Michael Donald Kirby AC CMG (born 18 March 1939) is an Australian jurist and academic who is a former Justice of the High Court of Australia, serving from 1996 to 2009.

[3][4] Kirby commenced his legal career as an articled clerk for Ramon Burke at the small Sydney firm M. A. Simon and Co., assisting with Compensation Commission cases for plaintiffs.

[17][18] Legal researchers Andrew Lynch and George Williams observed that "even allowing for 2004 as a year in which Kirby had a particularly high level of explicit disagreement with a majority of his colleagues, it is neither premature nor unfair to say that in the frequency of his dissent, his Honour has long since eclipsed any other Justice in the history of the Court... [Kirby] has broken away to claim a position of outsider on the Court which seems unlikely to pass with future years".

Kirby explains "there have always been divisions, reflecting the different philosophies and perspectives of the office-holders", and that throughout the High Court's history, many dissenting opinions have ultimately been adopted as good law.

Rejecting the doctrine of strict constructionism, Kirby declared that:Clearly it would be wrong for a judge to set out in pursuit of a personal policy agenda and hang the law.

[28][29] An insight into Kirby's jurisprudence and judicial style can be found in his engagement with Gavin Griffith QC in Kruger v Commonwealth, which is featured in the documentary.

[29] He had also addressed this topic in a 1997 speech to the Bar Association of India, in which he spoke approvingly of "a kind of 'judicial activism' that is often in tune with the deeply felt emotions of ordinary citizens".

[30] Nonetheless, Kirby is critical of the term "judicial activism" when it is used as "code language", applied chiefly by conservative commentators to views and to people with which they disagree.

It identifies "[s]ystematic, widespread and gross human rights violations" by a "totalitarian state", including "unspeakable atrocities" in the political prison camps.

[34] North Korea refused all co-operation with the inquiry and, just before the report was launched, issued a statement claiming that it was based upon "faked" material.

[36][37] At a press conference to launch the report, on 17 February 2014, Kirby said that there were "many parallels" between the evidence he had heard and crimes committed by the Nazis and their allies in the Second World War.

[38] On 22 April 2014 the official news agency of North Korea, KCNA, claimed that the "fabrications" are meant to "undermine the ideology and social system of the DPRK".

[42] In May 2017,[43] he was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star, "in recognition of his contribution to promoting understanding of the situation of Human Rights in North Korea in the international society including the issue of the abductions of Japanese nationals".

[49] The annual Michael Kirby Lecture and Dinner has been conducted by the Faculty of Law and Justice, Southern Cross University, since 2007.

In May 2007, he appeared in Melbourne alongside hip-hop impresario Elf Tranzporter at the launch of Victorian Arts Law Week, performing a rap of W. B. Yeats's poetry.

Kirby is religious, describing himself as a "Protestant Anglican Christian" and criticising clerical opposition to homosexuality: "I don't want any old gent in frocks to take my religion from me and to me it is still an important aspect of my life".

[64] Kirby also expressed disappointment in his "minority of one" status among his High Court of Australia colleagues, and conceded that "some of the justices perhaps have less liberal views than I have".

[2] Jean was a graduate of Sydney Girls High School, obtaining a Leaving Certificate, a rarity for a woman at that time, and worked in numerous paid jobs by virtue of her own successes and ability.

Donald attended Sydney Technical School in Ultimo, and afterwards worked as a general assistant, then tool and machinery salesman, at a hardware firm.

[2] The two became engaged on Jean's 21st birthday and were married in March 1937, a month after Donald turned 21; their first home was in Bloomfield Street, South Coogee.