Comments on: Congratulations Chief Justice French!

By: Legal Eagle

Legal Eagle — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 07:16:49 +0000

LOL – and I took the bait. Never mind.

By: pete m

pete m — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 03:55:27 +0000

“I really hate this tendency (much more prominent in the US) to appoint someone because they are “right wing” or “left wing”. I just want judges to adjudicate in an unbiased fashion, such that one cannot guess their opinion beforehand.”

If only Judges did live in Ivory towers!

Excuse my throw away line re lefty – I was just fishing.

Spigelman + 1

By: Legal Eagle

Legal Eagle — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 09:16:20 +0000

Dunno about that, Pete - I checked out his Wikipedia entry when I heard about his appointment and noted that he was President of the Young Liberals while at University and contested Beazley Snr's seat in 1969 for the LIberal Party (unsuccessfully). Nonetheless, he's a friend of Beazley Jnr. He also helped found the Western Australian Aboriginal Legal Service. But to complicate the picture, he also wrote the majority judgment in the Tampa case, which makes him suspect from the point of view of some perspectives on the Left: see this post at Burning Words (via Tim Norton). Sounds to me like he can't be pigeonholed easily. I really hate this tendency (much more prominent in the US) to appoint someone because they are "right wing" or "left wing". I just want judges to adjudicate in an unbiased fashion, such that one cannot guess their opinion beforehand. Dare I say it, I also vastly prefer the option of French CJ to Spigelman CJ.

By: pete m

pete m — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 22:00:15 +0000

another lefty … makes up for Kirby going bye byes.

By: Frenemy CJ « Not a Hedgehog

Frenemy CJ « Not a Hedgehog — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 11:03:55 +0000

[...] in the appeal to the full Federal Court about the Tampa and is unimpressed with the appointment. Legal Eagle notes that it makes a change to have a Western Australian heading the High Court; Jeremy Gans [...]