Benjamin Boothby

Benjamin Boothby (5 February 1803 – 21 June 1868) was a South Australian colonial judge, who was removed from office for misbehaviour, one of four Australian supreme court judges removed in the 19th century. Boothby was born in Doncaster, Yorkshire. He assisted Sir Thomas Wilde in his electoral campaigns and read in his chambers. He was called to the Bar at Gray's Inn in 1825. In 1853, Boothby was appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court of South Australia. This was the last appointment of a South Australian judge by the Colonial Office. Boothby, in a series of judgments, adopted a pedantic approach to Imperial Law, holding a number of South Australian statutes invalid, including the Real Property Act 1857, which introduced the Torrens system of land registration in South Australia. Boothby also asserted that the Parliament of South Australia had not been validly constituted since the enactment of the Constitution Act 1855–56.