Chief Justice of Australia - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Chief Justice of Australia is the informal title for the presiding justice of the High Court of Australia

High Court of Australia

The High Court of Australia is the supreme court in the Australian court hierarchy and the final court of appeal in Australia. It has both original and appellate jurisdiction, has the power of judicial review over laws passed by the Parliament of Australia and the parliaments of the States, and...

and the highest-ranking judicial officer in the Commonwealth of Australia. The present incumbent is Robert French

Robert French

Robert Shenton French, AC is Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia, the highest court in the Australian court hierarchy....

.

The office of Chief Justice of the High Court is established under section 71 of the Australian Constitution

Constitution of Australia

The Constitution of Australia is the supreme law under which the Australian Commonwealth Government operates. It consists of several documents. The most important is the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia...

, which establishes the High Court as consisting of a Chief Justice and at least two other Justices.

The Chief Justice is first among equals

First Among Equals

First Among Equals is a 1984 novel by British author Jeffrey Archer, which follows the careers and personal lives of four fictional British politicians from 1964 to 1991, with each vying to become Prime...

among the Justices of the High Court, and the position differs little from that of the other members. The one substantial difference between a Chief Justice and any of the other members of the Court is that, by operation of section 23(2) of the Judiciary Act 1903, where opinion on the court is evenly divided, that side of the question supported by the Chief Justice is the side which prevails.

As with all other Justices of Federal courts, appointment is until the mandatory retirement age of seventy. Before 1977, appointment was for life. As the workload of the Court has steadily increased, more Justices have retired before reaching the mandatory retirement age.

The Chief Justice often acts as the Governor-General's

Governor-General of Australia

The Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia is the representative in Australia at federal/national level of the Australian monarch . He or she exercises the supreme executive power of the Commonwealth...

deputy, especially at ceremonies such as the opening of Parliament

Parliament of Australia

The Parliament of Australia, also known as the Commonwealth Parliament or Federal Parliament, is the legislative branch of the government of Australia. It is bicameral, largely modelled in the Westminster tradition, but with some influences from the United States Congress...

after an election.

The Chief Justice also administers the Oaths of Office and Allegiance to the monarch to the Governor-General-designate when he or she takes up his or her appointment. http://www.governorgeneral.gov.au/governorgeneral/content.php?id=4

