Isaac Isaacs

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Isaac Isaacs

Sir Isaac Alfred Isaacs , GCB , GCMG (born August 6, 1855 in Melbourne , † February 11, 1948 ibid) was Australia's Chief Justice and the ninth Governor General of the country . The enforcement of Isaac's appointment as the first Australian governor-general against the wishes of the monarch and the British government was a key event in Australian history.

Early life

Isaacs was born in Melbourne in 1855 to a Jewish tailor who had immigrated from Great Britain a year earlier . His family was of Polish-Jewish origin. When Isaacs was four years old, his family moved to northern Victoria . After graduating from the state school in Beechworth, Isaacs worked there as a teacher.

When Isaacs returned to Melbourne in 1875, he found work in the administration of the Supreme Court of Victoria. The following year he started next to his work at the University of Melbourne , a law school and graduated in 1883 as Master of Laws . In 1888 he married Deborah Jacobs, with whom he had two daughters.

Political / legal career

houses of Parliament

In 1892, Isaacs was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly as a radical liberal . A year later he became an advocate general. From May 1892 to May 1893 and June 1893 to May 1901 he was a member of the Bogong constituency. He was also elected to the Constituent Assembly in 1897, which drafted the Australian Constitution .

In 1901 he was elected a critical supporter of Edmund Barton's protectionist government in the first Australian federal election for the Indi district. Because of his demands for a more radical policy, he earned the displeasure of many colleagues.

High court

Alfred Deakin appointed Isaacs Attorney General in 1905, but due to numerous disagreements, Deakin sought a way to force Isaacs out of politics and transferred him to the High Court of Australia . He was the first incumbent minister to leave an Australian parliament. In the High Court, Isaacs supported his colleague Henry Bournes Higgins in his opposition to Chief Justice Sir Samuel Griffith , the chief draftsman of the Australian Constitution. Isaacs served a total of 24 years in the High Court. Isaacs was appointed Chief Justice in 1930 by James Scullin , Acting Prime Minister of the Australian Labor Party . At this point, Issacs was already 75 years old.

Governor General

Shortly thereafter, James Scullin decided to give an Australian the post of Governor General , which sparked a storm of protest from Conservatives and supporters of the Nationalist Party of Australia . According to the customs of the day, the establishment preferred a British nobleman in this position. A favorite of these, as well as the king, was Lord Birdwood , who had commanded the Australian Imperial Force in World War I.

The enforcement of Isaacs required a trip by the Prime Minister to London where, after continuing resistance, he finally forced King George V to appoint Isaacs with the direct words "I advise you". This event also represents the formal constitutional separation between the United Kingdom and Australia, since it was hereby established that the monarch, independently of the British government, also had to follow the advice of the Australian government. At that moment, the governor general mutated from a personal representative of the monarch to an organ of the Australian constitution.

Due to the global economic crisis , Isaacs waived a large part of his salary as well as the judges' pension due to him. He was the country's first Governor General to live exclusively in Government House in Canberra . This gave him a good reputation among the population.

Late years

When he retired in 1936, Isaacs was 81 years old but remained a public figure. He wrote some works on legal subjects. He also dealt with Zionism , which he strictly rejected because he saw Judaism as a religion and not as an ethnic group. On the one hand, he did not like any form of nationalism , on the other hand, he saw it as disloyal to Great Britain if a Jewish state were to be established in Palestine . Because of his Jewish origins, he was criticized by Jewish organizations in Australia and around the world for his attitude.

Isaacs died in February 1948 at the age of 92, just three months before the establishment of the State of Israel .

Isaac's works

  • The new agriculture , 1901, Melbourne: Department of Agriculture
  • Opinion of the Hon. Isaac A. Isaacs, KC, MP, re the case of Lieutenant Witton , 1902, Melbourne
  • The Riverina Transport case , 1938, Melbourne: Australian Natives' Association, Victorian Board of Directors
  • Australian democracy and our constitutional system , 1939, Melbourne: Horticultural Press
  • An appeal for a greater Australia: the nation must itself take power for its post-war reconstruction; the constitutional issue stated; dynamic democracy , 1943, Melbourne: Horticultural Press
  • Referendum powers:: a stepping stone to greater freedom , 1946, Melbourne
  • Palestine: peace and prosperity or war and destruction? Political Zionism: undemocratic, unjust, dangerous , 1946, Melbourne: Ramsey Ware Publishing

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ ABC, 2000: "A Child Of The Empire" ( Memento of the original from December 30, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.abc.net.au
personal data
SURNAME Isaacs, Isaac
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Isaacs, Isaac Alfred (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Chief Justice and Governor General of Australia
DATE OF BIRTH August 6, 1855
PLACE OF BIRTH Melbourne
DATE OF DEATH February 11, 1948
Place of death Melbourne