Mark Weinberg (judge)

{{Infobox officeholder

|honorific-prefix = {{pre-nominal styles|size=100%|Hon}}

|name = Mark Weinberg

|honorific-suffix = {{post-nominals|country=AUS|AO|FAAL|KC|size=100%}}

|image =

|alt =

|caption =

|office = Judge of the Court of Appeal, Supreme Court of Victoria

|term_start = {{start date|2008|07|22|df=y}}

|term_end = {{end date|2018|05|09|df=y}}

|office1 = Judge of the Federal Court of Australia

|term_start1 = {{start date|1998|07|15|df=y}}

|term_end1 = {{end date|2008|07|19|df=y}}

|office2 = 2d Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions

|term_start2 = {{start date|1988|df=y}}

|term_end2 = {{end date|1991|12|df=y}}

|predecessor2 = Ian Temby

|successor2 = Michael Rozenes

|birth_name = Mark Samuel Weinberg

|birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=yes|1948|05|13}}

|birth_place = Trelleborg, Sweden{{Cite web|url=https://www.monash.edu/alumni/news/events/graduation/speaker-profiles/justice-mark-weinberg-ao|title = Justice Mark Weinberg AO}}

|death_date =

|death_place =

|nationality = Australian

|occupation = Academic, barrister, jurist

|alma_mater = {{unbulleted list|Monash University|University of Oxford}}

}}

Mark Samuel Weinberg {{post-nominals|country=AUS|sep=|AO|FAAL|KC}} (born 13 May 1948{{cite encyclopedia |title=The Hon Justice Mark Samuel Weinberg|encyclopedia=Who's Who in Australia|publisher=Australian Associated Press|year=2017}}) is a former judge of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Victoria, serving from July 2008 to May 2018. He is a former judge of the Federal Court of Australia who served from July 1998 to July 2008.{{Cite web|url=http://www.fedcourt.gov.au/aboutct/jj_former.html|title=Former Judges of the Federal Court of Australia|work=Federal Court of Australia|publisher=Australian Government|accessdate=4 April 2012}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.supremecourt.vic.gov.au/home/about+the+court/our+judiciary/judges/|title=Judges: Current Supreme Court judges|work=Supreme Court of Victoria|publisher=Government of Victoria|location=Australia|accessdate=30 July 2016|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150301031707/http://www.supremecourt.vic.gov.au/home/about+the+court/our+judiciary/judges/|archivedate=1 March 2015}}

Early life

Weinberg was born in Trelleborg, Sweden, into a Jewish family of Holocaust survivors.{{Cite web |last=Masters |first=Nick McKenzie, Chris |date=2021-11-19 |title=Mark Weinberg’s war crimes probe faces high hurdles. Can it prevail? |url=https://www.theage.com.au/national/mark-weinberg-s-war-crimes-probe-faces-high-hurdles-can-it-prevail-20211118-p59a8x.html |access-date=2023-08-22 |website=The Age |language=en}} He lived in the United States until the age of 10, when he and his family moved to Melbourne, Australia. He attended Melbourne High School and later graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws (First Class Honours) from Monash University. In 1970, the year he graduated, he was awarded the Supreme Court Prize. In 1972, he received the Vinerian Scholarship as the top graduate of the Bachelor of Civil Law program at the University of Oxford.{{cite news|url=https://www.monash.edu/alumni/news/events/graduation/speaker-profiles/october-2017/justice-mark-weinberg-ao|title=Justice Mark Weinberg AO|publisher=Monash University|access-date=27 October 2019}} In 1975 he was called to the Victorian Bar.

Career

From 1984 to 1985, Weinberg served as the dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Melbourne, having previously held the positions of acting dean and deputy dean.

