The Lord Bingham of Cornhill | |
---|---|
![]() Bingham in 2006 | |
Senior Lord of Appeal in Ordinary | |
In office 6 June 2000 –30 September 2008 | |
Deputy | |
Preceded by | The Lord Browne-Wilkinson |
Succeeded by | The Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers |
Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales | |
In office 4 June 1996 –6 June 2000 | |
Nominated by | Lord Mackay |
Appointed by | Elizabeth II |
Preceded by | The Lord Taylor of Gosforth |
Succeeded by | The Lord Woolf |
Master of the Rolls | |
In office 1 October 1992 –4 June 1996 | |
Preceded by | The Lord Donaldson of Lymington |
Succeeded by | The Lord Woolf |
Personal details | |
Born | Marylebone,London,England | 13 October 1933
Died | 11 September 2010 76) Boughrood,Powys,UK | (aged
Spouse | Elizabeth Loxley (Lady Bingham of Cornhill) |
Children |
|
Alma mater | Balliol College,Oxford |
Thomas Henry Bingham,Baron Bingham of Cornhill, KG , PC , FBA (13 October 1933 –11 September 2010) was a British judge who was successively Master of the Rolls,Lord Chief Justice and Senior Law Lord. On his death in 2010,he was described as the greatest judge of his generation. [1] Baroness Hale of Richmond observed that his pioneering role in the formation of the United Kingdom Supreme Court may be his most important and long-lasting legacy. [2] The Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers regarded Bingham as "one of the two great legal figures of my lifetime in the law" (the other figure,in context,being Lord Denning). [3] Lord Hope of Craighead described Bingham as "the greatest jurist of our time". [4]
After retiring from the judiciary in 2008,Bingham focused on teaching,writing,and lecturing on legal subjects,particularly the law of human rights. His book,The Rule of Law,was published in 2010 and he was posthumously awarded the 2011 Orwell Prize for literature. The British Institute of International and Comparative Law named the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law in his honour.
Bingham was born at Marylebone in London. His parents,Thomas Henry (1901–1981) and Catherine Bingham (née Watterson;1903–1989),practised as doctors in Reigate,Surrey. His father was born in Belfast, [5] a kinsman of the Earls of Lucan;[ citation needed ] his mother was from California before being raised on the Isle of Man.
He was educated at The Hawthorns prep school at Bletchingley,Surrey,where he was Head Boy,and then from 1947 the Cumbrian public school Sedbergh School (Winder House),where he was described as the "brightest boy in 100 years". He enjoyed history,took up fell-walking,and developed a strong attachment to the Church of England;he was a Head of House and a School Prefect. He won an open scholarship to Balliol College,Oxford,first undertaking National Service from 1952 to 1954,as a second lieutenant in the Royal Ulster Rifles serving in Hong Kong. He enjoyed his time in the Army and considered pursuing a military career before opting to serve in the Territorial Army for the next five years. [6]
He went up to Oxford in 1954 and initially read Philosophy,Politics,and Economics,but after two terms switched to History. He was awarded one of the first William Coolidge Pathfinder Awards [7] [8] and spent the summer of 1955 in the US. He entered Gray's Inn during his second year at Oxford,with a view to becoming a barrister. [9] He was elected President of Balliol Junior Common Room in his third year. He won the Gibbs Prize for Modern History in 1957 and was awarded first-class honours in finals. He also tried,unsuccessfully,for fellowship by examination at All Souls College. After graduation,he read for the Bar as Eldon Law Scholar and achieved a Certificate of Honour,coming top of Bar finals in 1959. [10]
In 1963 he married Elizabeth Loxley,a Somerville graduate whose great-uncle was Major Gerald Loxley, [11] of the Loxley family of Northcott Court,Hertfordshire; [12] they had one daughter Catherine Elizabeth (born 1965),known as Kate,and two sons Thomas Henry (Harry,born 1967) and Christopher Toby (Kit,born 1969). [13] Kate has been married since 1992 to Jesse Norman,then a Conservative government minister. [14] [15]
In 1965 Bingham and his wife Elizabeth acquired a cottage at Cornhill,near Boughrood in Powys;he died there in 2010. [16]
Bingham was called to the Bar by Gray's Inn,and was a pupil barrister under Judge Owen Stable QC [17] in the chambers of Leslie Scarman at 2 Crown Office Row,which later moved to Fountain Court Chambers:within a few months,he was invited to become a tenant at the chambers. He took silk in 1972,becoming Queen's Counsel aged just 38 and the youngest that year,having served as Standing Counsel at the Department of Employment for four years from 1968. He was Counsel to the judicial inquiry into an explosion at a chemical plant at Flixborough in 1974 which killed 28 people. In 1977,when still at the Bar,he rose to public attention when he was appointed by the then-Foreign Secretary Dr. David Owen to head a public enquiry into alleged breaches of UN sanctions by oil companies in Rhodesia.
