Sir Richard Arthur Blackburn (26 July 1918 – 1 October 1987) was an Australian judge, prominent legal academic and military officer. He became a judge of three courts in Australia, and eventually became chief justice of the
Australian Capital Territory
The Australian Capital Territory (ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory until 1938, is an internal States and territories of Australia, territory of Australia. Canberra, the capital city of Australia, is situated within the territory, an ...
. In the 1970s he decided one of Australia's earliest Aboriginal Land rights cases. The annual Sir Richard Blackburn Memorial lectures in
Canberra
Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...
commemorate his service to the Australian legal community.
Early years
Blackburn was born on 26 July 1918 in
Mount Lofty
Mount Lofty (, elevation AHD) is the highest point in the southern Mount Lofty Ranges. It is located about east of the Adelaide city centre, within the Cleland National Park in the Adelaide Hills area of South Australia.
The mountain's su ...
,
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...
. He was the son of Brigadier
Arthur Blackburn and Rose Ada Blackburn (née Kelly).
His father was at that time a prominent legal practitioner in South Australia, and was later to serve as a Commissioner of the now defunct
Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration. Blackburn was educated at
St Peter's College,
Adelaide
Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...
and was an undergraduate at
St Mark's College at the
University of Adelaide
The University of Adelaide is a public university, public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. Its main campus in the Adelaide city centre includes many Sa ...
.
He graduated with First Class Honours in English Literature from the University of Adelaide. He won the John Howard Clark Prize as the candidate who was placed highest in the final examination.
He was chosen as the
Rhodes Scholar
The Rhodes Scholarship is an international Postgraduate education, postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom. The scholarship is open to people from all backgrounds around the world.
Esta ...
for South Australia in 1940, but did not take it up immediately because of the outbreak of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
.
On 14 May 1940, during the Second World War, Blackburn enlisted in the Australian Army at Adelaide. He served with the
Second Australian Imperial Force
The Second Australian Imperial Force (2nd AIF, or Second AIF) was the volunteer expeditionary force of the Australian Army in the Second World War. It was formed following the declaration of war on Nazi Germany, with an initial strength of one ...
(2nd AIF) on active service in
North Africa
North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...
and
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...
until his discharge on 7 November 1945 as a captain in the
2/9th Division Cavalry Regiment.
Legal and academic life
At the end of the war, he took up his Rhodes Scholarship at
Magdalen College
Magdalen College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by Bishop of Winchester William of Waynflete. It is one of the wealthiest Oxford colleges, as of 2022, and one of the strongest academically, se ...
,
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...
. He and another South Australian, the Honourable Justice Andrew Wells, became the first Dominion students to be awarded the
Eldon Law Scholarship. As a result, he attended the University of Oxford in 1949 and graduated with a Bachelor of Civil Law. Blackburn was called to the Bar in the United Kingdom in
Inner Temple
The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional association for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practice as a barrister in England and Wa ...
in 1949.
Blackburn returned to Australia after his Oxford studies. He was admitted as a legal practitioner in South Australia in 1951.
Between 1950 and 1957 he was the Bonython Professor of Law at the Adelaide University. He married his wife Bryony Helen Dutton Curkeet, the daughter of the late
Henry Hampden Dutton and Emily Martin Dutton of
Anlaby, Kapunda, South Australia, on 1 December 1951 at her brother's home at Anlaby. He became the Dean of the Faculty of Law in 1951 and served as Dean there until 1957. In 1957 he left full-time academic life to become a partner in the Adelaide law firm Finlaysons; however, he continued as a member of the Faculty until 1965. His daughter and son were born while he was teaching at the Adelaide University.
In 1957 he was commissioned as a
lieutenant colonel and given command of the
Adelaide University Regiment
Adelaide Universities Regiment (AUR) is an Officer (armed forces), officer training unit of the Australian Army headquartered in Adelaide, South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia. Currently AUR maintains a cadre staff of trained Regular and R ...
. In 1962 he was commissioned as a colonel and given command of the 1st Battalion,
Royal South Australia Regiment. He served there until 1965.
Blackburn was appointed an
Officer of the Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...
(OBE) on 1 January 1965 in honour of his military service.
[Supreme Court]
Judicial career
Richard Blackburn left academic life and was appointed a judge of the
Supreme Court of the Northern Territory
The Supreme Court of the Northern Territory is the superior court for the Australian Territory of the Northern Territory. It has unlimited jurisdiction within the territory in civil matters, and hears the most serious criminal matters. It is a ...
in 1966. During this time, he became President of the
Arts Council of the Northern Territory.
It was during his judicial life in the Northern Territory that he decided the first significant case concerning Aboriginal Land Rights in Australia. This was the case of ''
Milirrpum v. Nabalco'' in which important issues of aboriginal land rights were canvassed.
