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The following table contains the details of the 48 men and five women who have ever been appointed as Justices of the High Court of Australia. The High Court of Australia was formed in 1903 under the Judiciary Act 1903, and under Section 71 of the Australian Constitution the judicial power of the Commonwealth of Australia is vested in the Court. Since the passing of the Australia Act 1986, the court has been the highest court in the Australian court hierarchy.
Contents
History
The court is currently composed of seven judges, including six Justices and the Chief Justice of Australia.
Prior to 1977, appointments were for life. However, since 1977, appointments are made until the mandatory retirement age of 70. Due to the steady increase in the judicial workload, several Justices have retired before reaching the mandatory retirement age.
List of Justices
The current judges are listed in bold on the table below.
* Albert Piddington resigned from the High Court before being sworn in. He never sat on the High Court bench.
Composition of the High Court
13 politicians, serving or former, have been appointed to the High Court of Australia. Nine justices have served in the Parliament of Australia: Edmund Barton, Richard O'Connor, Isaac Isaacs, H. B. Higgins, Edward McTiernan, H. V. Evatt, John Latham, Garfield Barwick, 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. In addition to the above, four justices served in colonial parliaments: Samuel Griffith, Charles Powers, Albert Piddington and Adrian Knox, although all concluded their political careers more than 10 years prior to their appointments. No justice since Lionel Murphy has served in state or federal parliament.
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.