He was appointed a Recorder in 1975,and became a Bencher of Gray's Inn in 1978. He was promoted to High Court Judge of the Queen’s Bench Division in April 1980,aged 46,and assigned to the Commercial Court,receiving the customary knighthood. He was further promoted to the Court of Appeal in 1986,joining the Privy Council. In 1991 he led a high-profile inquiry into the collapse of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI). [18]
Bingham succeeded Lord Donaldson as Master of the Rolls in 1992 and initiated significant reforms,including a move towards the replacement of certain oral hearings in major civil law cases. He was one of the first senior judges to give public support to incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights into English law,which ultimately came about with the passing of the Human Rights Act 1998. Bingham was appointed Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales in 1996,following Lord Taylor. In England and Wales,he was the highest-ranking judge in regular courtroom service;he was personally responsible for adding "and Wales" to the title of the office.
He was created a life peer as Baron Bingham of Cornhill,of Boughrood in the County of Powys,on 4 June 1996. [19] He continued as Lord Chief Justice until 2000 when he was appointed Senior Law Lord. This position had customarily been held by the longest-serving Law Lord. Bingham was followed in the office of Lord Chief Justice by Lord Woolf,who had succeeded him as Master of the Rolls in 1996.
Bingham was a strong advocate of divorcing the judicial branch of the House of Lords from its legislative functions by setting up a new Supreme Court of the United Kingdom,which was accomplished under the Constitutional Reform Act 2005. The title of the office he held was redesignated as "President of the Supreme Court" upon that court's establishment in October 2009,after Bingham had retired in July 2008. He is understood to have been "very sorry" not to serve as its inaugural president. [20]
Bingham oversaw an increasing workload of constitutional affairs after Scottish devolution,and human rights matters after the Human Rights Act came into force,and assembled the first nine-judge panels for important cases since 1910,including the Belmarsh Case in December 2004 which reviewed the regime for indefinite detention of foreign nationals suspected of involvement in terrorism who could not be deported due to the risk of torture in their home countries,holding that the regimes might breach the Human Rights Act.
Bingham was one of two Law Lords to dissent from the decision to overturn the High Court and Court of Appeal decisions to quash an Order-in-Council,dismissing all impediments to the rights of the Chagos Islanders to return home. Bingham also presided over various decisions of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council upholding the finding that death penalties in Belize,St Lucia,St Kitts and the Bahamas were unconstitutional. [21]
Bingham was awarded the degree of Doctor of Civil Law honoris causa by the University of Oxford in 1994. From 2001 to 2008,Bingham held the office of High Steward of the University of Oxford,its second-highest office in the academic hierarchy,and in 2003 he came second to Chris Patten (now Lord Patten) in the election for Chancellor. Bingham served as the Visitor of Balliol College,Oxford,from 1986 to 2010.
As Master of the Rolls,Bingham served on the Advisory Council on Public Records,the Magna Carta Trust,and the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts. He was a Trustee of the Pilgrim Trust for 15 years and an Honorary Fellow of the British Academy from 2003. In 2005,he was advanced from Knight Bachelor to the Garter, [22] an honour in the personal gift of the Sovereign and seldom bestowed upon judges,being installed as a Knight Companion of the Garter with Lady Soames and Sir John Major. He also served as president and chairman of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law,which established in 2010 the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law in his honour.
