As a young woman,Bell was a prominent advocate of prison reform,and a member of the group Women Behind Bars.[5] She has long been involved in the LGBT and human rights issues,participating in the first Mardi Gras LGBT rights rally in Sydney in 1978,which was broken up by police.[6] In 1979 she participated in the inaugural "Gays and the Law" forum as part of the National Summer Offensive for Gay Rights,where she advocated for the equal right of lesbian prisoners to conjugal visits.[7]
On 25 March 1999,Bell was sworn in as a judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales.[2] During her time on the Supreme Court,she presided over a defamation case brought by Rene Rivkin,holding that allegations of homosexuality were no longer defamatory at common law.[9][2] From 2007 to 2008,she was president of the Australasian Institute of Judicial Administration,[10][1] a research and educational institute founded in 1976. Funded by both Australian and New Zealand governments as well as subscription payments by members,the institute's aims include research into judicial administration and the provision of educational programmes about court administration and judicial systems,for people working within these systems.[11] She also served as chair of the University of Wollongong Law Faculty Advisory Committee from 2007 to 2008.[1]
In December 2008,Attorney-General Robert McClelland announced that Bell would succeed Michael Kirby on the High Court.[12] She was sworn in on 3 February 2009.[13] She was the 48th person and the fourth woman appointed to the High Court since the federation of Australia in 1901.[14]
Bell is a lover of theatre,and known for her sense of humour. Under the stage name "Ginger de Winter",she was barrel-spinner on television game shows,and was president of the "Australian Barrel Girls Association".[5] She was patron of the Rose Scott Women Writers' Festival for some years.[15]
Bell has been called upon to give a number of addresses and lectures during her time at the High Court,the transcripts of which are available online.[19] These include:
2013:"Section 80 - The Great Constitutional Tautology",for The Lucinda Lecture,Monash University[19]
2014:Tristan Jepson Memorial Foundation Lecture,honouring Tristan Jepson,a law graduate and comedic actor and writer who suicided aged 26 in 2004[19][20]
2015:"Magna Carta –Resonances in the Common Law of Australia",Spring Conversazione,Melbourne[19]
2018:Criminal Law Stream,Australian Bar Association &New South Wales Bar Association National Conference
2019:The Sir James Martin Oration,honouring SirJames Martin,who was premier of the Colony of New South Wales three times before becoming the fourth Chief Justice[19]
On 26 August 2022, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus announced that the government had appointed Bell "to lead an inquiry into the appointment of former Prime Minister, the Hon Scott Morrison MP, to administer departments other than the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and related matters".[21] after Morrison had secretly appointed himself to five ministries without even his colleagues' knowledge.[3][22] The report was published on 25 November.[23]
While various mainstream media have reported that some Jewish Australians wanted a commissioner whom they saw may be more sympathetic to anti-Semitism concerns, and Liberal politician Josh Frydenberg expressed his disagreement with the choice, the Law Council of Australia, which had advocated for the establishment of the Royal Commission, expressed appreciation for her appointment. LCA president Tania Wolff said that she is "an eminent Australian jurist", and that "the conduct of royal commissions are governed by clear and well-established legal principles... In Australia, judges decide matters impartially and independently, by applying the law to the evidence before them. They do not act on personal views, political considerations, or public pressure". Attorney-General Michelle Rowland said "Her experience speaks for itself".[26]
Honours
On 26 January 2012, Bell was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia for "eminent service to the judiciary and to the law through leadership in criminal law reform and public policy development, to judicial administration, and as an advocate for the economically and socially disadvantaged".[27][2]
She received honorary degrees from the University of Wollongong and the University of Sydney.[2]
Commentary
On her appointment to the High Court, Australian Law Reform Commission president David Weisbrot opined that Bell would be a "progressive" jurist in the tradition of Michael Kirby.[28] Kate Hannon wrote in The Sydney Morning Herald that her appointment was "welcomed as redressing a lack of criminal law expertise on the bench of Australia's superior court, and as going some way towards correcting the gender imbalance".[12] Commentator Natasha Stojanovich noted the "disproportionate media focus on Justice Bell's gender and commitment to social justice sadly distract from the strong merit of her appointment".[9]
Jeremy Gans, a Melbourne Law School professor, wrote in 2018 that Bell's partnership with Susan Kiefel and Patrick Keane was "the most powerful bloc of judges in the court's history". Gans found that the three justices had been in agreement in 88 percent of the 116 cases where they had sat together.[29]
Personal life
As of 2009 Bell was living in inner Sydney with her partner, a barrister.[30][31]
↑Marsden, John (c. 2004). "From Belanglo to Bangkok". I am what I am: my life and curious times. Camberwell, Victoria, Australia: Penguin. p.71. ISBN0-670-04052-5.
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