UNSW HONOURS JUSTICE RONALD SACKVILLE

The University of New South Wales has awarded an honorary doctorate to the Hon Justice Ronald Sackville for his many and distinguished contributions to social and legal issues in Australia.

Currently a Federal Court Judge, Justice Sackville was the third Dean of the UNSW Law School, from 1979 to 1981. He had joined the School only eight years previously to take up a new Chair in Property Law, and during his tenure at UNSW had a profound influence on his colleagues and students in all areas of the law.

Justice Sackville's early brilliance (he completed his high school education at 16, graduated with his first law degree, from the University of Melbourne, at the age of 20, with an LLM from Yale at 22 and was a full professor at UNSW by the age of 28), flowered into major contributions in every aspect of law in which he was active. His academic career spanned teaching at Berkeley, the University of Melbourne and UNSW, as well as numerous visiting positions in the UK, the USA and Canada. He has also published extensively.

He was the Commissioner for Law and Poverty in the Commonwealth (Henderson) Commission of Enquiry into Poverty from 1973 - 1975, chaired the Royal Commission into the Non-Medical Use of Drugs for the South Australian Government between 1977 and 1979, and was Chairman of the NSW Law Reform Commission from 1981 to 1984.

He resigned from UNSW to pursue a career at the New South Wales Bar, becoming a QC in only six years. He was then appointed to the Federal Court of Australia in 1994. Prior to his appointment, he chaired the Commonwealth's Access to Justice Advisory Committee.

Justice Sackville was described in his citation as a teacher, scholar, law reformer and jurist who has enjoyed a career of rare distinction both in its range and quality.

For more information contact: Alyson Todd, UNSW Faculty of Law, tel. + 61 2 9385 2231, fax + 61 2 9385 1175, or check the Web site.