Ronald Merkel KC is an Australian jurist, who was formerly a Judge of the Federal Court of Australia.
Merkel was admitted to the legal profession in March 1964 and was subsequently called to the bar in 1971.
[1] In 1985 Merkel, along with Uncle Jim Berg, and Ron Castan, sued the University of Melbourne and the Museum of Victoria for the return of their collections of Indigenous cultural material and through this act created the Koorie Heritage Trust.
[4] He is known for "Shaw v Wolf" (1998), which dealt with the definition of people as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander for the purposes of applying the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission Act 1989.
He established three criteria to consider when determining whether a person is Aboriginal: descent, self-identification and community recognition.