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attend your Honour's equity lectures; not The Hon Justice because it was compulsory and not because they were the only lectures, but John Dyson Heydon because of your Honour's strong expository style was of a kind which even On 11 February 2003 the Hon Justice we…understood was not likely to be Dyson Heydon was sworn in as a judge of replicated to the same quality anywhere else. the High Court of Australia, the 44th such appointment since the court’s Your Honour's teaching style could not be establishment in 1903. described as having succumbed to any new-fangled techniques of pedagogy. His Honour was welcomed to the Conversation was not encouraged, of any Bench by the Commonwealth Attorney- kind, and there was no pretence on your General, the Hon Daryl Williams AM QC Honour's part that there was any MP, the President of the Law Council of intellectual, cognitive, academic, scholarly Australia, Ron Heinrich, the President of or legal equality of interchange between the Australian Bar Association, A J Glynn lecturer and lectured. That approach had SC and the President of the New South two great advantages: first, it was entirely Justice Dyson Heydon after his High Court Wales Bar Association, Bret Walker SC. accurate; and, second, it permitted those swearing-in ceremony. Photo: News Archive The Attorney recounted for the of us on the unfavourable side of the assembled guests Justice Heydon’s comparison to try and do something about commented that during his three years on considerable scholastic achievements. bridging the unbridgeable gap. Those the Bench, Justice Heydon: qualities of strong, clear, unsentimental Born in Ottawa as the son of a diplomat, adorned volumes of the New South Wales exposition stood your Honour in great his Honour was educated in a number of Law Reports with written judgments that stead as an advocate at the Bar. have had a profound impact on the law. Of cities around the world, including London, His Honour commenced practice at particular note is your contribution to the Wellington, Rio de Janeiro, and Sydney, the NSW Bar in 1980, when he joined the law of expert evidence given in the Makita where he attended Shore and St Paul's eighth floor of Selborne Chambers. There v Sprowles decision, in which you provided College at the University of Sydney. He he read with Peter Hely (as he then was) seminal guidance on determining the graduated in 1964 with a Bachelor of Arts and worked with other senior barristers, validity of expert evidence. I have no degree with First Class Honours and the doubt that your background as an including AM Gleeson and RP Meagher University Medal in history. appellate judge, an advocate and an and WM Gummow, and the Hon TEF In 1964, his Honour was awarded a educator, your fine personal attributes and Hughes QC. Rhodes scholarship to study law at Oxford your extensive experience in careful Walker SC commented on the University. It was there that he was analysis and exposition of the law will transition from academia to practice, awarded the Martin Wronker prize for the serve you well in the discharge of the saying that ‘it was then a remarkable thing important duties of your new office. top first-class honours degree in law in for the Dean of the Law School to come to 1966. He completed the degree of Publishing and editing the junior bar. Your Honour carried off Bachelor of Civil Law and was awarded that remarkable feat remarkably well and In addition to being a respected legal the Vinerian Scholarship for the best your Honour soon came, figuratively, to academic and practitioner, his Honour has results in that course. tower at the Bar.’ been a prolific writer and editor of works Between 1967 and 1973 his Honour His Honour developed a very which have long been essential reading was a fellow of Keble College, Oxford, and successful practice based upon his for students and practitioners alike. The lectured in evidence and trusts at the Inns longstanding specialties of trade restraint of trade doctrine, published in of Court School in London from 1969 to practices, company law, equity and trusts. 1971, was quickly followed by numerous 1972. In 1973, he returned to Australia as His Honour was appointed Queen's others, including Economic torts (1973), Professor of Law at Sydney University Counsel in 1987 after only seven years in Casebook on evidence (1975), Heydon and Law School, where he lectured in equity, full-time practice. He served as a member Donald on trade practices law evidence, commercial and company law, of the New South Wales Bar Council from (subsequently Trade practices law) (1978). and restrictive trade practices. He became 1982 to 1987 For many years he was editor of Cross on the youngest person to head a law school evidence (Australian edition) the in Australia when he was appointed Dean The Court of Appeal Australian Law Reports, the New South of the Sydney University Law School in In February 2000 Justice Heydon was Wales Law Reports, Australian Bar Review 1978. elevated to the Supreme Court of New and Halsbury’s Laws of Australia. His Walker SC paid tribute to Justice South Wales and the Court of Appeal, an Honour has also published a large number Heydon’s academic career with a personal appointment which Walker SC described of journal articles on equity, expert recollection from his days as one of his as ‘popular and well-regarded in legal evidence, torts, trade practices and trusts. Honour’s law students: circles’ and noted that ‘everything that Walker SC capped off the welcoming An undergraduate population does not rise happened in the nigh on three years since speeches on a congratulatory note, saying early in a good or eager mood. I share with then from your Honour’s activities as a that: many others, therefore, some wonderment judge on the Court of Appeal vindicated if a Bar may be permitted, however at the way at which at 8.00am a crowded the applause for that appointment’. illegitimately, to feel pride in the lecture hall, well underground, would The Attorney-General had earlier preferment of one of its own, the New

