Abstract

This article has been adapted from the 4th Michael Kirby Justice Oration, delivered at the College of Law & Justice, Victoria University, Melbourne, on 7 October 2014.

Highlights

  • I first met Michael Kirby many years ago

  • We had appeared on the same platform at Swinburne University in (I think) 1983, at a seminar to do with computers and their likely impact on law and legal practice.[3]

  • There are too many aspects of his productive life to compress into these brief remarks, but one of the enduring themes is founded in a profound ethical choice

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Summary

MICHAEL KIRBY

Given that this is the Michael Kirby Oration, allow me a couple of minutes to talk about Michael Kirby. We had appeared on the same platform at Swinburne University in (I think) 1983, at a seminar to do with computers and their likely impact on law and legal practice.[3] I thought I knew a thing or two about the subject His knowledge and insight made a great impression. Kirby’s view of the proper role of law is not shared by everyone: for some whose human rights are not in doubt, law serves better if it gets on with other tasks In much of his writing, on and off the bench, he has stood above the crowd and has seen further. While contemporary commentators have not been uniform in their appreciation of Kirby’s views, I think posterity will be more generous His appeal to future ages will come, in large measure, from the central idea that human dignity and human rights are fundamental.

ETHICAL CHOICES
THE STOLEN GENERATION
END-OF-LIFE DECISIONS
21 Aug 2010
15 Sep 2015
POLITICS AND PRAGMATISM
Findings
ENLIGHTENED SELF-INTEREST

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