Margaret Ackary Stone (died 1 September 2021) was an Australian

judge A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...

who served on the

Federal Court of Australia The Federal Court of Australia is an Australian superior court which has jurisdiction to deal with most civil disputes governed by federal law (with the exception of family law matters), along with some summary (less serious) and indictable (mo ...

. Stone served as the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security from August 2015 until her retirement in August 2020.

Education

Stone obtained a Bachelor of Arts from the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

, a Bachelor of Laws with honours from the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

, and a Master of Laws from

Yale Law School Yale Law School (YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824. The 2020–21 acceptance rate was 4%, the lowest of any law school in the United ...

Career

Stone taught law at the University of New South Wales for over 15 years, including a role as Sub-Dean in 1981. She also worked as a solicitor becoming a partner at Freehills in 1993, where she worked in the areas of commercial property, infrastructure development, commercial financing, and taxation.

Federal Court

Stone was appointed a judge of the

in October 2000. Whilst a federal court judge, she was also appointed an Additional Judge of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory. Stone retired from both judicial positions in March 2012.

Subsequent career

Since retiring from the Federal Court Stone was a Judge in Residence at the

Melbourne Law School Melbourne Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of the University of Melbourne. Located in Carlton, Victoria, Melbourne Law School is Australia's oldest law school, and offers Juris Doctor, J.D., Master of Laws, LL.M, Doctor of P ...

in 2012. In 2013 she was appointed a Visiting Professorial Fellow at the University of NSW. Between December 2012 and December 2014 she served as Australia's Independent Reviewer of Adverse Security Assessments. Adverse security assessments are findings by the Australian Security and intelligence Organisation that a person who has been found to be a refugee is a security risk. Such people are kept in detention until such time as it is determined that they are no longer security risks. They do not have access to the evidence on which the assessments are made; but in some cases may have some indications of the nature of the accusations. Stone had reviewed 22 of 52 adverse assessments as of June 2014, as a result of which four people have had their adverse assessments removed. By June 2015 Stone finalised a further 24 reviews, finding that five adverse assessments were either flawed or not appropriate. Stone was appointed the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security from 24 August 2015 until her retirement in August 2020.

Death and legacy

Stone died on 1 September 2021 and was survived by three daughters and their families. The Margaret Stone Lecture was inaugurated in her honour in 2023, a joint initiative of the University of New South Wales and Herbert Smith Freehills. Lectures have been given by The Honourable Justice Michelle Gordon (2023) and The Honourable Justice Nye Perram (2025).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stone, Margaret 2021 deaths Year of birth missing Judges of the Federal Court of Australia Judges of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory Fellows of the Australian Academy of Law Yale Law School alumni Australian National University alumni University of Sydney alumni Academic staff of the University of New South Wales Ombudsmen in Australia 20th-century Australian lawyers 21st-century Australian judges Officers of the Order of Australia 21st-century Australian women judges 20th-century Australian women