Margaret Stone (judge)

Margaret Ackary Stone is a former Australian judge who served on the Federal Court of Australia. Since August 2015 Stone has served as the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security.^[1]

Background and career

Stone holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Sydney, a Bachelor of Laws with honours from the Australian National University, and a Master of Laws from Yale Law School. She became a partner at Freehills in 1993, where she worked in the areas of commercial property, infrastructure development, commercial financing, and taxation. Stone was appointed a judge of the Federal Court of Australia in October 2000, a position which she held until 2012.^[2][3][4]

Stone taught law at the University of New South Wales for over 15 years, including a role as Sub-Dean in 1981. Since retiring she is now a Visiting Professorial Fellow.^[5]

Between December 2012 and December 2014 she served as Australia's Independent Reviewer of Adverse Security Assessments. Adverse security assessments are findings by the Australian Security and intelligence Organisation that a person who has been found to be a refugee is a security risk. Such people are kept in detention until such time as it is determined that they are no longer security risks. They do not have access to the evidence on which the assessments are made; but in some cases may have some indications of the nature of the accusations. Dr. Stone has reviewed 22 of 52 adverse assessments as of June 2014, as a result of which four people have had their adverse assessments removed.

References