Ceremonial Sitting of the Full Court
to Welcome the Honourable Justice Younan
Transcript of proceedings
The Honourable Debra Mortimer, Chief Justice
The Honourable Justice Nye Perram
The Honourable Justice John Nicholas
The Honourable Justice Anna Katzmann
The Honourable Justice Michael Wigney
The Honourable Justice Melissa Perry
The Honourable Justice Robert Bromwich
The Honourable Justice Stephen Burley
The Honourable Justice Thomas Thawley
The Honourable Justice Angus Stewart
The Honourable Justice Darren Jackson
The Honourable Justice Wendy Abraham
The Honourable Justice John Halley
The Honourable Justice Kylie Downes
The Honourable Justice Patrick O’Sullivan
The Honourable Justice Elizabeth Raper
The Honourable Justice Geoffrey Kennett
The Honourable Justice Ian Jackman
The Honourable Justice Yaseen Shariff
The Honourable Justice Jane Needham
The Honourable Justice Cameron Moore
The Honourable Justice Nicholas Owens
The Honourable Justice James Stellios
The Honourable Justice Houda Younan
Sydney
9.35 AM, Friday, 28 February 2025
MORTIMER CJ: Thank you for attending the final welcome ceremony this week on Gadigal country. The ancestors and elders of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation have looked after this country for generations prior to colonisation. I acknowledge Gadigal connection to this country, to their culture, their laws and traditions and I pay my respects to the Gadigal people. We are honoured to be joined this morning by justices of the High Court, former justices of this Court, two former Chief Justices of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, heads of other state courts and judges of those courts, many counsel and solicitors, members of the Academy and colleagues from federal and state courts and tribunals.
Welcome especially to those who are not in court as regularly as most of us, members of Justice Younan’s family and her friends. No one achieves a milestone like this on their own and today is an opportunity to acknowledge all the support and encouragement which has enabled her Honour to reach this point in her distinguished career. It is also an occasion where the profession and the community can understand and reflect on the exceptional qualities and attributes which her Honour will bring to her work as justice of this Court.
In each of the ceremonies this week we’ve heard and we’re likely to hear again today about the relationship between the new judges and the judges whom they once served as associates. I would like to take a moment to acknowledge the important role of associates in this Court and in chambers and it’s a delight to see many current associates here in court today who will, no doubt, be inspired by the accounts of Justice Younan’s career. Justice Younan, the oath of office you took on 19 December last year binds you, as it does each of us, to administer justice according to law with independence, fairness, courage and impartiality. I am confident you will do so and I am confident in your dedication to excellent public service on this Court. Congratulations on your appointment. The Attorney-General for the Commonwealth, I invite you to address the Court.
THE HON M. DREYFUS KC MP: May it please the Court, I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and pay my respects to their elders past and present and I also extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people here today. It’s a great privilege to be here today to congratulate your Honour on your appointment as a Judge of the Federal Court of Australia. I thank you on behalf of the Australian Government for your Honour’s willingness to serve as judge of this Court and the government extends its best wishes for your career on the bench.
Your Honour’s appointment to this Court is another success in a diverse and eminent career. That so many of your colleagues in the judiciary and the legal profession are here today shows the high regard in which your colleagues hold your Honour. I particularly acknowledge the Honourable Justice Jacqueline Gleeson of the High Court of Australia, the Honourable Justice Jayne Jagot of the High Court of Australia, the Honourable James Spigelman, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, the Honourable Tom Bathurst, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, the Honourable Justice Brian Preston, Chief Judge of the Land and Environment Court of New South Wales, the Honourable Justice Sarah Huggett, Chief Judge of the District Court of New South Wales, other current and former members of the judiciary and, of course, members of the legal profession.
I also acknowledge the presence of your Honour’s family who proudly share this occasion with you and, particularly, your mother, Rosemary, and father, Joseph. We are also joined by your two sisters, Christine and Jennifer, as well as other members of your family with whom, I am told, your Honour shares a deep connection. Your Honour was raised in Sydney and, I am told, from the earliest age expressed a desire to practise law never showing any real interest in another profession. Your Honour was an enthusiastic and talented student and needed little encouragement to attend to your studies.
