Beyond his landmark judicial legacy, Anthony Mason’s later advocacy for a bill of rights and a republic remains a powerful challenge to Australia’s political conservatism.

“Whom the gods love dies young” wrote the historian Herodotus in 445. Well not always, and certainly not in the case of the former Chief Justice of this nation Anthony Mason, who died last week just short of 100.

The extent of Mason’s jurisprudential innovation is manifest in a book published four years ago in which there are 23 essays penned by legal scholars, lawyers and judges writing about this most liberal of judge’s contributions – not only to development of the Constitution, but contract law, criminal law and other areas of the legal landscape. (Barbara McDonald, Ben Chen and Jeffrey Gordon (eds), _Dynamic and Principled: The influence of Sir Anthony Mason_, Federation Press 2022).

But as important as what he did on the bench is the work Sir Anthony Mason did when he became an advocate for an Australian Bill of Rights. He also saw no danger in this nation having its own head of state. Because of his experience as a judge in New South Wales, the High Court, along with his stint as Commonwealth........

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