The High Court of Australia is composed of seven justices: the chief justice of Australia and six other justices. There have been 57 justices who have served as justices of the High Court since its formation under the Judiciary Act 1903. Under Section 71 of the Australian Constitution, the judicial power of the Commonwealth of Australia is vested in the court, and it has been the highest court in the Australian court hierarchy since the passing of the Australia Act 1986.

In a May 2017 speech, Justice Virginia Bell observed that "few Australians outside the law schools are likely to be able to name the Chief Justice, let alone the puisne justices 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, 13 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 57 justices of the High Court; fifty have been men and seven women. The first female justice was Mary Gaudron who served from 1987 to 2003. Susan Crennan was a justice from 2005 to 2015, and Virginia Bell from 2009 to 2021. Susan Kiefel was the first woman to be appointed Chief Justice of Australia. She was appointed in 2017 and had been a justice from 2007 to 2017. Of the seven current justices, four are men, including the chief justice, and three are women. Michelle Gordon was appointed in 2015 and Jacqueline Gleeson in 2021, replacing Bell. Jayne Jagot replaced Justice Keane on the court in 2022, giving women a majority on the High Court for a period of just over a year.

Thirteen 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. The most recent justice to serve in state or federal parliament is Lionel Murphy.

The majority of justices have come from the eastern states, particularly New South Wales (29 justices), Victoria (16 justices) and Queensland (8 justices). It was not until 1979 that a justice was appointed from Western Australia. There has never been a justice from South Australia. Robert Beech-Jones was born in Tasmania but went to university in Canberra and spent most of his career in Sydney.

Most justices had previously served as judges of other Australian courts prior to their appointment to the High Court. Prior to the creation of the Federal Court of Australia in 1976, this was primarily the Supreme Courts of the States. Since 1976, a number of justices of the Federal Court have been appointed to the High Court. A small number of justices served on both a State Supreme Court and the Federal Court before being appointed to the High Court.

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

# Image Name State Birth – death Position Termbegan Termended Time in office PM at app't Prev. experience Notes 1 Qld 1845–1920 Chief justice Deakin Chief justice,Sup Ct of Qld 2 NSW 1849–1920 Justice Deakin None Former prime ministerDied in office 3 NSW 1851–1912 Justice Deakin None Died in office 4 Vic 1855–1948 Justice Deakin None Resigned to be appointed governor-general Chief justice Scullin 5 Vic 1851–1929 Justice Deakin None Died in office 6 Vic 1852–1936 Justice Fisher None Chief justice Scullin 7 Qld 1853–1939 Justice Fisher None 8* NSW 1862–1945 Justice Fisher None Resigned before sitting 9 NSW 1863–1956 Justice Fisher Sup Ct of NSW 10 NSW 1863–1932 Chief justice Hughes None 11 Vic 1871–1958 Justice Hughes None 12 Vic 1886–1972 Justice Bruce None Chief justice Menzies 13 NSW 1894–1965 Justice Scullin None Resigned to return to politics 14 NSW 1892–1990 Justice Scullin None 15 Vic 1877–1964 Chief justice Lyons None 16 NSW 1889–1963 Justice Menzies Sup Ct of NSW 17 Qld 1887–1972 Justice Chifley Chief justice,Sup Ct of Qld 18 Vic 1892–1961 Justice Menzies Sup Ct of Vic Died in office 19 NSW 1903–1994 Justice Menzies None 20 NSW 1901–1969 Justice Menzies Sup Ct of NSW Died in office 21 Vic 1907–1974 Justice Menzies None Died in office 22 NSW 1900–1987 Justice Menzies None 23 NSW 1899–1972 Justice Menzies Sup Ct of NSW Died in office 24 NSW 1903–1997 Chief justice Menzies None 25 NSW 1909–1973 Justice Gorton Sup Ct of NSWNSW Ct of App Died in office 26 Qld 1917–2005 Justice Gorton Fed Ct of BKSup Ct of Qld Chief justice Fraser 27 Vic 1923–2017 Justice McMahon Sup Ct of VicResigned to be appointed governor-general 28 NSW 1925–2026 Justice McMahon Sup Ct of NSWNSW Ct of App Previously Solicitor-General of Australia Chief justice Hawke 29 NSW 1917–2015 Justice Whitlam Sup Ct of NSWNSW Ct of App 30 NSW 1922–1986 Justice Whitlam None Died in office 31 Vic 1916–1982 Justice Fraser None Died in office 32 WA 1922–2005 Justice Fraser None 33 Qld 1928–2022 Justice Fraser Fed Ct Chief justice Keating 34 NSW 1931– Justice Fraser Fed CtResigned to be appointed governor-general 35 Vic 1933– Justice Fraser None 36 WA 1930–2015 Justice Hawke Fed Ct 37 NSW 1943–2026 Justice Hawke None 38 NSW 1935– Justice Hawke Sup Ct of NSWNSW Ct of App 39 NSW 1942–2026 Justice Keating Fed Ct 40 NSW 1939– Justice Keating Sup Ct of NSWPres, NSW Ct of App 41 Vic 1945– Justice Howard Sup Ct of VicVic Ct of App 42 Qld 1937– Justice , Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 31 August 2007. Retrieved 31 August 2007. Howard None 43 NSW 1938– Chief justice Howard Chief justice,Sup Ct of NSW 44 NSW 1943– Justice Howard Sup Ct of NSWNSW Ct of App 45 Vic 1945– Justice Howard Fed Ct 46 Qld 1954– Justice Howard Sup Ct of QldFed Ct Chief justice Turnbull 47 WA 1947– Chief justice Rudd Fed Ct 48 NSW 1951– Justice Rudd Sup Ct of NSWNSW Ct of App 49 NSW 1958– Justice Incumbent Gillard NonePreviously Solicitor-General of Australia Chief justice Incumbent Albanese 50 Qld 1952– Justice Gillard Sup Ct of QldFed Ct 51 Vic 1950– Justice Abbott Sup Ct of Vic 52 Vic 1964– Justice Incumbent Abbott Fed Ct 53 WA 1974– Justice Incumbent Turnbull Fed CtSup Ct of WA 54 Vic 1969– Justice Incumbent Morrison Fed Ct 55 NSW 1966– Justice Incumbent Morrison Fed Ct56 NSW1964/65–Justice Incumbent AlbaneseFed CtNSW LEC57 NSWc.1964Justice Incumbent AlbaneseSup Ct of NSW

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.

See also High Court of Australia List of chief justices of Australia by time in office List of jurists List of law schools attended by Australian High Court justices

References

External links