Sir Gerard Brennan: constrained compassion

Selden Society lecture series Australia

Sir Gerard Brennan has been one of Australia’s most important barristers and judges since World War II. As a judge, he made many significant contributions to Australian jurisprudence. The most consequential of these was the leading judgment in the High Court’s decision in Mabo recognising the rights of occupation of Australia’s indigenous peoples.

A few short years later in the Wik case, Brennan CJ dissented from the Court’s decision that native title had not been extinguished by grants of pastoral leases under Colonial and State legislation.

The key to understanding the fundamental consistency of these two judgments lies in an appreciation of Brennan’s fidelity to the constraints upon judicial decision making required by the constitutional separation of legislative and judicial power.
About the speaker
The Honourable Patrick Keane AC KC is a graduate of the University of Queensland and Oxford University where he was awarded numerous academic prizes and accolades. He was admitted to the Queensland Bar in 1977, appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1988 and was Solicitor-General for Queensland from 1992 to 2005.

In 2003 His Honour was awarded the Centenary Medal in recognition of his contributions to the legal profession. He was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of Queensland Court of Appeal in 2005.

The Hon Keane was appointed as the third Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Australia in 2010, and served thereafter as a justice of the High Court of Australia from 2013 until retirement in 2022. In 2023, he was appointed a Non-Permanent Judge of the Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong.
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