Justice Geoffrey Nettle was sworn in as a judge of Fiji’s Supreme Court at a ceremony held at State House on April 7, 2026, formalising his appointment to the nation’s apex bench. He took both the Oath of Allegiance and the Oath of Judicial Office before President Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu, as required under the Constitution.
The swearing-in completes the procedural requirements for Justice Nettle to assume his duties on the Supreme Court. The appointment brings to Fiji a jurist with decades of experience in superior courts and specialist tribunals, underscoring the government’s recent pattern of recruiting senior overseas judges to supplement the local judiciary.
Justice Nettle’s career includes service on Australia’s High Court between 2015 and 2020, and on the Victorian Court of Appeal from 2004 to 2015. He was appointed to the Trial Division of the Supreme Court of Victoria in 2002, having practised across state and federal courts for many years. Earlier in his career he was admitted as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria in 1977, became a partner at Mallesons, shifted to the Victorian Bar in 1982 and was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1992.
His practice and judicial work have focused on commercial law, equity, taxation and public law—areas likely to feature in complex matters that reach Fiji’s Supreme Court. He has also contributed to specialist tribunal work as a sessional member of the Taxation Division of the Victorian Administrative Appeals Tribunal and later the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
Justice Nettle’s academic record is notable: 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. Those qualifications, combined with his appellate and trial experience, position him as a resource for the Supreme Court on technically demanding legal issues.
The appointment follows other recent reinforcements to Fiji’s judiciary, including the swearing-in of New Zealand’s Paul Heath as a Justice of Appeal in 2024, and reflects an ongoing effort to bolster the capacity of Fiji’s higher courts. With Justice Nettle now formally on the bench, the Supreme Court gains an additional judge with a long record in commercial and public law matters, and he is now eligible to sit on Supreme Court cases as the court schedules him to hear matters.
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