Your Honour attended Wenona School where you were the debating captain and took the role of third speaker. Your Honour also achieved the highest grades in every subject culminating in being awarded Dux of the school. Your Honour’s fascination with international law and world politics was also evident early. Some children decorate their rooms with pictures of athletes and rock stars. I am told that yours was adorned with the flag of the United Nations in addition to posters of many foreign dignitaries whose home nations your Honour proudly represented in your school’s international parliament.
Your Honour graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Arts in government in 1996 and a Bachelor of Laws in 1998 both with honours. Your Honour’s early passion and skill for debate continued in the form of mooting. I’m told your Honour was the national champion and best oralist in the final of the Philip C Jessup International Moot Court Competition and the best oralist in the international rounds in Washington DC. Your Honour pursued further studies abroad at the University of Cambridge as a member of Downing College. Your Honour was awarded a Masters of Laws, again with honours, in 2001 and received the Clive Parry prize for international law which is awarded for academic excellence in three or more specialist international law courses.
Of particular interest to me your Honour honed your experience as part of the Office of International Law within the Attorney-General’s Department. Your Honour’s contributions included negotiating a treaty level agreement on space cooperation in 2001, consulting on Australia’s offshore maritime security, providing analysis on laws of armed conflict and several cases before the World Trade Organisation’s dispute settlement body. In 2006 your Honour was admitted to the New York State Bar and in 2007 you were called to the New South Wales Bar. In 2020 your Honour was appointed senior counsel. At the Bar your Honour soon developed a busy and varied practice managing a caseload across migration and refugee law, extradition, human rights, marriage equality, foreign state immunities, revenue and customs, international arbitration and sports law.
Your Honour has also appeared in many cases before the High Court. Colleagues from your time at the Bar have commented that you are meticulous and rigorous in preparation with a penetrating intellect and always fuelled by a drive for justice. I’m told your Honour has also dedicated time to the institutions in which your legal expertise was fostered. Between 2006 and 2008 you were an adjunct lecturer in international law at the University of Sydney where you co-authored the Australian Yearbook of International Law. Your Honour has also coached the University of Sydney’s Jessup International Moot Court Competition team. While time won’t permit a full exposition of your Honour’s personal qualities it’s with great pleasure that I speak to a few.
Your Honour’s strength of character in many ways stems from your devotion to your family. As your sister, Jennifer, remarked, your Honour’s strong moral compass can be attributed to your mother, Rosemary, while your compassion and empathy are drawn from your father, Joseph. Many of your friends and colleagues have also praised your Honour’s collegiate nature observing that you are not only a generous and loyal friend but also possess a delightful sense of humour – I hope that continues while your Honour is on the bench – and are able to create a sense of occasion in the most ordinary of circumstances.
Your Honour has always advocated for the interests of others and worked hard for what you believe was right. I am told your Honour possesses immense integrity, is competitive and fair and has never undertaken anything in half measure. It’s widely known that outside the law your Honour is an avid sportsperson and artisan. I’m told you continue to row with the Mosman Rowing Club, a hobby dating back to your time at Downing College in Cambridge. I understand, however, that your Honour’s great sporting passion is tennis. I’m told you are both a regular player at amateur tournaments and a frequent attendee at the Australian Open, Roland-Garros and Wimbledon. By all accounts, your Honour is as relaxed, comfortable and fierce with a tennis racquet in hand as you are in the courtroom, a lesson the former Solicitor-General Justin Gleeson SC discovered the hard way.
Indeed, your Honour’s love for tennis is not only as a player. Your friends and colleagues universally acknowledge your admiration for Roger Federer and I’m told that you have, at times, kept a life-sized cardboard cut-out of the tennis icon in your chambers at sixth floor. Your Honour’s unwavering support for your colleagues, friends, family and, of course, Mr Federer, is undoubtedly a reflection of the same steadfastness and dedication to excellence that you are known for in your legal practice.
