The

High Court of Australia The High Court of Australia is Australia's apex court. It exercises Original jurisdiction, original and appellate jurisdiction on matters specified within Constitution of Australia, Australia's Constitution. The High Court was established fol ...

is composed of seven Justices: the

Chief Justice of Australia The Chief Justice of Australia is the presiding Justice of the High Court of Australia and the highest-ranking judicial officer in the Commonwealth of Australia. The incumbent is Susan Kiefel, who is the first woman to hold the position. Co ...

and six other Justices. There have been 56 Justices who have served as Justices of the High Court since its formation under the ''

Judiciary Act 1903 The ''Judiciary Act 1903'' (Cth) is an Act of the Parliament of Australia that regulates the structure of the Australian judicial system and confers jurisdiction on Australian federal courts. It is one of the oldest pieces of Australian federa ...

''. Under Section 71 of the

Australian Constitution The Constitution of Australia (or Australian Constitution) is a constitutional document that is supreme law in Australia. It establishes Australia as a federation under a constitutional monarchy and outlines the structure and powers of the ...

, the judicial power of the Commonwealth of Australia is vested in the court, and it has been the

highest court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

in 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 matter ...

since the passing of the '' Australia Act 1986''. In a May 2017 speech, Justice

Virginia Bell Virginia Bell may refer to: * Virginia Bell (judge) (born 1951), Australian judge * Virginia Bell (actress) (1934–2010), American topless actress * Virginia Bell (baseball) Virginia Bell (July 30, 1927 – April 19, 1994) was a pitcher and ...

observed that "few Australians outside the law schools are likely to be able to name the Chief Justice, let alone the

puisne Justices A puisne judge or puisne justice (; from french: puisné or ; , 'since, later' + , 'born', i.e. 'junior') is a dated term for an ordinary judge or a judge of lesser rank of a particular court. Use The term is used almost exclusively in common law ...

of the High Court".

History

Initially, there were three Justices of the High Court – Chief Justice Sir Samuel Griffith, Justice Sir Edmund Barton and Justice Richard Edward O'Connor. The number was expanded in 1906, at the request of the Justices, to five, with the appointment of Justices Sir Isaac Isaacs and H. B. Higgins. After O'Connor's death in 1912, an amendment to the ''Judiciary Act 1903'' expanded the bench to seven. For most of 1930, two seats were left vacant due to monetary constraints placed on the court by the Depression. The economic downturn had also led to a reduction in litigation and consequently less work for the court. After Isaacs retired in 1931, his seat was left empty, and in 1933 an amendment to the ''Judiciary Act'' officially reduced the number of seats to six. However, this led to some decisions being split three-all. With the appointment of William Webb in 1946, the number of seats returned to seven, and since then the court has had seven Justices. there have been 55 Justices, thirteen of whom have been Chief Justice. Appointments to the court were for life until 1977, when a mandatory retirement age of 70 was established, though several post-1977 Justices have retired before reaching the age of 70 (William Deane resigned as a Justice to be appointed Governor-General).

Composition of the High Court

There have been 56 Justices of the High Court; forty-nine have been men and seven women. The first female Justice was

Mary Gaudron Mary Genevieve Gaudron (born 5 January 1943), is an Australian lawyer and judge, who was the first female Justice of the High Court of Australia. She was the Solicitor-General of New South Wales from 1981 until 1987 before her appointment to ...

who was a Justice from 1987 to 2003. Susan Crennan was a Justice from 2005 to 2015, and

from 2009 to 2021. The current

Susan Kiefel is the first woman to have been appointed to the position. She was appointed in 2017 and had been a Justice from 2007 to 2017. Of the seven current Justices, four are women, including the Chief Justice.

Michelle Gordon Michelle Marjorie Gordon (born 19 November 1964) is a Justice of the High Court of Australia. She was appointed to the High Court in June 2015. Prior to her appointment, she was a Justice of the Federal Court of Australia, to which she was appoi ...

was appointed in 2015 and

Jacqueline Gleeson Jacqueline Sarah Gleeson (born 7 March 1966) is an Australian judge. She has been a Justice of the High Court of Australia since 1 March 2021, and was a judge of the Federal Court of Australia, based in Sydney, from April 2014 to February 2021. ...

in 2021, replacing Bell. Jayne Jagot replaced Justice Keane on the court in 2022, giving women a majority on the High Court for the first time. 13 politicians, serving or former, have been appointed to the High Court of Australia. Nine Justices have served in the

Parliament of Australia The Parliament of Australia (officially the Federal Parliament, also called the Commonwealth Parliament) is the legislature, legislative branch of the government of Australia. It consists of three elements: the monarch (represented by the ...

Edmund Barton Sir Edmund "Toby" Barton, (18 January 18497 January 1920) was an Australian politician and judge who served as the first prime minister of Australia from 1901 to 1903, holding office as the leader of the Protectionist Party. He resigned to ...

, Richard O'Connor, Isaac Isaacs,

H. B. Higgins Henry Bournes Higgins KC (30 June 1851 – 13 January 1929) was an Australian lawyer, politician, and judge. He served on the High Court of Australia from 1906 until his death in 1929, after briefly serving as Attorney-General of Australia in ...

, Edward McTiernan,

H. V. Evatt Herbert Vere Evatt, (30 April 1894 – 2 November 1965) was an Australian politician and judge. He served as a judge of the High Court of Australia from 1930 to 1940, Attorney-General and Minister for External Affairs from 1941 to 1949, and l ...

, John Latham,

Garfield Barwick Sir Garfield Edward John Barwick, (22 June 190313 July 1997) was an Australian judge who was the seventh and longest serving Chief Justice of Australia, in office from 1964 to 1981. He had earlier been a Liberal Party politician, serving as a ...

, and Lionel Murphy. All but Evatt were appointed after their parliamentary service; Evatt resigned from the bench in order to pursue his federal political career, although he had previously served in the

New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament Ho ...

. In addition to the above, four Justices served in colonial parliaments: Samuel Griffith, Charles Powers, Albert Piddington and

Adrian Knox Sir Adrian Knox KCMG, KC (29 November 186327 April 1932) was an Australian lawyer and judge who served as the second Chief Justice of Australia, in office from 1919 to 1930. Knox was born in Sydney, the son of businessman Sir Edward Knox. He ...

, although all concluded their political careers more than 10 years prior to their appointments. As of 2020, the most recent Justice to serve in state or federal parliament is Lionel Murphy.

List of Justices

The current judges are listed in bold on the table below.

Current Justices

Seats of the High Court

This following chart illustrates the composition of the High Court. It indicates the seven seats of the court, and who has occupied each seat at different points in the court's existence. The red portions represent the future part of a judge's term and show the date at which they are bound to retire from the court (although they may choose to retire before that date). The blue portions of a judge's term show a period in which that judge was Chief Justice.

References

External links

High Court of Australia – official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:High Court of Australia,Judges Lists of judges of Australian superior courts Lists of office-holders in Australia Lists of Australian judges

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...