Christine Wheeler

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The Honourable Justice

Christine Ann Wheeler

AO, QC,
Judge of the Supreme Court of Western Australia
In office
30 October 1996 –25 February 2010
Personal details
Born (1954-01-16) January 16, 1954 (age 65)
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Nationality Australian
Alma mater University of Western Australia
London School of Economics
OccupationJudge, lawyer

The Honourable Christine Ann Wheeler AO, QC, (born 16 January 1954 in Sydney) [1] is a former judge in the Supreme Court of Western Australia, from 1996 to 2005. [2] From 2005 to 2010, she was an inaugural judge of the Court of Appeal. She retired from the Supreme Court on 25 February 2010. [3]

Queens Counsel Jurist appointed by letters patent in some Commonwealth realms

A Queen's Counsel, or King's Counsel during the reign of a king, is a lawyer who is appointed by the monarch of the United Kingdom to be one of "Her Majesty's Counsel learned in the law." The term is recognised as an honorific. The position exists in some Commonwealth jurisdictions around the world, but other Commonwealth countries have either abolished the position, or re-named it to eliminate monarchical connotations, such as "Senior Counsel" or "Senior Advocate". Queen's Counsel is an office, conferred by the Crown, that is recognised by courts. Members have the privilege of sitting within the bar of court.

Sydney Metropolis in Australia

Sydney is the state capital of New South Wales and the most populous city in Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Port Jackson and extends about 70 km (43.5 mi) on its periphery towards the Blue Mountains to the west, Hawkesbury to the north, the Royal National Park to the south and Macarthur to the south-west. Sydney is made up of 658 suburbs, 40 local government areas and 15 contiguous regions. Residents of the city are known as "Sydneysiders". As of June 2017, Sydney's estimated metropolitan population was 5,230,330 and is home to approximately 65% of the state's population.

Judge official who presides over court proceedings

A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and, typically, in an open court. The judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility and arguments of the parties, and then issues a ruling on the matter at hand based on his or her interpretation of the law and his or her own personal judgment. In some jurisdictions, the judge's powers may be shared with a jury. In inquisitorial systems of criminal investigation, a judge might also be an examining magistrate.

Contents

Early life and education

Wheeler was educated at Kent Street Senior High School in Perth, and graduated from the University of Western Australia in 1975 with a Bachelor of Jurisprudence. She studied for a Master of Laws at the London School of Economics, before returning to Perth to complete her Bachelor of Laws in 1980. [1] [4]

Kent Street Senior High School High school in East Victoria Park, Perth, Western Australia

Kent Street Senior High School is a public co-educational specialist high day and boarding school, located on Kent Street in East Victoria Park, a suburb of Perth, Western Australia.

University of Western Australia university in Perth, Western Australia

The University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Perth, the state capital, with a secondary campus in Albany and various other facilities elsewhere.

London School of Economics public research university in London, United Kingdom

The London School of Economics is a public research university located in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidney Webb, Beatrice Webb, Graham Wallas, and George Bernard Shaw for the betterment of society, LSE joined the University of London in 1900 and established its first degree courses under the auspices of the University in 1901. LSE started awarding its own degrees in its own name in 2008, prior to which it awarded degrees of the University of London.

Career

She served as an Assistant Crown Solicitor from 1984 to 1988, heading the Policy and Law Reform Unit. From 1988 to 1994 she held the positions of Senior Assistant Crown Solicitor and Senior Assistant Crown Counsel. [5] In 1994 Wheeler was a part-time Judicial Registrar of the Industrial Relations Court of Australia.

The Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC), known from 1956 to 1973 as the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission and from 1973 to 1988 as the Australian Conciliation and Arbitration Commission, was a tribunal with powers under the Workplace Relations Act 1996 that existed from 1956 until 2010. It was the central institution of Australian labour law. The AIRC replaced a previous system of industrial courts, which broadly speaking, was engaged in the same functions, but with superior independence and powers.

She took silk in 1994, becoming the first woman in Western Australia to be appointed as a Queen's Counsel. She sat as a Commissioner in the District and Supreme Courts of Western Australia in 1995 and 1996.

Supreme Court

Wheeler was appointed to the bench on 30 October 1996, becoming the first female Justice of the Supreme Court of Western Australia.

Bench (law) location in a courtroom where a judge sits

Bench in legal contexts means simply the location in a courtroom where a judge sits. The historical roots of that meaning come from judges formerly having sat on long seats or benches when presiding over a court. The bench is usually an elevated desk area that allows a judge to view the entire courtroom.

In 2003 Justice Wheeler was one of the three judges of the Court of Criminal Appeal of the Supreme Court of Western Australia who took just ten days to reject the appeal of Andrew Mallard, who had been convicted of murder. [6] In 2005 the High Court of Australia set aside this decision. [7]

Andrew Mark Mallard was a British-born Australian who was wrongfully convicted of murder in 1995 and sentenced to life imprisonment. Almost 12 years later, after an appeal to the High Court of Australia, his conviction was quashed and a retrial ordered. However, the charges against him were dropped and Mallard was released. At the time, the Director of Public Prosecutions stated that Mallard remained the prime suspect and that if further evidence became available she could still be prosecuted. He was released from prison in 2006 after his conviction was quashed by the High Court, and paid compensation by the state government.

High Court of Australia supreme court

The High Court of Australia is the highest court in the Australian court hierarchy and the final court of appeal in Australia. It has both original and appellate jurisdiction, the power of judicial review over laws passed by the Parliament of Australia and the parliaments of the states, and the ability to interpret the Constitution of Australia and thereby shape the development of federalism in Australia.

In 2005 Justice Wheeler was made a judge in the Supreme Court's Appellate Court. [2]

Outside law, Wheeler was Pro-Chancellor of the University of Western Australia from 2001 to 2005.

She was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in the 2013 Australia Day Honours.

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 Offer, Kate. "The Judges of Western Australia: Part II" (PDF). (1998) 27 University of Western Australia Law Review 248.
  2. 1 2 "The Hon. Justice Christine Ann Wheeler". Supreme Court of W.A. Retrieved 9 March 2009.
  3. ↑ Farewell to the Honourable Justice Wheeler, Supreme Court of Western Australia, 25 February 2010.
  4. ↑ "Christine Wheeler (1980)". University of Western Australia Faculty of Law. Retrieved 20 June 2012.
  5. ↑ Wallace, Anne (editor) (November 2003). "Christine Wheeler" (PDF). AIJA News. 16 (3). Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 March 2011.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  6. ↑ Taylor, Robert (12 October 2006). "Mallard case rocks WA justice". The West Australian. Retrieved 1 April 2009.[ dead link ]
  7. ↑ Mallard v the Queen [2005] HCA 68 , (2005) 224 CLR 125(15 November 2005), High Court.
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