Tom Bingham, Baron Bingham of Cornhill

Thomas Henry Bingham, Baron Bingham of Cornhill,

In 1965 Bingham and his wife Elizabeth acquired a cottage at Cornhill, near Boughrood in Powys; he died there in 2010.^[16]

Early career

Bingham was

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

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

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

On 16 November 2006, Bingham delivered the sixth annual Sir David Williams Lecture, hosted by the Centre for Public 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]

Retirement

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

His book, The Rule of Law, was published by Allen Lane in 2010; it won the 2011 Orwell Prize for Literature.^[30]

Death

Diagnosed with

.

Judgments

This article is part of the series: Courts of England and Wales
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v t e

High Court

• Bank of Tokyo Ltd v Karoon [1987] AC 45n, piercing the corporate veil

Court of Appeal

• Attia v British Gas Plc
  [1988] QB 304, expanding the scope of psychiatric injury to relate to property
• Al-Kandari v JR Brown & Co [1988] QB 665, no duty of care owed by a solicitor to the client's adversary
• R v Secretary of State, ex parte Factortame Ltd (No 1)
  (22 March 1989) part of the Factortame saga establishing the principle of EU law supremacy where the UK has delegated sovereignty under the treaties
• Interfoto Picture Library Ltd v Stiletto Visual Programmes Ltd [1989] QB 433, the more onerous a contractual term the more candid notice must be to qualify as reasonable
• The Aramis [1989] 1 Lloyd’s Rep 213, the test for an implied contractual obligation is that it is necessary to reflect the business parties' expectations
• Blackpool & Fylde Aero Club v Blackpool Borough Council
  [1990] 1 WLR 1195, an implied contractual duty to consider tender offers arose on the facts to reflect the intentions objectively manifested by the parties
• Caparo Industries plc v Dickman [1990] 2 AC 605, the leading tort case on the duty of care

Court of Appeal (as the Master of the Rolls)

• Hyundai Merchant Marine Co Ltd v Gesuri Chartering Co Ltd or The Peonia [1991] 1 Lloyd’s Rep 100, damages for late delivery of shipping goods are the difference between the market and the charter rate
• Pitt v PHH Asset Management Ltd [1994] 1 WLR 327, lockout agreements are enforceable
• Ex Parte Unilever, an administrative law case concerning judicial review stating "the categories of unfairness are not closed, and precedent should act as a guide, not a cage"
• White Arrow Express Ltd v Lamey’s Distribution Ltd [1996] Trading Law Reports 69, remarks on non-pecuniary losses

House of Lords

• Lubbe v Cape Plc
  [2000] 1 WLR 1545, conflict of laws and sidestepping the corporate veil for tort victims
• Reynolds v Times Newspapers Ltd [2001] 2 AC 127, qualified privilege
• Director General of Fair Trading v First National Bank plc [2001] UKHL 52, test of good faith in unfair contract term cases (not breached here)
• Dextra Bank & Trust Company Limited v Bank of Jamaica [2002] UKPC 50
• Johnson v Gore Wood & Co [2002] 2 AC 1, on reflective loss and res judicata
• Fairchild v Glenhaven Funeral Services Ltd [2002] UKHL 22, material increase in risk test of causation for victims of asbestos related torts
• Transco plc v Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council [2003] UKHL 61, the firm affirmation of Rylands v Fletcher
  strict liability for nuisance in English law
• misrepresentation in English law
• Caldwell recklessness
• Chester v Afshar [2004] UKHL 41, a patient's right to be fully informed about the risks involved in a medical procedure
• A and others v Secretary of State for the Home Department
  [2004] UKHL 56, illegality of indefinite detention
• Doe v Secretary of State for the Home Department
  [2004] UKHL 26, freedom of conscience
• R v Wang [2005] 1 WLR 661, [2005] UKHL 9, [2005] 1 All ER 782, [2005] 2 Cr App R 8, 'there are no circumstances in which a judge is entitled to direct a jury to return a verdict of guilty'
• R (Williamson) v Secretary of State for Education and Employment [2005] UKHL 15, "the means chosen to achieve this aim are appropriate and not disproportionate in their adverse impact on parents who believe that carefully-controlled administration of corporal punishment to a mild degree can be beneficial" [1]
• Jackson v Attorney General
  [2005] UKHL 56, challenge to the fox hunting ban using the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949
• R (Begum) v Governors of Denbigh High School [2006] UKHL 15
  , no right to wear any religious dress regardless of a well consulted school uniform policy
• Kay v Lambeth London Borough Council
  (2006), on evictions
• Golden Strait Corporation v Nippon Yusen Kubishka Kaisha [2007] UKHL 12
  , measure of damages for breach of contract
• R (Bancoult) v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (No 2)
  [2008] UKHL 61
• R v Davis [2008] UKHL 36, anonymity of witness evidence
• R (Daly) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2001] UKHL 26 "The infringement of prisoners' rights to maintain the confidentiality of their privileged legal correspondence is greater than is shown to be necessary to serve the legitimate public objectives already identified"

Publications

• Bingham, Thomas (2010). The rule of law. London New York: Allen Lane.
  OCLC 458734142
  .

Legacy

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]

Arms

Coat of arms of Tom Bingham, Baron Bingham of Cornhill

Adopted 2006 (granted by the College of Arms) Coronet That of a Baron Crest A Griffin sejant erect Vert beaked and holding with both forefeet a Key wards upwards and outwards Or Escutcheon Per pale Or and Vert per chevron three Ears of Corn slipped and left all Counterchanged Supporters On either side a Running Duck that on the dexter Vert beaked and legged Or and that on the sinister Or beaked and legged Vert Motto PRO TANTO QUID RETRISUAMUS Orders Garter circlet: Honi soit qui mal y pense (Shame be to him who thinks evil of it) Badge A Running Duck Vert beaked and legged and grasping in the dexter foot a Key wards upwards and outwards Or Symbolism Bingham's arms pun the word "Cornhill", the per chevron formation suggesting a hill; the griffin alludes to Gray's Inn and is depicted holding a key as a play on his wife's maiden name of Loxley; the Bingham family keenly breed running ducks.

See also

• Civil liberties in the United Kingdom
• English Law of Tort

Notes