Raymond Finkelstein

The Hon. Justice Raymond Antony Finkelstein is a Justice of the Federal Court of Australia, a position to which he was appointed on 21 July 1997. He is perhaps Australia's most highly regarded judge in commercial law. [http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24219626-17044,00.html]

Finkelstein has presided over a number of famous cases, including the trial of prominent Australian businessman Steve Vizard, in which he sentenced Vizard to a $390 000 fine and a ban from holding company directorships for 10 years. His judgment of Vizard attracted widespread media attention, as it contained scathing attacks on the moral culpability of the businessman, and on white collar crime more broadly. [ [http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/what-justice-ray-finkelstein-said/2005/07/28/1122143969566.html What Justice Ray Finkelstein said - National - theage.com.au ] ] In legal circles, he is considered "independent, full of ideas, and unpredictable". [ [http://www.theage.com.au/news/business/judge-will-call-his-own-shots/2005/07/22/1121539150214.html Judge will call his own shots - Business - Business - theage.com.au ] ] He is also Deputy President of the Copyright Tribunal and the Australian Competition Tribunal.

Prior to being appointed to the Federal Court, Finkelstein practised as a barrister from 1975. He was made a Queen's Counsel in 1986. In 1992, he served for one year as the Victorian Solicitor-General.

He is a graduate of Monash University Law School, where he obtained a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Jurisprudence. He was also a teaching fellow at the Law School from 1974-1975. [ [http://www.vicbar.com.au/webdata/InBriefFiles/inbrief239.pdf Newsletter - Trimline ] ]

Views on judicial activism

Recent decades have seen a heated debate in the Australian legal profession about judicial activism - the process by which judges take active steps to reform the law through their decision-making. Finkelstein entered this debate through a journal article published in the Monash University Law Review, in which he stated that, while he opposes judges acting as "ad hoc legislators", it is naive to think that judges' background, education, heritage and personal ethical views do not influence their decisions. This argument starkly contrasted with the views of other high profile Australian judges who advocate a strict legal formalism, such as High Court Justice Kenneth Hayne.

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