Overview

Front cover image: Michael Kirby speaking c.1988 (Adelaide Advertiser). \n2012 Prime Minister's Literary Award - short-listed in the non-fiction category of this prestigious Award. \n2012 National Biography Award - one of the six titles shortlisted for Australia's pre-eminent prize for biographical writing and memoir. \n2011 Walkley Book Award Finalist \nWatch our author AJ Brown in conversation with Michael Kirby at this Australian National University event from May 2011: \n \n\nThe remarkable story of the life and work of Australia’s most famous modern judge. \nThis biography charts Michael Kirby’s extraordinary public life from his first forays as a student politician in the early 1960s, to his appointments as foundation chairman of the Australian Law Reform Commission in 1975, President of the NSW Court of Appeal in 1984, and Justice of the High Court of Australia (1996-2009). \nInternationally, Kirby has been a leader in law reform and human rights with the OECD, UNESCO, UN Human Rights Commission and the WHO Global Program on AIDS. He is a former world president of the International Commission of Jurists, and in 1993-1996 was the first Australian to serve as a Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Human Rights. \nA J Brown reveals Kirby’s difficult and often challenging personal path as judge, public intellectual and gay man. He shows the sharp contrast between Kirby’s 30-year love affair with controversial public issues and the reality of a man whose underlying message is deeply traditionalist – that people should have faith in the status quo of political institutions, even the monarchy. \nHe shows also how Kirby’s most constant companion – publicity – has been a double-edged sword. Behind his active courtship of an unprecedented judicial profile lay a passion for principles and the social relevance of the law, but it drove him into fierce conflict with the many judges and politicians who questioned whether such celebrity was compatible with judicial life. \nThe slow coming together of his personal, professional and public lives culminates in sharp moments of truth – for Kirby, for powerful institutions, and for a society learning to cope with the challenges of change. \nThe research has included: \n \n Exclusive access to over 117 metres of personal and official papers, dating back to the 1940s \n Interviews with more than 30 of Michael Kirby’s closest relatives and colleagues \n Independent research into how falsified records came to be used in Parliament in a direct attack on a High Court judge, and \n Unprecedented access to the working materials of a High Court judge, including draft judgments and papers normally shredded within judicial chambers. \n

Full Product Details

9781862876507

Table of Contents

Reviews

I think it's the best Australian judicial biography I've ever read. Many judicial biographies in this country tell us a great deal about the lives of their subjects and almost nothing about what it is that makes the subjects interesting, their work as judges. This approach would have been particularly inappropriate for Michael Kirby's biography. This biographer has done a wonderful job of showing how Michael Kirby's life was reflected, appropriately, in his judgments. It repeatedly engages with his judicial method, showing its changes over time. This is a very scholarly book, a milestone in Australian legal writing.Federation Press is contributing mightily to Australian judicial biography: the great Bennett series, and now this. Congratulations on a great publication. I hope it is a huge commercial success. - Bruce Kercher, Emeritus Professor of Law, Macquarie University A very fine book ... A J Brown combines great scholarship and great elegance in his writing. I commend it to everyone ... the best biography of its kind since David Marr's Garfield Barwick, which was a long time ago. - The Hon Malcolm Turnbull MP, Member for Wentworth I had high expectations, but they have been exceeded ... Not only an insightful and revealing biography, but one that is beautifully written. - George Williams, Anthony Mason Professor & Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow, University of New South Wales A wonderful and richly textured account of a remarkable man ... Every lawyer should read it ... - Julian Burnside AO QC Terrific ... A compelling warts and all biography ... fascinating ... impressiive - Richard Ackland, Sydney Morning Herald, Melbourne Age, Justinian A must read. - Alex Sloane, ABC Radio 666, Canberra

'I think it's the best Australian judicial biography I've ever read. Many judicial biographies in this country tell us a great deal about the lives of their subjects and almost nothing about what it is that makes the subjects interesting, their work as judges. This approach would have been particularly inappropriate for Michael Kirby's biography. This biographer has done a wonderful job of showing how Michael Kirby's life was reflected, appropriately, in his judgments. It repeatedly engages with his judicial method, showing its changes over time. This is a very scholarly book, a milestone in Australian legal writing. Federation Press is contributing mightily to Australian judicial biography: the great Bennett series, and now this. Congratulations on a great publication. I hope it is a huge commercial success.' - Bruce Kercher, Emeritus Professor of Law, Macquarie University, Australia 'A very fine book ... A J Brown combines great scholarship and great elegance in his writing. I commend it to everyone ... the best biography of its kind since David Marr's Garfield Barwick, which was a long time ago.' - The Hon Malcolm Turnbull MP, Member for Wentworth 'I had high expectations, but they have been exceeded ... Not only an insightful and revealing biography, but one that is beautifully written.' - George Williams, Anthony Mason Professor & Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow, University of New South Wales, Australia 'A wonderful and richly textured account of a remarkable man ... Every lawyer should read it ...' - Julian Burnside AO QC 'Terrific ... A compelling warts and all biography ... fascinating ... impressive' - Richard Ackland, Sydney Morning Herald, Melbourne Age, Justinian 'A must-read.' - Alex Sloane, ABC Radio 666, Canberra, Australia

I think it's the best Australian judicial biography I've ever read. Many judicial biographies in this country tell us a great deal about the lives of their subjects and almost nothing about what it is that makes the subjects interesting, their work as judges. This approach would have been particularly inappropriate for Michael Kirby's biography. This biographer has done a wonderful job of showing how Michael Kirby's life was reflected, appropriately, in his judgments. It repeatedly engages with his judicial method, showing its changes over time. This is a very scholarly book, a milestone in Australian legal writing.Federation Press is contributing mightily to Australian judicial biography: the great Bennett series, and now this. Congratulations on a great publication. I hope it is a huge commercial success. - Bruce Kercher, Emeritus Professor of Law, Macquarie University A very fine book ... A J Brown combines great scholarship and great elegance in his writing. I commend it to everyone ... the best biography of its kind since David Marr's Garfield Barwick, which was a long time ago. - The Hon Malcolm Turnbull MP, Member for Wentworth I had high expectations, but they have been exceeded ... Not only an insightful and revealing biography, but one that is beautifully written. - George Williams, Anthony Mason Professor & Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow, University of New South Wales A wonderful and richly textured account of a remarkable man ... Every lawyer should read it ... - Julian Burnside AO QC Terrific ... A compelling warts and all biography ... fascinating ... impressiive - Richard Ackland, Sydney Morning Herald, Melbourne Age, Justinian A must read. - Alex Sloane, ABC Radio 666, Canberra

Author Information

"A J Brown is John F Kearney Professor of Public Law at Griffith University one of Australia's leading public law and political science scholars. Born and raised in Canberra, and educated at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Dr Brown has worked as a senior investigator for the Commonwealth Ombudsman, as associate to Justice G E ""Tony"" Fitzgerald AC, President of the Queensland Court of Appeal, and as a ministerial policy advisor in the Queensland Government. Dr Brown is the foundation lead researcher of the Australian Research Council-funded Australian Constitutional Values Survey, and has been project leader of the world's largest empirical research project into public interest whistleblowing, Whistling While They Work (2005-2009). Most research for the biography on Michael Kirby, which began in 2003, was completed under a Griffith University Research Fellowship and Visiting Fellowship with the ANU College of Law, in 2005-2008. Dr Brown is now based in the Griffith Law School on Griffith University's Gold Coast campus. Previously by AJ Brown: Restructuring Australia - Regionalism, republicanism and reform of the nation-state"

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available