H. V. Evatt

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Dr Herbert Vere Evatt (April 30, 1894 - November 2, 1965), was an Australian jurist, politician and writer. He was President of the United Nations General Assembly in 1948-49 and helped draft the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948).

Evatt was generally known as Dr H.V. Evatt and was informally known as "Doc".

Contents 1 Early years and education 2 Career 2.1 Lawyer 2.2 NSW Parliament 2.3 High Court Judge 2.4 Federal Parliament 2.5 Leader of the Opposition 2.6 NSW Supreme Court Judge 2.7 Breakdown and retirement 3 Literary works 4 Honours 5 Further reading 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Early years and education

Evatt was born in Maitland, New South Wales, to a working-class family of British and Irish origins. He was never called Herbert: his family called him Bert, everyone else called him Doc.

After attending Fort Street High School in Sydney, Evatt won scholarships to the University of Sydney, where he graduated in 1919 with a law degree.

[edit] Career

[edit] Lawyer

Evatt was unable to serve in the First World War, in which his brother was killed, due to poor eyesight. He became a prominent industrial lawyer in Sydney, working mainly for trade union clients.

[edit] NSW Parliament

In 1925 Evatt was elected as an Australian Labor Party member for Balmain in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly. He served there until 1930.

[edit] High Court Judge

In 1930 the Scullin Labor government appointed Evatt as the youngest-ever justice of the High Court of Australia. Regarded by some as a brilliant and innovative judge, he delivered a number of minority judgements, several of which were decades later adopted by High Court majorities. Evatt could, however, be very partial on the bench. Sir Owen Dixon noted that in once instance how Evatt was "full of antagonism to the respondent ... Most unjudicial."^[1] It is noticeable, upon examination of the Commonwealth Law Reports for the 1930s, that when Evatt was not particularly interested in a case he generally went along with Dixon's judgment.^[2]

In several matters, Robert Menzies, the Attorney-General in the Lyons conservative government appeared before the court where he and Evatt had several colourful exchanges on questions of law. This was the beginning of a life-long mutual dislike.

[edit] Federal Parliament

In 1940 Evatt resigned from the High Court to return to politics, and was elected federal MP for the Sydney seat of Barton. When Labor came to power under John Curtin in 1941, Evatt became Attorney-General and Minister for External Affairs (that is, Foreign Minister).

Evatt joined the diplomatic councils of the allies during the Second World War, and in 1945 he played a leading role in the founding of the United Nations. He was President of the U.N. General Assembly in 1948-49, and was prominent in the negotiations which led to the creation of Israel. He helped draft the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and was also the first chairperson of the Atomic Energy Commission. He became deputy leader of the Labor Party after the 1946 elections.

[edit] Leader of the Opposition

In 1949 Labor was defeated by Menzies's new Liberal Party and Evatt went into opposition. When Ben Chifley died in 1951 Evatt was elected Labor leader without opposition. At first his leadership went well, and he campaigned successfully against Menzies's attempt to amend the Constitution to ban the Communist Party. Many moderates in the Labor Party believed this was both bad politics and bad policy because of the active Communist opposition to Labor within trade unions and because of the threat to national security posed by Communists.

Evatt believed he was certain to win the 1954 federal elections, and when he unexpectedly failed to do so (despite polling a slight majority of the vote) he blamed the Catholic dominated Industrial Groups in the party for sabotaging his campaign. He was also convinced that Menzies had conspired with the security services to bring about the defection of a Soviet diplomat (see Petrov Affair) as a means of discrediting him.

After the elections Evatt launched a public attack on his enemies in the Labor Party. This precipitated a disastrous split in the party, with many members being expelled and some resigning in protest, culminating in the formation of the Democratic Labor Party, a breakaway group which directed its preferences against Labor at subsequent elections. This, together with an obsessive hatred of Menzies which led him into many tactical errors, cost Evatt the 1955 and 1958 federal elections, at both of which Labor was heavily defeated. During the 1958 election campaign Evatt made a dramatic offer to resign as leader if the DLP would return to the party, but the offer was rejected.

[edit] NSW Supreme Court Judge

In 1960 the Labor government in New South Wales appointed Evatt Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, an appointment which was widely seen as a means of giving him a dignified exit from politics. His career as Chief Justice was undistinguished and erratic, lacking the legal insight he had exhibited as an academic and High Court justice. Tom Hughes, a leading Sydney barrister and former Liberal Attorney-General, has claimed that all of the judgments Evatt gave in this period were co-authored with a judicial colleague.^[3]

[edit] Breakdown and retirement

In 1962 Evatt suffered a nervous breakdown and retired from the bench. He died in Canberra in November 1965. It is sometimes asserted that Evatt had various forms of undiagnosed mental illness, which led to erratic behaviour. Both recent biographies of Evatt reject this, although they agree he became increasingly eccentric towards the end of his career. In their 1995 television documentary Doc, Pat Fiske and David McKnight explained what they described as Evatt's "deteriorating mental functioning" as due to arteriosclerosis.^[4]

[edit] Literary works

During his life he had a varied career as a writer covering such topics as law and labour history. His book on the politics of the Rum Rebellion is still considered highly relevant. "The Rum Rebellion has slipped into historical oblivion because it is widely misunderstood."^[5]. He contributed an article on "Cricket and the British Commonwealth" to the 1949 edition of Wisden Cricketer's Almanack.

[edit] Honours

• In 1924 Evatt was awarded the degree Doctor of Law for his dissertation on prerogative powers Governors in the British legal system.
• The Evatt Foundation, a research institute for the labour movement, is named in his honour.
• The suburb of Evatt, which lies in the Belconnen district of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, is also named in his honour.

[edit] Further reading

• Ken Buckley et al, Doc Evatt, Cheshire 1994 (seen as a sympathetic biography because it does not show the flaws)
  
• Peter Crockett, Evatt: A Life, Oxford University Press 1993 (seen by some as a hostile biography)
• H.V. Evatt, Australian Labour Leader: The Story Of W.A. Holman and the Labour Movement, 1954
• H.V. Evatt, The King and His Dominion Governors, 1936
• H.V. Evatt, The Royal Prerogative, 1930 (this was his LLD thesis)
• H.V. Evatt, Rum Rebellion: A Study of the Overthrow of Governor Bligh by John Macarthur and the New South Wales Corps, 1943

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Evatt Collection

Parliament of Australia
Preceded by Albert Lane	Member for Barton 1940 – 1958	Succeeded by Leonard Reynolds
Preceded by Billy Hughes	Attorney-General of Australia 1941 – 1949	Succeeded by John Spicer
Preceded by Frederick Stewart	Minister for External Affairs 1941 – 1949	Succeeded by Percy Spender
Preceded by Frank Forde	Deputy Leader of the Australian Labor Party 1946 – 1951	Succeeded by Arthur Calwell
Preceded by Ben Chifley	Leader of the Australian Labor Party 1951–1960
Preceded by Rowland James	Member for Hunter 1958 – 1960	Succeeded by Albert James
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by José Arce	President of the United Nations General Assembly 1948 – 1949	Succeeded by Carlos P. Romulo
Legal Offices
Preceded by Kenneth Whistler Street	Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales 1960 – 1962	Succeeded by Leslie James Herron

Leaders of the Australian Labor Party
Watson | Fisher | Hughes | Tudor | Charlton | Scullin | Curtin | Chifley | Evatt | Calwell | Whitlam | Hayden | Hawke | Keating | Beazley | Crean | Latham | Beazley | Rudd