Leonard Hoffmann, Baron Hoffmann
Encyclopedia
Leonard Hubert "Lenny" Hoffmann, Baron Hoffmann, PC
' onMouseout='HidePop("70542")' href="/topics/Cape_Town">Cape Town
, South Africa
) is a retired senior British
judge
. He served as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary
from 1995 to 2009. Well known for his lively decisions and willingness to break with convention, he has had an especially large impact on shareholder actions in UK company law, in restricting tort
liability for public authorities, human rights
and on intellectual property
law, in particular patents. He is also a non-permanent judge of Hong Kong SAR Court of Final Appeal.
Born in Cape Town, Lord Hoffmann was the son of a well-known solicitor
. He was educated at the University of Cape Town
and then attended The Queen's College
, Oxford
, as a Rhodes scholar, where he studied for the BCL
and won the Vinerian Scholarship
. After being called to the Bar
from Gray’s Inn in 1964, he became one of the most sought after and highly-priced barrister
s of his generation and was quickly made a judge, having been made QC
in 1977.
He was a Judge in the Courts of Appeal of Jersey and Guernsey from 1980 to 1985 and a Judge of the High Court of Justice
, Chancery Division from 1985 to 1992. He was subsequently a Lord Justice of Appeal
from 1992 to 1995. In 1995 Hoffmann was appointed a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary
and thereby created a life peer
by the title of Baron Hoffmann, of Chedworth
in the County of Gloucestershire
.
Twinsectra v Yardley (trust law) and MacNiven v Westmoreland (tax law) are prominent examples of Lord Hoffmann's judicial positions. Both cases led to differences of view between him and Lord Millett.
His failure to declare his links with Amnesty International
before ruling on whether General Augusto Pinochet was immune from prosecution led to the unprecedented setting aside
of a House of Lords
judgment. He later went on to comment "The fact is I'm not biased. I am a lawyer. I do things as a judge. The fact that my wife works as a secretary for Amnesty International is, as far as I am concerned, neither here nor there," he told the Daily Telegraph newspaper..
He retired as a Law Lord on 20 April 2009. He subsequently joined the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary, University of London, as Honorary Professor of Intellectual Property Law.
It appeared that he was willing to defer to the executive in matters concerning national security in the fairly long tradition of English judges deferring to the executive in such matters, including Lord Denning in ex-parte Hosenball. However in 2004 Lord Hoffmann took a robust stand (joining the majority of judges in the decision) against the executive in the Belmarsh case, A v. SSHD [2004] UKHL 56. In this case Lord Hoffmann wrote at para 97 that,
In A v. Secretary of State for the Home Department [2005] UKHL 71, Lord Hoffmann said,
Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign in the United Kingdom...
' onMouseout='HidePop("70542")' href="/topics/Cape_Town">Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
) is a retired senior British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
judge
Judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...
. He served as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary
Lord of Appeal in Ordinary
Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, commonly known as Law Lords, were appointed under the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876 to the House of Lords of the United Kingdom in order to exercise its judicial functions, which included acting as the highest court of appeal for most domestic matters...
from 1995 to 2009. Well known for his lively decisions and willingness to break with convention, he has had an especially large impact on shareholder actions in UK company law, in restricting tort
Tort
A tort, in common law jurisdictions, is a wrong that involves a breach of a civil duty owed to someone else. It is differentiated from a crime, which involves a breach of a duty owed to society in general...
liability for public authorities, human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
and on intellectual property
Intellectual property
Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
law, in particular patents. He is also a non-permanent judge of Hong Kong SAR Court of Final Appeal.
Born in Cape Town, Lord Hoffmann was the son of a well-known solicitor
Solicitor
Solicitors are lawyers who traditionally deal with any legal matter including conducting proceedings in courts. In the United Kingdom, a few Australian states and the Republic of Ireland, the legal profession is split between solicitors and barristers , and a lawyer will usually only hold one title...
