Helen Mountfield | |
---|---|
Principal of Mansfield College, Oxford | |
Assumed office September 2018 | |
Preceded by | Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws |
Personal details | |
Born | 14 March 1967 |
Nationality | British |
Spouse | Damian Tambini (m. 2005) |
Children | Three |
Parent |
|
Education | Crown Woods School |
Alma mater | Magdalen College, Oxford City University |
Profession | Barrister |
Helen Mountfield, KC (born 14 March 1967) is a British barrister practising in administrative, human rights, and equality law. She has been Principal of Mansfield College, Oxford since 2018.
Mountfield was born on 14 March 1967 in London, England to Sir Robin Mountfield and Anne Mountfield. [1] She was educated at Crown Woods School, a comprehensive school in London. [2] She studied modern history at Magdalen College, Oxford, graduating with a first class Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree. [3] She then moved into law, and studied for a diploma in law (DipLaw) and the Common Professional Examination at City University. [2] She later studied for a diploma in European Union Law (Dip Eur. Law) at King's College, London. [4]
Mountfield was called to the Bar at Gray's Inn in 1991. [1] She was a founding member of Matrix Chambers in 2000 from which she still practises. [2] [5] She has been a recorder since May 2009, [6] and a Deputy High Court Judge since 2013. [1] She was appointed Queen's Counsel (QC) on 22 March 2010. [7] She has also been a judge of the Courts of Appeal, Jersey and Guernsey since 2020. [4] She was sworn in as Judge of the Jersey Court of Appeal in April 2020. [8]
Notable cases she has been involved in include: R (E) v Governing Body of JFS ; R (Tigere) v Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills ; and R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union . [5]
In January 2018, she was announced as the next Principal of Mansfield College, Oxford: she took up the appointment in September 2018. [1] [3] [2] [5]
She has co-authored seven editions of Blackstone's Guide to the Human Rights Act 1998; a monograph concerning the Human Rights Act 1998.
In 2005, Mountfield married Damian Tambini. They have three daughters. [1]
Mansfield College, Oxford is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. The college was founded in Birmingham in 1838 as a college for Nonconformist students. It moved to Oxford in 1886 and was renamed Mansfield College after George Mansfield and his sister Elizabeth. In 1995 a royal charter was awarded giving the institution full college status. The college grounds are located on Mansfield Road, near the centre of Oxford.
Sir William Blackstone was an English jurist, justice and Tory politician most noted for his Commentaries on the Laws of England, which became the best-known description of the doctrines of the English common law. Born into a middle-class family in London, Blackstone was educated at Charterhouse School before matriculating at Pembroke College, Oxford, in 1738. After switching to and completing a Bachelor of Civil Law degree, he was made a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, on 2 November 1743, admitted to Middle Temple, and called to the Bar there in 1746. Following a slow start to his career as a barrister, Blackstone became heavily involved in university administration, becoming accountant, treasurer and bursar on 28 November 1746 and Senior Bursar in 1750. Blackstone is considered responsible for completing the Codrington Library and Warton Building, and simplifying the complex accounting system used by the college. On 3 July 1753 he formally gave up his practice as a barrister and instead embarked on a series of lectures on English law, the first of their kind. These were massively successful, earning him a total of £453, and led to the publication of An Analysis of the Laws of England in 1756, which repeatedly sold out and was used to preface his later works.
Helena Ann Kennedy, Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws,, is a Scottish barrister, broadcaster, and Labour member of the House of Lords. She was Principal of Mansfield College, Oxford, from 2011 to 2018. A Bencher of Gray's Inn, an Honorary Writer to the Signet and the recipient of 42 Honorary Degrees from many universities including those of Glasgow and Edinburgh in recognition of work on women and the law and on widening participation in higher education. She is President of Justice, the law reform think tank, and is also director of the International Bar Association's Institute of Human Rights.
The Human Rights Act 1998 is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom which received royal assent on 9 November 1998, and came into force on 2 October 2000. Its aim was to incorporate into UK law the rights contained in the European Convention on Human Rights. The Act makes a remedy for breach of a Convention right available in UK courts, without the need to go to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg.
