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Chief Justice Of Australia
The chief justice of Australia is the presiding justice of the High Court of Australia and the highest-ranking judicial officer in the Commonwealth of Australia. The incumbent is Stephen Gageler, since 6 November 2023. Constitutional basis The office of chief justice is established under section 71 of the Constitution of Australia, which establishes the High Court as consisting of a chief justice and at least two other justices. The court was constituted by, and its first members were appointed under, the Judiciary Act 1903, with the first appointments to the High Court commencing on 5 October 1903. Role The chief justice is first among equals among the justices of the High Court, and the position differs little from that of the other justices. All Justices, including the chief justice, are appointed by the governor-general of Australia, on the advice of the federal government. They can be removed only by the governor-general, on a request from both houses of the federal p ...
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Stephen Gageler
Stephen John Gageler (; born 5 July 1958) is an Australian judge and former barrister. He has been a Justice of the High Court of Australia since 2012 and was appointed Chief Justice of Australia in 2023. He previously served as Solicitor-General of Australia from 2008 to 2012. He is a graduate of the Australian National University and Harvard Law School and was a barrister in private practice before his appointment as solicitor-general. Early life and education Gageler was born and raised in Sandy Hollow, New South Wales, where his father, John, and grandfather, Clive, were sawmillers operating his grandfather's company. Gageler was influenced to become a lawyer by meeting Bryan Beaumont, at the time the owner of a property near Gageler's boyhood home, who later became a judge of the Federal Court of Australia. Gageler's primary school education was at a one-teacher school, Giant's Creek Primary School, about 3 km from Sandy Hollow. His secondary education was at Musw ...
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1975 Australian Constitutional Crisis
The 1975 Australian constitutional crisis, also known simply as the Dismissal, culminated on 11 November 1975 with the dismissal from office of the Prime Minister of Australia, prime minister, Gough Whitlam of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), by John Kerr (governor-general), Sir John Kerr, the Governor-General of Australia, governor-general who then commissioned the List of Australian Leaders of the Opposition, leader of the Opposition, Malcolm Fraser of the Liberal Party of Australia, Liberal Party, as prime minister to hold 1975 Australian federal election, a new election. It has been described as the greatest political and constitutional crisis in Australian history. The Labor Party under Gough Whitlam came to power in the 1972 Australian federal election, election of 1972, ending 23 consecutive years of Coalition (Australia), Liberal-Country Coalition government. Labor won a majority in the Australian House of Representatives, House of Representatives of 67 seats to the Co ...
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Sir Samuel Walker Griffith
Sir Samuel Walker Griffith (21 June 1845 – 9 August 1920) was an Australian judge and politician who served as the inaugural Chief Justice of Australia, in office from 1903 to 1919. He also served a term as Chief Justice of Queensland and two terms as Premier of Queensland, and played a key role in the drafting of the Australian Constitution. Griffith was born in Wales arriving in the Moreton Bay district of New South Wales (but now in the state of Queensland) at the age of eight. He attended the University of Sydney, and after further legal training was called to the bar in 1867. Griffith was elected to the Queensland Legislative Assembly in 1872. He served as Attorney-General from 1874 to 1878, and subsequently became the leader of the parliament's liberal faction. Griffith's terms as premier ran from 1883 to 1888 and from 1890 to 1893. He led the Australian delegation to the 1887 Colonial Conference and took a keen interest in external affairs, giving financial and admi ...
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Barrister
A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, jurisprudence, researching the law and giving legal opinions. Barristers are distinguished from solicitors and other types of lawyers (e.g. chartered legal executives) who have more direct access to clients, and may do transactional legal work. In some legal systems, including those of Anglo-Dutch law, South Africa, Stockholm Institute for Scandinavian Law#Scandinavian Law, Scandinavia, Law of Pakistan, Pakistan, Law of India, India, Law of Bangladesh, Bangladesh and the Crown Dependencies of Law of Jersey, Jersey, Guernsey#Politics, Guernsey and the Manx Law, Isle of Man, ''barrister'' is also regarded as an honorific. In a few jurisdictions barristers are usually forbidden from "conducting" litigation, and can only act on the instructions of ano ...
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Adrian Knox
Sir Adrian Knox (29 November 186327 April 1932) was an Australian lawyer and judge who served as the second Chief Justice of Australia, in office from 1919 to 1930. Knox was born in Sydney, the son of businessman Sir Edward Knox. He studied law at Trinity College, Cambridge, and after returning to Australia established a successful law firm. He was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in 1894, but retired in 1898 after just two terms in office. Knox eventually became one of the best known barristers in New South Wales, taking silk in 1906 and appearing frequently in major constitutional cases. In 1919, he was somewhat unexpectedly nominated by Billy Hughes to succeed the retiring Samuel Griffith as Chief Justice. The most famous decision of his tenure was the '' Engineers case'' of 1920. Early life Knox was born in Sydney on 29 November 1863, the son of Sir Edward Knox and the former Martha Rutledge. His mother was born in Ireland, and was the sister of the ...