. He was educated at the University of Cape Town
University of Cape Town
The University of Cape Town is a public research university located in Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. UCT was founded in 1829 as the South African College, and is the oldest university in South Africa and the second oldest extant university in Africa.-History:The roots of...
and then attended The Queen's College
The Queen's College, Oxford
The Queen's College, founded 1341, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Queen's is centrally situated on the High Street, and is renowned for its 18th-century architecture...
, Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
, as a Rhodes scholar, where he studied for the BCL
Bachelor of Civil Law
Bachelor of Civil Law is the name of various degrees in law conferred by English-language universities. Historically, it originated as a postgraduate degree in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, but many universities now offer the BCL as an undergraduate degree...
and won the Vinerian Scholarship
Vinerian Scholarship
The Vinerian Scholarship is a scholarship given to the University of Oxford student that "gives the best performance in the examination for the Degree of Bachelor of Civil Law." Currently, £2,400 is given to the winner of the scholarship, with an additional £950 awarded to a proxime accessit...
. After being called to the Bar
Call to the bar
The Call to the Bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party, and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received a "call to the bar"...
from Gray’s Inn in 1964, he became one of the most sought after and highly-priced barrister
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
s of his generation and was quickly made a judge, having been made QC
Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel , known as King's Counsel during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law...
in 1977.
He was a Judge in the Courts of Appeal of Jersey and Guernsey from 1980 to 1985 and a Judge of the High Court of Justice
High Court of Justice
The High Court of Justice is, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, one of the Senior Courts of England and Wales...
, Chancery Division from 1985 to 1992. He was subsequently a Lord Justice of Appeal
Lord Justice of Appeal
A Lord Justice of Appeal is an ordinary judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales, the court that hears appeals from the High Court of Justice, and represents the second highest level of judge in the courts of England and Wales-Appointment:...
from 1992 to 1995. In 1995 Hoffmann was appointed a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary
Lord of Appeal in Ordinary
Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, commonly known as Law Lords, were appointed under the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876 to the House of Lords of the United Kingdom in order to exercise its judicial functions, which included acting as the highest court of appeal for most domestic matters...
and thereby created a life peer
Life peer
In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the Peerage whose titles cannot be inherited. Nowadays life peerages, always of baronial rank, are created under the Life Peerages Act 1958 and entitle the holders to seats in the House of Lords, presuming they meet qualifications such as...
by the title of Baron Hoffmann, of Chedworth
Chedworth
Chedworth is a village in Gloucestershire, in the Cotswolds and best known as the location of Chedworth Roman Villa, administered since 1924 by the National Trust.- Roman villa :...
in the County of Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....
.
Twinsectra v Yardley (trust law) and MacNiven v Westmoreland (tax law) are prominent examples of Lord Hoffmann's judicial positions. Both cases led to differences of view between him and Lord Millett.
His failure to declare his links with Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
before ruling on whether General Augusto Pinochet was immune from prosecution led to the unprecedented setting aside
R. v Bow Street Metropolitan Stipendiary Magistrate Ex p. Pinochet Ugarte (No.2)
R. v Bow Street Metropolitan Stipendiary Magistrate Ex p. Pinochet Ugarte was an English legal case which involved the unprecedented setting aside of a House of Lords judgment based upon the possibility of bias...
of a House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
judgment. He later went on to comment "The fact is I'm not biased. I am a lawyer. I do things as a judge. The fact that my wife works as a secretary for Amnesty International is, as far as I am concerned, neither here nor there," he told the Daily Telegraph newspaper..
He retired as a Law Lord on 20 April 2009. He subsequently joined the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary, University of London, as Honorary Professor of Intellectual Property Law.
