About us.

Learn about the College’s history, governance and leadership.
Judicial College of Victoria logo
About the Judicial College of Victoria.

The Judicial College of Victoria is where the Victorian judiciary come for ongoing education and professional development. The College also publishes a suite of highly valuable legal resources.

The College exists to inform and enrich. Everything we do, whether in-person, online or in digital formats, is designed to impart knowledge and insight. We support judges, magistrates, coroners and VCAT members to stay up to date and to develop the skills they need to perform at their best.

Consistent with our collegiate foundations, we also bring judicial officers together so they might share their experiences and collective wisdom with each other. We also connect them with leaders from other disciplines who can offer different perspectives.

Governance.

Judicial College Board

The College was established with bipartisan support in 2002. The Judicial College of Victoria Act 2001 provides for the creation of the College Board, which has overall responsibility for the College. The Board is chaired by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria and comprises heads of the six Victorian jurisdictions and two governor-in-council appointees.

The inaugural Board was chaired by Chief Justice John Harber Phillips AC and comprised of Justice Murray Kellam, President of VCAT, Chief Judge Glenn Waldron AO (and later that year by Chief Judge Michael Rozenes), Chief Magistrate Ian Gray, Professor Peter Sallmann, Crown Counsel, and Professor Susan Campbell of Monash University.

Since then, Chief Justice Marilyn Warren AC and Chief Justice Anne Ferguson have each helmed the Board as Chair.

Twenty years of Wisdom shared.

Celebrating the launch of the College, the then Attorney-General Rob Hulls said:

"The role of the judiciary will become increasingly difficult. More and more, judges will be confronted with social issues; more and more they will be asked to decide ethical questions that legislators cannot resolve."

Throughout 20 years of challenges and change, the College has supported judicial officers with education, as well as thousands of pages of unique research content. And hundreds of judicial officers have contributed to a collegiate spirit that has advanced the College’s success.