Your Honour’s appointment to this court acknowledges your dedication to the law and accomplishments in the legal profession. Your Honour takes on this judicial office with the best wishes of the Australian legal profession, and it’s trusted that you will approach this role with the exceptional dedication to the law that you have shown throughout your career. On behalf of the Australian Government and the Australian people, I extend to you my sincere congratulations. May it please the Court.
MORTIMER CJ: Thank you, Mr Attorney. Dr Higgins, President of the New South Wales Bar Association and representing the Australian Bar Association.
DR R. HIGGINS SC: May it please the Court, I too acknowledge the Gadigal of the Eora Nation. I give my respect to their Elders past and present, and extend that respect to all First Nations persons present today. Chief Justice Mortimer, it is an honour to speak today on behalf of the New South Wales and Australian Bar Associations. Justice Younan, warmest congratulations on your appointment to the Court. Your Honour was born into a suburb designed by Walter and Marion Burley Griffin. The Burley Griffins understood perfection in urban planning as being found in an evidence-based design, which responds to the needs of a public whose well-being is of the first importance. Space should be ordered and should accommodate human life, but should not be unnecessarily adorned.
It is possible to overemphasise the contribution of physical context to intellectual development, but your Honour has, throughout your career, displayed an architectonic clarity of thought, which has drawn judicial comment. And hence, the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency v Northern Territory [2015] 256 CLR 569 at paragraph 159, his Honour Justice Keane said this:
Metaphors may have considerable rhetorical impact, but they are no substitute for legal analysis. For example, as Ms Younan of counsel pointed out, if the Northern Territory were admitted to statehood by the Commonwealth under section 121 of the Constitution, it would then, like the existing states, be unaffected by the separation of powers. In such circumstances, the Commonwealth would undoubtedly grant a power greater, as the plaintiff’s argument would have it, than it possesses itself.
Returning to the spaces of Burley Griffin, your Honour’s childhood years in Castlecrag with your parents and sisters, Christine and Jennifer, also disclosed an early aptitude for positions of authority. One year in the Wenona School performance, your Honour played the wicked wazir in 1001 Arabian Nights. The following year, your Honour played God in an outdoor choir performance of The Flood. The performance lasted some hours. Some students faded in the summer heat and had to retire. Your Honour, grasping the indefectibility of your role, stayed the course. Once studying law at Sydney University, your Honour quickly disclosed an aptitude for advocacy, becoming the HV Evatt Moot champion in 1996 and winning the top oralist in the 1998 finals of the Jessup International Moot in Washington, DC. Professor Donald Rothwell, longstanding ANU coach, commented, and I quote:
If I ever had to select my top Jessup Moot team, Justice Younan would be my first pick.
Your Honour’s connection with Jessup continued into a coaching role, including of the Sydney University’s successful 2018 team. The remarks on your Honour in the Sydney University Law Society’s Black Acre Review of 1997 perhaps disclosed your Honour first judicial traits, observing that you had, and I quote:
An incisive mind and a golden tongue with a trademark inquisitively raised eyebrow.
In 1997, having worked as a Paralegal at Freehill, Hollingdale & Page’s Commercial, Litigation and Environmental Law section, your Honour formed your first attachment to all things Sixth Floor by taking up a role as Associate and then Research Director to the then Chief Justice of New South Wales, James Spigelman AC KC, who described your Honour simply as “first class”. The light blue of Cambridge University then called your Honour, where you completed a Master’s degree. There your Honour also took up rowing. To this day, every Sunday morning, you take your single scull out onto Middle Harbour, which is, one suspects, a little less Cam than The River Cam.
Your Honour’s movement from Sydney to Cambridge reflected that of one of your close mentors, the late James Crawford, Challis Professor of International Law at the University of Sydney and later Whewell Professor of International Law at the University of Cambridge. Upon returning to Australia, your Honour remained, nonetheless, international. A role as legal and then senior legal officer in the Office of International Law in the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department was complemented by a post as adjunct lecturer in public international law and international dispute resolution at the University of Sydney. Your Honour commenced practise at the New South Wales Bar in April 2007 reading with Richard Lancaster SC and Stephen Lloyd SC on the sixth floor at Selborne Wentworth.
