Law students enjoyed a rare chance to learn from the experiences of former High Court Judge the Hon. Michael Kirby AC CMG at a special lecture at The University of Queensland this week.
Mr Kirby appeared as a guest lecturer at the TC Beirne School of Law event held at the UQ Centre on 27 September.
During the lecture, Inside the High Court, Mr Kirby discussed his own appointment to the Court in 1996, and the working styles of the various Chief Justices with whom he worked during his thirteen years of service to the Court.
Mr Kirby, an Australian Human Rights Medal recipient and Laureate of the UNESCO Prize for Human Rights Education, also offered career tips to students keen to follow in his footsteps, advising them that the best human rights lawyers were those, "well versed in black letter law doctrine."
In this respect he praised the University's TC Beirne School of Law for the quality of its teaching programmes and focus on legal history and jurisprudence, providing a firm foundation for students to learn and understand the context and rationale of the law.
As an indication of Mr Kirby's enduring popularity, places at the UQ event were fully booked within twenty-four hours of opening the lecture's online registration site.
When he retired from the High Court of Australia on 2 February 2009, Michael Kirby was Australia's longest serving judge.
In addition to his judicial duties Mr Kirby has served on many national and international bodies, including the World Health Organisation's Global Commission on AIDS (1988-92); President of the International Commission of Jurists, Geneva (1995-8); as UN Special Representative Human Rights in Cambodia (1993-6); a member of the UNESCO International Bioethics Committee (1995-2005); a member of the High Commissioner for Human Rights' Judicial Reference Group (2007-) and a member of the UNAIDS Reference Group on HIV and Human Rights (2004-).
Mr Kirby was elected President of the Institute of Arbitrators & Mediators Australia from 2009-2010 and serves as Editor-in-Chief of The Laws of Australia. He has been appointed Honorary Visiting Professor by twelve universities and awarded eighteen honorary doctorates.
In 2010, Mr Kirby was awarded the Gruber Justice Prize for his work to 'make equal justice under law a reality for groups that historically have been the victims of systemic discrimination.'
He is currently a member of the Eminent Persons Group which is investigating the future of the Commonwealth of Nations; and has been appointed to the UNDP Global Commission of HIV and the Law. In 2010, he was appointed to the Arbitration Panel of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (World Bank).
After the lecture Mr Kirby spent time talking to students and signing copies of his new book, Michael Kirby: a private life, scheduled for release on 1 October 2011.
A video of the lecture will be available to watch on the Law School website at www.law.uq.edu.au
Media: Melissa Reynolds, TC Beirne School of Law 07 3365 2523, m.reynolds@law.uq.edu.au