List of Chief Justices of Australia

No.	Chief Justice	Term of Office	Nominating Prime Minister
1	Sir Samuel Griffith Samuel Griffith Sir Samuel Walker Griffith GCMG QC, was an Australian politician, Premier of Queensland, Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia and a principal author of the Constitution of Australia.-Early life:...		Alfred Deakin Alfred Deakin Alfred Deakin , Australian politician, was a leader of the movement for Australian federation and later the second Prime Minister of Australia. In the last quarter of the 19th century, Deakin was a major contributor to the establishment of liberal reforms in the colony of Victoria, including the...
2	Sir Adrian Knox Adrian Knox Sir Adrian Knox KCMG, KC , Australian judge, was the second Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia, sitting on the bench of the High Court from 1919 to 1930.-Education:...	18 October 1919 – 31 March 1930	Billy Hughes Billy Hughes William Morris "Billy" Hughes, CH, KC, MHR , Australian politician, was the seventh Prime Minister of Australia from 1915 to 1923....
3	Sir Isaac Isaacs Isaac Isaacs Sir Isaac Alfred Isaacs GCB GCMG KC was an Australian judge and politician, was the third Chief Justice of Australia, ninth Governor-General of Australia and the first born in Australia to occupy that post. He is the only person ever to have held both positions of Chief Justice of Australia and...	2 April 1930 – 21 January 1931	James Scullin James Scullin James Henry Scullin , Australian Labor politician and the ninth Prime Minister of Australia. Two days after he was sworn in as Prime Minister, the Wall Street Crash of 1929 occurred, marking the beginning of the Great Depression and subsequent Great Depression in Australia.-Early life:Scullin was...
4	Sir Frank Gavan Duffy Frank Gavan Duffy Sir Frank Gavan Duffy, KCMG, PC, QC , Australian judge, was the fourth Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia, sitting on the bench of the High Court from 1913 to 1935.-Early life:...	22 January 1931 – 1 October 1935	James Scullin James Scullin James Henry Scullin , Australian Labor politician and the ninth Prime Minister of Australia. Two days after he was sworn in as Prime Minister, the Wall Street Crash of 1929 occurred, marking the beginning of the Great Depression and subsequent Great Depression in Australia.-Early life:Scullin was...
5	Sir John Latham	11 October 1935 – 7 April 1952	Sir Joseph Lyons Joseph Lyons Joseph Aloysius Lyons, CH was an Australian politician. He was Labor Premier of Tasmania from 1923 to 1928 and a Minister in the James Scullin government from 1929 until his resignation from the Labor Party in March 1931...
6	Sir Owen Dixon Owen Dixon Sir Owen Dixon, OM, GCMG, KC Australian judge and diplomat, was the sixth Chief Justice of Australia. A justice of the High Court for thirty-five years, Dixon was one of the leading jurists in the English-speaking world and is widely regarded as Australia's greatest ever jurist.-Education:Dixon...	18 April 1952 – 13 April 1964	Sir Robert Menzies Robert Menzies Sir Robert Gordon Menzies, , Australian politician, was the 12th and longest-serving Prime Minister of Australia....
7	Sir Garfield Barwick Garfield Barwick Sir Garfield Edward John Barwick, was the Attorney-General of Australia , Minister for External Affairs and the seventh and longest serving Chief Justice of Australia...	27 April 1964 – 11 February 1981	Sir Robert Menzies Robert Menzies Sir Robert Gordon Menzies, , Australian politician, was the 12th and longest-serving Prime Minister of Australia....
8	Sir Harry Gibbs Harry Gibbs Sir Harry Talbot Gibbs, GCMG, AC, KBE, QC was Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia from 1981 to 1987 after serving as a member of the High Court between 1970 and 1981...	12 February 1981 – 5 February 1987	Malcolm Fraser Malcolm Fraser John Malcolm Fraser AC, CH, GCL, PC is a former Australian Liberal Party politician who was the 22nd Prime Minister of Australia. He came to power in the 1975 election following the dismissal of the Whitlam Labor government, in which he played a key role...
9	Sir Anthony Mason	6 February 1987 – 20 April 1995	Bob Hawke Bob Hawke Robert James Lee "Bob" Hawke AC GCL was the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia from March 1983 to December 1991 and therefore longest serving Australian Labor Party Prime Minister....
10	Sir Gerard Brennan Gerard Brennan Sir Francis Gerard Brennan, AC, KBE, QC , is an Australian lawyer, judge and 10th Chief Justice of Australia. He is father to Jesuit priest and lawyer Frank Brennan....	21 April 1995 – 21 May 1998	Paul Keating Paul Keating Paul John Keating was the 24th Prime Minister of Australia, serving from 1991 to 1996. Keating was elected as the federal Labor member for Blaxland in 1969 and came to prominence as the reformist treasurer of the Hawke Labor government, which came to power at the 1983 election...
11	Murray Gleeson Murray Gleeson Anthony Murray Gleeson AC QC is a former Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia, the highest court in the Australian court hierarchy.-Biography:Gleeson was born in Wingham, New South Wales, the eldest of four children...	22 May 1998 – 29 August 2008	John Howard John Howard John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
12	Robert French Robert French Robert Shenton French, AC is Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia, the highest court in the Australian court hierarchy....	1 September 2008 –	Kevin Rudd Kevin Rudd Kevin Michael Rudd is an Australian politician who was the 26th Prime Minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010. He has been Minister for Foreign Affairs since 2010...

List of Chief Justices of Australia

See also