John Toohey (judge) - Judicial Career

Judicial Career

In 1977, Toohey was appointed a justice of the Federal Court of Australia, and, concurrently, a Justice of the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory. In 1980, he was appointed as a Presidential member of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

In 1977, he was also appointed as the inaugural Aboriginal Land Commissioner, a position he held until 1982. In his role as Commissioner, Toohey heard claims under the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 (Cth). Under the Act, the Commissioner was granted wide statutory powers, and decisions of the Commissioner could be appealed directly to the Full Court of the High Court. During Toohey's term as Commissioner, a number of his decisions were appealed to the High Court:

• R v Toohey; Ex parte Attorney-General (NT);
• R v Toohey; Ex parte Northern Land Council;
• R v Toohey; Ex parte Meneling Station Pty Ltd;

In 1982, at the conclusion of his term as Aboriginal Land Commissioner, he returned to Perth to work full time in his role as Federal Court judge.

In 1985, Toohey was appointed as a member of the Constitutional Commission, a body formed by the Commonwealth Government in the same year to carry out a fundamental review of the Australian Constitution.

Toohey continued to work as a Federal Court judge until 1987, when he was appointed to the High Court of Australia, replacing Justice Lionel Murphy. He was sworn in as a puisne Justice on 6 February 1987, the same day that Sir Anthony Mason was sworn in as Chief Justice and Mary Gaudron was sworn in as a puisne Justice. Together with Justices Brennan, Deane and Dawson, they were part of the Mason Court, the membership of which was remarkably stable (with only one change of personnel, from Justice Wilson to McHugh, occurring in 1989) between 1987 and Mason's retirement in 1995.

Toohey retired from the bench in February 1998.

He is now a Visiting Professor in Law at the University of Western Australia. In September 2000 he was appointed to be one of the three independent members of the Bloody Sunday Inquiry (chaired by Lord Saville) into the events of 30 January 1972 in Derry, Northern Ireland (replacing New Zealander Sir Edward Somers QC, who retired for personal reasons).