In that case he held that the communal system in which Australian Aborigines had lived could be called a “government of law, and not of men”, accepting that was a system of law predating British settlement. However, he ruled that the British common law did not recognise communal interests and in any event, those interests were extinguished by the assertion of British sovereignty over the land in question. The case led to the eventual introduction of the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976.
In May 1971 he was appointed as a judge of the
Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory
The Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory is the highest court of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). It has unlimited jurisdiction within the territory in civil matters and hears the most serious criminal matters.
The court ha ...
. In that same year, he was also appointed a judge of 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 ...
in 1977 on that court's establishment and served as a judge in that latter court until 1984.
He was appointed chief judge of Supreme Court on 7 November 1977. He was appointed chief justice on 7 May 1982 when that position replaced the former position of chief judge.
He was the chairperson of the Law Reform Commission of the Australian Capital Territory from 1971 to 1976.
In 1979, Blackburn authored a biographical entry in the
Australian Dictionary of Biography
The ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'' (ADB or AuDB) is a national co-operative enterprise founded and maintained by the Australian National University (ANU) to produce authoritative biographical articles on eminent people in Australia's ...
about his father. In keeping with Blackburn's nature of not seeking honours, he failed to note in the entry that he had himself gone on to become a distinguished judge.
He was Patron of the St John Council for Australian Capital Territory from 1981 to 1984. In 1981, he became a Commander of the Order of St John of Jerusalem in honour of his service.
He was
knighted
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity.
The concept of a knighthood ...
in the New Years Honours of 1983 for his services to the law. He became Chancellor of 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 ...
in 1984.
Retirement
Blackburn retired as Chief Justice due to ill health on 31 March 1985. At his retirement ceremony, Faulks J, speaking on behalf of the legal profession said:
In 1986 he was elected an Honorary Fellow of St Mark's College. Blackburn was also invited to give the first Harrison Memorial Lecture at the
Royal Military College at Duntroon after the Officer Training School was moved from .
In May of that year, Blackburn was one of three former chief justices appointed by the Australian Government to be Parliamentary Commissioners in a Special Commission of Inquiry to investigate the conduct of Justice
Lionel Murphy
Lionel Keith Murphy QC (30 August 1922 – 21 October 1986) was an Australian politician, barrister, and judge. He was a Senator for New South Wales from 1962 to 1975, serving as Attorney-General in the Whitlam government, and then sat on the ...
concerning allegations that Murphy had attempted to pervert the course of justice in the criminal proceeding involving solicitor Morgan Ryan. He was appointed notwithstanding his ill-health because of his skills and abilities. While the inquiry did not proceed to conclusion because of Murphy's own illness and subsequent death, the commissioners did make a report on what constituted misconduct for a judge under the Australian Constitution. Blackburn concluded:
Blackburn died on 1 October 1987.
He was survived by his wife Bryony Helen Blackburn, who died in 2005, and children Charlotte Calder and Tom Blackburn .
Sir Richard Blackburn Lectures
In 1986, the Law Society of the Australian Capital Territory inaugurated the Sir Richard Blackburn Lecture in honour of Blackburn's services to the legal community. Blackburn himself gave the first lecture.
Michael Black, former
Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Australia, is the only person to have given the lecture twice, in 1994 and 2012, although the latter lecture made no reference to having done so previously.
*1986 – Sir Richard Blackburn,
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory: ''The Courts and the Community''.
*1987 – Sir
Harry Gibbs,
Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia: ''The Powers of the Police to Question and Search''.
*1988 –
Michael Kirby,
President of the Court of Appeal of New South Wales: ''The Politics of Law Reform''.
*1989 – Sir
Anthony Mason,
Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia: ''Administrative Review – the Experience of the First Twelve Years''.
*1990 – Sir
Gerard Brennan,
Justice of the High Court of Australia: ''Courts, Democracy and the Law''.
*1991 – Sir
Zelman Cowen, former
Governor-General of Australia: ''Crown and Representative in the Commonwealth''.
*1992 –
Mary Gaudron,
Justice of the High Court of Australia: ''Equal Rights and Anti-Discrimination Law''.
*1993 –
Jeffrey Miles,
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory: ''The State of the Judicature in the ACT''.
*1994 –
Michael Black,
Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Australia: ''Letting the Public Know – The Educative Role of the Courts''.
*1995 – Dame
Roma Mitchell,
Governor of South Australia
The governor of South Australia is the representative in South Australia of the monarch, currently King Charles III. The governor performs the same constitutional and ceremonial functions at the state level as does the governor-general of Aust ...
: ''The External Affairs Power in relation to United Nations Conventions; its effect upon the Balance of Power between Commonwealth and States''.
*1996 –
Paul Finn,
Judge of the Federal Court of Australia: ''The Courts and the Vulnerable''.
*1997 –
Deirdre O'Connor, President of the
Australian Industrial Relations Commission
The Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC), known from 1956 to 1973 as the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission and from 1973 to 1988 as the Australian Conciliation and Arbitration Commission, was a tribunal with powe ...
: ''Access to Justice – Technicalities and the Tribunal System''.
