Owen Dixon

The Right Honourable Sir Owen Dixon OM GCMG PC
Dixon in 1950
Chief Justice of Australia
In office 18 April 1952 – 13 April 1964
Nominated by	Robert Menzies
Appointed by	William McKell
Preceded by	Sir John Latham
Succeeded by	Sir Garfield Barwick
Justice of the High Court of Australia
In office 4 February 1929 – 13 April 1964
Nominated by	Stanley Melbourne Bruce
Preceded by	H. B. Higgins
Succeeded by	Sir Alan Taylor
Personal details
Born	28 April 1886 Melbourne, Australia
Died	7 July 1972(1972-07-07) (aged 86) Melbourne, Australia
Education	University of Melbourne

Sir Owen Dixon OM GCMG PC (28 April 1886 – 7 July 1972) was an Australian judge and diplomat who served as the sixth Chief Justice of Australia. Many consider him to be Australia's most prominent jurist.^[1][2]

Dixon served as a justice of the High Court for 35 years, including a 12 year period as Chief Justice. He was considered in his time to be one of the world's leading common law jurists, and his judgments reportedly "carried persuasive effect wherever the common law was applied".^[3]

In his lifetime, he was showered globally with various honours, including an appointment to the Privy Council, various honours such as the GCMG and Order of Merit, as well as honorary degrees from the university of Oxford, Harvard, Melbourne, and the Australian National University, as well as an award from Yale for "services to mankind".^[3]

The British law lord Lord Wilberforce wrote of Dixon: "There is no such thing as substandard Dixon, but from time to time there is Dixon at his superb best."