Worth Waiting For: The ALRCs Without Fear or Favour Report

Joe McIntyre

All law is politics. But law is not just politics. At its best, it can rise above: challenge and engage us to be better, to take responsibility and guide our society. Of course, it can collapse in the other direction: be reduced a tawdry imposition of blind power by the powerful.

Perhaps nowhere is this clearer than in the exercise of the judicial function, where that anguish of choice by the very human judge – replete with biases, personalities and integrity - can so profoundly shape the evolution of the law, and indeed the society from which it emerges.

The interplay between politics, partisanship and judging has been on stark display globally over the last few years. From Miller No 2 [2019] to Dobbs [2022], the role of judges (collectively and individually) in shaping law and society has rarely been more apparent. Similarly apparent has been our vulnerability to the quality of individual judge and their commitment to judicial values.

Despite their glamour, each case each represents only a fleeting moment. While it is easy to focus purely on the flash of a decision, it is sometimes critical to revel in the larger picture of the operation of the judicial system as a whole.