[2] He graduated in 1962 with degrees in Arts and Law with first-class honours, the same year as fellow judges Murray Gleeson and Michael Kirby.

[5][6] In 1962 Hodgson served as associate to High Court judge Sir Victor Windeyer.

[4] Hodgson served as a Commissioner of the New South Wales Law Reform Commission part-time, lectured at the University of Sydney, was Assistant Editor of the Australian Law Journal from 1969 to 1976, and served on the Bar Council from 1978 to 1979.

Hodgson wrote numerous philosophical articles, mainly dealing with issues in philosophy of the mind.

Hodgson authored three books published by Oxford University Press, Consequences of Utilitarianism (1967), The Mind Matters: Consciousness and Choice in a Quantum World (1991) and Rationality + Consciousness = Free Will (2011).