The scope of your Honour’s practise was wide gathering in appellate work, commercial law, criminal law, sports law, customs, international law, public and administrative law and tax and revenue law. Your Honour tutored many readers including strong women barristers such as Christine Ernst and Madeleine Ellicott. It is an important contribution to continue and maintain a lineage of female barristers. Having taken Silk in 2020 your Honour’s practise continued to thrive, again, in appellate work including involvement across your career in more than 15 High Court appeals but also in complex first instance proceedings in this and other courts. Let me come then last to the most important thing, football and I mean football. I mean the beautiful game that transcends continents and cultures and centuries and unites communities in the mischief of a Lionel Messi manoeuvre.
I now know that your Honour and, at least, Justice Stellios, understand what I’m talking about. Your Honour’s love of and aptitude for football is a lesser-known fact than your capacity for forensic clarity but these capacities are as ever interconnected. Bar News reviews of the performances of the Bar FC team from years past have described your Honour as repelling enemy advances and displaying impressive and steadfast defence. Rivals from the field carry even more bruises than rivals from the Court. In his book, What We Talk About When We Talk About Football, the philosopher, Simon Critchley, says this:
Football is not individualistic. Football is, essentially, collaborative. It is about the movement between players who play together and play with and for each other and who make up the mobile spatial web of a team. What is taking place in an organised team is a never ceasing dialectic between the associative collective activity of the group and the supportive flourishing individual actions of the players whose being is only given through the team.
Your Honour has long played seamlessly within teams that functioned well and, largely, won be it school plays, moot teams, matters in which you worked or the sixth floor of Selborne Wentworth on whose redesign committee you sat and made important and lasting decisions about cork flooring and modern furnishings.
Your Honour now joins the nationally significant team of this Federal Court. The festival of swearings-in that have been conducted in this and other Federal Courts across the country in the past two weeks has displayed a court that is constantly rejuvenating itself under strong moral and intellectual leadership and which is attracting judges of the highest calibre whose backgrounds and paths to the bench may be diverse but who are unified by an optimistic dedication to service community and the rule of law. There seems no better team for your Honour now to join. The barristers of Australia are delighted by your Honour’s appointment confident that you will make an exceptional judge and look forward to assisting your Honour and all of this Court’s new and existing judges in the collaborative endeavour of the administration of justice. May it please the Court.
MORTIMER CJ: Thank you, Dr Higgins. Ms Warner, President of the Law Council of Australia and representing the Law Society of New South Wales.
MS J. WARNER: I would like to adopt my friend’s acknowledgement of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation on which this Court stands. I also acknowledge Chief Justice Mortimer, presiding, the Attorney-General, my friend the Honourable Mark Dreyfus KC MP, Dr Ruth Higgins, my even better friend, President of the New South Wales Bar Association, Ms Jennifer Ball for the Law Society and all Honourable judicial officers, dignitaries, colleagues and most of all, your Honour Justice Younan and your Honour’s family and friends. It is my privilege to welcome your Honour’s appointment today on behalf of the Law Council of Australia and the Law Society of New South Wales. I speak with you today on behalf of the legal profession and I can tell you that when asked to recount their experiences and views of your Honour, solicitors across Australia have recalled a counsel who was an absolute delight to work with.
One senior solicitor, herself already accomplished, described your Honour as so impressive in your work, so sharp and so bright it constantly inspires her to do better. Solicitors and barristers pointed to the outstanding support they received from a junior in highly complex and sensitive matters prepared under great pressure. They reflected on the brilliance of mind and work that flowed into your gifted practise as a senior counsel.
