A Fourth Branch special investigation: Bacchanalia in Australia

Now that Justice Jeff Shaw, the New South Wales Supreme Court judge behind the recent drink-driving-missing-blood-sample scandal, has resigned, Piddington has decided to launch his own investigation into the worship of Bacchus among the Australian judiciary. Piddington is of the view that the love of Bacchus goes well back into Australian history. After all, while Boston might have had its Tea Party, it was the Rum Rebellion that first demonstrated the Australian independent spirit against its colonial masters. So far as the judiciary was concerned, things really began with Edmund "Tosspot Toby" Barton's appointment as one of the original High Court judges in 1903. So named because of his well-known fondness for drink, Barton served with distinction both as this nation's first Prime Minister and as one of its first three High Court judges. Barton was very fond of concurring judgments (usually with Griffith CJ), and one might speculate that his expeditious treatment of judicial work gave him time to indulge in less intellectual pleasures. By contrast, Australia's greatest judge, Sir Owen Dixon, was a lifelong teetotaller, largely as a result of witnessing the depredation of his alcoholic father. Perhaps Dixon CJ's great acuity was a result of his non-indulgence. One judge noted for neither his perspicacity nor his perspicuity, McTiernan J, stands as testament to the preservative powers of alcohol. As Australia's longest-serving High Court judge, McTiernan is proof that while alcohol may preserve the body, it also pickles the mind. McTiernan's immoderation also made him uniquely solicitous of the respondent's claim in the famous case about unconscionable conduct: Blomley v Ryan (1956) 99 CLR 362. Blomley bought land from Ryan at a gross undervalue, after having plied the already-inebriated Ryan with a bottle of rum. Blomley sued to enforce the contract, but since Blomley was aware of what McTiernan termed Ryan's 'intemperate habits and peculiar manner of life', the contract was set aside on the basis that Blomley had unconscientiously exploited Ryan's special disadvantage. Piddington is sure that there are many other more recent and non-defamatory stories about the indulgence of the Australian judiciary. He is reliably informed that bottles of sherry are regularly secreted behind the Commonwealth Law Reports in many a present-day High Court chamber. E-mail him if there are any stories you'd like to share.