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Robert French
Robert Shenton French (born 1947) is a former judge of the Federal Court of Australia and was Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia from 2008 to 2017. From 2017 to 2024, he was chancellor of the University of Western Australia, of which he is a graduate. He served as an overseas non-permanent judge of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal from 2017 to 2025. Early life and education French was born in Perth, Western Australia, in 1947. He was educated at St. Louis School (now John XXIII College) in Perth.''Who's Who in Australia'' In 1964 he was one of two students from Western Australia to attend the International Science School, then known as the Nuclear Research Foundation Summer Science School, at the University of Sydney. French attended the University of Western Australia (UWA) in Perth, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in physics in 1968. He then continued with further study at UWA, earning a Bachelor of Laws in 1971. He said later that he had e ...
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John Latham (judge)
Sir John Greig Latham (26 August 1877 – 25 July 1964) was an Australian lawyer, politician, and judge who served as the fifth Chief Justice of Australia, in office from 1935 to 1952. He had earlier served as Attorney-General of Australia under Stanley Bruce and Joseph Lyons, and was Leader of the Opposition from 1929 to 1931 as the final leader of the Nationalist Party. Latham was born in Melbourne. He studied arts and law at the University of Melbourne, and was called to the bar in 1904. He soon became one of Victoria's best known barristers. In 1917, Latham joined the Royal Australian Navy as the head of its intelligence division. He served on the Australian delegation to the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, where he came into conflict with Prime Minister Billy Hughes. At the 1922 federal election, Latham was elected to parliament as an independent on an anti-Hughes platform. He got on better with Hughes' successor Stanley Bruce, and formally joined the Nationalist Party ...
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Attorney-general Of Australia
The attorney-general of Australia (AG), also known as the Commonwealth attorney-general, is the minister of state and chief law officer of the Commonwealth of Australia charged with overseeing federal legal affairs and public security as the head of the Attorney-General’s Department. The current attorney-general is Michelle Rowland, who was chosen by prime minister Anthony Albanese in May 2025 following the 2025 federal election. By convention, the attorney-general is a lawyer. The attorney-general is one of only four positions in the Commonwealth Government to have continuously been held since federation, along with the prime minister, the minister for defence and the treasurer. History The attorney-general is nearly always a person with legal training, and eleven former attorneys-general have received senior judicial appointments after their ministerial service. Billy Hughes was the longest-serving attorney-general of Australia, serving for thirteen and a half year ...
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Murray Gleeson
Anthony Murray Gleeson (born 30 August 1938) is an Australian former judge who served as the 11th Chief Justice of Australia, in office from 1998 to 2008. Gleeson was born in Wingham, New South Wales, and studied law at the University of Sydney. He was admitted to the New South Wales Bar in 1963 and appointed Queen's Counsel in 1974, becoming one of the state's leading barristers. Gleeson was appointed Chief Justice of New South Wales in 1988, serving until his elevation to the High Court in 1998. He and Samuel Griffith (appointed 1903) are the only people to have been elevated directly from the chief justiceship of a state to the chief justiceship of the High Court. As required by the constitution, he retired from the court when he reached his 70th birthday. In October 2020, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that Gleeson's daughter, Jacqueline Gleeson, will be elevated to the High Court following the retirement of Justice Virginia Bell. Early life Gleeson was bor ...
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Puisne
Puisne (; from Old French ''puisné'', modern ''puîné'', "later born, younger" (and thence, "inferior") from late Latin ''post-'', "after", and ''natus'', "born") is a legal term of art used mainly in British English meaning "inferior in rank". Judicial usage The judges and barons of the national common law courts at Westminster, other than those having a distinct title, were called puisne. This was reinforced by the Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1877 following which a "puisne judge" is officially any of those of the High Court other than the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Chief Justice of England and the Master of the Rolls (plus the abolished positions of Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and the Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer). Puisne courts existed as lower courts in the early stages in the judiciary in British North America, in particular Upper Canada and Lower Canada. The justices of the Supreme Court of Canada other than the Chief Justice are still referred t ...
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Oath Of Allegiance (Australia)
In Australia, an oath of allegiance or an affirmation of allegiance is an oath of allegiance required to be made to the monarch of Australia in some situations. Oaths of allegiance are usually made on a Bible, or some other book holy to the person, such as a Torah or Quran; but the person may opt to make an affirmation in lieu of an oath. This oath is not the same as the Australian Citizenship Pledge which is required to be made when being naturalised as an Australian citizen. Oath or affirmation of allegiance All members of the Australian Parliament are required to make, before taking their seat in Parliament, an oath or affirmation of allegiance before the Governor-General of Australia or a person appointed by them. The requirement to take the oath is set out in section 42 of the Australian Constitution and the wording of the oath and affirmation are set out in the schedule to the Constitution. The oath is: The affirmation is: where A.B. is the name of the parliamentaria ...
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Gough Whitlam
Edward Gough Whitlam (11 July 191621 October 2014) was the 21st prime minister of Australia, serving from December 1972 to November 1975. To date the longest-serving federal leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), he was notable for being the head of a reformist and socially progressive government that ended with his controversial dismissal by the then- governor-general of Australia, Sir John Kerr, at the climax of the 1975 constitutional crisis. Whitlam remains the only Australian prime minister to have been removed from office by a governor-general. Whitlam was an air navigator in the Royal Australian Air Force for four years during World War II, and worked as a barrister following the war. He was first elected to the Australian House of Representatives in 1952, becoming a member of parliament (MP) for the division of Werriwa. Whitlam became deputy leader of the Labor Party in 1960, and in 1967, after the retirement of Arthur Calwell, was elected leader of th ...
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