George Graham Winterton (15 December 1946 – 6 November 2008) was an Australian academic specialising in Australian constitutional law. Winterton taught for 28 years at the University of New South Wales before taking up an appointment of Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Sydney in 2004.

Winterton served as a member of the Executive Government Advisory Committee of the Constitutional Commission from 1985 to 1987.

Early life

Winterton was born in Hong Kong on 15 December 1946. His parents, Rita and Walter, had married in Hong Kong after fleeing Austria shortly after the 1938 Nazi invasion. His father practised medicine in Japanese-occupied Hong Kong and, in May 1947, he and his family sailed to London on the MV Lorenz. Walter having gained an English medical qualification, the Wintertons left Britain in 1948, arriving in Australia in November where Walter became a general practitioner in Western Australia, first at Pingelly then Mount Hawthorn and then, after the birth of George's only sibling, Peter, at Tuart Hill from 1953. George attended the local primary schools until 1958 when he started at Hale School, then in West Perth.

In 1968, George graduated with first class honours in law from the University of Western Australia. He had won four prizes, and was placed first in his final year. Winterton later completed a master's degree by research in 1970, on the topic of the appropriations power under the Australian Constitution.

On graduation, Winterton became an articled clerk with the firm of Robinson Cox (now Clayton Utz) and was admitted to practice in Western Australia in 1970. From 1971 to 1973, he practised with the firm Frank Unmack and Cullen in Fremantle.

Winterton's academic career began in 1968 when he served as a visiting tutor at the University of Western Australia.

The Chief Justice of Australia, Robert French, wrote of the early 1970s "when we were involved with other Perth lawyers in establishing an Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia":

:"George played a leading role, and in 1972 was chairman of the committee that became the service. In that year he sent a letter to the then Coalition government asking for a modest grant to establish a duty counsel service. The election intervened."

:"The response, when it came, was astonishing. Gordon Bryant, the new minister for Aboriginal affairs, asked how much money we would need to provide representation for Aboriginal people throughout the state."

Marriage and family

In 1976, George met Rosalind Julian who, at that time, was studying arts at the University of New South Wales. They married in 1979, and four children followed: David (LLB UNSW, 2004 Rhodes scholar), Philip (completing a law degree at the University of Technology, Sydney), Madeleine (BA Sydney) and Julia (enrolled in economics/social science, Sydney University). In 1998, Winterton founded the Constitutional Law and Policy Review, remaining its general editor until his death.

At UNSW, Winterton taught Public Law, Succession and Advanced Equity, Advanced Administrative Law, International Law and, ultimately, Federal Constitutional Law, the High Court of Australia, Comparative Law, Legal History and Comparative Constitutional Law. He was promoted to professor of law, and was awarded a Jubilee Medallion in 1999.

The University of Western Australia awarded him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws in 2007.

The inaugural George Winterton Lecture was delivered by Chief Justice Robert French, of the High Court of Australia, on 18 February 2010 at the Sydney Law School on the topic of the Executive Power under the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia.

Winterton's textbook Australian Federal Constitutional Law: Commentary and Materials, first published in 1999, with a second edition in 2007, appeared in a third edition in 2013 with his pupil Peter Gerangelos as general editor.

Bibliography

Notes

  • Obituary, Sydney Morning Herald
  • Profile, University of Sydney
  • Professor Winterton Video
  • Winterton Republican Constitution
  • Obituary, The Australian
  • Obituary, UNSW Law School