The Vinerian Scholarship is a scholarship given to the University of Oxford student who "gives the best performance in the examination for the degree of Bachelor of Civil Law". Currently, £2,500 is given to the winner of the scholarship, with an additional £950 awarded at the examiners' discretion to a proxime accessit (runner-up).
David Philip Pannick, Baron Pannick, is a British barrister and a crossbencher in the House of Lords. He practises mainly in the areas of public law and human rights. He has argued cases before the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords, the European Court of Justice, and the European Court of Human Rights.
Michael Jacob Beloff, KC is an English barrister and arbitrator. A member of Blackstone Chambers, he practises in a number of areas including human rights, administrative law and sports law.
Sir Ian Brownlie, was an English barrister and academic, specialising in international law. He was Chichele Professor of Public International Law from 1980 to 1999.
Sandra Fredman FBA, KC (hon) is a professor of law in the Faculty of Law at the University of Oxford and a fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford.
Dinah Gwen Lison Rose KC is a British barrister. She has been President of Magdalen College, Oxford since 2020. A member of Blackstone Chambers, she was named Barrister of the Year in The Lawyer Awards 2009. In 2016, she was appointed a Deputy Judge of the High Court.
Cream Holdings Ltd v Banerjee [2004] UKHL 44 was a 2004 decision by the House of Lords on the impact of the Human Rights Act 1998 on freedom of expression. The Act, particularly Section 12, cautioned the courts to only grant remedies that would restrict publication before trial where it is "likely" that the trial will establish that the publication would not be allowed. Banerjee, an accountant with Cream Holdings, obtained documents which she claimed contained evidence of illegal and unsound practices on Cream's part and gave them to the Liverpool Daily Post & Echo, who ran a series of articles on 13 and 14 June 2002 asserting that a director of Cream had been bribing a local council official in Liverpool. Cream applied for an emergency injunction on 18 June in the High Court of Justice, where Lloyd J decided on 5 July that Cream had shown "a real prospect of success" at trial, granting the injunction. This judgment was confirmed by the Court of Appeal on 13 February 2003.
Greene v Associated Newspapers Ltd [2004] EWCA Civ 1462 is a case of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales that governs the use of injunctions against publication in alleged defamation cases. Greene, a businesswoman, sought an injunction against Associated Newspapers Ltd to prevent them publishing alleged links with Peter Foster; while they claimed to have emails showing links, she asserted that they were false. The test at the time for a preliminary injunction in defamation cases was Bonnard v Perryman, where it was established that the applicant has to show "a real prospect of success" at trial. The Human Rights Act 1998 established that judges should consider whether applicants are "more likely than not" to succeed at trial, a test applied to confidentiality cases in Cream Holdings Ltd v Banerjee and the Liverpool Post and Echo Ltd. Greene claimed that the Cream test should be applied rather than the Bonnard test.
Alex Bailin KC is an English barrister specialising in criminal and international law, together with human rights and media law at Matrix Chambers. Bailin is also a legal writer for The Guardian, The Times and The Lawyer, among others.
Tim Owen KC, is an English barrister at Matrix Chambers. His practice spans the fields of fraud/regulatory, criminal, public, human rights, media and information, extradition/MLA, sports, asset recovery, police and civil law.
Sir Robin Mountfield, KCB was a British civil servant, who retired in 1999 from his most senior post as Permanent Secretary at the Cabinet Office.
Stationers' Crown Woods Academy is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form with academy status, located in the Eltham area of the Royal Borough of Greenwich in London, England. The school is built upon the land that was formerly King Henry VIII's hunting grounds.
Professor Nicola Margaret Padfield KC (hon) is a British barrister and academic. She is a former Master of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. and was succeeded to the position in October 2019 by Sally Morgan, Baroness Morgan of Huyton. She is Professor of Criminal and Penal Justice in the Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge. In addition to her academic work, she was a Recorder of the Crown Court from 2002 to 2014, and is a Bencher of the Middle Temple.
Sir Mark David John Warby PC, styled The Rt Hon. Lord Justice Warby, is a Lord Justice of Appeal.
Sir Michael John Fordham,, styled The Hon. Mr Justice Fordham, is a judge of the High Court of England and Wales assigned to the King's Bench Division. He was appointed as a Justice of the High Court on 13 January 2020.
Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC is an Irish-born barrister at Doughty Street Chambers in London, specialising in human rights and civil liberties.