08/1970 shift:($dx,0) text:Kitto from:04/08/1970 till:05/02/1987 shift:($dx,0) text:Gibbs from:12/02/1981 till:05/02/1987 color:cj mark:none from:06/02/1987 till:31/01/2003 shift:($dx,0) text:Gaudron from:01/02/2003 till:01/03/2013 shift:($dx,0) text:Heydon from:01/03/2013 till:17/10/2022 shift:($dx,0) text:Keane from:17/10/2022 till:01/01/2035 shift:($dx,0) text:Jagot from:28/03/2025 till:01/01/2035 color:red7 mark:none
</timeline>
See also
- High Court of Australia
- List of chief justices of Australia by time in office
- List of jurists
- List of law schools attended by Australian High Court justices
References
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- ↑ Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act (Cth) s 71
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- ↑ "Callinan retires from High Court", Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 31 August 2007. Retrieved 31 August 2007.
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External links
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