William Blair | |
---|---|
Justice of the High Court | |
In office 27 February 2008 –1 December 2017 | |
Appointed by | Elizabeth II |
Personal details | |
Born | William James Lynton Blair 31 March 1950 Scotland |
Nationality | British |
Alma mater | Balliol College,Oxford Inns of Court School of Law |
Occupation | Judge |
Profession | Lawyer,professor |
Sir William James Lynton Blair (born 31 March 1950) is a British retired judge. He was previously a Queen's Counsel at London barristers' chambers 3 Verulam Buildings,specialising in domestic and international banking and finance law. He is the elder brother of Sir Tony Blair,the former British prime minister. [1]
Professor of Financial Law and Ethics at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies,Queen Mary University of London,he served as a High Court Judge in England and Wales for nearly ten years,and was Judge in Charge of the Commercial Court from 2016.
In 2017,Blair rejoined 3 Verulam Buildings as an Associate Member and international arbitrator,and is now a member of 3VB's [International Advisory and Dispute Resolution Unit (IADRU).
He is the Chair of the Bank of England’s Enforcement Decision Making Committee (EDMC) and in 2018 was appointed to the International Commercial Expert Committee of the Supreme People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China.
Blair became a Queen's Counsel in 1994,appearing and advising in many domestic and international disputes and matters particularly in the financial field.
He was appointed a recorder in 1998.[ citation needed ] He became a deputy High Court judge in 2003 and was in the same year admitted as a barrister of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court in the Territory of the Virgin Islands.[ citation needed ]
On 4 February 2008 it was announced that the Queen had approved his appointment as a High Court judge,assigned to the Queen's Bench Division. [2] He was sworn in on 28 February. [3] In 2016 he became judge in charge of the Commercial Court. [4]
He became a member of London's Financial Markets Law Committee in 2008. [5]
In 2012,he became the first President of the Board of Appeal of the European Supervisory Authorities,serving until 2019. [6]
He is or has been a visiting professor of law at the London School of Economics,Peking University Law School,East China University of Politics and Law and the University of Hong Kong. He has also been,since 1999,an Honorary Fellow of the Society for Advanced Legal Studies (1997),and an academic adviser to the Asian Institute of International Financial Law.
From 2001 to 2008 he served,part-time,as a chairman of the Financial Services and Markets Tribunal (Finsmat) and from 2003 to 2005 he was chairman of the Commercial Bar Association (Combar). He is also chairman of the International Monetary Law Committee of the International Law Association (2004-2021),and of the Qatar Financial Centre Regulatory Tribunal.
Along with Lord Woolf,the former Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales,he served as the Co-Convener of the inaugural Qatar Law Forum of Global Leaders in Law,held in Doha,Qatar,from 29–31 May 2009.[ citation needed ]
He retired as a High Court Judge on 1 December 2017 to take up a position as Professor of Financial Law and Ethics at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies,Queen Mary University of London. [7] [8]
Since 2018,as well as arbitration,he has also sat part-time as a Deputy Judge of the High Court of Hong Kong SAR [9] [10] (where he is given a Chinese name "貝理賢" by the Hong Kong Judiciary),and since 2017,acted as an international commercial court judge in the Qatar International Court. [11] At the China International Commercial Court,he has spoken on legal issues.
He is a member of the Ethics Committee of Digital Catapult’s AI Machine Intelligence Garage.
Harry Kenneth Woolf,Baron Woolf,is a British life peer and retired barrister and judge. He was Master of the Rolls from 1996 until 2000 and Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales from 2000 until 2005. The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 made him the first Lord Chief Justice to be President of the Courts of England and Wales. He was a Non-Permanent Judge of the Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong from 2003 to 2012. He sits in the House of Lords as a crossbencher.
