‘A Particular Disappointment?’ Judging Women and the High Court of Australia

Abstract

This article examines whether the gender balance on the High Court of Australia has disrupted the gender regime. In so doing it considers the first lead judgments of the three women judges who sat concurrently on the High Court of Australia between 2009 and early 2015. The High Court has adopted an interesting informal practice of welcoming new judges whereby the newest member authors the lead judgment and their judicial colleagues offer a one-line concurrence. The way in which judicial authority is conferred in these judgments is reminiscent of the space in political spheres where an incumbent has their first opportunity to set out their identity and agenda in a speech free of the noise of dissent or debate; the 'maiden' speech. In that space the price an incumbent pays for comity is conformity. This article contends that the first judgment is a useful way of situating a discussion about women judges' contributions vis-à-vis difference by querying the extent to which the woman judge can ever shake-off her status as the maiden bound to conform for the sake of comity.

Why women judges really matter: The impact of women judges on property law outcomes in Kenya

“…The high level of unanimity in writing of composite judgments, and disinclination to dissent in the Court of Appeal does not make it easy to discern what these KWJA members' jurisprudential contributions might be. McLoughlin writes that in such composite judgments, there is not sufficient provocation to dissent (McLoughlin, 2015).…”

“…Lynch and Williams (2014: 545) argue that there is need to understand that who 'individual judges are and who they sit alongside matters in our attempts to fully appreciate the High Court as a public institution'. In their study on patterns of judgment writing and dissent as a potential site of difference, Belleau and Johnson (2008) and McLoughlin (2015) conclude that, because dissent sometimes has a gendered face, the trend of reductions in dissenting judgments and concurrences suggests a need to think seriously about their impact.…”

FLaK: Mixing Feminism, Legality and Knowledge

“…10 Valverde comments in this issue ''I have a particular antipathy to the assumption (built into many debates about theoretical matters) that the more of the world one's account claims to encompass, the more prestige one has as an intellectual'' (Valverde 2015a). might be translated into the language of official legality (Enright et al 2016;Hunter et al 2010;Women's Court of Canada 2006, Feenan 2009, Douglas et al 2015. In this issue, Fitz-Gibbon and Maher (2015) and McLoughlin (2015) consider, in different ways, some of the lessons learned through these projects. 11 'Donning uncomfortable robes' draws out the significance of feminist discomfort with formal legal engagement; a discomfort which is also articulated by Manjoo as she talks about not being sure that she wanted the position of UN Special Rapporteur (Manjoo and Nadj 2015).…”

Problems in the pathways to judicial success: women in the legal profession in Northern Ireland

“…Patterns of male-dominance in the judiciary are replicated across several jurisdictions (CEPEJ, 2016). Thus, it is perhaps unsurprising that the relationship between gender and the judiciary is one which attracts much academic interest in jurisdictions across the globe (Rackley, 2013;Valdini and Shortell, 2016;Bessière and Mille, 2014;McLoughlin, 2015;Crandall, 2014).…”