35 Facts About Ian Callinan

Ian David Francis Callinan was born on 1 September 1937 and is a former Justice of the High Court of Australia, the highest court in the Australian court hierarchy.

Ian Callinan received a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Queensland while working as an articled clerk.

Ian Callinan was admitted as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of Queensland in 1960 and a barrister in 1965.

Ian Callinan was appointed as a Queen's Counsel in 1978.

Ian Callinan was President of the Queensland Bar Association between 1984 and 1987 and President of the Australian Bar Association between 1984 and 1985.

Ian Callinan was briefed by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions to prosecute a sitting High Court justice, Lionel Murphy, to appear in extradition proceedings against fugitive businessman Christopher Skase in both Spanish and Australian courts, and to prosecute the first "bottom of the harbour" tax fraud case, which was appealed to the High Court.

Ian Callinan appeared for high-profile corporate and sporting personalities such as Alan Bond, Greg Chappell and Andrew Ettingshausen.

Ian Callinan advised the then Deputy Premier of Queensland, Bill Gunn to establish an inquiry into police corruption following the broadcast on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Four Corners program of a report entitled "The Moonlight State" which detailed extensive police corruption.

Ian Callinan subsequently appeared for the Queensland Government in the Commission of Inquiry into Possible Illegal Activities and Associated Police Misconduct, more usually known as the Fitzgerald Inquiry.

Ian Callinan was particularly noted for his work in defamation cases.

Ian Callinan successfully defended what was then the longest civil jury trial in Australian legal history, when he appeared as leading counsel for Channel 9 in a 13-week defamation trial, in which Sir Leslie Thiess sought damages from Channel 9 following a report broadcast on that network that he had bribed the Premier of Queensland, Joh Bjelke-Petersen.

Ian Callinan was appointed as a Justice of the High Court in February 1998.

Ian Callinan's judgments show a willingness to innovate in common law areas, but a strong reluctance to depart from the original intent of the Constitution.

In constitutional cases Ian Callinan expressed a clear preference for a restrained interpretation of the Constitution and for significant developments to be by way of referendum rather than judicial decision.

Consistent with his restrained approach to constitutional interpretation and preference for democratic participation in constitutional alteration, Callinan expressed dissatisfaction with the High Court's implied rights jurisprudence and, in particular, the Court's decision in Lange v Australian Broadcasting Corporation [1997] HCA 25, which confirmed an implied constitutional right to political communication.

In Coleman v Power Ian Callinan cast doubt on the constitutional foundation for the Lange implication, but did not need to decide whether it was correct in order to decide the case.

Ian Callinan has called for debate on a tort of interference with privacy in his judicial and extrajudicial writing.

Ian Callinan set out his own views on how the law should respond to 'rights of privacy' in an article published in the Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal in 2007 entitled "Privacy, Confidence, Celebrity and Spectacle", in which he called for the development of a tort of privacy and indicated a preference for tortious protection of privacy and image rather than the expansion of the equitable doctrine of breach of confidence.

Ian Callinan was described by Justice Susan Kenny of the Federal Court of Australia in article published in 2003 as 'the leading' exponent of the 'prudential ethical' method of constitutional adjudication during the 2002 term.

Bryant concluded that in his judgments on private law, Ian Callinan 'showed a strong preference for achieving corrective justice, and a corresponding reluctance to take into account arguments based on considerations of distributive justice.

Immediately upon his retirement from the High Court, Ian Callinan was called back into public service through his appointment to conduct a Commission of Inquiry into the outbreak of equine influenza in Australia.

Ian Callinan's report was handed down in April 2008 and on 12 June 2008 the Commonwealth Government responded to the report, accepting all 38 of its recommendations and putting in place an implementation program.

On 20 August 2013, Callinan released a report commissioned by the Victorian Minister for Corrections and Minister for Crime Prevention, Edward O'Donohue, on the state of the parole system in Victoria.

On 26 January 2016, Ian Callinan's report was delivered to New Zealand Justice Minister Amy Adams and on 2 August 2016, Adams formally announced that his finding was that Bain did not meet the threshold of "innocent on the balance of probabilities".

In 2016, Ian Callinan was appointed by the Deputy Premier of New South Wales Troy Grant MP to conduct a review of the effectiveness of the Sydney lockout laws, which restrict the sale of alcohol and the admission of patrons to some alcohol-serving venues.

On 20 January 2014 Ian Callinan became an ad hoc Judge of the International Court of Justice for the proceeding Timor-Leste v Australia, after being nominated by the Commonwealth of Australia.

On 3 March 2014, Ian Callinan delivered a dissenting judgment on Timor-Leste's application for provisional measures.

Ian Callinan served on the board of many art galleries and was Chairman of Trustees of the Queensland Art Gallery and a trustee of the Brisbane Community Arts Centre and the Brisbane Civic Art Gallery Trust.

Ian Callinan has served as a member of the Council of the National Gallery of Australia.

Ian Callinan served on the board of several public companies before being appointed to the bench and was a board member of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Ian Callinan was not a party to the proceedings, but was called as a witness.

The trial judge made adverse findings against both Ian Callinan's instructing solicitors and Ian Callinan.

In 2003, Justice Ian Callinan was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia for his services to the law, arts and the community.

Ian Callinan received the Centenary Medal in 2001 for his service as a Justice of the High Court of Australia.

Justice Callinan is a life member of the Queensland Bar Association and of the Australian Bar Association and an honorary Fellow of the Institute of Arbitrators and Mediators in Australia.