Sir Noel Plunkett Power,was a senior judge in Hong Kong and Brunei Darussalam. He had been a barrister-at-law in his home-country Australia when he joined the judiciary of Hong Kong in 1965 as a magistrate in the Lands Tribunal. Since then,he had been successively promoted as President of the Lands Tribunal,a puisne judge of the Supreme Court and Vice-President of the Court of Appeal. In 1996,he became acting Chief Justice of the Supreme Court when Sir Ti-liang Yang resigned and contested for the first ever election of the Chief Executive. After the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong from Britain to People's Republic of China in 1997,he was appointed Vice-President of the Court of Appeal of the High Court. He retired from the High Court in 1999 but remained as a non-permanent judge of the Court of Final Appeal.
The High Court of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is a part of the legal system of Hong Kong. It consists of the Court of Appeal and the Court of First Instance;it deals with criminal and civil cases which have risen beyond the lower courts. It is a superior court of record of unlimited civil and criminal jurisdiction. It was named the Supreme Court before 1997. Though previously named the Supreme Court,this Court has long been the local equivalent to the Senior Courts of England and Wales and has never been vested with the power of final adjudication.
The Supreme Court of Hong Kong was the highest court in Hong Kong prior to the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China in 1997 and heard cases of first instance and appeals from the District and Magisrates Courts as well as certain tribunals. The Supreme Court was from 1976 made up of the High Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal.
Ian Grenville Cross is a British barrister who was appointed Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) of Hong Kong on 15 October 1997,and held this post for over 12 years,until 21 October 2009. He was the first DPP to be appointed after the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong on 1 July 1997,and the appointment signalled that suitably qualified expatriates who were committed to Hong Kong still had a role to play in government in the post-colonial era. A career prosecutor,Cross was the seventh holder of the post since its creation in 1979,and the longest serving. On 26 June 2011,he was elected the Vice-Chairman (Senate) of the International Association of Prosecutors,of which he is a Senator-for-Life.
Geoffrey Ma Tao-li is a retired Hong Kong judge who served as the 2nd Chief Justice of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal—the court of last resort in Hong Kong. Between 2001 and 2010,he held various positions in the High Court of Hong Kong,including Chief Judge,Justice of Appeal,and Judge of the Court of First Instance. Before his judicial career,he was a barrister-at-law in private practice at Temple Chambers,and was qualified to practice in England and Wales,Hong Kong,Australia and Singapore.
Roger John Laugharne Thomas,Baron Thomas of Cwmgiedd,FLSW is a British judge. He served as Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales from 2013 to 2017.
Sir Anthony Hooper,PC is a British retired judge,former professor of law,and a member of Matrix Chambers. He joined Matrix Chambers in 2013 after his retirement from the Court of Appeal of England and Wales. In 2013 he was appointed inaugural Judicial Fellow of the Judicial Institute of University College,London,where he is an Honorary Professor. He is an Honorary Fellow at Trinity hall,Cambridge. Since 2018,he has been helping to fight corruption and to reform judicial system in Ukraine.
Sir Brian Richard Keith is a former British judge of the High Court of England and Wales styled as The Honourable Mr Justice Keith. He was previously a judge of the Court of Appeal of Hong Kong.
Sir Richard Alan Field is a British judge of the High Court of England and Wales.
Sir Robert Maurice Jay,styled The Hon. Mr Justice Jay,is a judge of the High Court of Justice of the Courts of England and Wales. He was counsel to the Leveson Inquiry.
Sir Peter John Cresswell,DL is an English former High Court judge,and currently a judge of the Qatar International Court and Dispute Resolution Centre.
Sir David Wolfe Keene,PC is a retired Lord Justice of Appeal.
Sir Peter Donald Fraser,styled The Honourable Lord Justice Fraser,is a Judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales.
Douglas W. Arner is a Kerry Holdings Professor at the University of Hong Kong (HKU).
Sir David Andrew Foxton is a British High Court judge.
Sir Simon James Bryan is a British High Court judge.
Sir Antony James Zacaroli,styled Mr Justice Zacaroli,is a British High Court judge.
The King's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice deals with a wide range of common law cases and has supervisory responsibility over certain lower courts.