Biography
Michael Kirby attended Fort Street High School in Sydney. He received his Bachelor of Arts (1959), Bachelor of Laws (1962), Bachelor of Economics (1965) and Master of Laws (First Class Honours) (1967) from the University of Sydney. At Sydney University, he was elected President of the Students' Representative Council (1962–1963) and President of the Sydney University Union (1965).
Kirby was admitted to the New South Wales Bar in 1967. His first quasi-judicial appointment was to the Australian Conciliation and Arbitration Commission, a tribunal which adjudicated labour disputes, upon which he served as a Deputy President from 1975 until 1983.
From 1983 to 1984, he was a judge in the Federal Court of Australia and the youngest man appointed to the federal judiciary, before an appointment as President of the New South Wales Court of Appeal, a superior court in that state's legal system. During that period he was also the President of the Court of Appeal of Solomon Islands from 1995 to 1996. He was appointed to the High Court of Australia in February 1996. He has served on many other boards and committees, notably the Australian Law Reform Commission and the CSIRO. He is Patron of the Friends of Libraries Australia (FOLA) and many other bodies.
He was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) on 31 December 1982, for his services to law. He received Australia's highest civil honour when he was made a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) in 1991 and in the same year was awarded the Human Rights Medal. From 1984 until 1993, Kirby held the position of Chancellor at Macquarie University. In August 2008, Kirby was presented with the inaugural Australian Privacy Medal by Senator John Faulkner and Karen Curtis, the Australian Privacy Commissioner. He was awarded a honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the Australian National University in 2004. He was awarded a honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of New South Wales in September 2008. He is a fellow of the Hastings Center, an independent bioethics research institution in the United States. In 2006, he was elected an Honorary Bencher of the Inner Temple in London. In the same year the Australian Academy of the Humanities elected him an Honorary Fellow.
He retired from the High Court on 2 February 2009 and was succeeded by Virginia Bell.
After his retirement Kirby was appointed to several honorary academic roles at Australian universities. These included appointments to: the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, as distinguished visiting fellow in February 2009; the University of New South Wales Faculty of Law as visiting professorial fellow in March 2009; and the University of Tasmania Faculty of Law as adjunct professor in July 2009. He has been appointed honorary visiting professor by 12 universities.
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