Kenneth William Asprey (15 July 1905 – 28 October 1993) was a judge of the

New South Wales Court of Appeal The New South Wales Court of Appeal, part of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, is the highest court for civil matters and has appellate jurisdiction in the Australian state of New South Wales. Jurisdiction The Court of Appeal operates pursu ...

, the highest court in the State of

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, Australia, which forms part of the

Australian court hierarchy The judiciary of Australia comprises judges who sit in federal courts and courts of the States and Territories of Australia. The High Court of Australia sits at the apex of the Australian court hierarchy as the ultimate court of appeal on mat ...

. He came to public prominence as a Royal Commissioner appointed to the second Voyager Royal Commission and on handing down of his review of the tax system in Australia in 1975. Although controversial at the time, the Asprey report on taxation has acted "as a guide and inspiration to governments and their advisers for the following 25 years." The main recommendations of the report have all been implemented and are today part of Commonwealth taxation in Australia. Professor

Gillian Triggs Gillian Doreen Triggs (born 30 October 1945) is an Australian academic specialising in public international law. In 2019, she was appointed by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres as Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nati ...

, Dean of the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's ...

Law School, at the 2011 launch of the Asprey Law Library Collection, described him as being "widely regarded as a leader of the NSW Bar. He was a noted mentor of young barristers, greatly admired by them and by his peers. He was a justice of the inaugural NSW Court of Appeal, and a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George was awarded to him in recognition of his services to the law."Asprey Law Library Collection
Retrieved 24 August 2012

Early life

Asprey was born in Sydney and educated at

Newington College , motto_translation = To Faith Add Knowledge , location = Inner West and Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales , country = Australia , coordinates = , pushpin_map = A ...

(1914–1922) and the University of Sydney (1923–1928), where he graduated in

arts The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both ...

and

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

Legal career

In 1929, Asprey commenced practising as a solicitor and in 1929 went to the

bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

. He took

silk Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from the ...

in 1952 and was appointed to the

Supreme Court of New South Wales The Supreme Court of New South Wales is the highest state court of the Australian State of New South Wales. It has unlimited jurisdiction within the state in civil matters, and hears the most serious criminal matters. Whilst the Supreme Court ...

in 1962. On its commencement in 1966, he was appointed to the NSW Court of Appeal. In the same year he was appointed to the second Voyager Royal Commission. Asprey retired from the bench in 1975. An obituary, written by Sir Anthony Mason, was published in

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

on 5 November 1993. At the opening of the 2008 law term Mason spoke of his memories of working with Asprey.

Government appointments

* Chairman, NSW Parliamentary Remuneration Tribunal (1975–1976) * Chairman, Commonwealth Tax Review Committee (1972–1975)

Honours

* Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (1977) in recognition of service to the governmentIt's an Honour
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Asprey Law Library Collection

In 2011, Asprey’s daughter, Sally Stitt, and her husband, Robert Stitt QC, donated his law library to the University of Sydney. Known as the Asprey Law Library Collection, it features a comprehensive array of English and Australian law journals, reports and textbooks, with some reports dating back to the early days of the Colony. Many of the journals contain Asprey's detailed annotations.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Asprey, Kenneth 1905 births 1993 deaths People educated at Newington College 20th-century King's Counsel Australian King's Counsel Judges of the Supreme Court of New South Wales Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George Sydney Law School alumni