In 1986, Weinberg was appointed Queen's Counsel. From 1988 until 1991, he served as the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions.{{cite web|url=http://www.fedcourt.gov.au/aboutct/weinberg.html|title=The Hon Mark Samuel Weinberg|work=Federal Court of Australia|publisher=Australian Government|accessdate=4 April 2012}}

After his appointment to the Federal Court in 1998, Weinberg also held several other roles, including deputy president of the Federal Police Disciplinary Tribunal, non-resident judge of the Supreme Court of Fiji, additional judge of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory and chief justice of the Supreme Court of Norfolk Island.{{Cite web|url=http://www.victorialawfoundation.org.au/events/law-oration-2016|title=Law Oration 2016|publisher=Victoria Law Foundation|date=21 July 2016|accessdate=30 July 2016}} He resigned from the Federal Court and his other appointments in 2008 to take up office as a judge of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Victoria.

In 2017, Weinberg was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for his distinguished service to the judiciary and to the law, particularly through reforms to criminal law and procedure, to legal education in Victoria and to the administration of justice in Fiji and Norfolk Island.{{cite web |url=http://www.gg.gov.au/sites/default/files/files/honours/ad/ad2017/slkh83xzcb/AO%20Final%20Media%20Notes.pdf |title=Officer (AO) in the General Division of the Order of Australia |work=Australia Day 2017 Honours List |publisher=Governor-General of Australia |date=26 January 2017 |access-date=27 January 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180319175054/http://www.gg.gov.au/sites/default/files/files/honours/ad/ad2017/slkh83xzcb/AO%20Final%20Media%20Notes.pdf|archivedate=19 March 2018}}

Retirement

On 9 May 2018, Weinberg retired from the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Victoria after 10 years of service.{{cite web |title=The Court farewells Justice Weinberg |url=https://www.supremecourt.vic.gov.au/news/the-court-farewells-justice-weinberg |website=Supreme Court of Victoria |accessdate=22 April 2020 |date=9 May 2018}} He continued to hear cases as a reserve Judge.

In 2018, he presided over the jury trial of Dimitrious Gargasoulas, the perpetrator of the January 2017 Melbourne car attack, which killed six people and injured 27. In February 2019, he sentenced Gargasoulas to life in prison with a non-parole period of 46 years.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/feb/22/james-gargasoulas-jailed-for-life-over-bourke-street-massacre|title=Bourke Street killer James Gargasoulas jailed for life over massacre|work=The Guardian|agency=AAP|date=22 February 2019|access-date=27 October 2019}}

In 2019, he was part of the three-member bench of the Court of Appeal that heard the appeal of Cardinal George Pell against convictions for sexual offences. The appeal was dismissed by majority, with Weinberg dissenting. In his dissenting opinion, Weinberg concluded that there was a "significant possibility" that Pell may not have committed the offences, and that there was "a significant body of cogent evidence casting serious doubt upon the complainant's account, both as to credibility and reliability".{{cite web |title=Pell v The Queen [2019] VSCA 186 |url=http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/vic/VSCA/2019/186.html |website=Austlii |publisher=Supreme Court of Victoria - Court of Appeal |accessdate=22 April 2020 |date=21 August 2019}} Subsequently, Pell successfully appealed to the High Court, and the convictions were quashed.{{cite news|url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-21/george-pell-appeal-judgment-summary-transcript/11434304|title=George Pell Victorian Court of Appeal judgment summary transcript|work=ABC News|date=21 August 2019|access-date=23 April 2020}}{{cite web|url=https://www.hcourt.gov.au/assets/publications/judgment-summaries/2020/hca-12-2020-04-07.pdf|title=Judgment Summary: Pell v The Queen [2020] HCA 12|website=High Court of Australia|date=7 April 2020|access-date=23 April 2020}}

Following the release of the Brereton Report, in December 2020, Weinberg was appointed by Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton as the Special Investigator to investigate alleged war crimes committed by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan.{{cite news |last1=Greene |first1=Andrew |title=Former federal court judge named as special investigator for Afghanistan war crime allegations |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-16/afghanistan-war-crime-allegation-investigators-appointed/12991386 |access-date=23 January 2021 |work=ABC News |publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation |date=16 December 2020}}