Michael Kirby

Michael Kirby, born 18 March 1939, served as a Justice of the High Court of Australia from 1996 to 2009 and became known as the Great Dissenter for his notably high dissent rate, reaching nearly forty percent of cases in 2004, roughly double that of his colleagues. He became the youngest person appointed to federal judicial office in Australia in 1975 as Deputy President of the Australian Conciliation and Arbitration Commission, and served as President of the New South Wales Court of Appeal from 1984 to 1996. He led a United Nations Commission of Inquiry into human rights abuses in North Korea from 2013 to 2014, and has been a prominent advocate for human rights and LGBTQ rights throughout his career.