William Gummow

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Justice William Gummow

Justice William Montague Charles Gummow (1942- ) QC AC is a Justice of the High Court of Australia, the highest court in the Australian court hierarchy.

He was appointed to the High Court of Australia in April 1995. At that time he was a Judge of the Federal Court of Australia. He had held that office since 1986.

Justice Gummow is one of the most influential High Court Justices ever. His judgments are thorough and scholarly, and command respect throughout the world. According to a study of the Court's decisions in the year 2003, he was the Justice most likely to participate or be joined in a majority opinion, being in the dissent in only 2 of the 65 cases on which he sat. (The next closest was Justice Hayne, who dissented in 4 of 59 cases).

Education

Justice Gummow graduated from the University of Sydney as Bachelor of Arts and Master of Laws, both with first class honours. After 10 years in practice as a solicitor, he was called to the New South Wales Bar in 1976. For 30 years he lectured, part-time, at the University of Sydney.

Publications

Justice Gummow is the author of books including "Change and Continuity: Statute, Equity, and Federalism", which is based upon the lectures he delivered at Oxford University in 1999 as part of the Clarendon law lectures series. These lectures take up themes of continuity and change in the law, particularly as they appear in the great common law jurisdictions.

He is a co-author of "Jacobs' Law of Trusts in Australia", and "Equity: Doctrines and Remedies". Both are classics, and are widely referred to in the common law world.

Honours

Justice Gummow was appointed a Companion in the General Division of the Order of Australia (AC), Australia's highest civil honour, in 1997.

Notable Judgments

Any attempt to select notable judgments of Justice Gummow is made difficult because he is so often a participant in joint judgments, whose authorship cannot be attributed. However, some of his more notable individual opinions are:

• Breen v Williams
• Kable v Director of Public Prosecutions for New South Wales
• The Wik Peoples v The State of Queensland
• Hill trading as R F Hill & Associates v Van Erp
• Pyrenees Shire Council v Day
• Scott v Davis
• Roxborough v Rothmans of Pall Mall
• Al-Kateb v Godwin