August 13, 2007
Breaking news: Kiefel appointed Justice of the High Court of Australia
According to a report in The Age online, Justice Kiefel of the Federal Court of Australia has been appointed as successor to Mr Justice Callinan, who must retire by 31 August 2007.
Ms Justice Kiefel was born in Queensland and studied at Cambridge. Her Honour has handed down some important trade practices, immigration and taxation decisions. According to this document on the Federal Court’s website:
Justice Kiefel is a member of the Board of the Key Centre for Ethics, Law, Justice and Governance, a Council member of the Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Organising Committee for Congress of Comparative Law for the University of Queensland. Her Honour addressed the Year 12 students at All Hallows Convent in Brisbane on ‘A Judicial Career’.
Interestingly, this means that five of the seven justices presently constituting the High Court have been appointed by the current federal government.
Posted by Jaani at 8:06 PM | Comments (2)
May 7, 2006
Judicial Appointments in Victoria
Supreme Court Justice Robert Redlich has been appointed to the Court of Appeal and Anthony Cavanough QC is a Judge of the Supreme Court.
Posted by Jaani at 10:55 AM | Comments (0)
October 29, 2005
Crown Courts Embrace New Technology
According to this article on CNET News, ‘The Xhibit (‘eXchanging Hearing Information By Internet Technology’) system, now rolled out to 50 Crown courts in England and Wales, allows court clerks to update information about hearings as they happen.
The system enables police, prosecutors and witness groups to get case details in minutes rather than days. Updates can be received by text email or pager, and the public can follow court hearings online or via public display screens in court. …
Xhibit has an alert function that can alert police officers by SMS when they have to give evidence. Before the system was in place, only 3 percent of police time in court was actually spent giving evidence.
Constitutional Affairs Minister Harriet Harman said in a statement: ‘Attending court can be stressful at the best of times. With Xhibit witnesses can, using the latest technology, now be more in touch with the progress on their case.’ The government hopes the system will save 80,000 police days a year by reducing the amount of time wasted waiting to give evidence. …
Rollout of the system is due to be completed by April 2006.
Posted by Jaani at 9:59 AM | Comments (0)
October 15, 2005
Reflecting on Appellate Decisions
The Sydney Morning Herald has published a fascinating review of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, with reference to the number of their decisions subsequently overturned by the High Court of Australia:
If the NSW Court of Appeal was a batsman it would not even have an average this year. Fifteen of its decisions have made it to the High Court, and on all 15 occasions the nation’s top court said the state’s top court got it wrong.
In seven of the cases the trial judge’s verdict was restored — along with some chastising of the appeal court for interfering with correct decisions by juries.
In fact, this year the High Court has upheld more appeals than ever. Herald research shows that of 52 cases, 40 decisions of lower courts have been reversed — a success rate of almost 80 per cent.
Last year it upheld only 34 of 55, and in 2003 it was 33 of 56. Last year only 12 of 20 appeals against NSW decisions succeeded.
However, the court takes on only those cases that will raise an interesting point of law or which have reasonable prospects of success. In 2002-03 there were 609 applications for special leave to the court. There were 795 in 2003-04 and 876 last financial year. This translates into a success rate between 6 per cent and 8 per cent, given the court has time for 50 to 60 cases a year.
However, as Professor Lynch observes, the outcome does not necessarily reflect upon their Honours the Justices of Appeal, for those cases which are taken as far as the High Court (and which, for that matter, are granted leave) are ‘among the most complex and difficult’.
Nevertheless, trial judges do appear to take some delight in their decisions being upheld:
So it was last week for Justice Ronald Sackville, who is conducting the marathon C7 litigation brought by the executive chairman of Channel Seven, Kerry Stokes.
In Stevens v Sony, he decided that mod chips did not infringe copyright — but the full Federal Court went with the electronic giant. The High Court accepted Justice Sackville’s reasoning, which led to the following exchange with News Limited counsel Noel Hutley, SC, last week.
Sackville: Mr Hutley wants to say something about tomorrow. I was actually hoping Mr Bannon [counsel for Sony] would be here today so I could gloat over the decision in Stevens v Sony. Sometimes the High Court gets it right.
Hutley: They will be pleased to hear that.
Sackville: It will be of great comfort to them.
Hutley: They always seem to be racked with self-doubt.
Comedy gold. Full transcript soon forthcoming.
