Product Code Database
Susan Mary Kiefel (; See . born 1954) is an Australian lawyer and barrister who was the 13th Chief Justice of Australia from 2017 to 2023. She concurrently served on the High Court of Australia from 2007 to 2023, previously being a judge of both the Supreme Court of Queensland and the Federal Court of Australia. Kiefel is the first woman to serve in the position of Chief Justice.
In 1973, Kiefel joined a firm of solicitors as a legal clerk. Completing her education at night, she enrolled in the Barristers Admission Board course and passed her course with honours.
In 1984, while on sabbatical leave, she completed a Master of Laws (LLM) at the University of Cambridge, where she was awarded the C.J. Hamson Prize in Comparative Law and the Jennings Prize. In 2008, she was elected to an honorary fellowship of Wolfson College, Cambridge. She is a life fellow of the Australian Academy of Law.
In October 2001, Kiefel was appointed Deputy President of the Australian Federal Police Disciplinary Tribunal and became its president in April 2004. In 2003, Kiefel was appointed as a part-time commissioner of the Australian Law Reform Commission, and was re-appointed for a further three years in 2006.
Kiefel's nomination was met with support from the Australian Bar Association amid criticism of the lack of consultation by the Australian government. She was considered a conservative "black-letter" judge.
Giving the inaugural Lord Atkin Lecture in November 2017, Kiefel expressed her disapproval of the prevalence of judicial dissent, which she believes should be reserved for only the most important cases. She said law students should devote more attention to "mundane majority opinion", and described judges who frequently dissent as "somewhat self-indulgent". She further observed that "humorous dissent may provide the author with fleeting popularity, but it may harm the image the public has of the court and its judges". An article in May 2018 noted that Kiefel had dissented in only two out of 164 cases before the High Court since 2014, classing her as one of the court's "great assenters" along with Patrick Keane and Virginia Bell.
In June 2020, Kiefel announced that the High Court had in 2019 commissioned an independent investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against her former colleague Dyson Heydon. The inquiry, led by Vivienne Thom, concluded that Heydon had sexually harassed six female associates. In a statement, Kiefel said that she had apologised to the women on behalf of the court and that it had adopted recommendations from the inquiry.
She was one of three dissenters who held the minority view in a 4-3 split in Love v Commonwealth (2020), which found that Aboriginal Australians are not subject to the aliens power in section 51(xix) of the constitution. She stated that the majority had confused property rights with citizenship rights, and said that "race is irrelevant to the questions of citizenship and membership of the Australian body politic".
In general her judgments have been regarded as conservative, but ANU professor Heather Roberts commented that she was hard to label, and that she "values the court as an institution".
On 13 June 2011, she was named a companion of the Order of Australia for eminent service to the law and to the judiciary, to law reform and to legal education in the areas of ethics, justice and governance.
Actor Russell Kiefel (1951–2016) was her brother.
Retirement
On 15 June 2023, at the end of a hearing, Kiefel announced her retirement as of 5 November 2023. High Court Chief Justice Susan Kiefel announces early retirement, Brett Worthington, ABC News Online, 2023-06-16 She gave her farewell address to the court on 16 October 2023. Her successor is Justice Stephen Gageler.
Recognition and honours
In August 2009, Justice Kiefel was granted an honorary doctorate from Griffith University. Justice Kiefel was chosen to recognise her distinguished contributions to the legal profession and for leading the way for women in the industry.
Personal life
While at Wolfson College, Kiefel met her future husband, Michael Albrecht, a social anthropologist, when she became a member of the college rowing crew and Albrecht was her coach.
See also
External links
Categories: 1954 Births, Living People, Women Chief Justices, Australian King's Counsel, Justices Of The High Court Of Australia, Judges Of The Federal Court Of Australia, Judges Of The Supreme Court Of Queensland, Companions Of The Order Of Australia, Fellows Of The Australian Academy Of Law, Alumni Of Wolfson College, Cambridge, People From Cairns, Chief Justices Of Australia, Judges Of The Supreme Court Of Norfolk Island, 20th-century Australian Judges, 21st-century Australian Judges, 20th-century Australian Women Judges, 21st-century Australian Women Judges, First Women Chief Justices
|
|
