Mark Samuel Weinberg (born 13 May 1948) is a former

judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

of the Court of Appeal of the

Supreme Court of Victoria The Supreme Court of Victoria is the highest court in the Australian state of Victoria. Founded in 1852, it is a superior court of common law and equity, with unlimited and inherent jurisdiction within the state. The Supreme Court comprises ...

from July 2008 to May 2018. He is a former judge of the

Federal Court of Australia The Federal Court of Australia is an Australian superior court of record 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 indic ...

who served from July 1998 to July 2008.

Early life

Weinberg was born in Sweden and lived in the United States until the age of 10, when he and his family moved to Melbourne. He attended Melbourne High School and later graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws (First Class Honours) from Monash University. He was awarded the Supreme Court Prize in 1970, the year he graduated. In 1972 he received the Vinerian Scholarship for top graduate of the Bachelor of Civil Law from the University of Oxford. In 1975 he was called to the Victorian Bar.

Career

From 1984 to 1985, Weinberg was dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Melbourne, having previously served as acting dean and deputy dean. In 1986, Weinberg was appointed Queen's Counsel. From 1988 until 1991, he was Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions. After being appointed to the Federal Court in 1998, Weinberg also held appointments as deputy president of the Federal Police Disciplinary Tribunal, non-resident judge of the Supreme Court of Fiji, additional judge of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory and chief justice of the Supreme Court of Norfolk Island. He resigned from the Federal Court and his other appointments in 2008 in order to take up office as a judge of the Court of Appeal of the

. In 2017, Weinberg was appointed an

Officer of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...

for distinguished service to the judiciary and to the law, particularly through reforms to criminal law and procedure, to legal education in Victoria and to the administration of justice in Fiji and Norfolk Island.

Retirement

On 9 May 2018, Weinberg retired from the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Victoria after 10 years of service. He continued to hear cases as a reserve Judge. In 2018, he presided over the jury trial of Dimitrious Gargasoulas, the perpetrator of the January 2017 Melbourne car attack which killed six people and injured 27. In February 2019, he sentenced Gargasoulas to life in prison with a non-parole period of 46 years. In 2019, he was part of the three-member bench of the Court of Appeal which heard the appeal of Cardinal George Pell against convictions for sexual offences. The appeal was dismissed by majority, with Weinberg dissenting. In his dissenting reasons, Weinberg concluded that there was a "significant possibility" that Pell may not have committed the offences, and that there was "a significant body of cogent evidence casting serious doubt upon the complainant's account, both as to credibility and reliability". Subsequently, Pell successfully appealed to the High Court against the majority judgment, and the convictions were quashed. Following the release of the

Brereton Report The Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force Afghanistan Inquiry Report, commonly known as the Brereton Report (after the investigation head), is a report into war crimes allegedly committed by the Australian Defence Force (ADF) during ...

, in December 2020, Weinberg was appointed by Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton as the Special Investigator to investigate alleged war crimes by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weinberg, Mark Judges of the Federal Court of Australia Fellows of the Australian Academy of Law Monash Law School alumni Alumni of the University of Oxford Academic staff of the University of Melbourne 20th-century Australian judges Australian prosecutors Living people Australian judges on the courts of Fiji Supreme Court of Fiji justices Directors of Public Prosecutions of Australia Judges of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory Officers of the Order of Australia 1948 births Judges of the Supreme Court of Norfolk Island Australian King's Counsel 21st-century Australian judges