Posted by Jaani at 7:22 PM | Comments (0)
October 6, 2005
Bush Supreme Court Nominee Former Microsoft Lawyer
DaveM writes "Bush's most recent Supreme Court nominee, Harriet Miers, successfully argued that people who were sold defective software by Microsoft weren't "injured," and couldn't participate in a class action against the company. The case involved unstable compression features in MS DOS 6.0, which were corrected by a $9.95 update, MS DOS 6.2. Plaintiffs wanted Microsoft to offer the updates for free, but eventually lost to Miers' arguments."Posted by Jaani at 9:55 PM | Comments (0)
Courting Division
Split decisions are nearly inevitable in the [United States] Supreme Court.Posted by Jaani at 9:27 PM | Comments (0)
September 20, 2005
Justice Crennan Appointed to the High Court of Australia
The Honourable Justice Susan Crennan, previously a justice of the Federal Court of Australia, has been appointed to the High Court by Attorney-General Phillip Ruddock. Justice Crennan, aged 60, can serve for up to ten years, and will replace McHugh J who is due to retire in November.
Although Crennan J will be just the second female appointee in the Court’s history, Mr Ruddock was quick to dispell the idea that any factor beyond merit influenced the decision:
‘The government sought to appoint someone who has demonstrated, through the quality of her jurisprudence and her leadership, that she has the confidence of the legal profession and the broader Australian community’, Mr Ruddock said today.
‘The essential criterion for judicial appointment is merit, but merit means legal excellence, a capacity for industry and a temperament suited to the performance of the judicial function’, he said.
Mr Ruddock also announced today that seven prominent Australians, including former High Court justice Owen Dixon, would have Commonwealth law courts named after them.
That merit should be the primary criterion for appointment is beyond question. Naturally, diversity — both of gender and state of origin — is also a Good Thing. The approach to selection manifested by this appointment seems to have effectively balanced these two imperatives.
‘I have never announced these appointments on the basis of gender’, [Ruddock] said.
‘It reflects the fact that we have very able women who are able to serve at the very highest level on the basis of their skills, ability and talent.’
More coverage:
CCH Australia
The Age
ABC News Online
Update: further comments and speculation from Professor Weatherall:
Notably, IP was one of Justice Crennan’s specialties at the Bar, and she has judged a few IP cases, including patent cases, in her tenure on the Federal Court. Will Gummow J have a challenger for his general dominance in IP matters on our High Court?
Posted by Jaani at 5:29 PM | Comments (0)
September 18, 2005
Nuclear Showdown over United States Supreme Court Nominee?
'Election-law superblogger Rick Hasen has a very interesting post on the question whether the next nominee for the Supreme Court -- the replacement for Justice O'Connor -- will provoke a "nuclear showdown". By "nuclear showdown", Rick means a filibuster by Senate Democrats that provokes the so-called "nuclear option", ie the use of a parliamentary maneuver to amend the Senate Rules and amend the cloture rules for judicial nominations.'
Posted by Jaani at 12:21 PM | Comments (0)
September 15, 2005
Gender, geography and philosophy — what gets a look-in for the next High Court Appointment?
Labor’s justice spokeswoman Nicola Roxon says the government should look beyond the usual narrow confines which dictate appointments to Australia’s highest court when it replaces Justice Michael McHugh later this year.Posted by Jaani at 12:58 AM | Comments (0)
September 2, 2005
Queensland Settles with Impugned Chief Magistrate
According to ABC News, 'Queensland has reached a financial and employment settlement with former chief magistrate Di Fingleton.'
Ms Fingleton had been seeking compensation and/or her old job back after the High Court found she was wrongly jailed for retaliating against a witness.
Queensland Attorney-General Linda Lavarch has announced the Government will make an ex-gratia payment of $475 000 to Ms Fingleton.
It will also appoint her as a magistrate in Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast.
Posted by Jaani at 11:24 AM | Comments (0)
August 27, 2005
Is John Roberts Too Much of a Judicial Activist?
John Roberts may hold extreme states' rights views, the kind that could sharply limit Congress's power to protect ordinary Americans.Posted by Jaani at 9:00 PM | Comments (0)
August 24, 2005
NSW Law Society Critiques Court Backlog
'Access to justice in NSW is in serious decline because of the state's lumbering and archaic court system, according to the NSW Law Society.'Posted by Jaani at 2:44 PM | Comments (0)
August 22, 2005
New Federal Court and AAT Appointees
Two new federal magistrates, Kevin Lapthorn and Keith Slack, and a part-time senior member of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, Andre Sweidan, have been appointed by Attorney-General Philip Ruddock.
In addition, Richard notes that there were two new County Court appointments announced in Melbourne today.
Judge Morrish said combining the oaths demonstrated Chief Judge Rozenes' commitment to "open and equal justice... In his response, Judge Leckie admitted being "as nervous as kitten" with an urge, from decades of standing at bar tables, to still spring to his feet.
Good to see Mr Hulls is still appointing judges of some athleticism, just in case counsel becomes too rowdy.
Posted by Jaani at 3:13 PM | Comments (0)
