Kevin Dixon (22 October 1902 – 7 June 1959) was an Irish barrister and judge who served as a Judge of the High Court from 1946 to 1959 and Attorney General of Ireland from 1942 to 1946. He was born in Dublin and educated at

Belvedere College Belvedere College S.J. (sometimes St Francis Xavier's College) is a voluntary secondary school for boys in Dublin, Ireland. The school has numerous alumni in the arts, politics, sports, science, and business. History Belvedere owes its origin ...

and University College Dublin. He was

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

in 1926 and became a Senior Counsel in 1940. He served as Attorney General of Ireland from 1942 to 1946 when he was appointed a judge of the High Court where he served until his death in 1959. He was generally considered the best Irish Chancery judge of his time with a particular knowledge of trade union law and the law of

charities A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definition of a cha ...

. Despite the inevitably dry subject matter of many of his judgements, some of them display a considerable sense of humour. He was the High Court judge in the celebrated Constitutional test case ''O'Byrne v Minister for Finance'' 959.R. 435 on the interpretation of the guarantee that a judge's salary shall not be reduced, a subject which remains controversial today. Dixon's ruling that notwithstanding the guarantee judges are liable to pay income tax was upheld by a majority of the Supreme Court. It was generally agreed that only his premature death prevented his promotion to the

Supreme Court of Ireland , image = Coat of arms of Ireland.svg , imagesize = 120px , alt = , caption = Coat of Arms of Ireland , image2 = Four Courts, Dublin 2014-09-13.jpg , imagesize2 = , alt2 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dixon, Kevin 1902 births 1959 deaths Irish Senior Counsel High Court judges (Ireland) Attorneys General of Ireland Alumni of University College Dublin 20th-century American lawyers People educated at Belvedere College 20th-century Irish judges Lawyers from County Dublin