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Dyson Heydon
John Dyson Heydon (born 1 March 1943) is an Australian former judge and barrister who served on the High Court of Australia from 2003 to 2013 and the New South Wales Court of Appeal from 2000 to 2003, and previously served as Dean of the Sydney Law School. He retired from the bench at the constitutionally-mandated age of 70 and went on to chair the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption between 2014 and 2015, an appointment that was politically controversial due to his avowed conservatism and connections with the governing conservative party.
In 2020, an independent investigation conducted for the High Court found that he had sexually harassed six female associates. Further allegations were reported by the Sydney Morning Herald.
Heydon denied the claims and apologised for any "inadvertent and unintended" offence. He did not apply to renew his practising certificate with the New South Wales Bar Association upon its expiry in 2020. Three of the associates sought compensation from the federal government and Heydon. In 2022 the trio settled with the federal government, reportedly for a "six figure" amount. Later, in 2022, Heydon resigned from the Order of Australia.
Heydon was born in Ottawa, Canada, in 1943, to Muriel Naomi (née Slater) and Peter Richard Heydon (later Sir Peter). His father, a diplomat and public servant from Sydney, met his mother (a Canadian) while both were on the staff of Richard Casey, the Australian Ambassador to the United States. Heydon was raised in Sydney, attending the Shore School, before going on to receive a BA in history (with the University Medal) from the University of Sydney, where he was a resident of St. Paul's College. His thesis concerned Napoleon. He was then awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to attend University College, Oxford, where he received an MA and a BCL and was awarded the Vinerian Scholarship.
In 1967, Heydon became a fellow of Keble College, Oxford and, after graduating in 1968, he began teaching at the University of Ghana in 1969. In 1973 he returned to Australia and was admitted to the New South Wales Bar Association in 1973. At age 30, he became a professor of law at the University of Sydney, the youngest person to reach that position. Heydon was elected dean of the University of Sydney Law School in 1978, serving a one-year term. He left to become a barrister, working at Selborne Chambers, where his colleagues included future High Court colleague William Gummow and New South Wales Supreme Court judge Roddy Meagher. He was appointed a Queen's Counsel (QC) in 1987 on the advice of Michael Kirby. In 1999, the Supreme Court of NSW found Heydon negligent in the advice he had given to the NRMA in 1994 concerning its demutualisation. The negligence ruling was overturned on appeal. The appeal judgment set a precedent on professional negligence.
In 1977, Heydon married Pamela Elizabeth Smith, with Gummow as the best man. They had four children. Pamela Heydon died on 13 June 2017 at the age of 66.
Heydon is also a legal scholar. His books are mainly doctrinal treatises, designed principally as information to assist practitioners in their advice and pleadings. His 1971 book The Restraint of Trade Doctrine continues in a fourth edition. In 1975, he published Cases and Materials on Equity, the ninth edition of which came out in 2019. With Sir James Gobbo and David Byrne, he co-authored the second Australian edition of Cross on Evidence in 1980 and became sole author of subsequent editions. He has also taken over from his former colleague, at Sydney University and on the High Court, William Gummow as one of the editors of Meagher, Gummow and Lehane's Equity: Doctrines and Remedies. He is also a co-author of Jacobs' Law of Trusts in Australia.
In 2019, Heydon published with the major legal publisher Thomson Reuters the volume Heydon on Contract: Cases and Materials on Contract Law in Australia. In 2025, he published the follow-up volume Heydon on Contract (Particular Contracts), which was self-published because he had lost his contract with Thomson Reuters due to a sexual harassment scandal (below). In a foreword to the latter, former High Court colleague Michael Kirby described the two volumes taken together as "encyclopedic", "a brilliant ... exercise in taxonomy", "a masterly analysis" and a "magnum opus". The former received a new edition in 2022, titled Australian Law of Contract and edited by Elizabeth Peden.
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Dyson Heydon
John Dyson Heydon (born 1 March 1943) is an Australian former judge and barrister who served on the High Court of Australia from 2003 to 2013 and the New South Wales Court of Appeal from 2000 to 2003, and previously served as Dean of the Sydney Law School. He retired from the bench at the constitutionally-mandated age of 70 and went on to chair the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption between 2014 and 2015, an appointment that was politically controversial due to his avowed conservatism and connections with the governing conservative party.
In 2020, an independent investigation conducted for the High Court found that he had sexually harassed six female associates. Further allegations were reported by the Sydney Morning Herald.
Heydon denied the claims and apologised for any "inadvertent and unintended" offence. He did not apply to renew his practising certificate with the New South Wales Bar Association upon its expiry in 2020. Three of the associates sought compensation from the federal government and Heydon. In 2022 the trio settled with the federal government, reportedly for a "six figure" amount. Later, in 2022, Heydon resigned from the Order of Australia.
Heydon was born in Ottawa, Canada, in 1943, to Muriel Naomi (née Slater) and Peter Richard Heydon (later Sir Peter). His father, a diplomat and public servant from Sydney, met his mother (a Canadian) while both were on the staff of Richard Casey, the Australian Ambassador to the United States. Heydon was raised in Sydney, attending the Shore School, before going on to receive a BA in history (with the University Medal) from the University of Sydney, where he was a resident of St. Paul's College. His thesis concerned Napoleon. He was then awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to attend University College, Oxford, where he received an MA and a BCL and was awarded the Vinerian Scholarship.
In 1967, Heydon became a fellow of Keble College, Oxford and, after graduating in 1968, he began teaching at the University of Ghana in 1969. In 1973 he returned to Australia and was admitted to the New South Wales Bar Association in 1973. At age 30, he became a professor of law at the University of Sydney, the youngest person to reach that position. Heydon was elected dean of the University of Sydney Law School in 1978, serving a one-year term. He left to become a barrister, working at Selborne Chambers, where his colleagues included future High Court colleague William Gummow and New South Wales Supreme Court judge Roddy Meagher. He was appointed a Queen's Counsel (QC) in 1987 on the advice of Michael Kirby. In 1999, the Supreme Court of NSW found Heydon negligent in the advice he had given to the NRMA in 1994 concerning its demutualisation. The negligence ruling was overturned on appeal. The appeal judgment set a precedent on professional negligence.
In 1977, Heydon married Pamela Elizabeth Smith, with Gummow as the best man. They had four children. Pamela Heydon died on 13 June 2017 at the age of 66.
Heydon is also a legal scholar. His books are mainly doctrinal treatises, designed principally as information to assist practitioners in their advice and pleadings. His 1971 book The Restraint of Trade Doctrine continues in a fourth edition. In 1975, he published Cases and Materials on Equity, the ninth edition of which came out in 2019. With Sir James Gobbo and David Byrne, he co-authored the second Australian edition of Cross on Evidence in 1980 and became sole author of subsequent editions. He has also taken over from his former colleague, at Sydney University and on the High Court, William Gummow as one of the editors of Meagher, Gummow and Lehane's Equity: Doctrines and Remedies. He is also a co-author of Jacobs' Law of Trusts in Australia.
In 2019, Heydon published with the major legal publisher Thomson Reuters the volume Heydon on Contract: Cases and Materials on Contract Law in Australia. In 2025, he published the follow-up volume Heydon on Contract (Particular Contracts), which was self-published because he had lost his contract with Thomson Reuters due to a sexual harassment scandal (below). In a foreword to the latter, former High Court colleague Michael Kirby described the two volumes taken together as "encyclopedic", "a brilliant ... exercise in taxonomy", "a masterly analysis" and a "magnum opus". The former received a new edition in 2022, titled Australian Law of Contract and edited by Elizabeth Peden.