One of the luminaries of legal life in the ACT has been appointed as an acting judge to oversee the ACT Supreme Court's Drug and Alcohol Sentencing List.
Justice Richard Refshauge is a former judge of the ACT Supreme Court, serving there until 2017.
He also served as the ACT Director of Public Prosecutions from 1998 to 2008.
He graduated from the Australian National University which said of him: "Justice Richard Refshauge is a distinguished jurist who has been a leading figure in the local and national legal profession since graduating from ANU in 1975."
He has lectured at the ANU as a professor.
The ACT's Attorney-General Gordon Ramsay announced the new appointment.
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"Throughout his career Justice Refshauge has demonstrated a deep commitment to establishing the ACT as a leading human rights jurisdiction," he said.
"He brings to the position a wealth of experience in a wide range of legal capacities, and I have full confidence that he will uphold the restorative principles of the Drug and Alcohol Court."
The court began operations on December 3, 2019. The aim was to bring a raft of agencies and skills together to treat people enmeshed in drugs.
Treatment and punishment were within its remit but the aim was rehabilitation out of the drugs world where possible rather than sending people to jail automatically.
Research had shown those who successfully completed a similar program were 37 per cent less likely to be convicted of another offence than those who hadn't been in the program.