Opinions in terrorism cases
Lord Hoffmann was involved in three important judgments of the House of Lords concerning terrorism: Secretary of State for the Home Department v Rehman [2001] UKHL 47; A v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2004] UKHL 56; and A v. Secretary of State for the Home Department [2005] UKHL 71. In Rehman, at para 62, he wrote
Postscript. I wrote this speech some three months before the recent events in New York and Washington. They are a reminder that in matters of national security, the cost of failure can be high. This seems to me to underline the need for the judicial arm of government to respect the decisions of ministers of the Crown on the question of whether support for terrorist activities in a foreign country constitutes a threat to national security. It is not only that the executive has access to special information and expertise in these matters. It is also that such decisions, with serious potential results for the community, require a legitimacy which can be conferred only by entrusting them to persons responsible to the community through the democratic process. If the people are to accept the consequences of such decisions, they must be made by persons whom the people have elected and whom they can remove.
It appeared that he was willing to defer to the executive in matters concerning national security in the fairly long tradition of English judges deferring to the executive in such matters, including Lord Denning in ex-parte Hosenball. However in 2004 Lord Hoffmann took a robust stand (joining the majority of judges in the decision) against the executive in the Belmarsh case, A v. SSHD [2004] UKHL 56. In this case Lord Hoffmann wrote at para 97 that,
The real threat to the life of the nation, in the sense of a people living in accordance with its traditional laws and political values, comes not from terrorism but from laws such as these. That is the true measure of what terrorism may achieve. It is for Parliament to decide whether to give the terrorists such a victory.
In A v. Secretary of State for the Home Department [2005] UKHL 71, Lord Hoffmann said,
The use of torture is dishonourable. It corrupts and degrades the state which uses it and the legal system which accepts it.
Selected list of cases decided
- Re Augustus Barnett & Son LtdRe Augustus Barnett & Son LtdRe Augustus Barnett & Son Ltd [1986] BCLC 170 is a UK insolvency law case on the standard of fault required to show that directors have been guilty of fraudulent trading.-Facts:...
[1986] BCLC 170 - Re D'Jan of London LtdRe D'Jan of London LtdRe D’Jan of London Ltd [1994] 1 BCLC 561 is a leading English company law case, concerning a director's duty of care and skill, whose main precedent is now codified under s 174 of the Companies Act 2006...
- William Sindall plc v Cambridgeshire County CouncilWilliam Sindall plc v Cambridgeshire County CouncilWilliam Sindall plc v Cambridgeshire County Council [1993] is an English contract law case, concerning misrepresentation. It concerns the exercise of discretion under s 2 Misrepresentation Act 1967.-Facts:...
[1994] 1 WLR 1016 - O'Neill v Phillips
- Re Saul D Harrison & Sons plcRe Saul D Harrison & Sons plcRe Saul D Harrison & Sons plc [1995] 1 BCLC 14, [1994] BCC 475, is a UK company law case on an action for unfair prejudice under s.459 Companies Act 1985 . It was decided in the Court of Appeal and deals with the concept of members of a business having their "legitimate expectations" disappointed...
[1995] 1 BCLC 14, [1994] BCC 475, - Bruton v London & Quadrant Housing Trust [2000] 1 A.C. 406
- Standard Chartered Bank v Pakistan National Shipping Corp (No 2) [2003] 1 AC 959.
- Co-operative Insurance Society Ltd v Argyll StoresCo-operative Insurance Society Ltd v Argyll StoresCooperative Insurance Society Ltd v Argyll Stores Ltd [1998] AC 1 is an English contract law case, concerning the possibility of claiming specific performance of a promise after breach of contract.-Facts:...
[1997] UKHL 17. - Secretary of State for the Home Department v. Rehman [2001] UKHL 47
- A v. Secretary of State for the Home Department [2004] UKHL 56
- A v. Secretary of State for the Home Department [2005] UKHL 71
- OBG Ltd v Allan [2007] UKHL 21
- Transfield Shipping Inc v Mercator Shipping IncTransfield Shipping Inc v Mercator Shipping IncThe Achilleas or Transfield Shipping Inc v Mercator Shipping Inc [2008] is an English contract law case, concerning remoteness of damage.-Facts:...
or The Achilleas [2008] UKHL 48
External links
- Universality of Human Rights, Hoffmann's lecture, 2009