Michael Kirby

I think it’s the best Australian judicial biography I’ve ever read. Many judicial biographies in this country tell us a great deal about the lives of their subjects and almost nothing about what it is that makes the subjects interesting, their work as judges. This approach would have been particularly inappropriate for Michael Kirby’s biography. This biographer has done a wonderful job of showing how Michael Kirby’s life was reflected, appropriately, in his judgments. It repeatedly engages with his judicial method, showing its changes over time. This is a very scholarly book, a milestone in Australian legal writing.Federation Press is contributing mightily to Australian judicial biography: the great Bennett series, and now this. Congratulations on a great publication. I hope it is a huge commercial success. - Bruce Kercher, Emeritus Professor of Law, Macquarie University A very fine book … A J Brown combines great scholarship and great elegance in his writing. I commend it to everyone … the best biography of its kind since David Marr’s Garfield Barwick, which was a long time ago. - The Hon Malcolm Turnbull MP, Member for Wentworth I had high expectations, but they have been exceeded … Not only an insightful and revealing biography, but one that is beautifully written. - George Williams, Anthony Mason Professor & Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow, University of New South Wales A wonderful and richly textured account of a remarkable man … Every lawyer should read it … - Julian Burnside AO QC Terrific … A compelling warts and all biography … fascinating … impressiive - Richard Ackland, Sydney Morning Herald, Melbourne Age, Justinian A must read. - Alex Sloane, ABC Radio 666, Canberra

A J Brown is John F Kearney Professor of Public Law at Griffith University, one of Australia’s leading public law and political science scholars. Born and raised in Canberra, and educated at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Dr Brown has worked as a senior investigator for the Commonwealth Ombudsman, as associate to Justice G E “Tony” Fitzgerald AC, President of the Queensland Court of Appeal, and as a ministerial policy advisor in the Queensland Government.

Dr Brown is the foundation lead researcher of the Australian Research Council-funded Australian Constitutional Values Survey, and has been project leader of the world’s largest empirical research project into public interest whistleblowing, Whistling While They Work (2005-2009). Most research for the biography on Michael Kirby, which began in 2003, was completed under a Griffith University Research Fellowship and Visiting Fellowship with the ANU College of Law, in 2005-2008.

Dr Brown is now based in the Griffith Law School on Griffith University’s Gold Coast campus. Previously by AJ Brown: Restructuring Australia - Regionalism, republicanism and reform of the nation-state.