On 16 November 2006,Bingham delivered the sixth annual Sir David Williams Lecture,hosted by the Centre for Public Law [23] at the Faculty of Law of the University of Cambridge;this lecture was entitled "The Rule of Law". [24] On 17 January 2008,Bingham presented the annual Hansard Lecture at the University of Southampton. On 14 March 2008,Bingham received the degree of Doctor of Jurisprudence honoris causa from the University of Rome III,after delivering the Lectio Magistralis at the Faculty of Law entitled "The Rule of Law".
In 2009,Bingham became involved with Reprieve,a UK Charity, [25] as well as delivering the fourth annual Jan Grodecki Lecture at the University of Leicester,entitled The House of Lords:Its Future. [26]
Bingham remained active in retirement. On 17 November 2008,in his first major speech since retiring as Senior Law Lord,Bingham,addressing the British Institute of International and Comparative Law,disputed the legality of the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States,the United Kingdom and other countries. He said that the invasion and occupation of Iraq was "a serious violation of international law",and he accused Britain and the US of acting like a "world vigilante".
In June 2009,Bingham was interviewed by the British legal journalist Joshua Rozenberg on the subject of the rule of law in international affairs,an event arranged to raise awareness of the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law. Bingham's thoughts on this subject,in particular banning of certain weapons in international conflict,were covered by various newspapers The Independent ("Top judge:use of drones intolerable") [27] and The Daily Telegraph ("Unmanned drones could be banned,says senior judge"). [28] Bingham gave another interview concerning the rule of law and matters pertaining to the "British Constitution" with the charity,the Constitution Society. [29]
His book,The Rule of Law,was published by Allen Lane in 2010;it won the 2011 Orwell Prize for Literature. [30]
Diagnosed with lung cancer in 2009 (he was a non-smoker),Bingham died the following year,and is buried at St Cynog's Church at Boughrood in Powys,Wales. His memorial service was held at Westminster Abbey on 25 May 2011 with the Adamant New Orleans Marching Band playing When the Saints Go Marching In .
This article is part of the series: Courts of England and Wales |
Law of England and Wales |
---|
![]() |
In 2010, shortly before Bingham died, the British Institute of International and Comparative Law established The Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law, a body solely dedicated to the promotion and enhancement of the rule of law worldwide.
In an interview on 7 February 2014, Nick Phillips, successor to Bingham as Senior Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, remarked that "...Tom Bingham was the most wonderful man; he was head and shoulders above everybody else in the Law, in my view...yes, just outstanding...his clarity of thought, his academic knowledge. I think almost everyone would say that he was, you know, the great lawyer of his generation." [31]
![]() |
|
The original Pathfinders programme at Balliol was started in 1955 by Bill Coolidge (Balliol 1924).
{{cite news}}
: |last2=
has generic name (help)In English law, natural justice is technical terminology for the rule against bias and the right to a fair hearing. While the term natural justice is often retained as a general concept, it has largely been replaced and extended by the general "duty to act fairly".
William John Kenneth Diplock, Baron Diplock, was a British barrister and judge who served as a lord of appeal in ordinary between 1968 and until his death in 1985. Appointed to the English High Court in 1956 and the Court of Appeal five years later, Diplock made important contributions to the development of constitutional and public law as well as many other legal fields. A frequent choice for governmental inquiries, he is also remembered for proposing the creation of the eponymous juryless Diplock courts. Of him, Lord Rawlinson of Ewell wrote that "to his generation Diplock was the quintessential man of the law".
Johan van Zyl Steyn, Baron Steyn, PC was a South African-British judge, until September 2005 a Law Lord. He sat in the House of Lords as a crossbencher.
Sir William Aldous was an English judge and a judge in the Gibraltar Court of Appeal.
Donald James Nicholls, Baron Nicholls of Birkenhead, was a British barrister who became a Law Lord.
Jonathan Philip Chadwick Sumption, Lord Sumption,, KC, is a British author, medieval historian, barrister and former senior judge who sat on the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom between 2012 and 2018, and a Non-Permanent Judge of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal from 2019 to 2024.
