Career
Barwick was born to Methodist parents, of Cornish origin; he would later be very insistent on his Cornish identity. Raised in an impoverished suburb of Sydney, he attended, on a scholarship, Fort Street High School in that city. He graduated from the University of Sydney with a University Medal in law.
A very diligent student, he was admitted to practice soon after finishing university, although (on his own later admission) he suffered severely in financial terms during the Great Depression. He failed to repay a cousin's loan from a bank which he had guaranteed and was made bankrupt. This was held against him by many throughout his career.
Nevertheless, he practised as a barrister in many jurisdictions, achieving considerable recognition and the reluctant respect of opponents. Having been briefed in many of Australia's defining constitutional cases (e.g., the Airlines case, and the Bank Nationalisation case), he was knighted in 1953.
A famous example of his astute advocacy involved thirteen Malaysians sentenced to death who appealed to the Privy Council. Twelve retained Barwick, who duly found a technical deficiency in the arrest warrants and secured their freedom. The last, whose counsel was not so thorough, was executed.
Barwick was elected to the House of Representatives as the Liberal member for Parramatta at a by-election on 8 March 1958, and re-elected in the general elections of 1958, 1961 and 1963.
During his period in parliament he served as Attorney-General and Minister for External Affairs. As Attorney-General he promoted acts amending the Matrimonial Causes Act and the Crimes Act. He established a model for restrictive trade practices legislation. He led the Australian delegation to the General Assembly of the United Nations for its 15th, 17th and 18th sessions.
On 27 April 1964, he was appointed Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia: the first law graduate from the University of Sydney to hold this position. He was instrumental in the construction of the High Court building in Canberra (unofficially known, as a result, as "Gar's Mahal"), and became the first president of the Australian Conservation Foundation in 1966.
Barwick was one of only eight justices of the High Court to have served in the Parliament of Australia prior to his appointment to the Court; the others were Edmund Barton, Richard O'Connor, Isaac Isaacs, H. B. Higgins, Edward McTiernan, John Latham, and Lionel Murphy.
During the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis, he controversially advised Governor-General Sir John Kerr on the constitutional legality of dismissing a prime minister who declined to advise an election when unable to obtain passage of supply. This was significant, because Barwick and Gough Whitlam, whose government Kerr dismissed, had a history of antipathy dating from the mid-1950s. He retired from the bench in 1981, but continued to be active as a much-sought-after expert on legal issues until the end of his life.
He died on 13 July 1997, aged 94.
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Famous quotes containing the word career:
“A black boxer’s career is the perfect metaphor for the career of a black male. Every day is like being in the gym, sparring with impersonal opponents as one faces the rudeness and hostility that a black male must confront in the United States, where he is the object of both fear and fascination.”
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