Landmark High Court Chief Justice Gerard Brennan, 94, dies two days before Mabo anniversary

Remembered as ‘a man of deep humanity’ the landmark Mabo case High Court justice dies just days before the 30th anniversary of the case.

HE WAS remembered as “a man of deep humanity” as tributes flowed for Sir Gerard Brennan, who died on Wednesday.

The High Court chief justice died just two days before the 30th anniversary of his landmark judgment in the Mabo native title case.

On June 3, 1992 he wrote the lead judgment in the case that dissolved the notion of terra nullius and embedded his humanity in Australian history.

“It is imperative in today’s world that the common law should neither be, nor be seen to be, frozen in an age of racial discrimination,” he wrote in his judgment.

“The fiction by which the rights and interests of Indigenous (people) in land were treated as non-existent was justified by a policy which has no place in the contemporary law of this country.”

His foresight and judgment 30 years ago continues to set precedence in ongoing land struggles across the nation.

It was for those reasons the Prime Minister of the time, Paul Keating, praised Sir Gerard’s decisions in his Redfern Speech.

“(The judgement) establishes a fundamental truth, and lays the basis for justice,” Mr Keating said.

On Thursday, the High Court of Australia said Sir Gerard’s contribution to the legal system was profound.

“He was a model of judicial restraint. He was a man of deep humanity and was held in great esteem and affection by those who had the fortune to sit with him.”

A ceremonial sitting of the court to honour him will be held in August.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus described Sir Gerard as a brilliant, compassionate man whose devotion to the law had made Australia a better, fairer and more decent nation.

“Sir Gerard’s lead judgment on the Mabo case recognised for the first time under Australian law that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples had lived in Australia for thousands of years and their rights to their land according to their own laws and customs not only predated, but survived, settlement and continue to this day,” Mr Dreyfus said.

In his later life, Sir Gerard was a campaigner for social justice and prominent advocate for a national integrity commission.

Originally published as Landmark High Court Chief Justice Gerard Brennan, 94, dies two days before Mabo anniversary