Former High Court chief justice Anthony Mason dies, aged 100

Sir Anthony Mason, the nation’s ninth High Court chief justice and a towering figure in the law, died on Tuesday. He was 100.

Mason was appointed to the High Court in 1972 and served as chief justice from 1987 to 1995, an era defined by a series of watershed decisions.

In 1992, Mason was among a majority of High Court judges who recognised a constitutional “guarantee” or freedom of political communication, in a decision that serves as a bulwark of free speech.

The freedom acts as a handbrake on parliament and has formed the basis of a series of constitutional challenges to legislation, including recent amendments to NSW protest laws.

“The fundamental importance, indeed the essentiality, of freedom of communication, including freedom to criticise government action, in the system of modern representative government has been recognised by courts in many jurisdictions,” Mason said in the seminal 1992 decision.

In the same year, the High Court delivered the landmark Mabo decision on Indigenous land rights, sweeping away the “legal fiction” of terra nullius (meaning “land belonging to no one”) that had been used to justify British colonisation.

“The fiction by which the rights and interests of Indigenous inhabitants in land were treated as non-existent was justified by a policy which has no place in the contemporary law of this country,” Sir Gerard Brennan, who would become the nation’s tenth chief justice, said in reasons with which Mason agreed.

High Court Chief Justice Stephen Gageler said at the 2022 launch of a book on Mason’s legacy that the “judicial method of Sir Anthony Mason defies labelling”.

“He has never sought to ascribe one to himself, although at the time of his own swearing in as chief justice he made a point of speaking of courts having an obligation to shape legal principles to the conditions of Australian society,” Gageler said.

“He spoke of the need to ensure that judicial development of Australian law responded ‘dynamically’ to conditions of Australian society.”

‘To observe at close quarters this master judicial craftsman at the peak of his powers was an opportunity as rare as it was invaluable.’

NSW Chief Justice Andrew Bell

NSW Chief Justice Andrew Bell said in a statement on Wednesday that a “very fine Australian has left our midst but his impact and legacy will continue”.

As law graduates, both Bell and Gageler served as associates to Mason. Bell said he “counted my year in Sir Anthony’s chambers as one of the most important and formative of my professional life”.

“To observe at close quarters this master judicial craftsman at the peak of his powers was an opportunity as rare as it was invaluable,” Bell said.

“And to be exposed to his rapier wit coupled with his voracious appetite for discussion of the law, the legal profession, politics, sport and world affairs, maintaining a close friendship with him and the late Lady Patricia Mason, together with his other associates, over more than three decades is something that I will both miss but always value.”

Commonwealth Attorney-General Michelle Rowland said Mason “helped shape modern Australia through some of our nation’s most significant judgments”.

“Guided by a deep respect for fairness and for the rights of all Australians, Sir Anthony devoted his life to the law and to serving our nation,” she said.

“He will be remembered for his wisdom and intellect, and his enduring contribution to our legal system, academia and public life.”

In a statement, the High Court said: “Sir Anthony’s contribution to the jurisprudence of the High Court, and to the legal system and profession more broadly, was profound and is enduring.

“He was a jurist who was and continues to be regarded with deep respect and admiration, and a man who is remembered with affection and appreciation by those who had the privilege of knowing and working with him.”

The court will hold a ceremonial sitting in June to honour him.

Born in Sydney in April 1925, Mason was educated at Sydney Grammar – because it “had a reputation of producing a large number of lawyers”, he said in an interview – and the University of Sydney.

He was appointed Commonwealth solicitor-general in 1964 and to the NSW Court of Appeal in 1969.

Mason’s retirement from the High Court bench in 1995 ushered in a new period of professional industry for him. He served on courts in Hong Kong, the Solomon Islands and Fiji, as chancellor of the University of NSW and as chairman of the Council of the National Library of Australia.

He is survived by his sons, Michael and David, his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

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