Robert French

Robert Shenton French (born 1947) is a former judge of the Federal Court of Australia and was Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia from 2008 to 2017. From 2017 to 2024, he was chancellor of the University of Western Australia, of which he is a graduate. He served as an overseas non-permanent judge of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal from 2017 to 2025.

Early life and education Robert Shenton French was born in Perth, Western Australia, in 1947. In 1964 he was one of two students from Western Australia to attend the International Science School, then known as the Nuclear Research Foundation Summer Science School, at the University of Sydney. He was president of the university's Liberal Club at UWA.

Career In 1969, at the age of 22, French contested the safe Labor Federal seat of Fremantle for the Liberal Party, which he lost to Kim Beazley, Sr. He is a close friend of Kim Beazley, Jr. which focused on complex matters of law and botanical science.

The Hawke government appointed French to the Federal Court in 1986, at the age of 39.

During the Tampa Affair in 2001, French was part of the Full Court of the Federal Court that reversed the order of habeas corpus that had been earlier granted by a single judge. Chief Justice French (right) swearing in Governor–General Peter Cosgrove in March 2014. On 30 July 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced that French would succeed Murray Gleeson as Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia. He was sworn in on 1 September 2008. He became the first chief justice, and the third justice overall (after Sir Ronald and John Toohey), from Western Australia.

On 18 January 2017, French was appointed a non-permanent judge of the Court of Final Appeal of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. He was given the Chinese name "范禮全" by the Hong Kong Judiciary. In June 2024, he remained in the position, along with other Australian judges Patrick Keane, William Gummow, and James Allsop, after British judge Jonathan Sumption resigned, criticising the judiciary of Hong Kong after 14 prominent democratic activists were convicted for subversion. French resigned on 31 March 2025, stating: "I reject the proposition that [the overseas judges] are somehow complicit in the application by the executive of national security laws or somehow confer on them a spurious legitimacy".

He has also served as an international commercial court judge on the DIFC Courts in Dubai.

Other roles French held a number of other positions during his time as Chief Justice, notably serving as chancellor of Edith Cowan University (1991–1997), chairman of the National Native Title Tribunal (1994–1998), and on the Supreme Court of Fiji (2003–2008). He is due to end his term at the end of 2024.

He was part-time Commissioner of the Australian Law Reform Commission (2006–2008), Additional Judge of the Supreme Court of the ACT (2004–2008), council member of the Australian Institute of Judicial Administration (1992–1998), chancellor of Edith Cowan University (1991–1997), member of the Law Reform Commission of Western Australia (1986), chairman of the Town Planning Appeals Tribunal of Western Australia (1986), associate member of the Australian Trade Practices Commission (1983–1986), member of the Legal Aid Commission of Western Australia (1983–1986), member of the Barristers' Board of Western Australia (1979–1986), and chairman of the Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia (1973–1975). small–l liberal, and moderate.

On republicanism French said in a WA Law Society speech in May 2008:

However, the "French Testing" incident has coloured the legacy of French on Indigenous issues. French admitted his "error" when he explained the incident: As I soon discovered, the responsibilities of an administrator trying to develop procedures to implement a legal process are very different from those of a judge required to decide a particular case about whether an administrator's decision is legally flawed. The Tribunal was judicially reviewed on many occasions. The high point or low point, depending on your point of view, occurred after I had refused registration of a claim by the Waanyi people over land the subject of the proposed Century Zinc mine in North Queensland. I refused registration on the basis that the application could not succeed because of the extinguishing effects of historical pastoral leases in the area. I took the view that observations about the extinguishing effects of leases made by Brennan J in Mabo put the matter beyond doubt. My refusal to register the claim was an administrative act in the application of a test designed to screen out hopeless claims. The decision was overturned by the High Court in North Ganalanja with such moral enthusiasm that the Court gave judgment immediately and reasons later. In so doing, it described my approach as "tantamount to a proleptic exercise of federal jurisdiction". To add insult to injury, members of the Waanyi people were sitting in Court wearing T-shirts with the message "Ban French Testing". I have no doubt, in retrospect, that I was properly found to have been in error. The considerations influencing my approach were those of the administrator, the urgent need to get the process moving and to establish its credibility in the face of ongoing attacks. There was a legal bottleneck on the issue of the relationship between pastoral leases and native title which was not resolved until the decision in Wik. Many ill-prepared applications were being lodged and upon registration were entitled to procedural rights affecting third party interests particularly in relation to mining and the release of Crown land for development around regional centres. I learned a useful lesson from all of this and that is that the worldview and culture of the administrator which I had adopted is very different from that of the courts.

On the 2023 Voice referendum In an address at the National Press Club on 5 October 2023, French spoke in favour of establishing the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, ahead of the referendum on the matter. He criticised the No campaign's slogan, "if you don't know, vote no", as well as some of their main arguments against the Voice, including their argument that it posed a legal risk, dismissing this as "misguided". French also observed that the Voice would instead “provide a new impetus and new mechanism to address the generational effects of the collision of our histories” and will do so by providing an opportunity for “coordinated, national advice from a First People’s body”.

Awards and recognition Honorary Doctor of Laws, Edith Cowan University, 1998 Western Australian Citizen of the Year – Professions, 1998 Centenary Medal, 2001, for service as President of the National Native Title Tribunal and as a Federal Court judge Companion of the Order of Australia, 2010, for eminent service to the law and to the judiciary, to legal education and administration in the areas of constitutional, competition and native title law, and to legal reform. Life Fellow, Australian Academy of Law

Personal life French married Valerie J. French, who completed her LL.B. at UWA in 1971 and has served as the president of the Children's Court of Western Australia.

French is a fan of the Fremantle Dockers AFL team, and likes science fiction.