*1998 –
Robert French,
Judge of the Federal Court of Australia: ''Courts Under the Constitution''.
*1999 –
John Lehane,
Judge of the Federal Court of Australia: ''Administrative Law – Aspects of Pre-Millennial Judicial Review''.
*2000 –
John Gallop,
Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory
The Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory is the highest court of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). It has unlimited jurisdiction within the territory in civil matters and hears the most serious criminal matters.
The court ha ...
and the
List of judges of the Federal Court of Australia
Judges who have served on the Federal Court of Australia , are appointed in accordance with Section 72 of the Constitution of Australia, section 72 of the Constitution, which has, since the Court's inception in 1976, been for a term expiring at ...
: ''The Attorney-General – A Hybrid Character Who Needs to be Versatile''.
*2001 –
Bettie McNee, President of the
Administrative Review Council: ''Administrative Review – Observations and Reflections''.
*2002 –
Alastair Nicholson
Alastair Bothwick Nicholson, (born 19 August 1938) is a retired Australian jurist who served as the Chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia from 1988 until 2004.
Early life and education
Nicholson was born in 1938 in Melbourne returning ...
,
Chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia: ''Children and Young People – The Law and Human Rights''.
*2003 –
Diana Bryant
Diana Bryant (born 13 October 1947) is an Australian jurist who served as Chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia from 5 July 2004 to 12 October 2017.
Early life and education
Bryant was born in Perth, Western Australia and attended ...
,
Chief Federal Magistrate of Australia: ''The Contribution of Children to the Jurisprudence of the Federal Magistrates Court and the Relevance of the 'Best Interests of the Child' principle in the Legal Work of the Federal Magistrates Court''.
*2004 –
John Doyle,
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of South Australia: ''Investing in the Judiciary''.
*2005 –
Stephen Kenny, former lawyer for
David Hicks
David Matthew Hicks (born 7 August 1975) is an Australian who attended al-Qaeda's Al Farouq training camp in Afghanistan. Hicks traveled to Pakistan after converting to Islam to learn more about the faith, eventually leading to his time in th ...
, a
Guantanamo Bay detainee: ''Hicks and the Geneva Convention, Hindmarsh and Native Title''.
*2006 –
Terence Higgins,
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory: ''Women in Law – Past Achievements and Future Directions''.
*2007 –
Murray Wilcox,
Judge of the Federal Court of Australia: ''The Rule of Law – Looking behind the icon''. It was in this lecture that Wilcox described Australia as becoming an 'elected dictatorship' under the
Howard
Howard is a masculine given name derived from the English surname Howard. ''The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names'' notes that "the use of this surname as a christian name is quite recent and there seems to be no particular reason for ...
government.
*2008 –
Ken Crispin, former
Judge of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory: ''Law and Liberty''.
*2009 –
Lex Lasry,
Judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria: ''Unelected Judges – Out of touch with the Community?''
*2010 –
Julian Burnside, human rights and refugee advocate: ''Injustice within the law – an update''.
*2011 –
Virginia Bell,
Justice of the High Court of Australia: ''Sentencing and judicial discretion''.
*2012 –
Michael Black, former
Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Australia: ''The Courts and the Community''.
*2013 – Lt Col
Michael (Dan) Mori, former US Military Judge: ''Reflections on the War on Terror''.
*2014 –
Susan Kiefel,
Justice of the High Court of Australia: ''The Individual Judge''.
*2015 –
George Williams, Professor of Law at the
University of New South Wales
The University of New South Wales (UNSW) is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was established in 1949.
The university comprises seven faculties, through which it offers bachelor's, master's and docto ...
: ''The Legal Assault on Australian Democracy''.
*2016 –
John Faulks,
Deputy Chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia: ''Brave New World''.
*2017 –
Justin Gleeson, former
Solicitor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia: ''Law, Morality and the Public Trust''.
*2018 –
John Pascoe
John Henry Pascoe (born 10 December 1948) is a former Chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia and Deputy Chancellor of the University of New South Wales.
Background and career
Pascoe was raised in and , the only child of a grazier ...
,
Chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia: ''Sleepwalking through the minefield: commercial surrogacy and the global response''.
*2019 –
Karen Fryar, former
Magistrate of the Australian Capital Territory: ''Pro bono: For whose benefit?''
*2020 – No lecture
Published papers
*“Law School Curricula in Retrospect” 9
Adelaide Law Review 43 (1983–1985)
Notes
References
Sources
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blackburn, Richard Arthur
1918 births
1987 deaths
Military personnel from South Australia
Chief justices of the Australian Capital Territory
Australian Book Review people
Australian Knights Bachelor
Australian Officers of the Order of the British Empire
Chancellors of the Australian National University
Judges of the Federal Court of Australia
Judges of the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory
Judges of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory
20th-century Australian judges
Australian Army personnel of World War II
Australian colonels
Blackburn family