If I quote some very high praise shared with me by a senior very experienced barrister, “She’s one of the most outstanding counsel I have worked with in over 45 years.” That is high praise, indeed. Forty-five years is no short period of time and to stand out so distinctly amongst all those that someone who has been in this field for 45 years says much about your Honour’s skills, knowledge, capacity and work ethic. Your Honour cuts across a large variety of areas of the law, administrative, constitutional, international, extradition, revenue and customs as well as sports law, arbitration and even the laws of armed conflict.
It was said your Honour can see detailed connections underlying legal principles and from that complex web you create new connections and define boundaries with facts that build a bigger picture than many lawyers would ever be able to see. To the exceptional academic and career background we’ve heard about today may I add that across your Honour’s life people are awed not only by your achievements but how you have conducted yourself outside of your professional life. Friends spoke of generosity, fun and humour, of a vivacious, loyal and caring friend.
I can assure you that those who know your Honour take great joy in your gracious success. Your Honour has pursued serious sporting activities, has a love of art and paintings, music and your appreciation of food, which I am reliably informed is very high on the agenda of non-legal activities. You are, clearly, a woman after my own heart. When your Honour was involved in complex matters appearing, particularly, interstate I was told a key question was, “What’s for lunch and where are we going?” and then, “What are we doing for dinner?” and that was always rhetorical as your Honour was always well researched and prepared with a list of preferred options which is, actually, one of the only good things about having to travel interstate for work. You can eat really good food.
Lawyers at the Australian Capital Territory Government Solicitor absolutely loved working with your Honour and particularly enjoyed your droll sense of humour but I think it is fair to say that in terms of esteem few will match your parents, Rosemary and Joseph, whom we’re very fortunate to have with us today to celebrate your elevation. It was lovely to meet them and Aunty Houda and your sisters and your nephew who is wearing a very smart new suit specially for the occasion.
Your mother has what I can only describe as a total wonderful love and pride in your Honour. When asked where the ability your Honour has so aptly demonstrated throughout your life comes from she offered that, as a younger person, your Honour was very hard-working and a bit stubborn and a perfectionist. Goodness, who would have thought? A perfectionist who goes on to shine in the law. Can we see any other perfectionists here, I think? Your mother remembers a child who loved acting, was very good at it, but always wanted to do law.
I’ve seen articles pondering whether court is a theatre but regardless of the answer I’m glad you chose the administration of justice over the actual stage. Your Honour has a competitive streak and your mother mulled that sometimes you need to give opponents in tennis a break. Not everybody can play as well as you do. In our research we also discovered that your Honour’s father, who you love deeply, was a great motivator. I understand that sometimes he would look at, say, your 98 per cent in an essay or exam at school and ask, “Well, what happened to the other two per cent?” Well, today, your Honour, there is no extra two per cent. You are 100 per cent where you should be. Despite an incredible intense work effort in a very demanding profession your Honour is said to remain down-to-earth.
Solicitors recalled matters were approached by learning together when nothing was a hassle in a team environment which your Honour built. Senior members of the profession say they were fortunate to have instructed someone so strong, considered and eloquent. I suspect that’s because, as your Honour has previously said, you’ve always primarily valued education and you were voracious in what you wanted to learn and know and your Honour saw law as the best possible expression of the human language of conflicts.
Your Honour has been committed to listening to what judicial officers of any kind were saying, to hear their point and to address it. Not to be intimidated or thrown off balance or to feel under attack but to try and understand where they were coming from and always seek to address the concern that they had about any point. Your Honour has always tried to understand the Court and in this close attention to detail and continued personal development we have a brilliant addition to the bench of the Federal Court of Australia. Solicitors believe that your Honour will engage with the matters before you very deeply and, thankfully, your blade-like intellect and rigour are matched by a disarming ability to put everybody at ease which will benefit all in your court. It is my privilege on behalf of the more than 100,000 solicitors of Australia to congratulate your Honour on being appointed to the Federal Court. As the Court pleases.
MORTIMER CJ: Thank you, Ms Warner. Justice Younan, I invite you to respond.
