Justice Geoffrey Nettle is Fiji’s newest Supreme Court judge.
Justice Nettle was sworn in at State House yesterday, where he took the Oath of Allegiance and the Oath of Judicial Office before President Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu, as required under the Constitution.
He joins Fiji’s apex court following a distinguished career that includes serving as a judge of the High Court of Australia from 2015 to 2020, and earlier on the Victorian Court of Appeal from 2004 to 2015. Justice Nettle holds a Bachelor of Economics from the Australian National University, a Bachelor of Laws with First Class Honours from the University of Melbourne, and a Bachelor of Civil Law with First Class Honours from the University of Oxford. He was admitted to practice as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria in 1977 and later became a partner at Mallesons before joining the Victorian Bar in 1982. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1992.
Throughout his career, Justice Nettle practised extensively in state and federal courts, specialising in commercial law, equity, taxation, and public law.
He also served as a sessional member of the Taxation Division of the Victorian Administrative Appeals Tribunal and later the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
In 2002, he was appointed a judge of the Trial Division of the Supreme Court of Victoria, sitting across all jurisdictions before his elevation to the Court of Appeal in 2004.
