Harry Woolf, Baron Woolf
Lord of Appeal in Ordinary | |
---|---|
In office 1 October 1992 – 4 June 1996 | |
Preceded by | The Lord Ackner |
Succeeded by | The Lord Hutton |
Personal details | |
Born | Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, England | 2 May 1933
Spouse |
Marguerite Sassoon (m. 1961) |
Children | 3 |
Alma mater | University College London |
Occupation | Judge |
Harry Kenneth Woolf, Baron Woolf,
Early life
Woolf was born in
Woolf formed much of his sense of justice and fairness from his experiences at Fettes College. On one occasion while combing his hair, Woolf leaned into a neighbouring dormitory cubicle to use the mirror. A prefect reported this as the school had strict rules about being in other pupils' cubicles, but Woolf felt that he had not broken the rules because he did not have his feet inside the cubicle at the time. He appealed for fairness, but his housemaster, who had been in the army, increased Woolf's punishment from six strokes of the cane to eight.[1]
Woolf had read books about lawyers and wanted to be a
Legal career
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Woolf chose to be a
A significant part of his practice as the "Treasury Devil" was in the development of the nascent Administrative Law from four ancient Prerogative Writs. Before the Administrative Court was established, almost all judicial reviews were heard before the Lord Chief Justice sitting in a Divisional Court of the Queen's Bench Division, with Woolf commonly appearing for the Crown.
When he took silk he was almost immediately appointed as a High Court judge [1] in that Division in 1979, aged 45, and received the customary accolade of knighthood.
He was promoted to
Woolf Inquiry
Lord Justice Woolf was appointed to hold a five-month public inquiry with
More fundamentally, however, Woolf blamed the "intolerable" conditions inside Strangeways in the months leading up to the riots and a "combination of errors" by the prison staff and
Master of the Rolls and Lord Chief Justice
Woolf LJ was appointed a
In 1998 Woolf was also the head of the committee that modernised civil procedure, and incidentally excised most
On 6 June 2000 he finally succeeded
In 2003, he was appointed a Non-Permanent Judge of the Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong, which position he held until 2012.[5]
On his retirement as Lord Chief Justice on 1 October 2005, Woolf joined Blackstone Chambers as a mediator and arbitrator. From September to December 2005 he conducted a review of the working methods of the European Court of Human Rights, and he is chairman of the Bank of England Financial Markets Law Committee.
Other appointments
Among other work, Woolf has been serving as Chancellor of the
In 2006 he was chairman of the Judging Panel of the FIRST Responsible Capitalism Awards.[7] On 25 February 2007, Woolf was inaugurated as the first President of the Qatar Financial Centre Civil and Commercial Court, in Doha, Qatar.
On 15 June 2007, he took the chair of an Ethics Committee set up by BAE Systems, the UK's largest arms company, in response to allegations of multimillion-pound bribery in arms deals with Saudi Arabia. This Woolf Committee reported in May 2008, and clearly influenced the Law Commission report proposing anti-corruption and bribery law reforms on 20 November 2008 and the Government's consequent Bribery Bill published on 25 March 2009, which was ultimately enacted as the Bribery Act.
In 2007 he was named as co-chair, with Professor Kaufmann-Kohler, of the Commission on Settlement in International Arbitration, for the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution for which he also consults.
From 29–31 May 2009, Woolf served with Sir William Blair, a High Court Judge, as the Co-Convener of the inaugural Qatar Law Forum of Global Leaders in Law, held in Doha, Qatar.
In 2018, Woolf was appointed the Head Justice of the Astana International Financial Centre Court in Astana, Kazakhstan.[8]
Selected judgments
- On 26 July 1983, Woolf's judgment in the high court, Gillick v West Norfolk & Wisbech AHA & DHSS [1983] 3 WLR (QBD), clarified the law under which doctors could prescribe contraception to minors.[9][10]
- On 6 February 1997, three judges, led by Woolf, Master of the Rolls, said that the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) had failed to exercise discretion when it denied Diane Blood the right to have her dead husband's child in March 1995.[11] The decision allowed Blood to have a child using her former husband's sperm, which was obtained shortly before he died.
- Pearce v United Bristol Healthcare NHS Trust [1999] PIQR 53.
- In October 2000, Woolf reduced the minimum sentence of Jon Venables and Robert Thompson for the murder of James Bulger by two years in recognition of their good behaviour and remorse shown while in detention, effectively restoring the original trial judge's eight-year recommended minimum sentence.[12]
- In July 2002, Woolf, together with Mr Justice Curtis and Mr Justice Henriques, refused
Other judgments include:
- English trusts law, concerning tracing
- UK labour law, concerning collective bargaining
Personal life
Woolf, an
Woolf was a member of the American Philosophical Society (1977)[17] and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1983).[17][18] He was elected an Honorary Fellow of the British Academy (FBA) in 2000[19] and an Honorary Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) in 2002.[20]
In the 2015
Arms
of a Pegasus in the Sable Or in the Argent Sable
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References
- ^ a b c d "Desert Island Discs featuring Lord Woolf". Desert Island Discs. 1 June 2008. BBC. Radio 4. Archived from the original on 14 June 2011. Retrieved 6 June 2008.
- London Gazette. 7 October 1992. Retrieved 29 April 2014.
- ^ "State Intelligence". London Gazette. 7 June 1996. Retrieved 29 April 2014.
- ^ "Crown office". London Gazette. 9 June 2000. Retrieved 29 April 2014.
- ^ 'Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal - Former Judges - The Right Honourable The Lord WOOLF of Barnes' <http://www.hkcfa.hk/en/about/who/judges/former/index_id_40.html> accessed 3 June 2016
- ^ "Organizational Structure".
- ^ "The FIRST International Award for Responsible Capitalism".[permanent dead link]
- ^ "UK royal judge to head AIFC". Kazinform. 7 February 2018.
- ^ "1983: Mother loses contraception test case". BBC. 26 July 1983. Retrieved 5 January 2010.
- PMID 16601020.
- ^ "1997: Widow allowed dead husband's baby". BBC. 6 February 1997. Retrieved 5 January 2010.
- ^ "Judge defends Bulger killers' rights". BBC. 29 July 2002. Retrieved 5 January 2010.
- ^ "Appeal judges' verdict on Dando evidence". BBC News. 29 July 2002. Retrieved 14 December 2007.
- ^ "Dando murder case set for retrial". BBC. 15 November 2007. Retrieved 5 January 2010.
- ^ "George not guilty of Dando murder". BBC News. 1 August 2008. Retrieved 1 August 2008.
- ^ "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 5 September 2014.
- ^ a b "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
- ^ "Harry Woolf". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
- ^ Honorary Fellows Archived 29 June 2015 at the Wayback Machine – website of the British Academy
- ^ Fellow Lord Harry Woolf FMedSci Archived 30 June 2015 at the Wayback Machine – website of the Academy of Medical Sciences
- ^ "No. 61256". The London Gazette (Supplement). 13 June 2015. p. B6.
- ^ 'Civil And Miscellaneous Lists : Recipients of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Honours and Awards Grand Bauhinia Medal (G.B.M.)' <http://www.info.gov.hk/cml/eng/miscell/index2.htm Archived 26 October 2018 at the Wayback Machine> accessed 3 June 2016
Sources
- Press Release on QFC Court appointment
- CV from Blackstone Chambers. Retrieved 27 August 2008.
- Speech by his successor
- An Uncommon Lawyer [1]
External links
- Lord Woolf speaking about the role of the Judiciary and about the new Supreme Court.
- Lord Woolf's Inquiry into the LSE and Libya, March 2011.