YOUNAN J: Chief Justice, present and former judges of this Court, distinguished guests, my family, friends and colleagues, my love of country is reflected in the acknowledgement of country by the Chief Justice and other speakers, which I echo. I am humbled by the presence of the Honourable Justices Gleeson and Jagot of the High Court, no doubt giddy after a succession of ceremonies this week, and the distinguished present and former Judges and Chief Justices of the New South Wales Supreme Court and Court of Appeal as well as the Chief Judge of the Land and Environment Court, all likely experiencing the same malaise, although they bear it well. I am grateful to those who have travelled some distance to join me today. I thank, especially, the Attorney-General, Dr Higgins and Ms Warner for their welcome and their diligent research.
It is difficult to say when it began. Long before school debating and university mooting, I was argumentative. My long-suffering parents can attest to this. We did not observe the old adage that one should avoid topics of conversation like politics or religion at the dinner table. In the Younan household, they were the only acceptable topics of conversation. I learnt to debate long before my efforts were institutionalised. Even as a child, I would actively seek out a just cause. In the beginning, I may have resorted to what can only be described as a necessary and proportionate use of force. I was not averse to making the boys cry. In time, I learnt to deploy carefully chosen words. Strangely, the result was the same.
It is not difficult to see the provenance of this struggle. My parents were raised in a patriarchal community, so much so that, shortly after the birth of their third child, yet another girl, they were met with plaintive cries as to why God had cursed such very good people. Much to their credit, my parents saw it otherwise. I very much doubt that I would be here if they had shared the sentiment.
My parents have crossed oceans to be here today. I have just moved up the street, yet their journey has informed my own. I grew up to tales of a faraway land teeming with natural beauty, but a society governed by outlaws and estranged from the rule of law. My mother’s account, in particular, of life as a woman in such a society made an impression on a young mind. She impressed upon me from the very beginning that education was not something that could be taken away at the behest of another. It struck me even then that she should conceive of it that way.
I consider my career path to be a reaction to that oral history. My younger sister, also a lawyer, followed suit. My older sister is a doctor. That is not a contradiction of my theory. In the social hierarchy acknowledged in the Lebanese community, a doctor sits right at the top, with lawyers a very close fifth. After lunch today, while I am cleaning the dishes, my sister will hold a far more important court in which relatives will come forth with tributes and tales of their ailments. Unless my orders take the form of prescribing medication, I haven’t got a chance of upsetting that social order.
My history would not be complete without reference to my maternal grandfather. He was a gifted intellectual and teacher who sacrificed personal ambition to educate those who would have been left in the dark in his absence. He was my introduction to public service and to the ideals of the French Republic, which he extolled no more so than when he officially welcomed General de Gaulle during his tour of Lebanon in the early 40s. I inherited his Francophilia.
I owe a debt of gratitude to my school headmistress, Ms Barbara Jackson. A formidable English woman, she taught me many things, notably, the art of the handshake and the sacrosanctity of the canon. I recall one occasion when she called me into her office to enquire why I had been absent from an inter-school prefect function. I thought my reason was compelling. I had an exam the following day and I had arranged for a substitute to perform my role. She took a different view, and one that has stayed with me to this day. That was my introduction to the non-delegable duty.
I am also indebted to my Ancient History teacher, Ms Sharam. With her exuberance she whet our appetite for learning. Before commencement of class, she would wait for us to cry out in the tradition of the Greek phalanx, “We are ready.” I learnt to approach each endeavour with the same commitment. I took my studies very seriously at school, along with debating, drama and Madrigals, an invitation-only choir. Present today are members of that elite squad. I have brought them here to disarm the sceptics in the room. I also want them to know that their faithful friendship has sustained me over the past 30 years.
At university, I took to mooting, enlisting in every internal and inter-varsity moot available to me, culminating in the Jessup International Law Moot. I thank Professor Don Rothwell for seeing something in me that I did not recognise at the time. In an effort to impart what I had received, I became coach and practise judge. Many a tear was shed – none mine. Practitioners may be relieved to know that I intend to run a dry court. It is gratifying to see that so many of my students have pursued a career in the law and at the Bar, contrary to very explicit advice. I know all too well the lure of the siren song. For those unversed in Greek mythology, the story does not end well. I have found the law to be a jealous master, and the temptation to insularity a constant battle.
