Isaac Isaacs

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

Early life

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

As Isaacs returned to Melbourne in 1875 he found work in the legal department of Prothonotary. The following year he began addition to his work at the University of Melbourne to study law and graduated in 1883 as Master of Laws. In 1888 he married Deborah Jacobs, with whom he had two daughters.

Political / Legal Career

Parliament

In 1892, Isaacs was elected as a radical liberal in the Victorian Legislative Assembly. A year later he became general attorney. He was a member for the electoral district of Bogong From May 1892 to May 1893 and from June 1893 to May 1901. He was also elected to the Constituent Assembly in 1897, which drafted the constitution of Australia.

In 1901 he was elected at the first Australian federal elections for the District of Indi as a critical supporter of Edmund Barton's protectionist government. Due to its demands for a radikalaleren policy he earned the displeasure of many colleagues.

High Court

Alfred Deakin certain Isaacs 1905 Attorney General, but due to numerous disagreements Deakin sought a way Isaacs from politics to push and put him in the High Court of Australia. Thus he was the first incumbent prime, who retired from an Australian Parliament. In the High Court Isaacs supported his colleague Henry Bournes Higgins in his opposition attitude towards the Chief Justice Sir Samuel Griffith, the principal author of the Australian Constitution. Isaacs served a total of 24 years in the High Court Isaacs in 1930 by James Scullin, the acting Prime Minister of the Australian Labor Party intended for Chief Justice. At this time Issacs was already 75 years old.

Governor-general

Shortly thereafter, James Scullin undertook to give an Australian the post of governor-general, which caused a storm of protest from conservatives and supporters of the Nationalist Party of Australia. In line with the habits of those days preferred the establishment of a British nobleman in this position. A favorite of this as well as the king was Lord Birdwood, who had commanded the Australian Imperial Force during the First World War.

The enforcement of Isaac at the time required a trip of the Prime Minister to London where he eventually forced to the direct words " I advise you" on the appointment of Isaac's resistance after prolonged King George V.. This event also represents the formal constitutional separation between the UK and Australia, there was hereby established that the monarch had to pay regardless of the British Government and the Council of Australian Government's episode. The Governor-General mutated at this moment by a personal representative of the monarch to an institution of the Australian Constitution.

Due to the global economic crisis Isaacs gave up much of its content as well as its rightful judge - board. He was the first governor-general of the country, who lived permanently exclusively at Government House in Canberra. This gave him a good reputation in the population.

Later years

After the end of his term in 1936 Isaac was 81 years old, but he remained a public figure. He wrote several works related to the legal issues. He also dealt with Zionism, which he declined strictly because he regarded Judaism as a religion and not as ethnicity. For one, he did not like the form of nationalism, on the other hand he saw it as disloyal to Britain, if a Jewish state would be established in Palestine. Also because of his Jewish origin, he was criticized by Jewish organizations in Australia and around the world for his attitude.

In February 1948, Isaacs died at the age of 92 years, only two months before the creation of Israel.

Isaacs 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 take Itself 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

References and sources

  • Zelman Cowen, Isaac Isaacs. In: Douglas Pike ( ed.) Australian Dictionary of Biography. Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Victoria 1966 ff (English)
  • Isaac Alfred Isaacs University of Melbourne
  • Sir Isaac Isaacs National Library of Australia
  • Profile Isaac Isaacs Victorian Parliamentary
  • Election results 1901 psephos.adam - carr.net

Hope | Tennyson | Northcote | Ward | Denman | Munro -Ferguson | Forster | Baird | Isaacs | Hore - Ruthven | Prince Henry | McKell | Slim | Morrison | Sidney | Casey | Hasluck | Kerr | Cowen | Stephen | Hayden | Deane | Hollingworth | Jeffery | Bryce | Cosgrove

  • Governor-General (Australia)
  • Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath
  • Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George
  • Born in 1855
  • Died in 1948
  • Man
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