cited in any debate on uranium mining in Australia today. The inquiry gave a highly conditional approval for uranium mining to proceed. Fox was appointed as one of the judges of the newly established Federal Court of Australia in 1977. He held both that appointment and his appointment on the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory from 1977 until his retirement in 1989. On 1 February 1977, he was appointed as the first Chief Judge of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory and held that post until 3 November of that year. He left that post to become Australia's only ever Ambassador-at-Large for nuclear non-proliferation and safeguards. To take on that position, a special Act of Parliament was passed giving him leave to do so. A second Act of Parliament extended that appointment until the end of 1980. In 1977, Fox, in an independent and confidential report to the Australian Government, questioned the United States' nuclear safeguards strategy. The federal opposition released the report, causing embarrassment for the Australian government, as that strategy was a key point in the government's attempt to sell uranium. Fox was also critical of the Hawke Labor government's ratification of the Vienna Convention on drugs in 1988. Fox supported the making of arrangements to eliminate illegal drug traffickers. However, he did not believe that adherence to unsuccessful treaties from over twenty years ago would adequately deal with the problems of drugs in modern society. Fox was to become a prolific writer on the subject of drug policy, writing many papers on the issue in respected journals. Fox became chairman of the Australian Institute of Judicial Administration in 1980. The institute is a major Australian organisation dealing with judicial administration in Australia, and is funded by the Attorneys General of each Australian State and Territory. He served in that role until 1984. Fox was appointed Chief Judge of the Supreme Court of Norfolk Island in 1982 and held that position until 1989. That court is the highest court for the island, which is a territory of Australia. On 12 June 1989 Fox was made a Companion of the Order of Australia and he also received the Australian Centenary Medal in 2003. In 2006, the library at the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory was named after him. After Fox's retirement as a judicial officer, he became an Adjunct Professor to the University