Of course the arrogant Michael Kirby wouldn’t like being referred to as ‘the great dissenter’. No one should be allowed to criticise the ‘great and infallible’ Michael Kirby.

“To his opponents he was a meddler, a judge-made-law man, a constitutionalist guerrilla.”

And during his time on the bench, Kirby proved that the criticism were correct. Kirby was the epitome of an unelected official meddling with the roles of elected politicians, and clearly showing the dangers of a ‘rights’ bill for Australia.

Good riddance to Michael Kirby: may he stay out of public office for ever.

Leigh,

That little outburst exceeds your usual ill-mannered, unenlightened and ill-informed diatribes.

Kirby will long be remembered as a great Australian jurist and a decent person.

There's no possibility you will ever be called 'decent'.

Leigh, in the morning, do you put bleach instead of milk on your weeties!

You will be sorely missed Justice Michael Kirby, and your comments of the latest High Court Judgment denying the Indigenous challenge to the 'intervention' is absolutely appropriate.

A petition to the United Nations will expose the racism in Australian law

May your retirement truly be not the end of your public life but a new beginning.

You will be remembered long after the bigots and homophobes in our midst for your forethought and humanity.

Farewell to an Honourable Jurist indeed!

He shall be sorely missed. His work was his recreation,
as I heard quoted on the news.

He was for equal rights for all people in this country - which
in itself makes him a very rare man and jurist.

I also hope that we haven't seen the last of him.
Men of his calibre are a rarity in top positions.
Most jurists are followers not leaders. He was a leader
in his field of expertise.

As to the knockers? This wouldn't be Australia, if we didn't
have those- now would it? Cut down the tall poppies - by all
means. Then only the weeds remain!

Justice Michael Kirby was a man of reason.

And as we all know, the true triumph of reason is that
it enables us to get along with those who do not possess it.

Michael Kirby has always been, in my opinion, one of Australia's foremost intellectuals. As a student at Sydney University he was a brilliant debater in the Union. As counsel for the defence in court he was hard to beat. His was one of the best minds on the Law Reform Commission. Having read some of his 'dissenting' judgements on the High Court, he convinced me that it was the other judges who were wrong and, being very much his own man, he would not be stampeded into making a judgement just to go along with the majority. He was exactly the sort of jurist that this country needs in its courts.

I wish him all the best in his new career if, as has been rumoured, he follows his friend Geoffrey Robertson onto the world stage.

Yes, he was the only gay in the village, and a fine one at that!

It is not a pity that the retiring age for a High Court Judge is seventy. Instead of the platitudes poured on Michael Kirby, some of the inconsistencies and failures he was part of as a High Court Justice, should be exposed and debated. In 1988, as a President of a Court of Appeal he made a decision called Pambula, in which he stated that there was a right to jury trial in New South Wales.

In 2002, he was part of a five man court, that overruled Pambula. The decision was Gerlach V Clifton Bricks, and he and Callinan were on the same side of a three –two decision. He was unable to persuade Mary Gaudron, to follow her own precedent set in the Kable decision in 1996. He consistently refused to allow very important cases to be heard in the High Court, as a Judge who without due process refused access to that so called Court.

He was one of the seven judges who in 2004, put himself above Parliament and as a member of a cadre eliminated the Queen from all process issued out of the High Court. I refer to the High Court Rules 2004. This is the new testament of the atheists. No eminent jurist would defy the Commonwealth Parliament like that, but a member of the New South Wales Bar would. S 33 High Court of Australia Act 1979 mandates the Queens name on all process. He should be indicted and disgraced. Murphy did not deserve it, Kirby and six others do.

A proper jurist would know the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is a law. A first year law student would know that Section 13 Acts Interpretation Act 1901 ( Cth) makes a schedule part of an Act. The covenant is Schedule 2 to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Act 1986.

As a Justice, I respect Lionel Murphy. I have no such respect for Kirby. He is just one of the sorry parade of federal judges, patently lazy both intellectually and physically, who have allowed the Commonwealth to disintegrate

Peter the Gullible,

So when Pambula came to the High Court it was overruled in a three two decision in which Callinan and Kirby were the minority. By what kind of warped logic does this then become Kirby's fault?

Was Kirby, the staunch monarchist, for or against the section of the High Court Rules 2004 which "eliminated the Queen from all processes issued out of the High Court"? (Which section I have searched for but am unable to find. What was the number of the section?)

You keep harping on about things being "atheist" when what you mean is "secular". The High Court in a multicultural country like Australia should be independent of all religious standpoints, including atheism, otherwise it could be seen to be biassed and therefore not serving the cause of justice for all.