I armed myself, however, with the best teachers. I learnt resistance from the Honourable James Spigelman, former Chief Justice of the New South Wales Supreme Court. A renaissance man, he brought and brings scope and dimension to his analysis of the law. I am delighted to see him here today. During my time as his research director – whatever that meant, for I directed no one and nothing – I learnt much about many things, including the relentless nature of judicial inquiry. It was a consummate education and remains one.
That education continued with the late Professor James Crawford, who was my thesis supervisor at Cambridge, and who was later appointed a judge of the International Court of Justice. He was prodigiously industrious, both as practitioner and academic. If he slept, it certainly was not within the 24 hours that spanned the day. Notwithstanding his frenetic activity, there was a calm to his process of thought, always derived from fundamental principles. His good opinion of me made all the difference to my own.
Nevertheless, I wonder whether I would have persevered, let alone prevailed, at Cambridge without the camaraderie of members of the “Bramley Society”, a coterie of extraordinary individuals from disparate parts of the globe.
Two members deserve special mention. I met Mathew Downs, now a Judge of the High Court of New Zealand, in a long line at Heathrow customs shortly before commencement of the academic term. He stood behind me and eavesdropped as I conversed with my sister, who was commencing at Oxford at the same time. Hearing that I was on my way to Cambridge, he interposed himself. I am indebted to him for his appalling lack of manners, which history will record as providence. He knows the debt I owe him, which accrues to this day. I am saddened that jury deliberation in a criminal trial prevents him from being here in person. Unfortunately, justice is not always swift.
My other pillar was the impossibly German Jan Eickelberg, or the “funky freestyler” as I dubbed him given the popularity of Bomfunk MC at the time. Once again, I could not have foreseen the significance of our first meeting as he arrived notably late to matriculation dinner. His untamed tresses and voracious appetite threw me off the scent, but he was a kindred spirit who lifted me up and whose embrace I feel today.
After Cambridge, I went directly to the Office of International Law, Attorney-General’s Department in Canberra. For the first three months, I would drive back to Sydney, a metropolis, every weekend, but the work and my colleagues provided me with ample reason to stay, and I thank them for making a similar journey today.
I arrived in “OIL” at the advent of the war in Afghanistan, followed by the war in Iraq. For a freshly minted postgraduate who had just completed her studies in the laws of armed conflict, this was an unforeseen boon. The work was fascinating and diverse. As you have heard, I travelled to Moscow to negotiate a bilateral space treaty. After a round of negotiations, I managed to silence the Russian delegation, who did not expect the only woman in the room to speak, let alone with effect. I won the respect of my peers and the self-styled “Order of Lenin”, but I did not win the day by concluding the treaty. I knew then that I needed to find a forum in which the winning argument was just that.
I believe I shocked Bill Campbell, former First Assistant Secretary of OIL, when I informed him that I was leaving. I recall that he cautioned me against the move, explaining that the work was unparalleled and that these would be my halcyon days. He was not wrong, to date. I have never confessed that to him, until now. My departure from OIL, however, was a series of false starts. I declined a Fulbright scholarship in order to accept a position at a New York law firm practicing in international arbitration. I then declined that offer to commence my career at the New South Wales Bar. That was an unusual course for an international lawyer, but one in keeping with my philosophy, born of Professor Crawford, that an international lawyer is first and foremost a lawyer.
In that regard, there was no more rigorous place of learning than the New South Wales Bar. It was a steep learning curve, having arrived stateless, a refugee of a system of law unidentifiable by the Illuminati of the New South Wales Bar. My gratitude to my tutors, Stephen Lloyd and Richard Lancaster, for taking a chance on an unknown kid. Between them, I was given the perfect start.
