Dyson Heydon

Infobox Judge
honorific-prefix = The Honourable Justice

name = John Dyson Heydon
honorific-suffix = AC QC, MA BCL


image_size =
office = Puisne Justice of the High Court of Australia
appointer = John Howard
term_start = 1 February, 2003
term_end =
predecessor = Mary Gaudron
successor = Incumbent
occupation =
birth_name =
birth_date = birth date and age|1943|03|01
birth_place =
spouse =
children =
nationality = Australian

John Dyson Heydon, AC, QC (born March 1 1943) is a Justice of the High Court of Australia; the highest court in the Australian court hierarchy.

Education

After matriculating from Shore School, Heydon received a BA from Sydney University and an MA and BCL from Oxford University. He was a Rhodes Scholar. [http://www.usyd.edu.au/registrar/rhodes/previous.shtml "NSW Rhodes Scholars"] — University of Sydney list, (retrieved 29 June 2006)] He was a Fellow of Keble College Oxford, teaching public international law in the early 1970s.

Judicial activity

Heydon was admitted to the New South Wales Bar in 1973. He was elected Dean of the University of Sydney Law School 1978 – 1979. He was appointed as a Queen's Counsel (QC) in 1987.

At age 30, Heydon became a Professor of law at the University of Sydney, the youngest person to reach that position.

Heydon was appointed as a Judge of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of New South Wales in 2000.

He was appointed as a justice of the High Court in February 2003, a position he still holds.Under the Australian Constitution he must retire from the High Court by 2013 when he will be 70.

Heydon is known to be a conservative judge and has spoken out against judicial activism (judges who assume a law making role). His publicly expressed views, made whilst a New South Wales judge, were described by contemporaneous commentators as a "job application" for appointment to the High Court by the conservative government of Prime Minister John Howard. [http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=269] [http://www.abc.net.au/am/stories/s749575.htm]

He is also a legal scholar. He joined Sir James Gobbo and David Byrne to co-author the second Australian edition of "Cross on Evidence" in 1980, and became sole author of subsequent editions. He has also written "The Restraint of Trade Doctrine" and has taken over his colleague Justice Gummow as one of the editors of Meagher, Gummow, and Lehane's "".

Other trivia

*Heydon is reportedly a rugby enthusiast. [http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/02/11/1044927596025.html]

References