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Paul Finn was one of Australia’s most respected and influential scholars and judges.

Paul had degrees from the Universities of Queensland (BA, LLB), London (LLM) and Cambridge (PhD), and Honorary Degrees (LLD) from the University of Queensland and Flinders University. His awards include the Yorke Prize from Cambridge University. He was also a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law.

Until his appointment to the Federal Court of Australia in 1995 he was, briefly, an academic at the University of Queensland (1975-1976), and thereafter at the Australian National University (ANU) where he taught in the Law Faculty before becoming a Professor and Head of the Law Department in the Research School of Social Sciences at the ANU in 1988.

He wrote two books; Fiduciary Obligations (1977) (republished with additional essays by the Federation Press in December 2016) and Law and Government in Colonial Australia (1987); two monographs, Official Information (1991) and Official Misconduct (1993); and between 1985 and 1996 he edited eight volumes of essays on public and private law. His work on Fiduciary Obligations brought Paul considerable acclaim and renown throughout the common law world. He also wrote many articles and book chapters on public, private and criminal law.

As a judge he was based initially in Canberra. He later moved to Adelaide. He is well known for some number of his judgments, several of which have been cited in appellate courts in England and Canada. He was appointed the Arthur Goodhart Professor of Juridical Science by the University of Cambridge for 2010-2011. He resigned from the Federal Court in 2012 and then assumed roles as a professorial fellow or adjunct professor at the ANU and the Universities of Melbourne and Adelaide.

Paul passed away in September 2023 and will always be remembered as one of Australia’s most outstanding scholars and jurists, and as a kind and generous friend, colleague and mentor to countless Australian lawyers.