Kenneth Hayne | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Justice of the High Court of Australia | |
| In office 22 September 1997 – 4 June 2015 | |
| Nominated by | John Howard |
| Appointed by | William Deane |
| Preceded by | Sir Daryl Dawson |
| Succeeded by | Michelle Gordon |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Kenneth Madison Hayne (1945-06-05)5 June 1945 (age 79) Gympie, Queensland, Australia |
| Spouse(s) | Margaret Colquhoun Michelle Gordon |
| Children | 5 |
| Alma mater | University of Melbourne Exeter College, Oxford |
| This article is part ofa series on |
| Conservatism in Australia |
|---|
 |
Principles |
Related topics |
Kenneth Madison HayneAC KC (born 5 June 1945) is a formerJustice of theHigh Court of Australia, the highest court in theAustralian court hierarchy.
 | This section of abiography of a living persondoes notinclude anyreferences or sources. Please help by addingreliable sources. Contentious material about living people that is unsourced or poorly sourcedmust be removed immediately. Find sources: "Kenneth Hayne" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(December 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Hayne was born inGympie, Queensland and attendedScotch College, Melbourne. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) from theUniversity of Melbourne, during which time he resided atOrmond College.[1] Hayne was Editor of theMelbourne University Law Review. He then graduated with aBachelor of Civil Law fromExeter College,Oxford University. He was also aRhodes Scholar.[2][3]
He is the husband of another High Court Judge,Michelle Gordon.
Kenneth Hayne was admitted as a barrister and solicitor of theSupreme Court of Victoria in 1971 and was appointed as aQueen's Counsel (QC) in 1984.
Kenneth Hayne joined the bench in 1992 when he was appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria. From 7 June 1995 he sat on the Court of Appeal of theSupreme Court of Victoria, which is thehighest court in theAustralianState ofVictoria.
Hayne was appointed as a Justice of the High Court in September 1997. He retired in 2015 upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70, in accordance with Section 72 of theAustralian Constitution. He was replaced on the High Court by his wife, Federal Court judgeMichelle Gordon.[4]
Hayne has been described as being a part of a 'core' of judges during his time on the High Court, usually forming the majority, and often writing joint reasons with JusticeWilliam Gummow.[5] One notable exception was Hayne's dissent inThomas v Mowbray, where he joined JusticeMichael Kirby in holding the Commonwealth's regime of interim control orders applied in respect of suspected terrorists to be unconstitutional. Another, more recent, example isKuczborski v Queensland [2014] HCA 46 in which Hayne J was the sole dissenter.
He serves as acommercial court judge, applying English Common Law, on the ADGM (Abu Dhabi Global Market) Courts.[6][7]
In December 2017 Hayne was appointed to head theRoyal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry.[8][9] The inquiry received continual media coverage and the report was delivered on 1 February 2019.[10]
In July 2019 (published in early August), in his first public statement since the Commission, Hayne diagnosed an increasing demand for royal commissions as a symptom that "[t]rust in all sorts of institutions, governmental and private, has been damaged or destroyed". In his view, the public sees Australia's “opaque” decision-making processes as “skewed, if not captured” by powerful vested interests, while leaders are “unable to conduct reasoned debates about policy matters” but instead resort to the “language of war” and seek to “portray opposing views as presenting existential threats to society as we now know it”. He noted, in particular, political reactions to theUluru Statement from the Heart.[11][12][13]
In August 2020, Hayne called upon all sides in politics to end "dialogue of the deaf", as in hyper-partisan conflict over climate change and over the Indigenous voice to parliament proposed in the Uluru Statement. He hoped that the Covid-19 pandemic would encourage governmental institutions to trust the public more with the truth, so that in response the public might have greater trust in them.[14]
Hayne received Australia's highest civil honour when he was appointed a Companion of theOrder of Australia (AC) in 2002 for service to the judiciary, to the law as an outstanding scholar, barrister and jurist, and to the community in the advancement of both legal and general education.[15] Hayne is a patron of theOxford University Commonwealth Law Journal.[16]
