Sarah Derrington

Justice Sarah Derrington is Chair of the Admiralty Rules Committee and has been a member since 2006, and, in 2024, was appointed Chair of the United Nations Coordination Committee for Australia (UNCCA). She is Past President of the Maritime Law Association of Australian and New Zealand (MLAANZ) and, from 2012-2017 served on the Board of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA). From 2012-223 Justice Sarah Derrington was a member of the Council of the Australian Maritime College (AMC), and from 2015-2024 served as a member of the Council of the Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM). She was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law in 2009, of the Nautical Institute in 2013, and of the Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2018. From 9 January 2018 to 9 January 2023, she was President of the Australian Law Reform Commission. Justice Sarah Derrington was made an Honorary Bencher of Gray’s Inn in 2021 and, she was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2022 Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

Justice Sarah Derrington was appointed to the Federal Court of Australia on 10 January 2018.

Justice Sarah Derrington pursued dual careers at the Bar and in the Academy, being appointed Professor of Admiralty Law in 2008. Immediately prior to her appointment to the Court, she served as Dean of Law at the University of Queensland. She is the author (with James M Turner QC of the English Bar) of The Law and Practice of Admiralty Matters, now in its second edition (OUP, 2016) and (with Dr Michael White OAM QC) of Australian Maritime Law (4th edn, Federation Press, 2020).

She was educated at The University of Queensland, from where she holds a BA (in French and German), an LLB (Hons), an LLM, and a PhD in the field of marine insurance law. She was admitted to the Bar in Queensland in 1990 and as a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of the ACT.