Ronald Merkel is an Australian jurist, who was formerly 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 ...

Education

Merkel was educated at Melbourne High School and the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...

, where he obtained a

Bachelor of Laws A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

in 1963.

Career

Merkel was admitted to the legal profession in March 1964 and was subsequently called to the bar in 1971. He was appointed

Queen's Counsel A King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) is a senior lawyer appointed by the monarch (or their Viceroy, viceregal representative) of some Commonwealth realms as a "Counsel learned in the law". When the reigning monarc ...

in November 1982. In 1985 Merkel, along with Uncle Jim Berg, and Ron Castan, sued the

and the Museum of Victoria for the return of their collections of Indigenous cultural material and through this act created the Koorie Heritage Trust. He served on the

between 5 February 1996 and 15 May 2006 after which he returned to the bar. He is known for "''Shaw v Wolf''" (1998), which dealt with the definition of people as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander for the purposes of applying the ''Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission Act 1989''. He established three criteria to consider when determining whether a person is Aboriginal: descent, self-identification and community recognition. In December 2011, the Australian Human Rights Commission awarded him the 2011 Human Rights Medal for "his extensive human rights advocacy".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Merkel, Ron Judges of the Federal Court of Australia 20th-century King's Counsel University of Melbourne alumni People educated at Melbourne High School Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Australian King's Counsel