Ron Castan
{{short description|Australian activist and lawyer (1939-1999)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}
{{Use Australian English|date=December 2012}}
Aaron Ronald Castan {{post-nominals|country=AUS|AM|QC}} (29 October 1939 – 21 October 1999) was an Australian barrister and human rights advocate.
Legal career
Castan played a leading role in some of Australia's more important cases, such as Koowarta v Bjelke-Petersen and the Franklin Dam case. One of his most celebrated roles was that of senior counsel in the Mabo case, which overruled the application of the enlarged doctrine of terra nullius in Australia, to recognize Aboriginal land rights in Australian common law for the first time. Castan spent 10 years preparing and arguing the case on behalf of Eddie Mabo, for which he received widespread acclaim.[http://home.vicnet.net.au/~liberty/homepages/november99.html Liberty Online – The Victorian Council for Civil Liberties – November 1999]
In 1985 Castan, along with Uncle Jim Berg, and Ron Merkel, sued the University of Melbourne and the Museum of Victoria for the return of their collections of Indigenous cultural material and through this act created the Koorie Heritage Trust.{{Cite web|url=http://www.yarrahealing.catholic.edu.au/education-centres/index.cfm?loadref=74|title=Koorie Heritage Trust|website=yarrahealing.catholic.edu.au|language=en|access-date=2018-05-18}}
He also played a leading role in the legislative discussions on Australian native title law throughout the 1990s, having devised the solution to the standoff in the Australian Senate over the Wik settlement. Additionally, he was a founder of the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service.[http://www.portrait.gov.au/static/coll_1210Ron+Castan+AM+QC.php Ron Castan AM QC – Photography – National Portrait Gallery]
Although he is most famous for his work in constitutional and human rights law, Castan was an expert in many areas of law. The Castan Centre for Human Rights Law at Monash University is named after him, where his daughter, Melissa Castan (herself a human rights scholar), is the centre's director.[http://www.law.monash.edu.au/castancentre/about/roncastan.html Ron Castan AM QC (1939-1999)]
Castan also committed himself to human rights. For several years he worked as a Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commissioner in Victoria.[https://www.monash.edu/law/research/centres/castancentre/about/roncastan Ron Castan AM QC (1939-1999)]
Personal life
Castan was a member of the Smorgon family and a child of Russian Jewish immigrants who migrated to Australia.{{cite web |title=Ron Castan AM QC, b. 1939 |url=https://www.portrait.gov.au/people/ron-castan-1939 |website=National Portrait Gallery people |access-date=29 July 2021}} He was considered a Jewish community leader.
Castan died suddenly at age 59 due to a complication following surgery.[http://www.hcourt.gov.au/assets/publications/speeches/former-justices/kirbyj/kirbyj_castan.htm Justice Michael Kirby speech at Koori Heritage Trust Dinner, 15 November 1999, to honour the memory of the late A R Castan AM QC] After his death, tributes flowed from the legal and political community, and he was described by Senator Aden Ridgeway as "the great white warrior against racism".
See also
References
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Category:20th-century Australian lawyers
Category:Australian human rights activists
Category:Members of the Order of Australia
Category:Melbourne Law School alumni
Category:Harvard Law School alumni
Category:People educated at Carey Baptist Grammar School
Category:Australian people of Russian-Jewish descent