InBrief

High Court judges should not linger on beyond their 'used by' date, according to the Hon Justice Michael Kirby, who delivered the inaugural Neville Wran Lecture last night.�In speaking about the career of Neville Wran, law reform and the High Court of Australia, Justice Kirby spoke about the constitutional requirement for justices to retire at age 70. He said:

The experience of most of those who have served on the Court is that, after about ten years, the same types of problems re-present themselves in new guises.�Nothing is stable and certain in the law.�Challenges are constantly being made to old doctrines as their instability is demonstrated by new applications.�This is what the philosopher Heraclites taught in Ancient Greece.� It remains true in Australia today.� It suggests the need for a thoroughly healthy phenomenon of renewal.� Change tends to produce anxiety and resentment in at least some old people.� Which is why it is a good idea to provide for their compulsory departure.� Without a little encouragement, some might never conclude that they should move on.� Reversing the constitutional amendment that requires all High Court judges to retire at age 70 would be quite the wrong way to go.� In my experience most of the voices critical of the 1976 amendment for compulsory retirement in the High Court have tended to be judges.� It is an inescapable fact of nature that older people are sometimes disconnected from the values and aspirations of younger generations.� I am, of course, an exception.

Download a copy of the Neville Wran Lecture>

14 November 2008