Richard Orme Wilberforce, Baron Wilberforce, was a British judge. He was a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary from 1964 to 1982.
Leonard Hubert "Lennie" Hoffmann, Baron Hoffmann is a senior South African–British judge. Currently, he serves as a Non-Permanent Judge of the Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong; he formerly served as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary from 1995 to 2009.
David Edmond Neuberger, Baron Neuberger of Abbotsbury is an English judge. He served as President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom from 2012 to 2017. He was a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary until the House of Lords' judicial functions were transferred to the new Supreme Court in 2009, at which point he became Master of the Rolls, the second most senior judge in England and Wales. Neuberger was appointed to the Supreme Court, as its President, in 2012. He now serves as a Non-Permanent Judge of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal and formerly served as the Chair of the High Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom. He was appointed to the Singapore International Commercial Court in 2018.
Sir Stephen John Sedley is a British lawyer. He worked as a judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales from 1999 to 2011 and was a visiting professor at the University of Oxford from 2011 to 2015.
English contract law is the body of law that regulates legally binding agreements in England and Wales. With its roots in the lex mercatoria and the activism of the judiciary during the Industrial Revolution, it shares a heritage with countries across the Commonwealth, from membership in the European Union, continuing membership in Unidroit, and to a lesser extent the United States. Any agreement that is enforceable in court is a contract. A contract is a voluntary obligation, contrasting to the duty to not violate others rights in tort or unjust enrichment. English law places a high value on ensuring people have truly consented to the deals that bind them in court, so long as they comply with statutory and human rights.
United Kingdom administrative law is part of UK constitutional law that is designed through judicial review to hold executive power and public bodies accountable under the law. A person can apply to the High Court to challenge a public body's decision if they have a "sufficient interest", within three months of the grounds of the cause of action becoming known. By contrast, claims against public bodies in tort or contract are usually limited by the Limitation Act 1980 to a period of 6 years.
Robert John Reed, Baron Reed of Allermuir, is a Scottish judge who has been President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom since January 2020. He was the principal judge in the Commercial Court in Scotland before being promoted to the Inner House of the Court of Session in 2008. He is an authority on human rights law in Scotland and elsewhere; he served as one of the UK's ad hoc judges at the European Court of Human Rights. He was also a Non-Permanent Judge of the Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong.
The constitution of the United Kingdom comprises the written and unwritten arrangements that establish the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland as a political body. Unlike in most countries, no official attempt has been made to codify such arrangements into a single document, thus it is known as an uncodified constitution. This enables the constitution to be easily changed as no provisions are formally entrenched.
R v Bow St Metropolitan Stipendiary Magistrate [2000] 1 AC 61, 119 and 147 is a set of three UK constitutional law judgments by the House of Lords that examined whether former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was entitled to claim state immunity from torture allegations made by a Spanish court and therefore avoid extradition to Spain. They have proven to be of landmark significance in international criminal law and human rights law.
The failure of a public authority to take into account relevant considerations and the taking of irrelevant ones into account are grounds of judicial review in Singapore administrative law. They are regarded as forms of illegality.
Sir Denis Robert Maurice Henry, PC was an English barrister, Queen's Counsel and judge, rising to Lord Justice of Appeal. He presided over the Guinness share-trading fraud trial, a major British business scandal of the 1980s.
Sir Jeffrey Jowell is a practising barrister at Blackstone Chambers specialising in public law. He was the inaugural Director of the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law from 2010 - 2015. He is Emeritus Professor of Public Law at University College London where he was Dean of the Faculty of Laws and a Vice Provost. He is the author of leading publications in his field.
Watkins v Home Office and others[2006] UKHL 17, was a United Kingdom legal case heard by the House of Lords where the Home Office made an appeal as to whether the tort of misfeasance in public office was actionable in the absence of proof of pecuniary losses or injury of a mental or physical nature. The appeal was upheld, ruling that the tort of misfeasance in public office is never actionable without proof of material damage as defined by Lord Bingham of Cornhill.
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.