William Gummow

Infobox Judge
honorific-prefix = The Honourable Justice

name = William Gummow
honorific-suffix =
AC, BA (Hons) LLM (Hons), QC


image_size =
office = Puisne Justice of the High Court of Australia
appointer = Paul Keating
term_start = 21 April, 1995
term_end =
predecessor = Sir Gerard Brennan
successor = "Incumbent"
occupation =
birth_name =
birth_date = birth date and age|1942|10|09
birth_place =
spouse =
children =
nationality = Australian

William Montague Charles Gummow, AC, QC (b. 9 October 1942) is a Justice of the High Court of Australia, the highest court in the Australian court hierarchy.

Biography

Justice Gummow completed his secondary education at Sydney Grammar. He went on to study at the University of Sydney, where he graduated as Bachelor of Arts, and later Master of Laws, both with first class honours. One of his lecturers was Sir Anthony Mason.cite encyclopedia | last=Lehane | first=John | title=Gummow, William Montague Charles | encyclopedia=The Oxford Companion to the High Court of Australia | editor=Blackshield, Tony, Coper, Michael & Williams | year=2001 | publisher=Oxford University Press | location=South Melbourne, Victoria | id=ISBN 0-19-554022-0 ]

Gummow first practiced as a solicitor with law firm Allen Allen and Hemsley. He was admitted as a solicitor in 1966 and became a partner of the firm in 1969. He had a diverse practice, including banking law, trusts and revenue law, intellectual property litigation, commercial transactions and some constitutional law.

After 10 years in practice as a solicitor, Gummow was called to the New South Wales Bar in 1976. At the bar, his practice included equity, commercial, tax and intellectual property matters. It also included large constitutional issues and in several cases he appeared as a junior to then Commonwealth Solicitor-General, Maurice Byers. Gummow was made a Queen's Counsel in 1986.

In 1986, Justice Gummow was appointed to the Federal Court of Australia. He was appointed to the High Court of Australia in April 1995. He has tenure as a High Court Justice until 9 October, 2012. ["Commonwealth of Australia of Constutition Act 1901", s 72.]

For 30 years - from the year of his graduation until his appointment as a judge - Gummow taught at the Faculty of Law at the University of Sydney. He lecturered in equity from 1970 to 1995. Gummow's essay "Legal Education" (1988) emphasised the importance of statutes and legal history; areas he considers were and are insufficiently taught in Australian law schools. He further advocated the need for practitioners in legal education, who were exposed to 'the law in action'. [WMC Gummow, 'Legal Education' (1988) 11 "Sydney Law Review" 439.]

Jurisprudence

Gummow's judgments are notable for their careful attention to statutory language and context, and are marked by a thorough and scholarly examination of doctrinal history. Gummow is particularly known for his contribution to intellectual property law and equity.

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 include: " [http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/HCA/1995/63.html Breen v Williams] ", " [http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/HCA/1996/24.html Kable v Director of Public Prosecutions for New South Wales] ", " [http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/HCA/1996/40.html The Wik Peoples v The State of Queensland] ", " [http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/HCA/1997/9.html Hill trading as R F Hill & Associates v Van Erp] ", " [http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/HCA/1998/3.html Pyrenees Shire Council v Day] ", " [http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/HCA/2000/52.html Scott v Davis] ", " [http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/HCA/2001/68.html Roxborough v Rothmans of Pall Mall] ", and " [http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/HCA/2004/37.html Al-Kateb v Godwin] ".

Gummow is also the author of, or participant in, numerous leading judgments in intellectual property law. See, for example: "Werner & Co v Bailey Aluminium Products" (1989), "Advanced Building Systems v Ramset Fasteners" (1998), "Prestige Group v Dart Industries" (1990), "ConAgra v McCain Foods" (1992).

Statistics in recent years have consistently shown Justice Gummow to be most likely to participate or be joined in a majority opinion. He only dissented once in 2006, out of 55 judgments. [Citation
author = Andrew Lynch and George Williams
title = The High Court on Constitutional Law: The 2006 Statistics
volume = 30(1)
journal = UNSW Law Journal
pages = 188
year = 2007, 196.] Justice Gummow also often joins with Justice Hayne; in 2006 this number was 40 (75.47%) joint judgments. Similarly, in the same year Justices Gummow and Hayne joined each other in judgment in all 11 constitutional cases. [Ibid 198-199.]

Publications

Gummow has written extensively and has published numerous essays and articles.

He 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 "". Gummow also wrote, with Dyson Heydon and Robert Austin, several editions of "Cases and Materials on Equity and Trusts" (4th ed, 1993).

Honours

Gummow was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC), Australia's highest civil honour, in 1997, [ [http://www.itsanhonour.gov.au/honours/honour_roll/search.cfm?aus_award_id=882368&search_type=quick&showInd=true It's an Honour] - Companion of the Order of Australia] and awarded the Centenary Medal in 2001. [ [http://www.itsanhonour.gov.au/honours/honour_roll/search.cfm?aus_award_id=1115011&search_type=quick&showInd=true It's an Honour] - Centenary Medal]

The University of Sydney honoured Gummow's scholarly contributions to the law by conferring him with an LLD.

References