Australia honours to champions of human rights for the downtrodden
Address given by Justice Kirby at the Launch of the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law, Monash University
Judicial papers
Speeches and Articles by Current Justices
The High Court of Australia publishes speeches and articles by current and former Justices and High Court Lectures.
Special Collection
The Honourable Justice Michael Kirby AC CMG
The Honourable Justice Michael Kirby AC CMG is an international jurist, educator and former judge. He served as a Deputy President of the Australian Conciliation and Arbitration Commission (1975-83); Chairman of the Australian Law Reform Commission (1975-84); Judge of the Federal Court of Australia (1983-4); President of the New South Wales Court of Appeal (1984-96); President of the Court of Appeal of Solomon Islands (1995-96) and Justice of the High Court of Australia (1996-2009).
This collection contains written materials produced by Justice Michael Kirby across 1993-2001. These materials include speeches, papers, articles, lectures, reports, book reviews, epilogues and forewords, as selected by Justice Kirby. The post-1996 collection comprises materials relating to Justice Kirby’s non-judicial activities since his appointment to the bench of the High Court of Australia. A complete collection of Justice Kirby’s papers, including those after 2001, are available here.
Democracy and human rights
Address given by Justice Kirby to Melbourne High School
Ethics and genetic discrimination
Address by Justice Kirby to Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences
Psychiatry, psychology, law and homosexuality – uncomfortable bedfellows
Lecture given by Justice Kirby at the R G Myers Memorial Lecture 2000
Manning Clark, ‘Bourgeois Democracy’ and Strange Tales from Supreme Courts
Professor Manning Clark was one of Australia’s foremost historians. He was highly critical of what he saw as Australia’s excessive attachment to Britain and its constitutional values which he regarded…
Sexuality and Australian Law
Address given by Justice Kirby to Committee 11 Discrimination & Gender Equity, Committee 19 Human Rights Law in Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Democracy and human rights
Those who set out to change the Australian Constitution must be long distance runners. This is not a task for the sprinter.
The Australian Republican referendum 1999 – ten lessons
Address by Justice Kirby to the Faculty of Law, University of Buckingham, UK
Conferral of Honorary LL.D at the University of Buckingham, United Kingdom
Alistair Alcock, Dean of the Buckingham Law School presented the HONOURABLE JUSTICE MICHAEL KIRBY for the degree of LLD, Honoris Causa at the Convocation on Saturday 4th March.
The new biology and international sharing – Lessons from the life and work of George P Smith II
Speech by Justice Kirby at the Inaugural Lecture of the George P Smith II, Distinguished Professorship – Chair of Law and Legal Research, Bloomington, Indiana, USA.
UNESCO, Human Rights and Courage
I have seen, and participated in, activities of UNESCO which have demonstrated the courage which its founders anticipated.
Same-Sex Relationships – Some Australian Legal Developments
The Wolfenden reforms in England, and their progeny, both responded to and stimulated changes in community opinion about homosexual conduct.
Human Genome Project – Legal Issues
Science and its sibling technology are the great engines of our time. They present global problems and promote global solutions.
Privacy Protection – A New Beginning?
The OECD Principles on Privacy had an importance extending far beyond their subject matter.
HIV Vaccine: Ethics and Human Rights
Most of the IBC sessions in Quito were concerned with subjects relevant to the implications for morality, law and society of the advances in genetic science.
Trans-Tasman Union – Was Sir Douglas Graham Right?
On 8 January 1999, New Zealanders woke to reports that the Justice Minister, Sir Douglas Graham, had predicted that New Zealand and Australia would come together in some kind of…
Judges and Police: Meeting New Challenges
Education at university level is necessary in the more complicated world of policing in the future.
Once Again, The Australian AIDS Memorial Quilt
In the age of the Internet, of global telecommunications and fast travel, it must seem to some to be an old-fashioned form of communication that we have chosen.
Why? Racism – Prejudice – Intolerance
We should ask ourselves of the other grounds of prejudice that exist today and dare not speak their name. Prejudice on the basis of HIV status. Prejudice on the basis…
Denning: Bold Spirit of the Law
Denning stepped down from the House of Lords in 1962 to assume the central seat in the Court of Appeal as Master of the Rolls.
Interview with Laurie Aarons
When the Communist Party was declared illegal early in the Second World War I had a little bootshop.
Walls of Silence
Read the poems. Look at the photographs. Consider the stories. These are images of Australian life; not of life in some far away, alien, impoverished land.
People of the Cedar
Today the High Court of Australia had a visit from a distinguished judge of the Supreme Court of Appeal of the Republic of South Africa.
Centenary of the Rt Hon Lord Denning
On 23 January 1999 at the Law School of the University of Buckingham in England a unique assembly of judges, practising lawyers and academics celebrated the 100th anniversary of the…
Leonie Kramer and the Constitution
Because Fort Street was established as the first model public school in Australia – and a symbol of the best that public education can offer to our citizens – it…
Human Freedom and the Human Genome
The recent celebration of the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights affords us a context for reflections upon human freedoms.
Courts & Judges in the Era of HIV/AIDS
I applaud this initiative to involve the judiciary of India in this workshop on HIV/AIDS. In this workshop, we will explore the features of the epidemic and the many legal…
Maroon and Silver
Because Fort Street was established as the first model public school in Australia – and a symbol of the best that public education can offer to our citizens – it…
Seeing the IBC’s Role in Context
The meeting in the Hague convenes on the eve of the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption, by the General Assembly of the United Nations, of the Universal Declaration of Human…
The Genome: A New Frontier for Human Rights
As we reflect on the extraordinary achievement, fifty years ago, of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we are brought to a realisation that the categories of…
Judge Giuseppe Federico Mancini
Judge G. Federico Mancini served as an Advocate General at the European Court of Justice from 1982 to 1988. He was appointed a Judge of the European Court of Justice in October 1988 and held office until his death in July 1999.
This collection encompasses three papers delivered by Judge Mancini of the European Court of Justice on a tour to Australia in October 1997. The tour was organised by the European Law Centre at the University of NSW and sponsored by the Law Foundation of NSW. The Foundation thanks the European Court of Justice and the European Law Centre at the University of NSW for allowing these papers to be published electronically.
The Practice, Procedure and Working methods of the European Court of Justice
This paper was delivered by Judge Mancini to a special public event on 29 October 1997, organised jointly by the European Law Centre, the Australian Law Reform Commission, the Bar…
An Analysis of the Public and Private Purposes of the Court of Justice of the European Communities
This paper was delivered by Judge Mancini at the UNSW Law Faculty on the 27 October 1997 The Law Foundation of NSW would like to thank the European Court of…
Europe: Is there a Case for Statehood?
This paper was the Judge Mancini’s inaugural address as a Professor of UNSW and the keynote address at the European Law Centre symposium, held on the 1 November 1997. The…