Ceremonial - Farewell - Gummow J - Canberra [2012] HCATrans 237 (3 October 2012)

Last Updated: 3 October 2012

[2012] HCATrans 237

H I G H C O U R T O F A U S T R A L I A

REMARKS TO FAREWELL

THE HONOURABLE JUSTICE WILLIAM GUMMOW, AC

AS A JUSTICE OF THE HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA

AT

CANBERRA

ON

WEDNESDAY, 3 OCTOBER 2012, AT 10.02 AM

FRENCH CJ: As this is the last occasion on which Justice Gummow will sit with all of us before his retirement I wish to make some remarks by way of farewell.

The Honourable Justice William Gummow AC who was sworn in as a Justice of this Court on 21 April 1995 retires from office next week upon attaining the age of 70. We take the opportunity this morning to farewell him and to honour his great service to this Court and to the nation.

I acknowledge the presence in Court of the Attorney-General of the Commonwealth.

At the time of his appointment to this Court Justice Gummow had served nearly eight and a half years as a member of the Federal Court of Australia, to which he was appointed on 24 November 1986. He joined that court with a formidable reputation as a legal scholar, author, teacher, practitioner and advocate. By the time he left it he had established a high reputation as one of its intellectual leaders. Many of his judgments on a variety of topics, which his Honour wrote while on the Federal Court, are still cited in this Court and in courts around the country.

When Justice Gummow was welcomed to this Court in 1995, Mrs Susan Crennan, later to join the High Court as one of his colleagues but then representing the Australian Bar Association, said, “It is the variety of your Honour’s experience in the law as a scholar, teacher, solicitor, barrister, writer of leading texts and judge of the Federal Court which has enabled your Honour to develop an outstanding reputation in the law such that your Honour’s appointment to the High Court has been universally applauded”.

As all who have read his judgments know, Justice Gummow’s work as a Justice of the High Court for 17 and a half years has been marked by deep thought and consideration of the issues informed by that learning and scholarship which he brought with him on his appointment. It was a learning and scholarship which was rooted in an understanding of legal history and a degree of scepticism about grand organising theories and top-down reasoning.

His generosity of spirit also led him to shoulder a considerable share of the burden of judgment writing and to do so in a way that often elicited the agreement of a majority of his colleagues. His Honour has been the most collegial of colleagues in the judicial work of the Court and also in its administration and other extra-curial duties.

Justice Gummow’s work has been noted well beyond Australia’s shores. As a judge he has an international reputation. He has also helped to ensure that the Court is open to the influences of relevant legal thinking in other countries. He has been an active member of the American Law Institute for the past 15 years and has ensured that its important work in the Restatements of various areas of the common law has been used appropriately in the judgments of this Court.

All of his colleagues count Justice Gummow as a friend. We are going to miss his company and his sharp, incisive and often humorous conversation. We thank him for his friendship and the great contribution he has made, from which all of us and the nation have benefited. We know that his retirement will not be restful. We wish him well in it.

The Court will now adjourn to reconstitute.

AT 10.06 AM SHORT ADJOURNMENT