Biography
Book Details

Sir Ninian Stephen

A Tribute

Tim McCormack and Cheryl Saunders (eds)

Compiled in honour of Sir Ninian Stephen's 80th Birthday, A Remarkable Public Life is a collection of essays by Australia's most respected legal, political and diplomatic figures.

Opinion

Sir Ninian’s career overseas has made him as good an advertisement for this country as our actors and sportsmen, though behind the scenes rather than in the limelight.

-- The Age, 10/3/07

'Sir Ninian Stephen - A Tribute is an outstanding collection of essays collected and written to honour a greatly loved Australian…Each essay is written with skill and informed by scholarship and offers a valuable exposition of the particular avenue of public service' - Sir William Deane, The Melbourne Anglican

'Will leave you with something rather better than a warm glow.'—The Age 10/3/07

After essays on his High Court and vice-regal roles, more than half the book is devoted to the extraordinary work he’s done since leaving the governor-generalship in 1989.

-- Sydney Morning Herald, 3/3/07

About this Title

On the occasion of Sir Ninian Stephen's eightieth birthday, Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan wrote that 'Sir Ninian Stephen is one of those rare individuals whose national and international careers are equally distinguished. One of Australia's outstanding jurists, he has made a pioneering contribution to the United Nations sphere, as a judge and in the realm of international legal policy'. Kofi Annan's assessment is surely correct. From the highest offices of public service in Australia, Sir Ninian went on to broad-ranging involvement in international affairs, representing his country with distinction as a universally revered global citizen.

After ten years as justice of Australia's High Court (1972-82) and serving as governor-general from 1982 to 1989, Sir Ninian embarked upon a decade of extraordinary international appointments: as Australia's first Ambassador for the Environment; chairing the Northern Ireland Peace Talks; profoundly contributing to the development of international criminal law as foundation Judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, and judging the first international criminal trial since the post-World War II Nuremberg and Tokyo trials; attempting to broker peace in Bangladesh; evaluating allegations of forced labour in Burma; and investigating the possibility of a criminal tribunal for former Khmer Rouge leaders in Cambodia. In all these endeavours, Sir Ninian's integrity and judicial knowledge, as well as his great skills of diplomacy, eloquence, lucid communication and his humour, were highly respected.

Tim McCormack and Cheryl Saunders gather here in his honour a collection of essays by Sir Ninian's colleagues from some of his many professional engagements. The essays highlight the wisdom and experience that Sir Ninian Stephen has consistently brought to his broad-ranging work, and reveal a man who has shown the greatest commitment to both national and international public life.

Contributors include Hon. Sir Anthony Mason, Professor Geoffrey Lindell, Professor Kim Rubenstein, Doug Laing, Rt Hon. Sir Kenneth Keith, Professor Hilary Charlesworth, Professor Antonio Cassese, Professor Steven Ratner.

Table of Contents

PART 1: AUSTRALIAN PUBLIC LIFE; 1. Justice of the High Court; 2. Governor-General; 3.Chair of the Constitutional Centenary Foundation; 4. Chair of the Citizenship Council; 5. Special Ambassador for the Environment; PART 2: INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC LIFE; 6. International Peace Envoy; 7. Member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration; 8. Ad Hoc Judge of the International Court of Justice; 9. Judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia; 10. Special Representative for the Proposed United Nations Criminal Tribunal for Cambodia

About the Author

Tim McCormack is the Foundation Australian Red Cross Professor of International Humanitarian Law and Foundation Director of the Asia Pacific Centre for Military Law at the Melbourne Law School. He acted as amicus curiae on International Law issues for the trial of Slobodan Milosevic in The Hague until the death of the accused in March 2006.

Cheryl Saunders AO holds a Personal Chair in Law at the Melbourne Law School and is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia. She is also President of the International Association of Constitutional Law and was recently the Arthur Goodhart Visiting Professor of Legal Science at the University of Cambridge Faculty of Law.

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978-0-522-85102-1