The mighty Sixth Floor was my home for 17 years. I thank my former colleagues for making it a happy one. In particular, I express my gratitude to my former Clerk, Lisa Stewart, for her dedication and efficiency, and for seeing my insistence on 90-degree angles as an eccentricity and nothing more.
I thank James Arnott for curbing my eccentricities and showing me moderation, especially at lunch. I thank Justice Anna Mitchelmore for her unfailing advice and friendship, always my compass. I thank Michael Izzo for his long-standing friendship and conversazione, and for introducing me to the culinary wonders of the Inner West, a work in progress. I thank CJ Palmer for his coverage of the East. I also thank Judge David Scully of the District Court for his advice on court etiquette. I am referring, of course, to tennis. With a somewhat laissez-faire approach, invariably his advice was to do exactly the opposite of what I had done, but I remind him - and the broader tennis community - that a foot fault is an infringement of the rules. Compliance is not optional.
To my talented former Readers and Junior Counsel, I issue an apology and a corrigendum. I do accept that fatigue is a relevant consideration, but it is not a mandatory one. I must own that our working relationship was responsible for my renaissance at the Bar, and I thank you for it.
I owe Peter Garrison, Solicitor General of the ACT, a great debt. He entrusted me with the interests of the Territory at an early stage of my career, which allowed me to appear in the High Court as often as I did. That leap of faith in Junior Counsel is critical in a highly familiar profession. No doubt he would say that I earnt his trust, but he had to take that first leap, and I thank him for his agility.
Now, the difficult part. My father is a man of high ideals, born of youthful resistance to injustice, the necessity of creating a new life in a new world, and the Hollywood films of the 1950s and sixties. My father taught me to look up and beyond. Without him, I believe my compass would have been smaller. Thank you for telling me that my limit was nothing short of my best. Thank you for letting me know that 98 was a respectable opening offer. Thank you for teaching me the difference between disappointment and regret.
My mother taught me how to keep my feet on the ground with painstaking attention to detail. Thank you for taking the bus and ensuring my enrolment at Wenona. Thank you for sitting beside me and helping with my homework. Thank you for never allowing me to take shortcuts. Thank you for teaching me that patience is a virtue, one I will never possess. Thank you for leaving the familiar to learn and grow with us, and thank you and my devoted godmother and namesake for bringing home-cooked Lebanese food to school at recess and lunch when canteen food just didn’t cut it. Aside from making me very popular, it demonstrated your devotion to your girls.
Speaking of which, I am flanked on both sides by two sisters who have never allowed me to put a foot wrong. Christine, the eldest, is a woman of uncompromising principle. I learnt this many years ago at school when she, a prefect, threatened me with detention for not wearing my hat as we left home one school morning – barely beyond the threshold, I might add. At the time, I saw this as intransigence. Now, I look to approach the oath of office with the same unwavering dedication. Jennifer, the youngest, is often mistaken as my twin. While the comparison demonstrates inattention to detail, I have come to embrace it. As a mutual friend puts it, she is the nice one. An infallible judge of character and conduct, I rely on her judgment without question. Living abroad, her arrival in, and departure from, Sydney each Christmas represents both the high and low point of my year.
I must also thank my sisters for my nephews and godsons, Anton and Luke. One, brilliant and precocious, the other, strong and loyal, they are constant providers of perspective and equilibrium.
Finally, to the man I have loved for the past 15 years, Roger Federer. It was hard to find purpose after Roger’s retirement from the circuit, but I thank the Attorney, Chief Justice, fellow Judges and staff of this Court for providing me with another circuit to concentrate my efforts. I will pursue it with the same fervour.
When I travel overseas, I have a particular way of saying goodbye to my parents. I tell them that I love them, and that if I should not see them again, I have wanted for nothing. Naturally, my mother cries. My father is bemused. The point is not to torture them, but to let them know that, come what may, they have given me everything I need to make a happy life, and it is one. I make the same comment today, in gratitude, as I embark on this journey.
MORTIMER CJ: Thank you, Justice Younan. The Court will now adjourn.
