Isaac Isaacs was born in Melbourne, and worked as a schoolteacher before becoming a clerk in the Crown Law Department and studying law part-time. He graduated in 1880, with first-class honours and the prize for the top student.
Isaacs became a highly successful barrister and was increasingly involved in politics. He became a member of the Victorian parliament in 1892. As Attorney-General, he introduced stricter company laws after the scandalous collapse of Melbourne's land boom in the early 1890s, and supported regulation of gambling and factories.
Federation became one of his special interests. As a member of the Federal Convention of 1897-8, Isaacs educated and sometimes annoyed delegates with his displays of knowledge and incisive criticism of the draft Australian constitution.
He was elected to the first Australian parliament in 1901, becoming Attorney-General four years later. He retained his busy private practice as a barrister. When the High Court was expanded from three judges to five in 1906, Isaacs was appointed to one of the vacancies. He championed the expansion of federal legislative power that eventually prevailed in the Engineers Case (1920), but his relations with Chief Justice Sir Samuel Griffith and Justice Sir Edmund Barton were antagonistic.
Isaacs became Chief Justice of the High Court in 1930, but less than a year later left the Court to become the King's representative in the Commonwealth, the Governor-General. Prime Minister James Scullin was determined to have (for the first time) an Australian-born Governor-General. He insisted on Isaacs as a local candidate of unarguable eminence, against the strong resistance of King George V.
Some conservatives and empire loyalists strongly criticised Isaacs' appointment as Governor-General, but he carried out his duties with enthusiasm. He used his legal expertise when constitutional questions arose, and voluntarily gave up a quarter of his salary to take his share of the cuts in government expenditure during the Depression.
Isaacs remained a very active writer and speaker in retirement, and died in Melbourne in 1948.
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