Sir Frederick Darley

Sir Frederick Darley was a prominent barrister, influential Legislative Councillor, Chief Justice of New South Wales, and Lieutenant-Governor. Darley’s career has largely been overlooked and underestimated until this exceptional work by the esteemed author and legal historian Dr Bennett. As a member of the Legislative Council, Darley held to high standards in the administration of public affairs. In Chapter 4 of the book, Dr Bennett examines Darley’s significant parliamentary contributions and involvement in the field of law reform, including in relation to the rationalisation of the common law/equity ‘divide’, land laws, trade union laws, and the ‘Courts and Judges’. Notably, concerning the latter, “So pressing was the business of the Supreme Court that the lists were jammed and hearings excessively delayed.” As such, a “Bill for the Supreme Court Temporary Judge Act Continuation Act” was introduced. The underlying notion of the Bill was that, “If well qualified leaders of the Bar could be induced to act as temporary judges, to clear the backlog and then return to their practices, the court would be disembarrassed and litigants would achieve speedier justice.” Darley vigorously opposed the Bill as an affront to the independence of the Court, and dangerous to the due administration of justice. Dr Bennett comments that (Sir) George Innes, himself on the eve of being appointed a Supreme Court Judge, resisted Darley’s resort to principle - “Theoretically the Bill might be regarded as evil, but it would not be so great an evil as that suffered by litigants for want of sufficient judges.” In this book, Dr Bennett gives us a rare insight into the toll and sacrifice of judicial office. Further, in recounting Darley’s work in protecting the authority of the Court itself as an institution, he gives us a unique perspective of the friction and tension that arises between the judicial arm of government and the Executive, as well as between the court and the media. Dr Bennett’s work is very well researched and the learned author has clearly had regard to, and carefully considered, a diversity of sources in bringing together this finely detailed book. The legal profession owes Dr Bennett a debt of gratitude for his enormous contribution to judicial biography in Australia. - Basem Seif, Ethos, ACT Law Society, December 2016 Darley became such a successful “economic immigrant” that he was reluctant to sacrifice his large earnings as a barrister for the salary of Chief Justice. (The book contains a cartoon from Bulletin showing Darley about to enter the court, carrying a huge bag labelled “Income 7000 pounds per year”, being met by an attendant who warns him “If you go in there you’ll have to leave at least half of that bundle behind”.) But eventually, after several of his colleagues declined the offer, he was persuaded to accept. He was to prove just as reluctant to give up the office in the early twentieth century. This book is a worthy addition to J M Bennett’s extraordinary collection of judicial portraits. It reflects an unusual capacity for detailed research. Read review… - Graham Fricke, InPrint, Law Institute Journal Victoria, August 2016 This work is the fifteenth in the series of biographies by Dr Bennett of the lives of Australian Chief Justices. It is the continuation of a project which commenced over 40 years ago and which has received constant acclaim for its contribution to legal knowledge. The works are erudite and fastidiously researched with the added bonus of being exceptionally readable. This latest work concerning Darley CJ is even the more remarkable given that it covered that extraordinary period in November 1881 when New South Wales had three successive Chief Justices. That period of upheaval was initiated by the death in office of Sir James Martin after which there was the usual unseemly jockeying for position and even the appalling prospect of the State Attorney-General appointing himself to the position on the false claim of an entitlement to the office. Whilst Darley was approached to take up the position he declined it given the large family which he had to support. The position was offered to and accepted by Julian Salomons QC who took up office on 15 November 1881. He occupied the Chief Justice’s chambers on that day, held a meeting of judges and resigned the next day. Chapter 7 of the book deals with this intriguing event in which anti-Semitism played a powerful part. In any event, Darley was, despite his initial reluctance then persuaded to take up the role. As the book reveals he was a superb Chief Justice; being one with all the necessary skills and character. That said, he was reluctant to eventually give up the position. In his Forward the Hon Keith Mason AC QC identifies that Darley’s reluctance to serve was ultimately “matched only by his reluctance to relinquish the role over 20 years later”. - Queensland Law Reporter - 8 July 2016 - [2016] 26 QLR

In the fifteenth and one of the most ambitious volumes in his series of judicial “lives”, Sir Frederick Darley, Sixth Chief Justice of New South Wales 1886-1910, John Michael Bennett continues a project he began as a Senior Research Fellow in Law at the Australian National University 40 years ago.His (19th century) Lives of the Australian Chief Justices has been described by Australian Historical Studies as a series that adds “an important missing dimension in the field of legal history in Australia [and makes] engaging reading”, it reflects Dr Bennett’s fastidious research coupled with his long experience in professional law practice and in various academic positions.His extensive publications, chiefly in Legal History, but also as a law reporter and sometime Editor-in-Chief of The Australian Digest, have received much recognition and praise. He was twice awarded the C H Currey Memorial Fellowship by the State Library of New South Wales; was a Churchill Fellow in 2000; and received the New South Wales History Fellowship 2006 for his writing a biography of Sir Alfred Stephen, Third Chief Justice of New South Wales.On examination of published works, he has received the rare degrees of Doctor of Laws (Sydney) and Doctor of Letters (ANU); and he is an Honorary Doctor of Letters (Sydney). A Life Member of The New South Wales Bar Association, and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law, he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2005 for services to the law.