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South Wales Bar is unashamedly proud of profession to remedy both these what is happening today. We wish you well The Honourable Justice deficiencies. Your Honour, however, in all of your discharge of your onerous Annabelle Bennett would have satisfied his criteria in being office, and we simply note that when your better than the best. Honour wrote last year in a collection of Your Honour's father, incidentally, essays, that…we live surrounded by a On 5 May 2003 Annabelle Bennett came from the small Polish town of legal world drifting towards chaos. Your SC was sworn in as a judge of the Sosnowiec. There must have been Honour is now at the apex of the system. It Federal Court of Australia. The is an apex from which more than one something in the water, because four Commonwealth Solicitor-General, broad field is supervised by this court. descendants of residents of that town Your Honour's activities, we are confident, David Bennett AO QC, began his have joined the Australian judiciary; will do something to contribute to this speech to welcome Justice Bennett to Chief Justice Spigelman of the Supreme court's arrest of that drift towards chaos. the court by noting that the Attorney- Court of New South Wales, Justice In reply, Justice Heydon began by General, who would otherwise have Hampel of the Supreme Court of paying tribute to Justice Mary Gaudron. delivered the address, was not there Victoria, now Professor Hampel, Chief The resignation of Justice Gaudron, he to speak in person because Justice Rosenes of the Victorian County said: ‘sometimes the first law officer Court and your Honour. Naturally, at the has left an immense hole in the ranks of accepts and acts on recommendations end of three years of science your those who administer the judicial branch from the second law officer’. The Honour proceeded to do an honour's of our federation. She stood high among following is an edited version of his year. Your Honour wrote a thesis on those best equipped for the task by entertaining and informative Mitachondrial populations in chick capacity, by training, particularly at the welcoming remarks. embryo livers, a tome which no doubt hands of the late Mr Justice Hutley, by When your Honour was in the third changed the world. Your Honour experience and by achievement…Personal class of Wenona school for girls primary proceeded to do a doctorate in experience of her abilities in oral school a defining event occurred in your biochemistry and delivered a thesis argument cannot survive oblivion in the Honour's life. Your Honour came second minds of those who had it, but there is entitled Some aspects of the nature and in the class. This was a defining event another benefit which will remain role of phospholiopids in spermatozoa of available for much longer. Any lawyer because it was the only occasion in your ram, bull, boar, dog, fowl, rabbit and attempting to analyse a novel or difficult Honour's primary and secondary school human - that no doubt being their problem can do no better than examine career in which your Honour did not top scientific order of importance. Nineteen any relevant judgments of hers. If they are the year both overall and in every scientific publications have flowed from read slowly, line by line, repeatedly, subject. your Honour's thesis. carefully and sympathetically, they create Ironically, your Honour never Then as now your Honour was a much fresher and clearer vision of the finished school. This is because you were uninhibited in discussing such matters. issue. One might not agree with either her in the first year of the Wyndham Scheme In 1973 your Honour attended a dinner reasoning or her conclusion, though very under which secondary education was at Admiralty House where you were often one would, but the question of increased from five to six years. At the agreement is not to the point. The value of seated next to the then governor-general end of fifth year your Honour decided to her judgments lies not so much in Sir Paul Hasluck. His Excellency compelling acceptance of a conclusion as spend a long vacation studying and to sit inquired what your Honour did and your in aiding readers to their own conclusions. for the matriculation examination in Honour told him in some detail the For that reason they will be read as long as January. This enabled your Honour to nature of the work you were doing for any parts of the Commonwealth Law proceed to enrol in science at the your thesis including the fact that the Reports continue to be read. University of New South Wales, without Department of Veterinary Physiology was Justice Heydon also paid tribute to completing the final year of school in a prepared to pay students $2 per ejaculate the Honourable TEF Hughes QC and year when your Honour's only fellow to be used for experimental purposes. Justice Meagher, praising their high students are people who are repeating Your Honour inquired whether he was intellectual and professional abilities and the year and people who have taken the interested in contributing, an invitation their loyalty, and to the members of 8 year off. Your Honour thus had the which His Excellency politely declined. Selborne Chambers, past and present. luxury of uncrowded lecture theatres and That was not the only occasion when The floor is not just to be compared to a virtually individual tuition. your Honour made a faux pas when group of Irish or Northumbrian monks Your Honour had always intended to confronted by a senior dignitary. Some vainly trying to preserve civilisation enrol in law but your Honour's father years ago your Honour was at a black tie through the strife of a new Dark Age. Its who had graduated in law in Poland function at a legal conference in leaders were masters at conducting the before the Second World War advised Queensland. Your Honour was classical common law trial. you that law was unsuitable for women introduced to the chief justice of for two reasons; first, you would need to Queensland, Sir Dormer Andrews. be better than the best just to succeed Immediately after the introduction there and, secondly, it was a career that did not was a silence. If there is anything your travel. This was before women silks and Honour dislikes it's silence. So in a judges and before travelling practising desperate attempt to make conversation certificates. Hopefully, 36 years later your Honour admired his bow tie and we've moved a long way in the legal asked him ‘Do you tie it yourself’. As you

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