Evatt

Herbert Vere Evatt, famous Australian lawyer, politician and intellectual, was one of the key Australian public figures of the twentieth century. In 1930, at the remarkably young age of thirty-six, he was elevated to the High Court. After the Second World War he played a key role in the foundation of the United Nations. In the 1950s his opposition to Menzies' proposed outlawing of the Communist Party of Australia confirmed his reputation as a great libertarian. Yet Evatt's personality generated controversy, and his long and brilliant career ended in the bathos and ignominy of the Petrov Royal Commission and his final years as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales. Peter Crockett's study of Evatt shows him to have been ambitious, difficult, capricious and larger than life. He could be brusque towards colleagues and subordinates, and his selfishness and egotism were marked. Evatt's writings, which dealt almost exclusively with political and constitutional power relations, reveal a passion for intrigue and preoccupation with authority. Nevertheless, in high office or as a civil libertarian Evatt's fundamental idealism was evident in his commitment to social and politic